Nov 28, 2007

SmackDown’s changed quite a lot this year. The big news is the arrival of the ECW brand - with Sandman, Burke and Sabu on board you’re going to have to learn to use tables, ladders and chairs like you never have before, and with Dreamer up against you in General Manager (GM) mode you’re going to have to be smarter than ever when it comes to the draft...

Editor's Note: All images are from the Xbox 360 version - check out the rest of our tasty screens here.

General tips
How to win those all-important singles matches…

Hard work
Can’t be bothered with doing the hard work? Simply skip a few months’ worth of programming. You’ll still earn your wages, which should be enough to unlock plenty of stuff from the shop.

Hangman
The best move to use is still the Hangman - if you’re hurt, slide out of the ropes and activate a grapple to twang your rival’s neck off them as he approaches. He’ll be stunned, setting you up for a grapple.

Ref’s down
Knocking the ref down is handy because the computer will rarely use a weapon even if you use one. Be careful you don’t catch the ref when he’s down though - he can still disqualify you while unconscious.

Time to complete
Depends on how involved you want to get. Technically you can skip every single match or just watch the Pay-Per-Views - but if you want to make sure you’re winning, you’ll have to play everything. Assuming you dodge a couple of house shows, it’ll probably take two days’ solid play to get to your first ’Mania.

Beat Royal Rumble starting from position number one
This is all about learning to counter Irish whips - you can’t afford to let yourself be thrown over the ropes more than once, so you need to reverse the move whenever anyone tries. Apart from that, stay out of trouble and keep your momentum up by hitting people when their backs are turned. Hang tough, big guy.