[Lucky]

Ok, here's the deal. There's this guy name Adam Ryland and a long time ago he created a wrestling simulator called Extreme Warfare. It allowed you to take charge of a wrestling company, sign your roster, book, and compete in the world of wrestling. It became Extreme Warfare Revenge, a free game that many of us play to this day. Eventually it was so successful that he was able to make money off it and he abandoned EWR and developed the MUCH deeper Total Extreme Wrestling, a pay game. Many of us stuck to EWR because we're freeloaders but now for the first time TEW2005 is free.

www.greydogsoftware.com/news.php?id=297

Its a geeky game but it can be fun and addictive. While EWR used real wrestlers and companies going "pro" obviously meant copyright issues, so TEW's database is a fantasy world known as the CornellVerse. If you wish to play this you can find backstory for that world and lots of little things here.

www.greydogsoftware.com/cornellverse/index.html

But this is the internet filled with geeks so there are plenty of unofficial mods that will give you the real wrestlers and companies. For EWR, a game abandoned for years by the creator, users have been updating it for years to the point where you can expect a monthly update with all the up to date happenings in the wrestling world. TEW2005 on the other hand became TEW2007 and was abandoned by the users and thus there are no current updates. Since TEW2005 going free was announced a month ago a "team" of users have been working to get a current 2009 update completed. It is however a very ambitious project that they're doing from scratch so the first update isn't expected until August at least.

But, that doesn't mean there's nothing. There have been some updates, including ones that take you back to particular important points in wrestling history. "D.O.T.T." or "Death of the Territories" will take you to the '80s when Vince McMahon started to change the business. "1995 - Let The Wars Begin!" takes you to a pretty obvious point in wrestling history. And you can get an update as recently as May 2006. You can find that all here.

www.ewinventory.com/tew05.html

So there you are. If you wish to try this geek game that has addicted us, go for it. If you're an EWR gamer like me who is interested in trying the next gen, there you are. Just sharing because I'm kind of excited.

EDIT: Also for kicks I'll point out that OOMatt once interviewed Ryland at OO, I believe when he was debuting TEW2005. Also from the OO world CRZ is one of the internet writers you can choose to let you know how your shows and matches went.

[Byrntrigan]

Thanks Lucky.

I'm sure I'll have questions.

[Lucky]

Bear in mind, I've never played TEW. I'm an avid EWR player but its a different game. I've tooled around with the free TEW demo but it was too involved for me to waste with a demo. So I'm going in new too, with just my EWR knowledge. And how much of that is transferable, I don't know.

But I'm happy to answer what I can and I'm keyed into a few forums where information and updates show up, so I can pass that along and maybe answer some questions 2nd or 3rd hand.

[Jobber Blitz]

This is a lot more complicated than EWR. I'm using T-Zone, which is a May 2006 update, and playing as TNA. I've only just run my first Impact. At least it was a success.

Although it's only my first impression, it seems like too much hard work to really get in to. I'm not intereted in a current day update, since I stopped watching wrestling almost 2 years ago, although I might give D.O.T.T. a spin once I get bored of my TNA game.

The features are all excellent on paper, and having read them beforehand I was quite excited. But it al just seems so BIG. Apparently TEW 08 is exponentially worse, which just makes me feel stupid for being intimidated by a much smaller game.

If I get over all that and become used to all the features I think I'll enjoy this game very much. My final verdict will be in after a few weeks.

[Lucky]

Yeah, I tooled around with the '93 database last night but it was so overwhelming. I'm inclined to believe its like a lot of things and once you start to get the hang of it it becomes a lot easier. I've played EWR and baseball GM game that have the same feel but once I get everything set up and running then everything's good. So I'll try to play some more later and this weekend and get the hang of it. It was always too deep for me to pay for but now that its free I can certainly give it a try.

[wld]

Awesome. I've played EWR and I always wanted to try this one, but I shelled out for Ryland's Wrestling Spirit and it wasn't my kind of game, and the e-license was a pain. I didn't want to get burnt again.

Thanks Lucky.