First video of WWE '12 gameplay! Plus things to take note of!

Things to take note of. Some of which you can kinda see in this video: (A lot of this comes from Charles Shane from caws.ws who played a demo at THQ's press event yesterday)

* Every superstar has "contact points" where hands will grab these points, that also connect to spots on the model's legs, head, and body. Meaning that there are no more clipping issues. Wrestlers will reach out to these contact points or make their mark on them when targeting or kicking these points, so you won't see hands going through bodies, or grasping at the air above their heads.

* The camera no longer takes you to unrealistic camera angles like inside the ring, or high above the place. There are In-game cameras now that are positioned in the places that they exist in real WWE live events. (Including that swinging crane cam by the entrance ramp). Also these cameras can move in the directions they do in real life and will switch back and forth to these real WWE camera views depending on what the AI is doing.

* Ropes fully react to everything. In the last game ropes only moved depending on reactions from the player directly. Now they will bounce and move when the mat is hit. Also... the mat itself is seen shaking and bouncing much like it does in real life as well. Expect ring aprons to move similarly.

* Wake up taunts are now part of the game. When you do your taunt, while the opponent is ready for a finisher, then they will do their taunt signaling the finisher, like how you see Randy Orton pounding the mat, here.

* Opponents will not sell moves so much during the start of the match. You might hit someone but they won't go down. However, later in the match, they will go down and react differently to that same move, depending on their damage. Also, they will grab their chest or their head or show less speed depending on what part of their body is injured.

* Speaking of which, you now have the very specific choice of targeting a limb or a head, and the more you work these things will have different negative effects for the opponant. Working the leg will decrease their speed. Working the head will make them groggy more often. Working the arms reduces the damage of grapples.

* The submission system is based on a minigame that has you trying to fight off the opponent and reach for the ropes. So the way out of submissions is no longer just powering out (although I think that's still an option) but you can also get to the ropes and force the opponent to break the hold.

* The pin system is different. You can no longer button mash to kick out. You must hold the button and release it as the bar enters the blue section of the meter. Also, the point where the blue section is at on the meter (the front, middle, or end) will change to a different position every time so you cannot memorize how to kick out as easiuly every time. However, the more damage you take, the blue area gets smaller and smaller, making kick-outs more diffuclt the more worn down you are. Also the "mashing" option was removed to combat cheaters with turbo controllers.

* There are now momentum shifts, kinda like in DoR. They care called "dramatic comebacks.". Simply, if you are being beaten up and mercilessly dominated by the other player, and you are in danger, the game will give you a type of special one-time only "comeback" signature move you can use that will make you do a three part timed-button-press minigame that will allow you to come back and beat the opponent down.

* Animations no longer play out as this unattackable thing, where the other player's attacks just slip right off of them while they are in the middle of an animation of hurting a third guy. For the first 2 thirds of every animation, you can interrupt the other person. This will be very helpful in 3 and 4 man matches.

* Stored finishers are back. If you don't use your finisher when you attain it, it'll store it for you so that you can hit it later (but it will be somewhat less effective if you do store it)

* The AI knows what it's doing and what's going on. If it picks up a chair, it won't drop the chair 2 seconds later, or move tables around constantly. If it runs out of the ring to take a breather it won't just stand there like a moron, it'll actually move away from you or try to attack you. The AI also apparently knows what combos it's supposed to do. It knows for example, what John Cena's moves are leading up to the 5-Knuckle all the way to the Attitude Adjustment. The difficulty settings no longer control how much the opponent reverses, it controls how smart and agressive their grapples and attacks are.

* Ricardo actually announces Alberto Del Rio to the ring like in real life.

* There is actually different levels of focus, as the background gets farther away. There is more depth of field and the lighting actually has several rendering focus points from the ring lights above.

Cheers Mike. All sounds quite promising. Not a fan of the "blue area" kick out thing, but we shall see. The other additions all sound good. Hope they have tweaked CAW mode as well.

I think that the thing that's already been announced that i'm looking forward to the most, is the improved animation.

Characters no longer being locked into this invincibility that occurs when they're in the middle of a move and your punches and kicks and grappoles no longer slide right off of them just becuase this animation is playing and everything looks akward.

To me, before, it always created these stupid looking momements where you go to attack someone and he's busy, so the first person just looks like he's swinging through their body and kicking the ground, or falling over.

I'm most excited about having seen the last of that, because I know that whenever I'd try to record a match, I'd wince and be annoyed everytime those happened.

Whiile i'm not sure about the new controls... they look like this:

LStick – Move
Dpad Up – Wake Up Taunt
RStick – Change Grapple Position
A/X – Grapple
B – Pin/Run
Y – Sigs/Finishers/Dramatic Comeback
X – Strike (weak/strong)
LB – Action
RB- Limb Modifier
RT – Counter
LT – Run / check adrenaline

...I'm not completely sold on this new setup but at least I can change it back to analog stick grapples, i've heard.

Also, it's nice to have these stats:

Strike Power
Grapple Power
Submission
Strike Defense
Grapple Defense
Speed
Agility
Adrenaline
Recovery
Toughness
Charisma
Tag Team

It'd be interesting to see what all of these do and how it makes everyone more unique.