Even though the weather is just now starting to heat up, It’s never too early to start thinking about the newly 2K christened WWE videogame.

This year's edition seems to offer more promise now that the authenticity driven Visual Concepts - the in-house development team at 2K Sports - is taking direct involvement in the production of the game this year. Yukes will still be involved, but the fact that Visual Concepts is now on board puts a smile on a lot of faces. What exactly will this mean for the franchise? Only time will tell, but if Visual Concepts treats “WWE 2K15” like their other sports titles, I think fans of the series might be in for a treat.

We already know that Visual Concepts did completely new face and body scanning with the same technology they use for their critically acclaimed NBA 2K series. The developers have also noted that they want us to play a wrestling game, and not a fighting game with wrestlers in it. This is especially good to hear. Part of pulling this off includes doing motion capture in a regulation WWE ring. This should go a long way to making what we see on our game systems much more like what we see on tv. Another huge addition, and one that has been a black eye for this series for years is a commentary boost. Jerry Lawler and Michael Cole recorded all their commentary together this time.

Now that we know what’s in the game so far, here is what should be in the game when we get our hands on it.

Over the past couple years WWE 2K has used a themed approach to the game. In WWE 13 it was the very popular Attitude Era mode, and in WWE 2K14 it was the hit and miss 30 Years of WrestleMania mode. While these modes were solid, and brought something new to the table, they were also easy and quick. By introducing these modes, THQ at the time, and 2K Sports, decided to forgo a true career mode. Now its time to bring it back.

I say forget the fancy marketing that another themed mode will bring, and give us a true career mode, or My Player esque mode that 2K is famous for. First you will create your Superstar or Diva, or even choose an existing Superstar or Diva whom you might want to give a push. (Dolph Ziggler, cough, cough) Then he or she will start at the bottom by being offered a WWE developmental deal and be placed in WWE’s minor league system, NXT. From there you would hone your craft by earning and using training points to distribute amongst different attributes. Where this career mode needs to be different is in how you become a star. Any true wrestling fan knows its not just about wins and losses. You have to put on a good show. You gotta keep the crowd wanting more. This goes the same for being a good guy or a bad guy, which you can also choose in my utopian career mode. There needs to be a way to play to the crowd. To show charisma. Trying to get the crowd into your match with taunts, or verbal ques. Or executing certain maneuvers. And possibly a system of verbal choices you can make while giving interviews, or cutting promos, as they say in the business. The fans will react based on your responses.

Once you begin to establish yourself as a character and a performer, you should be able to start your own feuds. Its boring having them always started for you. Don’t like a certain NXT wrestler? Interrupt his match and cost him the victory. Things like that, when left up to the user add such a dynamic of immersion to the game. And of course the more you win, and the more over you are with the crowd -- give me a meter to show this -- the better chance you have of getting title shots, and eventually getting called up to the main WWE roster where a whole new quest for getting over with the crowd and winning titles will begin.

This may be asking a lot for the first real year with 2K Sports and Visual Concepts at the helm. But it’s something to shoot for. I think real fans of the sport would appreciate a dynamic career mode more than another marketing ploy fluff mode. Not to say the Attitude Era and 30 Years of WrestleMania were just marketing ploys, but I’m not saying they weren’t either.

Even with the inclusion of an in-depth career mode, I also expect to see improvements to Universe mode once again. Hopefully this is the year where strange and screwy things stop happening on a regular basis. With the power of the new consoles, I hope to see the AI that dictates feuds, and how they turn out, show heavy improvement. I would also like to see more feud options, such as intensity, which would control how often there are interactions between the feuding wrestlers. Having a match between feuding wrestlers every week is overkill. Their interactions should be limited to tag team matches against each other, promos, match interferences, and maybe even the always peaceful contract signing.

Now that this is 2K’s first year totally in control of the WWE videogame property, lets see how they handle things with the very popular title. As previously stated, 2K Sports’ in-house development team, Visual Concepts is taking over a large part of the games development. This couldn’t come at a better time in most peoples’ opinion. As Visual Concepts, and quality sports gaming are synonymous in most people’s minds.