Billed as the most realistic wrestling video game to date, the soon-to-be-released WWE 2K18 will require gamers to play for several mostly uneventful hours, whether they want to or not. 

In the game’s hyper-realistic new “Broadcast Mode,” players will begin by slowly guiding their character to the ring to deliver a 17-minute promo, followed by a bloated six-man-tag match interrupted by two commercial breaks. 

In a brand-new feature, the “off” button of players’ Xbox or PS4 will be disabled until a full three hours of gameplay have elapsed — or four hours in the game’s “Weekly Pay-Per-View Mode.”

“Past WWE videogames have placed an emphasis on stellar graphics, an improved moveset or a large roster,” reads a press release about the game, “but in this installment we wanted to perfectly re-create the grueling feeling of watching WWE programming.”

Other features that will enhance the realism of the game include:

  • 20-Minute Rollins-Ambrose Fistbump Deliberation Mode
  • Recap Mode, in which the first hour of gameplay is replayed during the second
  • Colonel Sanders vs. Chicken Ironman Match
  • Enzo Promo Mode (full three hours)
  • Balor-versus-Orton-versus-Undertaker Entrance Mode (full four hours)

Early reviews of the game call it “realistically exhausting” and “believably bedraggling.”

 

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