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Are you proud to be a wrestling fan? Do you find the dialog riveting, and the action compelling? Have you gotten into deep philosophical discussions about why it doesn't matter if wrestling is "fake" or not? Or do you find yourself looking for an empty corner to hide in when the conversation comes up? Maybe these questions are a bit too personal for you, and you'd just like to know if "WWE Raw 2" for the Xbox is worth a purchase or not. Today on "X-Play," we give you the real smackdown.

Stunner!

If you so happen to be a fan of The Rock, Y2J, or Goldberg, how accurately the character models resemble their real-life counterparts is probably a big selling point for you. "WWE Raw 2" won't let you down. The marquee athletes look spectacular, with excruciating levels of detail allowing players to nearly count strands of hair or laugh in utter glee at Ric Flair's floppy pecs. "Whooooo!" Some of the fan favorites look better than the undercard athletes, but overall, the character models are top-notch.

You get all the atmosphere of the live presentations as well, with great looking TitanTron videos, lighting and pyrotechnic effects, and a fiercely animated crowd who shake their "Undertaker Sucks!" signs with reckless abandon. As an added bonus, you get the correct entrance themes, as well as the ability to rip your own soundtracks so you can stay up to date.

That's gotta hurt

"Raw 2" makes use of a two-step grappling system, where you must first initiate a grapple and then have the option of pulling off a light or strong maneuver. Light moves do less damage, but stronger moves are more easily countered. The grappling system allows for several options, including dragging opponents away from the ropes before locking in a submission, or away from a tag team partner looking to save his hide.

Out of the way, ref!

Despite the versatility that "Raw 2" affords each wrestler, you still have to overcome one of the game's main shortcomings, questionable controls. The D-pad controls walking and the left analog stick controls running. If you're particularly talented, you may be able to switch effortlessly between the two, but many players will just find themselves always running. This leads to getting caught on the business end of a power slam, or even worse, a disqualification loss because you accidentally gave the referee a running neck breaker. What ever happened to no hard feelings?

You may also struggle to launch turnbuckle attacks, since the all-purpose button used for actions like climbing in and out of the ring and taking it to the top rope occasionally refuses to cooperate with your wishes. Collision detection is the issue here, as you'll also find that it's difficult to pick up weapons or maneuver around obstacles.

What are you doing?

You get the whole assortment of match types you'd expect from a modern wrestling game, including table and ladder matches, cage matches, and Hell in a Cell. These modes are all fairly well done from a design standpoint, but the AI can ruin what could have been the mother of all hard-core matches. The AI can be too eager to climb out of the cage or to scale a ladder during these match types. Other times, you can knock an opponent out of the ring, where they will just stand and watch while you climb the ladder, pull down the belt, and win in just a few seconds.

So what's the story?

"Raw 2" has two features that are particularly memorable, the story mode and the create-a-wrestler mode. The create-a-wrestler mode is chock-full of options, allowing for fully customizable athletes and entrances, with plenty to unlock by playing the game's main modes. You can play the story mode with four players simultaneously, but it's not like any other story mode out there. You don't get any compelling events forced upon you. Instead, as each event comes, you're given the option to act in a number of ways before every match. You can choose to manipulate a wrestler into attacking one of your enemies or encourage another athlete before a big bout. This can create and destroy relationships, and it's fun to keep track of feuds. You can even choose to steal from a wrestler's locker before a match, unlocking create-a-wrestler parts. There are many options to choose from, and it's a shame that in the appropriate dialog sequences there's no accompanying voice or text, leaving you in the dark as to what their pantomimes could mean.

One, two, three!

"Raw 2" is a great-looking game that takes "WWE Raw," and adds some impressive new features without correcting some of the control and AI issues from the first game. If you can deal with that, then you may have loads of fun with the game's better play modes. But this is one trip inside the squared circle best left to the fans.

"WWE Raw 2" (Xbox)