Video Game Vintage Title: WWE '13

WWE '13

WWE '13 is a professional wrestling video game developed by Yuke's and published by 2K Sports for the PlayStation 3, Wii, and Xbox 360. It is the second game in the WWE series and the 14th overall in the combined series. It is the sequel to WWE '12 and is succeeded by WWE 2K14. It was released on October 30, 2012 in North America and November 2, 2012 in United Kingdom. It is also the final WWE game to be published by THQ before the company's demise in January 2013, thus ending the WWE/THQ relationship after 13 years.

The game focuses on the Attitude Era of WWE, replacing its Road to WrestleMania Mode with an Attitude Era Mode where the player plays through the Attitude Era in six different storylines. The game also brings back its Predator Technology engine, adding in a new audio system called WWE Live. The game is said to be the second phase of a "Revolution" in WWE video games, with cover athlete CM Punk taking charge. Following its release, the game received favorable reviews and was nominated for the Spike Video Game Award for Best Individual Sports Game.

WWE '13 Gameplay

WWE '13 runs on the engine called, "Predator Technology 2.0", which succeeds the first version from WWE '12. The Predator Technology 1.0 game engine has been updated from the previous WWE games to allow for more fluid animations, with odd collisions and transitions having been fixed and updated, it also allows over 300 new moves. Past problems have been fixed with a better weight detection system, contextual animations and automatic attack homing, to ensure that the character always strikes towards the opponent(s). The contextual animation system has been refined to ensure that it dynamically swaps out moves to make sure that the game is using the appropriate move animations at any given time and state. The weight detection system makes it so that small superstars such as Rey Mysterio are unable to lift larger wrestlers such as the Big Show. Thus, the contextual animations ensure that more appropriate attacks are put in the superstar's normal moveset. The game's new homing system is designed that when doing high flying moves, a player will hit the intended target with better precision. The homing system also tracks tables so that they will be better detected when doing grapples on a ladder in TLC and Ladder matches. This feature allows for environmental moves such as ring breaks, barricade breaks, announce table breaks, and catching (mid-air) finishers to be possible. The game also contains the biggest roster ever in a WWE game. Another new feature is a different model for the giants in the game. Previously, a single body structure was used for all superstars. THQ has also claimed that the game has the most life like superstars. Another important aspect of the game is the new revamped audio system with remastered sound effects. The crowd reactions and commentary audio has directly been taken from live WWE events. Online servers have been enhanced to allow for players to test out creations before downloading them into the game. During online matches, AI will fill in for absent players when not enough players are available.

Reception
WWE '13 has received mostly positive reviews. IGN gave the game a 8.4 out of 10, praising the Attitude Era Mode, but panning the commentary, stating that aside from a few moments in Attitude Era Mode, "WWE '13 feels like you�re listening to a couple guys reading generic statements off of cue cards." They also dislike the new camera angles and audio samples of crowd sounds saying that "they ruin the feel of an entire match.".

Midlife Gamer gave the game 9/10, stating "The new Attitude Era is a welcome addition to the single player campaign and the Universe mode is as good as always." and that "the sheer variety of wrestlers you are given to control during the entirety of the (Attitude Era) mode makes this a refreshing change to the series. They also stated that although WWE '13 has "the largest ever roster in a WWE game...a lot of the characters are various interpretations of the same person"

On November 16, 2012, THQ announced that it had received a nomination for Best Individual Sports Game at the 2012 Spike Video Game Awards. It lost to EA's SSX.