My impressions, cut and pasted froma different forum while GA was down.
One liners so far...
The moment you boot it up the game seems more polished, more serious.Kobashi is the main character of the opening movie (damn right). The menu screen is slick as hell, and the theme is good. Its a variation of some song that I forget.
Wrestlers take 1-2 seconds to showup at menu choice screen. You can scroll all throughout the lisr and pick them, but it takes time for the wrestler to show up.
Loading times seem longer to me in general.
1st match was Kobashi VS Misawa. I fast fowarded through the ring walks and watched the intro's. They were simple, but slick.
Everything looks cleaner. Not a big leap in graphics, but you'll appreciate the cleaner, fuller look.
I didn't see any clipping in the Kobashi/Misawa match. Even in moves where I would have seen a little before. I'm not saying clipping is out, but I think they did a good job of fixing it.
Rope break is much better now. It doesn't go off unless you are near the ropes.
Kobashi has a new chop as well as a new cobra clutch release suplex animation (which rocks).
Gameplay in general felt better. Not really slower, but more reponsive and accessible.
Camera angles seem better. I haven't done any top rope moves, but moves that would have gone off the screen before didn't this time.
Crowd sound is weird...on one hand they sound better because there are variations in sound there wasn't before and sound is clearer in general. On the other hand they react to EVERY move so there is allot of stop/starting from the crowd for little moves/reversals. It sounds artificial.
Can't say much more about the match because it was a complete squash. I destroyed Misawa on the defualt difficulty.
2nd match-
Josh Barnett VS Takayama The Hot
This time I watched the intros and they are very well done. The camera angles are closer, and they show the opponents looking at eachother before and after they enter the ring. Nice touch.
Camera angles in game are definitely closer. They look better because of this. More like a real Pride fight.
Takayama was crushed by Barnett. Barnett looks awesome...his height seems really well on. Again this match was a complete squash. I have to up the difficulty. Barnett seems very complete, just like in real life. He had German suplexes, a variety of strikes, and a variety of subs. Very well rounded.
They slowed down the clutch animations.This makes the game a bit more accessible. Will it make it to easy? I have to up the difficult and see.
Questions will be answered as best as I can.
Edit mode has changed. You can't preview the clothing like before, you have to select it on. It all takes a little bit longer (ugh). The menues look much slicker though.
Edit faces, basically the same are available from last year. I have heard the good stuff gets unlocked during survival road, so thats what I will do now.
Had a match using cpu on 7 with Kawda (me) VS Chono (cpu). It kicked so much ass. Like Billwood says, there's just abetter feeling of flow. They did away with the slap animations, and that makes it seem all the more real. aAlso, the strikes are handled better. Chono did a front kick and followed it up very quickly with his kenka kick, faster then I ever saw in KOC. He also knocked away Kawada's enziguri instead of just taking it chest out style like in KOC.
The game just feels better, and flows better match wise.
I'm not really hip on puro, LiquidAlex. I'm more a fan of MMA. So, I'm not sure who Nakamura is. Still, if you tell me where to find the guy I'll run a match and let you know what he does.
No, I haven't noticed many different strikes. Strikes are gfaster though, definitely. Game plays better because of it.
There aren't many faces available for edit at the start that you'll want to use. I'm assuming they become unlocked (the other guy said they did). As far as MMA faces, the only one I think I saw was Arona and Ali (if he counts). Silva, Crocop, and Jackson aren't in at the start...I'm sure they just have to be unlocked.
Ran a vale Tudo rules match on 7 with Barnett VS a guy I think is Ogawa. Picked him because he had MMA gloves.
Match was terrific. Barnett started out strong, ground and pound, good clinch work. Ogawa? was getting his ass kicked so bad he went and held Barnett while Josh was in the mount! THe crowd started to Boo, and action resumed. Great touch. Somehow he got it going and criticaled Josh with a punch to the back of the head.
Save a nice new armbar reversal in the Kawada/Chono match.
Not many new moves in the match aside from the clinch holding and some corner knees. I did see a basic new face punch with Chono from the clinch...so I think the basic strikes have some new stuff here and there. I haven't gone through edit mode movesets...I want to unlock stuff via survival road.
I have not seen a Pride replica mat. Again, I've heard mats can be unlocked.
There are many new logos. No new MMA ones though.
Questions will be answered....
