Game Overview
Most of you will have seen the adverts on TV about WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2008, different shaped people, standing inside the squared circle, usually with their shirt off (for some reason, known only to the producer of the advert) letting everyone know what type of wrestler they are when they get in the ring, obviously referring to their fighting style in WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2008. This year the game becomes a little more lifelike with the wrestler’s fighting style coinciding with their personality. Fighting styles could be a powerhouse, showman, submission artist or high flyer but what ever fighting style your chosen wrestler adopts is the style to which they should stick too so you shouldn't find The Undertaker clearing the top rope and wiping out his opponent, for sticking to the fighting style you'll be awarded momentum giving you the upper hand in matches, so if you are a dirty fighter, pushing your opponent into the ref is a good thing to do!

So far so good, we are liking the new fighting styles even if they do seem a little restrictive at times, we keep telling ourselves that it is making the game that bit more realistic and then continue to pummel the living daylights out of each other.

For most of SmackDown vs. Raw 2008 you'll find many similarities to 2007 and for this reason we wouldn't recommend 2008 to anyone but wrestling fans, if you are happy playing 2007 and don't really give a monkeys about wrestling in general then save your money. 2008 has a lot of the same cinematics from 2007, virtually the same graphical ability although 2008 appears to be a lot darker than 07. The commentary is still pathetically rubbish, JR is a legend but it would be great if he could call the fight when it happens rather than 5 minutes later and it would be great if the same thing wasn't repeated every 2 minutes! "SmackDown is better", "Raw is better", "It's a sloberknocker" blah blah blah.

24/7 is a new mode introduced this year which gives the gamer an insight in to the things a WWE superstar gets up to when they are not wrestling. You'll be asked if you want to invade other shows, take part in promos, movies or book signings and if you would like to train for your next match. The problem we found and what appears to be a widespread problem is injuries. If your wrestler picks up an injury during a match you'll receive a message from your doctor telling you to rest for X amount of weeks. That's fine, this is life and injuries occur all the time, the problem is, some numb nuts forgot to put the rest option into the game!! So you end up HAVING to take part in your fights. You get in the ring and immediately have a damaged leg/arm/head etc and you take an absolute pounding! 24/7, for us, is a massive let down and a step back from the career mode that was available with 2007. The choices you make throughout your career don't appear to have much of an affect on anything and cut scenes shown throughout the game don't make sense as one minute you'll be staring someone out and the next they'll be helping you out or asking to be your tag partner.

Our Conclusions
WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2008 really doesn't offer you anything extra than 2007 did, in fact it takes things away from you with less characters available in 08. It's still a good game as it still plays very much like 2007 which was excellent but we really expected a bit more from a "newer" title. As we mentioned earlier in the review, Wrestling fans will enjoy it and won't care about forking out £40 because it's wrestling but happy go lucky people who just want a "fighting" game will be better of sticking with 07.

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Overall Score: 7/10

Thanks to THQ