HERE IS IGN'S ARTICLE FIRST LOOK OF SMACKDOWN 2009

Many would think after yesterday's WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2009 announcement and QA blowout there couldn't possibly be any more to say about THQ's tenth entry in the storied series.

They'd be wrong.

Cory Ledesma, THQ senior creative manager, took the stage just after noon at the Swan Hotel in Orlando and laid out the "teaser" for SVR 09 that IGN fans are already busy memorizing -- the company's commitment to improving load times, rebuilding the AI, and so on -- but he also dropped a few unannounced tidbits and gave us our first chance to see the game in action via some prepackaged clips.

First up was how the new tag team features are going to work. If you haven't made your way through all of our coverage, SVR '09 is revamping of how the series handles tag team matches. In a video feature starring Jeff and Matt Hardy against Ken Kennedy and Randy Orton, Ledesma walked us through some of the nifty double team moves the Superstars now have access to. With the opponent on the ground, Matt lifted Jeff, Jeff kicked out his legs, and when Jeff got to the highest point, Matt released his brother for a devastating leg drop. The brothers Hardy pulled off a double-sided Russian leg sweep, and Jeff tripped an opponent before Matt dropped his trusty old fist on the bad guy's head. Although it was quick, we also got to see our first tag team finisher. Matt hit the Twist of Fate, and as soon as the move was over, Jeff was soaring through the air for the Swanton Bomb.

Then, Ken held Jeff against the ropes while Randy talked some trash and slapped the hell out of the Hardy.

The visual delights of the tag team world didn't stop there; throughout the video, the opponent on the outside was able to walk the apron at will so that he could get into position, pump up the crowd or pull of a bind tag. Now, when the ref's getting distracted or you're pulling off a neat double-team move, the camera pulls into the cinematic perspective you're used to seeing for finishers and other animations. There's even a new camera outside the ring that shoots the action from right around the steel steps so you don't lose the action because of the apron getting in your way.

Next on big screen was how Hot Tag works. If you're not familiar with the phrase, you're for sure familiar with the action -- it's when a guy's getting his head kicked in, crawls to his corner, slowly reaches out his hand, makes the tag and the fresh partner comes in and steamrolls everyone. Ledesma said this Hot Tag will be available for the team throughout the entire match, and his video showcased the Hardys pulling it off. Matt stormed into the ring and took out Kennedy, laid out Orton on the sideline and then hit the Twist of Fate on Ken. Of course, the video also showed a scenario when Matt stormed into the ring and Orton reversed the Hot Tag attack when the Hardy boy came to the apron. Apparently, the move isn't foolproof.

The other big part of the presentation focused on Create-A-Finisher. Although Ledesma prefaced the video by saying the option was a work in progress, it still looks pretty damn impressive. As of now, the feature looks similar to the creation features you know and love -- on the left side of the screen, the green guy does whatever moves you're selecting from the right side of the screen. Along the top of the builder is a set of numbers from one to ten that let you know what step you're at in creating your masterpiece. There's also a fraction tracking how much of your 100 percent of move memory you've used.

Down on bended knee.

Each of the moves on the left-side laundry list -- grapples, piledriver positions, etc. -- has a speed attached to it that players can modify at will to make it more dramatic or snappier. In the THQ video, creation focused on creating an F-U Brainbuster and a cradle piledriver for John Cena. The piledriver, a seven-step move, started with the green guy putting the red guy into position, green guy kissing his biceps, green guy lifting the red guy up and rotating just and bit, the green guy cradling the red guy, and then the inevitable drop on the head. Once the moves were completed, they were given to Cena and demonstrated against Orton.

That might not be the most interesting thing to read, but it sure looked good. Although there were cuts in the video so load times and such were impossible to get a read on, the step-by-step addition of moves and adjustments of speed all blended together seamlessly to make the mode seem like it'll be really easy to get into and in-depth with. Your created moves will work in any mode with every Superstar -- created or legit.

When the videos were over, the new news wasn't. Ledesma let us know that there will be an additional 300 motion-captured animations in SVR '09, that Road to WrestleMania will focus on the three months leading up to the big event, that the new tag features work in all tag matches (six-man tag matches were mentioned), and that he's not too worried about that "other" wrestling game coming to the market.

"We're looking into it," he said. "We're not really worried about it"

Ledesma then proceeded to show a photo of a THQ coffee mug sitting on The History of TNA: Year One DVD.

Ouch.

HERE IS AN ARTICLE ON THE NEW TNA IMPACT GAME FOR THE PS3

To the outside world, there probably isn't much of a difference between TNA and WWE. Both are filled with hulking athletes, beautiful women, and unbelievable storylines. However, if you were to try and convince a TNA fan that their favorite federation was the exact same song and dance as Vince McMahon's show, they'd have three words for you. Ultimate X Match. A standard of the X Division, the Ultimate X Match suspends a red X or TNA title belt 15 feet above the center of the hexagonal ring. Four posts have cables draped between them to allow combatants to shimmy out to the center of the ring, grab the prize and win the match.

