WWE 2K16: Latest News and Rumors for Week of Sept. 7

As information on WWE 2K16 continues to emerge, it's becoming clearer that gamers will be flush with options.

For one, WWE fans will be able to construct a multitude of matches thanks to a roster that plucks stars from—among other periods—the Attitude Era and one of the tag team division's golden ages. The newest glimpses of the game show off welcome details to go along with that monster collection of playable wrestlers.

The upcoming WWE video game boasts an improved create-a-championship feature, the ability to have Brock Lesnar fling two foes to the mat at the same time and a creation suite capable of generating a realistic version of the biggest star in MMA today.

More in-depth news will certainly be on its way closer to Halloween. For now, fans mostly have flashes of information to tide them over until the game is scheduled to be in stores (Oct. 27 in the United States, Oct. 30 internationally).

Still, these peeks do well to get gamers excited, as it appears 2K will completely blow away its previous effort.

Cover Star Rumor

Steve Austin is the centerpiece of the WWE 2K16 ad campaign. He's in video spots, featured in the story mode and also graces the cover. That reportedly wasn't always the plan.

According to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter (h/t Wrestling Inc), there was a push to make Roman Reigns the WWE 2K16 cover star, but some felt that Austin would make more of an impact when it came time to promote the game.

If Reigns was set to be the cover star, one has to imagine that there was some discussion about featuring him in a showcase mode. 2K has yet to announce who the other showcase stories will center on, so perhaps it's Reigns and the implosion of The Shield that gets the spotlight.

Roster Updates

2K has revealed the majority of the 120-wrestler roster. The latest round of new names announced showcases the game's depth.

IGN revealed several new names for the game's roster, and players are sure to be happy:

• Billy Gunn
• Bret Hart
• British Bulldog
• Cactus Jack
• Christian
• Damien Sandow
• D-Lo Brown
• Dude Love 
• Farooq
• Haku 
• Honky Tonk Man
• Jake "The Snake" Roberts
• Jim Neidhart
• Kama Mustafa
• Ken Shamrock
• Mankind 
• Paul Wight
• Rikishi
• Shane McMahon
• Shawn Michaels 
• Vader
• Vince McMahon
• X-Pac

With D-Lo, Farooq and Mustafa now confirmed, fans can have the Nation of Domination reenter the WWE landscape. Other noteworthy additions include all three faces of Foley available as playable characters, as well as the original Hart Foundation being in the game.

Smacktalks compiled a video of screenshots of many of these newest WWE 2K16 roster members: 

The official roster is stacked as is, but there still 20 more wrestlers to be announced.

New Footage, Images

When he is champion, Dolph Ziggler will walk to the ring in WWE 2K16 in style. That's not surprising, but the first glimpse at what his entrance will look like is a testament to 2K's attention to detail.

As seen in a video released by WWE2Kdev, Ziggler slides his championship belt around his waist as he comes down the ramp:

Dude Love's entrance (via IGN) looks excellent as well. The developers captured his trademark dance well.

2K also shared some peeks at its revamped creation tools. On Instagram, the company showed what is possible in the Create-A-Diva feature. If you want to make Ronda Rousey, it's well within your reach:

And after previous editions of the custom championship feature underwhelmed, things appear to be improved on that front. In the past, images on the custom titles had a pasted-on look to them.

Not anymore. The 2K developers posted a shot of a more three-dimensional-looking championship on Instagram:

The latest gameplay video shows Sheamus, Neville and Kevin Owens engaged in a Triple Threat match. The WWE2kdev YouTube page released a clip of the action. There's not much new to talk about here other than seeing the models of these three wrestlers in motion.

For those who haven't seen it yet, the new pinning system is shown in the video. There's no real way to tell how different it feels to play that part of the game, though, until one's hands are around the controller.

Other News

There will be no demo version this year. WWE 2K confirmed that news on Thursday:

However, there will be a digital deluxe bundle for WWE 2K16. As Chris Mawson noted on Power Up Gaming, the bundle "will include the game, WWE 2K16 Season Pass and the all-new MyPlayer Kick Starter, which is expected to include a number of MyCareer mode boosts off the bat."

Whether one shells out for that package or just the standard version, Brock Lesnar will be more beastly than last year. The 2K developers revealed on YouTube that he will be able to hit a more powerful version of his finisher:

The stacked F-5 is among the only new "OMG" moments revealed so far. With the roster nearly fully out of the bag, which other OMG moves are in the game will be one of the things fans shift their attention toward en route to the game's release.

Now it's clear who will be laying down the virtual smackdowns. The next question is how.