WWE 2K20 was, in no uncertain terms, an abject disaster. For a series so often insulated in its wrestling fandom bubble, it was trending on social media for a period in late 2019 after it launched because of how severe and sometimes hilarious the bugs were. The game was so poorly received that the series actually took a year off. This is practically unheard of in the world of annualized sports (and sports entertainment) games. Since then, WWE 2K has rebounded incredibly over the course of several games.You could argue the WWE 2K series, like Cody Rhodes, finished its story last year, with a great game that does most of what it wants to do very well. Now, like WWE's poster boy is learning week in and week out, heavy lies the crown. Where does the series go from here? To a great extent, the goal has already been achieved. The belt is around the game's waist. At the same time, "the story" continues unabated when the next game is perpetually coming down the pipeline, so there's no opportunity to pause and enjoy the fruits of your labor. After several hours with WWE 2K25, this next chapter seems like another step up, even as what might ultimately conclude the next chapter hasn't yet been revealed in full.In an annualized video game, like in pro wrestling, the story is never truly over.WWE 2K22 was a "comeback year," lead combat designer Derek Donahue told me. "We had extra time. There was no 2K21. We also rebuilt the game. We redid so many core systems, but we still hadn't been able to redo everything we wanted. I think you could look at [2K22], and it's almost unrecognizable from the engine and the tools that we were working with back on 2K20, especially. But it's taken many, many years to get to a point where now this feels like our game and the way that we've always envisioned being able to work on it and build it."Continue Reading at GameSpot