[TheGame]

http://xbox.ign.com/articles/402/402422p1.html

"May 13, 2003 - THQ's WWE Raw 2 has been as elusive as any title in the year or so since it was announced. It's been delayed and left out of multiple gamer's days and other events. At E3, there's no hiding and the limited demo of Raw 2 we played offered a few hints about what we can expect.
There are referees now in ring and you can beat them up. While there's an option for different types of referees, this feature wasn't functional in the demo we played. Referees that get caught in the middle of a big brawl and take punches will fight back. Earl Hebner has been known to mix it up with Triple H on the WWE TV shows and now you can get the same thrill in Raw 2. In the demo we played the referee was pretty tame and didn't get too upset after taking a few to the chin.

The matchup screens aren't flat poses anymore. Like the television show, you get little animated scenes of the wrestlers turning toward the camera or scowling. It's animation that's done in front of a blue screen so it looks as fake in the videogame as it does on television.

Even with the extremely limited demo (no weapons, no out of ring activity) we noticed a couple of new gameplay systems. There are now several mid-rope moves you can use against your opponent when they're arms are tied up in the ropes. None of them knocked the guy out of the ring but we saw Triple H stomp mudholes and throw other moves against Kurt Angle while he was wrapped up.

Quick moves off the ropes seem to be more common now. Even guys like the Undertaker can quickly go from a standstill to a quick bounce of the nearest ropes into a quick strike move. It's very intuitive and especially handy when you get a guy like Rey Mysterio and all of his acrobatic moves. Mysterio's high-rick maneuvers are all lightning quick and complicated to the point that they look like mistakes until he finally delivers a flying body press or what have you.

When wrestlers are down on the mat there's a whole new grapple system that opens up. When a wrestler is down you can approach his head or his feet, hit the button for a soft grapple to grab him and then you have the option to drag him around, turn him over, pick him up, execute a strike move or put a hold on him. You won't be able to switch from a head move to a legs move but you will have all kinds of moves available to you on whatever end of his body you grab first.

We'll have much more on WWE Raw 2 in the next 48 hours of E3 when we'll have more details and a better understanding of what's what in the game. "