OS Weekly Wrap Up, Getting You Caught Up on Sports Gaming News (Sep 20 - Sep 26, 2020)

With the WWE 2K Battlegrounds create-a-wrestler options, they come with a bit of an asterisk since a healthy amount of content needs to be unlocked. However, Brian wanted to at least take you through everything that’s there by default when you pick up the game.

In this Fatal 4-Way WWE 2K Battlegrounds gameplay video, we have the Undertaker vs. Hulk Hogan vs. Brock Lesnar vs. The Fiend. It’s one user going up against three CPU opponents. You can see some weapons, finishers and how the AI handles things in this chaotic environment. Oh, and there’s a little added surprise chaos at the end of the video.

We’re back to having greater control over dribble moves and chaining dribbling, reminiscent to NBA 2K17. This is easily one of the best changes made to NBA 2K21. Dribble moves and dribbling altogether feels very smooth, even after improvements were made to the dribbling suite in NBA 2K20. The addition of Signature iso moves was a smart play by the 2K team, and being able to execute them while walking or running up court has proved to be a great way to set up defenders and break them down. You need to have an elite ball handler to pull off the best moves, and for your MyPlayer you’ll need an 85 ball handle rating or higher to achieve this.

I was with everyone else who was disappointed last year with WWE 2K20. You could argue that there were extenuating circumstances due to the mid-development departure of Yukes, or you could blame 2K and Visual Concepts for not being able to stop a glitch-fest of a release. Either way, 2K made a the huge decision to bench its annual simulation title for at least one year. However, 2K also announced WWE 2K Battlegrounds in April, and showed that it would be a complete departure from simulation wrestling. With that in mind, let’s get into things with this WWE 2K Battlegrounds review.

Before I get into picking apart this game mechanic, I want to start with the obvious here and say I understand I’m in the minority. As big as OS is, we’re a drop in the bucket when it comes to the NBA 2K ecosystem. So while I know I’m speaking to my audience here saying “green releases are bad,” this opinion has in no way reached critical mass. In addition, I don’t blame the developers for not taking the “green release” system out if it’s popular. I’m sure some of the developers don’t like the system, but being a big-time sports game developer isn’t just about what you want to make, it’s about what people want to play.