Cliff Hanger

1) I hadn't realized Retromania is still getting updates, but they've promised a pack for Sept with Demolition Ax and Smash (a deal presumably done before they reconciled with WWE), the Rock n Roll Express, Magnum TA and a mystery 6th wrestler. 2) finally contacted 2k support about the "game crashes when I try to update a women's Faction team" problem, and fixed it by clearing my PS5's cache. So I finished the first Numbers Game and got the Amethyst Big E. 3) happily, the "welcome" missions for the DLC are less obnoxious than the Vaquer and MCMG ones. Sadly, they aren't repeatable and only net you one Superstar II booster. 4) I'm not LOVING the Island, but some of its sheer unhinged-ness is pretty fun, like Truth's Coasterquest, the weird historical artifacts Bearer's ghost digs up, and the whole mob movie nonsense with Cena playing Elliot Ness and D'Angelo rolling the barber shop for protection money. And I almost hesitate to mention this, but all the youtubers seem convinced that Celebrity #1 Travis Scott is falling thru and will be replaced with another wrestler based on some Twitter leaker? I should stop looking at WWE2K YouTube.

So I'm seeing from the patch notes that the "Wrestlemania 41 pack" came out today but only the arena? Maybe they should just never announce "TBD" characters again if they're going to be this kind of hassle.

My memory is that the estate really, really doesn't like the Japanese Lensman material, but I could have misread or misremembered or heard it from someone talking out their ass.

I've seen very little GCW, but they seem to have pretty high highs but some absolutely insane lows. Still, they have more reach than just about any sub-TNA company. And I should check out some Deadlock, I've heard good things and some of the Texas talent gets booked there.

Abyss intro is up on Youtube. Not a HUGE surprise that they got his music, given that TNA is practically a vassal of WWE at this point, but good to see. https://x.com/WWEgames/status/1937308228628398340?t=yUZZnwOgC5v0McmVd4cCCw&s=19

So that was a big hit, the kid had the time of her life and wants to go again. Loooong show. Sad Epydemius had to pull out as I'm sure she would have loved him. It hadn't registered to me that United210 was the San Antonio group I'd seen on the news, who'd gotten in trouble with the city for running shows in an undeveloped yard in a residential neighborhood. Before the main, they announced that Borracho and NTPW were donating their share of the proceeds to U210 as they try to get back on their feet. Only a couple weeks after his return from injury, Li'l Evil announced his retirement as he has a C2 hangman's fracture. He had gone out with his prior injury before I got into the local scene, but it always sucks to see someone sustain a life-changing injury like that.

Closing in on the end of Gex 2 and it has held up better than I expected; it's janky and a lot of the jokes suck, but the design choices are mostly good (the oxygen meter on Rocket Channel stages being an obvious exception) and a significant part of the humor does actually land for my admittedly weird tastes. The first game, though, I've totally bounced off. I started Prince of Persia: Lost Crown last weekend but haven't really dug into it yet as this past week had very little time at home for me.

I am taking my cousin and his 9yo to both of their first indie show today, the Borracho/New Texas/United210 co-produced Cookout.

Thinking back on it, I may have misspoken when I said that Liv and Dakota got hurt in the same match. I think it may have been Sonya and Liv, with Dakota getting hurt around the same time separately. At any rate, there was enough injury going around the women's tag ranks that they had the Unholy Union claim to have cursed the physical belts when people started to talk.

Grabbed this and, boy, you weren't kidding about a random-ass roster. So far, I tried Ten Pounds of Gold mode and managed to lose as ZSJ to Big Stevie Cool, which is a little embarrassing.

Well for starters, it's the second time Liv Morgan has been injured while holding the titles with Raquel Rodriguez, as their last run ended with the match where she got hurt and then Dakota Kai injured herself trying to finish the match while protecting Liv.

Weird choice to have Monroe cut a heel promo and then get jumped by heels. Trios match was fun, and Inamura not only finally getting a win but getting a win over Trick was nice. I wasn't prepared for Dame to make Zaria look small. Torn on Paxley possibly joining the Culling; on the one hand, they don't do too much for me as a crew, but in the other going heel again is probably the right choice for her. I have said before that the NXT studio should be renamed the Dusty Rhodes Memorial Arena and that Hail/Parker finish was one of the Dustiest Finishes I've seen in ages. Stacks's consigliere is likely Rizzo, or else a new debut.

