Sept 13, 2007

If you've played a fair bit of the earlier WWE SmackDown! vs. RAW games, you'd know that nothing's more satisfying than clocking your opponent over the head with a chair, pounding his face in with a sledgehammer or chucking his lifeless ass through a table. Sure, you could fight a (*yawn*) fair fight, but using items from a hardware store to get the win appeals to your inner extremist.

Recognizing how awesome hardcore wrestling is, WWE SmackDown 08 features the brand-new ECW Extreme Rules Match - the new screens of which can be found here. For the first time ever, you can compete in the violent, no holds barred environment that put ECW on the map (and under the WWE's acquisition).  Under Extreme Rules, absolutely anything goes, as you can now choose which weapons to take into battle right from the Vs. Screen, something the previous games lacked in the older Weapons match mode.

Above: These screens are from the Xbox 360 version, even though the 360 and PS3 titles will be virtually the same

Virtually every weapon in the game is available for selection so that players can customize each match to fulfill even their most sadistic needs.  Perennial favorites like the Steel Chair, Crutch and Sledgehammer are represented, not to mention several ECW-exclusive weapons being thrown into the mix, such as the Singapore Cane or Acoustic Guitar.