You can’t see me, my time is now!  That seems like a fitting thing to say about this year’s WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2011 because its time is definitely now.  And from what I played recently in Los Angeles, you’ll definitely get your $60 worth this year and that is something you don’t often say with a yearly franchise.  Let’s get down to it shall we?

This past weekend I was invited to a pretty kick ass event that THQ was hosting.  It was a community event for the upcoming title WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2011.  I attended SummerSlam and Monday Night RAW as part of the madness that weekend so you can imagine that my WWE fandom was in overdrive!  Randy Orton, John Cena, Nexus, Edge, Sheamus…all the Superstars were right in front of me!  It was a great time.

The highlight of the event though was the game itself.  For those of you like me who often dream of doing an RKO on someone but lack the physical tools, you’ll really enjoy how close this game puts you in the ring itself and in the skin of your favorite WWE Superstar.  Fans of the recent SvR 2010 will feel right at home and in fact notice a few new layers of paint.

The Hell in a Cell match has been completely revamped with more space to get around the ring and out of it.  There are even cool things like chairs and sledgehammers underneath the ring to use this time.  Speaking with a few of the guys from the design team, I learned that they are really passionate about fan feedback.

The interaction with chairs and other objects has also been improved which was another constant complaint in the series.  I really like what they’ve done with the directional system now as well.  When you have your opponent in the air for a suplex or any other move, you can now use the analog stick to control where you’re going to slam him (or her).  Fancy a suplex into the table for massive damage?  It’s easy now and I don’t think it ever gets dull smashing someone through a table does it?

I can’t say enough about this particular improvement along with just the overall control scheme.  It’s easy to pull off moves using the analog stick and X button.  It’s even easier to do a finisher now especially one that used to require you to stun your opponent first.  You no longer have to do that so doing an RKO was easy and as awesome as it should be without the migraine of stunning first.  Just a press of the Y button gets it done.

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