So the Gex Trilogy reissue finally came out, and I get exactly why this was my jam in 1998, but boy do a lot of the jokes land differently in 2025, especially with the repetition. I know i will never get tired of Austin Powers and Bob Hope impressions, or that one non sequitur about "Touched By an Uncle." In fairness, I knew that my memories of the game reflected me being a very different person AND the one-liners having a novelty that went away decades ago, so this is all my fault. And the 3D games still play pretty well, but the rose tinted glasses broke rapidly.

Most recent 2k patch on PS5 appears to have broken the ability to edit your factions, as I got one of the jobber cards needed for the Numbers Game mission string, but the game crashes every time I try to swap her into a lineup. It looks like you can update the male roster but not female, as when I tried to make a new crew from scratch it let me add 4 guys but crashed when I tried to pick a woman (and I started with the Demastered Charlotte, not one of the low cards needed for the quest string) Edited to add: okay it looks like adding or swapping women crashes the game but men work, which is bizarre.

I've got a couple 8bitdo pads with the PS layout, and that's also how Google's short lived Stadia cloud gaming platform designed theirs. I prefer the Sony layout myself, but I know a lot of people (my brother says it hurts to use a low thumbstick on long sessions) whp can't stand it.

Something I just thought of that's actually plausible, given Digital Eclipse's tendency to make little upgrades under the hood of classic games: maybe we'll finally get an MK3 and UMK3 where you don't get caught playing the same 4 stages on a loop because Midway didn't think to set the top halves of double-decker stages right after the bottom, so an uppercut on the Subwwy sends you to the Streets and then 2 stages later you're on the Subway again.

Yeah,the trailer specifically shows Bulletproof getting decapitated.

You have to feel like the team making that Invincible fighter had a moment of terror at the Marvel Toukon announcement. My summer/autumn currently looks like remakes and ninjas and Cosmic Invasion. It's crazy that the throwback Ninja Gaiden and Shinobi games are out a few weeks apart, and then NG4 two months later.

Well sure, but acknowledging that he didn't work in the role he had when I was watching would have amused me less.

When Lince stomped on Yesca (sp?), all I could think is "what would the children of the Reading Thunderdome think of you?" Octagon's music reminded me vaguely of "Jealous" by Gene Loves Jezebel. In general, the AAA music felt like something from 1997 Worldwide. The Main featured both the scariest Destroyer I've ever seen and the safest-looking Poison Rana.

Last-minute addition of Dominik Misterio vs Octagon Jr for the men's IC title was set up at Worlds Collide

Gotta love the RNG: after bad draws while the "you must have a Sinister card to enter" live events were active, the McIntyre birthday match gave me 2 cards in one pack. Unfortunately, it was both Brothers of Destruction, and Giants are no fun to play in Faction.

I'm sure I'm going to love Scott Pilgrim EX when it comes out, but that iron isn't as hot as it was in 2013-5. We're in the middle of a Renaissance for belt brawler games (they even acknowledged that it wasn't even the only belt brawler from Tribute Games shown today), and it just isn't the Earth shaking news that it would have been in the 2010s. I had kind of hoped the SF6 leaks were at least partially mistaken; Ingrid doesn't do a damned thing for me and I feel like Sagat should have been retired after SFIV and not brought back for anything happening after that. But Alex and especially Viper make me happy. Stranger than Heaven is gonna be wild. Why would you get NPH to do a Ryan Reynolds impression instead of letting him put his own spin on Deadpool?

I asked what was up with him just this past week on the first page of the thread, and apparently an ROH vignette for his return aired last night. I was starting to worry, since he had said his biceps tear would keep him out thru Jan and that was 5 months ago.

Is Mariah vocal about football fandom? London has 8 EPL crews and I figure Ricky established a new format. Mariah Arsenal? Mariah Hotspur? Mariah FC?