This or TEW2020?

[The_Smooth_Lefty]

Simple question really, players who have played this and TEW, what's your go to? I've only played TEW and sometimes get bummed out by the show ratings like no matter what I do I always seem to get more negatives than positives. I'm not looking for a win always game, just not sure I can keep playing TEW.

How different are the games from each other? Does 1 excel at anything in particular over the other? Thanks.

[rouvan316]

im sure everyone has their own opinion on it- here's my 2cents:

ive been playing tew since before ewr (ewd times)-

tew 2020 is definitely the more detailed, with more nuanced mechanics sim- it's comprenhensive and thorough in numerous aspects of sim-ing wrestling and wrestling promoting. that being said it's ugly as hell (this isn't a shallow issue, as the level of ugliness, terrible UI is really outstanding- and honestly makes the game painful to play). the pain also ends up taking you much much much longer to go through the same series of events when compared to PWS. additionally, it's largely an unflexible game - it is what it is, and doesn't want to change.

pws - being a one-man show on totalyl a new engine (rathering than bulding than before) is pretty incredible. It's almost as detailed/nuanced as tew2020, and clearly getting there with every update. as someone who's been around here for a bit, can safely say updates are in fact happening. additionally, and ui is gosh darn pretty, and enjoyable to use. imagine that! enjoying the nitty-gritty of booking, creating storylines/characters/gimmicks! enjoying the minute-to-minute is huge, so i pick PWS over TEW. also, you gotta consider we're still in early access, so presumably the game will keep getting developed.

all this to say, been playing tew all my life, never found anything even close, but when i came to this i remembered the joy i felt in wrestling booking sims all those years ago.

im sure everyone has their own opinion. in this regard, i say buy the game, support the developer, it's a wrestling sim- you'll have fun

[LinguisticLasagna]

I love both games, but I gotta give a slight edge to PWS. TEW has a lot of depth and the amount of things you can mess around with are endless. Plus, the game has a better system that is unparalleled with other games.

However, my main issues with TEW 2020 are definitely the UI. You'd think they give such a big game a good user interface, but it feels like I am playing a game from the 90s and the menus without skins are ugly. My next issue is that is the game can be too in-depth for me. Sometimes I get stuck booking Velocity for a few days because other commitments such as work and school are approaching. I feel like I spend more time than necessary booking every show and it makes me feel drained.

Pro Wrestling Sim is approaching the same level of depth as TEW. For example, it has a realistic calendar and has practically every country in the world (So if you want to do WWE Crown Jewel in Saudi Arabia then you can do that!) TEW had world areas and I feel like they could've gone more in depth with those. Also, PWS has a better UI and it is so much easier booking a show with the pre-book feature and the menus being more simplistic.

I didn't like the game at first because I was more attracted to TEW. However, I have warmed up to PWS recently and the developer is doing their best to update the game! The game gets better with every update and I feel like it has potential to rival TEW.

[christopherxmas]

I think that TEW is still the gold standard for wrestling simulators on the market right now (workers have many more attributes, wrestling styles, personality quirks, stats and other surprise factors that can separate them from everyone else, there are more events and random things that can happen in the game between workers or involving workers, etc.). No other game out there matches it in terms of detail and complexity.

That can be a good thing or a bad thing depending on what you the player are looking to get out of a booking simulator. While games like PWS and Journey of Wrestling have their own charm in allowing you to just focus on more direct booking (you put two main eventers together in a match and you're guaranteed a sweet match or a hot angle), they are still beer and pretzels (much more simpler) booking games whereas TEW forces you to take into account a bunch of factors when booking for something to work (your great idea may not make it the first time out or at all--just like booking and ideas in the real wrestling world that have failed over the years). There is a learning curve and you will fail at times (especially in the beginning) which can be frustrating. Personally, I like that feeling. I find myself playing PWS and Journey for a while, but then a big part of my brain can't help but feel that these games are much more watered down and feel more like snapping together a few easy lego pieces. It may be that years of playing TEW (since 2013) and having a love for grognard games have bred me to be like this as well. I do not think that PWS will ever get to that level of complexity (however, I could be proven wrong a few more years from now, who knows?) As of right now, PWS to me is a modern feeling game, but missing all the DLC and add on packs that a TEW sports. That being said, I understand many other types of players would rather just have more instant success with a booking idea in their head and enjoy playing out their ideas to have them work as they planned. There is nothing wrong with that of course!

What others have already said here is 100% true: the UI in TEW is absolutely outdated. Booking shows can be a drain on energy as you need to go through multiple windows and remember where to go for certain effects. Yes, TEW feels like a windows 95 program. Guilty as charged. PWS is a fresh feeling game in the 21st century and I do feel that TEW could benefit from a friendlier, easier UI and presentation that would probably further cement it's gold standard.

[Annoyingnome]

Honestly, I don't know how people can even play TEW2020 anymore. Don't get me wrong, I love so much about the TEW franchise and how it set the standard for well over a decade... but, frankly, it makes my eyes bleed to even look at it.

I remember studying web design for my psych degree (20 years ago) and we were tasked to find the most garish, unintuitive web pages out there + give a 10-min presentation about why it was such terrible design. Yet I swear I could do an entire lecture on TEW2020. It is that bad. (tiny font size, clashing/contrasting colours that generate optical illusions and cause eye strain, unimportant info given as much attention as crucial info, drop-down menus that show just a few of 100s of items at a time, everything crammed onto one page, etc, etc, etc)

Not to mention that it's 2023, and Adam Ryland still insists on using software developed in the 1990s. I also had to adjust the resolution of my monitor every time I wanted to even play it, since there are no options to alter this in-game.

It's just awful. Oh, and here, throw in an eLicense for $35 while you're at it...

[msauvear]

Originally posted by Annoyingnome:

Honestly, I don't know how people can even play TEW2020 anymore. Don't get me wrong, I love so much about the TEW franchise and how it set the standard for well over a decade... but, frankly, it makes my eyes bleed to even look at it.

I remember studying web design for my psych degree (20 years ago) and we were tasked to find the most garish, unintuitive web pages out there + give a 10-min presentation about why it was such terrible design. Yet I swear I could do an entire lecture on TEW2020. It is that bad. (tiny font size, clashing/contrasting colours that generate optical illusions and cause eye strain, unimportant info given as much attention as crucial info, drop-down menus that show just a few of 100s of items at a time, everything crammed onto one page, etc, etc, etc)

Not to mention that it's 2023, and Adam Ryland still insists on using software developed in the 1990s. I also had to adjust the resolution of my monitor every time I wanted to even play it, since there are no options to alter this in-game.

It's just awful. Oh, and here, throw in an eLicense for $35 while you're at it...

he really needs to get someone to do the UI for the next game, the game is so close to being a masterpiece but that terrible UI ruins it. also the elicense i'snt a issue anymore they switch to a new system.