Latest News and Rumors Surrounding WWE 2K15 for Sept. 29

The WWE 2K15 series is set to welcome NXT in a big way.

Fans suspected that WWE developmental would play a part in the upcoming video game when IGN revealed that it would feature a career mode. Then came the reported leaked achievement list from Exophase, which hinted at plenty of NXT involvement. 

There are still many questions to be answered, but fans now have official word on a number of NXT stars who will be in the game.

After the first official gameplay trailer launched last week, there has been little additional info on WWE 2K15. Another hands-on look and leaked gameplay footage from an early build provide the rest of the news on the game.

Roster Has NXT Flavor

Most fans would agree that you can't have NXT in WWE 2K15 without Sami Zayn and Adrian Neville. 2K Sports is of that mindset as well.

It appears that players can live out as many Cesaro vs. Zayn matches as they want. 2K confirmed that Zayn and Neville were in the game on Instagram:

The man whom Neville defeated to become NXT champion will join him in the game. WWE 2K tweeted the news: 

A pair of more surprising names are set to make their debuts in this series. NXT trainer Bill DeMott says he'll be a part of the action.

When asked about being in the game, DeMott tweeted:

One would assume that he'll be the trainer who leads you along in the career mode and not as a playable character. It's not as if Hugh Morris is going to be a secret character. 

Corey Graves, who hasn't competed in months, hasn't officially been announced as part of the roster, but word may have gotten out early. 

After taking a tour of Full Sail University and participating in an NXT media event, Ryan Penagos, executive editorial director for Marvel Digital Media, seemingly let some news slip. He tweeted that Graves would be in WWE 2K15:

That's a healthy amount of new blood to the series. Beyond Graves, Neville and company, there are rumors centered around whether Kevin Steen, Finn Balor and Hideo Itami will be available as playable characters or at least as downloadable content.

This image of the three stars wearing WWE 2K15 T-shirts, which a fan shared on Twitter, is the source of those rumors:

There's little reason to think that these guys will be on the roster in any form, though. 2K Sports wouldn't have had the time to include them. They only recently signed with the company.

Brian Fritz of Between the Ropes originally tweeted the image, writing that the guys were just doing mat drills.

WWE likely just wanted them to do some promotion of the video game while Fritz and others toured the facility. It looks as if fans will have to wait until WWE 2K16 to control Steen, Balor and Itami via button-pushing.

Hands-On Review

The trailer showed off WWE 2K15's improved graphics. Carl Daniel, who reviewed the game for The Koalition, has some additional info on how good the game looks.

Daniel played a demo version of the game and shared his thoughts. He wrote that the game "looks almost identical to its real life counterpart and is a HUGE step up from last year's mediocre offering."

This has been something several reviewers have said before. It's clear that 2K Sports focused on this element and has succeeded in bringing the virtual and real-life versions of WWE closer together.

Daniel added that WWE 2K15 featured "the best looking crowd I've ever seen in a wrestling game." That's not a make-or-break detail for many, but it's an often-overlooked part of video games in general. It's great to hear that 2K Sports has refined this part of the visual package as well.

One of the few negative things Daniel wrote about the game is that it looked to him as if "the animations for some intros were copy/pasted from previous games." 

Reworking the wrestler models and animations are certainly more important than that. If this is true and this is an element that is lagging in the game's improvement, 2K Sports can just work on it next year.

Redesigning the grappling system and including two new game modes is a lot of work. Entrance animations can wait.

Eurogamer Expo Peek

London hosted the Eurogamer Expo for the weekend. The pertinent news from that event is that fans got their hands on WWE 2K15 or at least an early build of it.

Unfortunately, it was the same limited, four-character version that was available to play at Germany's Gamescom in August.

Still, there isn't a ton of gameplay out there to analyze, so the following video is still worth a look for those curious to how the game's new grappling looks in action:

(Note: The video's volume is loud.)

Goldust and John Cena's battle there shows off the learning curve fans will have to endure with the game. It looks as if it slows the game down momentarily, but more experienced players should be able to zip through that part much faster.

It's worth noting how the camera zooms in for the tug-of-war that is the grappling system. That should add a cinematic touch to matches.

The striking looks smoother than last year's edition, and the animations in general look improved, backing up what reviewers have been saying. Before long, fans will get to see what other Superstars look like slugging it out, including Zayn, Neville and Graves.

More info is sure to come soon. The release date for current-gen consoles (Oct. 28 in North America, Oct. 31 internationally) is fast approaching.