But it's never that easy. Remember the double-stacked huricanrana from Final Resolution 2005? Remember Homicide hitting AJ Styles with the Gringo Cutter from one of the suspension ropes? Remember the leaps for the titles, the midair punches, the massive bumps -- Ultimate X is TNA, and it's only fitting that the match will be front and center when TNA iMPACT! ships this September for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 (the match is in the PS2 and Wii versions of the game, too, but we didn't see those). Before we get into the backbreaking, high-flying action that's synonymous with Ultimate X, we should give you the basics of TNA iMPACT! The first TNA brawler from Midway, iMPACT! promises 60-frames-per-second action that walks a fine line between being a fighter and being a grappler. The action is fast, fierce and focused on bringing something new to the world of professional wrestling videogames, which has traditionally been dominated by THQ's WWE Smackdown vs. Raw franchise, according to Mark Turmell, Midway design director. "We know we can't compete with Smackdown on features," Turmell said while visiting the IGN office recently. "We really, on this first go, are trying to hang our hats on gameplay." From our hands-on time with iMPACT!, that focus shines through. Whereas the THQ WWE games have moved to a joystick configuration for both movement and grappling, Midway and THQ have opted for a more traditional wrestling game feel. Although it could easily change by the time the game hits stores, your shoulder button/triggers control your running and blocking while the face buttons govern your punches, kicks and the 25 unique grapples of each wrestler.

Give me these boots!

While you're pulling off these super-fluid moves -- seriously, we've seen Homicide wail on Styles in the corner, get put into a belly-to-back hold, reverse a German suplex, and end AJ with a Death Valley Driver without any hiccups -- you're filling up an iMPACT! meter. When the meter is packed, you can press in the sticks and kick off iMPACT! Mode, which allows you to pull off your character-specific finisher. The silhouette to the right of the HUD lets you know how damaged a wrestler's head, midsection and legs are. Beneath that iMPACT! meter and next to the color-coded body is the character's name superimposed over his stun meter. This little rectangle fills with blue as the fighter is beaten. When the beatings stop, the character is stunned for as long as it takes the blue line to dissipate. It's a welcome addition for those of us who are sick of climbing the top rope, launching into a frog splash and catching a knee to the gut from a recovered opponent. iMPACT! also changes the way most people think about submission moves. Rather than pounding buttons at random or swirling sticks, Midway chose to give both people involved with the move a series of buttons to press in sequence. If you've got someone in an armbar and pull off your button presses flawlessly while the other guy flubs it, more pressure is applied. If the opponent pulls off the taps and you screw up, he'll escape.

Now, Midway's admittance that it's focusing on gameplay rather than options shouldn't be taken like the company is throwing in the towel when it comes to bells and whistles. iMPACT! will pack create-a-player, a story mode for your created brawler to go through, tag matches, fatal four-ways, online brawls, and -- as we ranted about earlier -- Ultimate X.

Because we just got a taste of what iMPACT! will truly be like, we're not 100 percent sure how Ultimate X will come together when you're talking about unique moves and character-specific tactics, but as a whole, the match seemed to capture the frantic feel of the real deal. When we took Samoa Joe up against AJ Styles, we saw a number of different ways we could be pulled, slammed and thrown to the ground. We'd climb the turnbuckle, turn toward the X, and begin the hand-over-hand shuffle out to the center of the ring. Styles would grab our feet and spinebust us to the mat. If we were both hanging from one of the cables -- which sag as the wrestlers put their weight on them -- AJ would kick Joe in the gut and send him plummeting face first to the floor.

With our Joe jobbing the night away, AJ's victory was pretty much in the bag. To get the prize down, the character hanging above the center of the screen has to tap a button as the arrow in a small meter goes back and forth in and out of a sweet spot. Stop the arrow in the sweet spot enough, and you'll pull down the X and become king of the castle. Or the ring. Or the mountain. Or the whatever.

When you get your hands on TNA iMPACT! this September, you'll have at least eight arenas to take your opponent to task in -- including the iMPACT! Zone in Orlando, an armory and an outdoor ring in Mexico -- along with 25 in-ring technicians to take to the top. So far, 18 of those brawlers have been announced including: AJ Styles, Samoa Joe, Jeff Jarrett, Sting, Kurt Angle, Abyss, Rhino, Christian Cage, Scott Steiner, Booker T, Tomko, Jay Lethal, Christopher Daniels, Chris Sabin, Alex Shelley, Eric Young, Hernandez and Homicide.

After an hour of playing iMPACT! and listening to Turmell talk old school wrestling games as well as his team's 14-hour days trying to perfect TNA, it's easy to get excited about the product. There are little in-game touches such as how wrestlers drape their arm over a barricade just after being whipped into it and Kurt Angle's American flag-draped entrance, but the big picture we took away from the session was just how good the title looks. It's almost hard to put into words, but the way the sweat on their bodies mixes with the shadows in the ring makes for some truly breathtaking moments.

Just ... just hanging around.

We were taking Sting up against some computer-controlled shmuck, and there were points when we'd throw a punch to the face or kick a guy in the gut and the game would look like TV footage. It's not perfect -- in the build we were playing, legs were going through the apron when the action spilled outside the ring, the lighting would randomly break, and a number of other preview build visual bugs popped up -- but when things were clicking and guys were doing back flips off of the ropes and into neckbreakers, TNA iMPACT! looked really, really good.

There's still seven wrestlers to announce and five months until the game's release, so keep on checking IGN for updates on iMPACT!.