NXT, Hall Of Fame, Axxess, WrestleMania, Raw: even for the most ardent of WWE Network addicts, the hottest weekend on the wrestling calendar can be a challenging one to keep up with. For four days, an entire city becomes over-run with 6 ft beastmen, beautiful divas and passionate fans, all wanting their super-sized slice of the sumptuous WWE cake. And as you’ll very shortly learn, that cake is an actual thing.

See, GamesRadar headed to San Jose ostensibly to talk video games with the likes of Xavier Woods and Sami Zayn, but couldn’t help noticing numerous happenings that go far beyond the realm of WWE 2K15, Monday Night Raw, and Seth Rollins’ shocking title win at ‘Mania. Here, then, are the 13 must-read secrets from our time spent in Silicon Valley – including Ronda Rousey’s love for Dragon Ball Z and Paige’s admission that she too is a secret glutton…

The New Day hasn’t done much of note since its debut last year. Despite that, trio member Xavier Woods might have just anointed himself GamesRadar’s favourite wrestler. Away from the ring, he’s living his WWE dream exactly as we would. “I have a briefcase that I carry with me when I travel, with a built-in 19-inch TV,” he reveals. “My PS4 straps inside along with the controllers and cords. When I get to hotels I pop that open, I get on the internet, and I play Final Fantasy XIV until I pass out.”

“I wasn’t very social as a kid, but video games were a good way for me to connect with other kids. I was obsessed with everything from Nintendo onwards – Mario, Duck Hunt – and I still have my regular NES. I even had a Virtual Boy – but that thing gives me migraines, so I had to get rid of it.” His favourite game ever? “Mario Kart: Double Dash on the Gamecube. If they put all the options from that into modern Mario Kart, the online game would be unreal.”

WWE wrestlers were housed in the Fairmont Hotel, eight miles from the hosting Levi’s Stadium, for the weekend. To enjoy a drink at the bar on any given evening was to live out every fan’s dream: Bret Hart and Natalya catching up with family and friends, The Miz and Maryse beaming with Hollywood smiles, John Cena’s dad enthusiastically congratulating Rusev and Lana on their bout with his son in the hours after Mania. And then there was… the cake.

Specially commissioned by the hotel and designed to mimic the WWE World Heavyweight Championship, this calorific wonder greeted wrestlers and fans alike upon entry to the building. It contained 50 pounds of dark chocolate, with red fondant and gold and silver dust added for that final jewel-like flourish. And it was being sold off after the show to raise money for Leukemia Lymphoma Society, at a cool $1500. Presumably delicious, /and/ made for a good cause? That is our kind of elevenses.

Friday night saw San Jose State University host a three-hour NXT show featuring what WWE hopes will be its WrestleMania headliners of the future. Japanese import Hideo Itami and Irishman Finn Balor got understandably loud reactions from the 5,000 strong crowd (who seemed especially well-fuelled thanks to an unconventional 10pm start time), but it was New Jersey trio Enzo Amore, Colin Cassidy and Carmella that popped the audience loudest. The trio's call-and-refrain entrance shtick echoes The New Age Outlaws, packing in more catchphrases than Roy Walker. Booked right, this unconventional trio can be huge on the main roster.

Also evident from the show: divas Charlotte, Sasha, Bayley and Becky Lynch are already good enough to compete believably with big stage ladies Paige, AJ Lee and Nikki Bella; Itami's future looks secure now that he's reclaimed the GTS finisher ‘borrowed’ by CM Punk; and Rhyno, the former ECW favourite defeated by Baron Corbin mid-way through this particular card, still has plenty of gore in the tank.

With former indie favourite El Generico – now better known to NXT fans as Sami Zayn – hotly tipped for a main roster debut on Raw which never materialised, GamesRadar was surprised to hear him cut a promo on Friday night in which he stated he was sticking around to reclaim the NXT title from Kevin Owens. Yet he categorically refuted our suggestion that he’s content to stay on the main roster’s periphery.

“I’m not in a rush. This time last year, everyone was telling me ‘I can’t wait until you’re on the main roster’, but this year I’m hearing much more of ‘I love you on NXT’,” he explains. “But I’ll never be happy being sedentary. As long as I’m with NXT my goal is to be champion and leave a void here that when I leave either can’t be filled or is very difficult to fill. The goal is always to move forward.” GamesRadar’s prediction? A WWE call-up and secondary title run (imagine an Intercontinental showdown with Daniel Bryan) at Summerslam.

WWE Axxess at the San Jose Convention Center featured Superstar signings (and ginormous queues for Superstar singings) with close to the entire roster, in addition to the ability to step inside the 16-foot high, ten-ton Elimination Chamber (although security was stepped up after one attention-seeking twonk decided to climb the structure). Its big pull, however, was a curtained-off Hall Of Fame showcase, packed with items familiar to fans young and old.

The casket bearing Brock Lesnar’s name which went up in flames before his WM30 contest with Undertaker was there, next to the real European and Smoking Skull title belts, and countless outfits worn by Randy Savage – most of them signed. Fans also delighted in being photographed next to a daunting life-sized statue of Andre The Giant. Most humbling were the many items taken from Ultimate Warrior’s always kaleidoscopic wardrobe, including – poignantly – the coat he wore for his final Raw appearance, just two days before his untimely passing last April.

Wrestling fans have long accepted that WWE merch is a bit naff. Shirts with noisy (and often senseless) slogans on the rear – made of heavy material that takes on twice its own weight the instant you add a single drop of sweat – have been a company mainstay for longer than Howard ‘The Fink’ Finkel. It never stopped us from buying them; but you had to accept a cloud of existential sadness would accompany every wearing.

Well, not this year. Packed with more than 600 items, the WWE Superstore in downtown San Jose showcased an array of shirt designs that could be worn in public without the threat of city-wide laughter. (The Mecha Powers tee featuring AI versions of Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage? Oh goodness, yes.) Not only that, the $35 tees on show boasted a lighter, thinner material which enabled us to enjoy Mania in comfort //as well as// looking relatively normal. It was an experience almost as miraculous as that main event finish.

WrestleMania weekend tends to be a festival of cosplay. Spotted at Axxess alone were a pint-sized AJ fan wearing matching garb who could have passed for her sister (it felt un-PC to request a photo), and three huge dudes in full-on Shield attire – including bandanas across their mouths – who’d have been arrested for intimidating the public if they went out dressed like that in Croydon.

42-year-old Danny from Sacramento was our favourite, however. In addition to looking (a bit) like Macho Man, he had the voice and mannerisms down pat. He’s been attending events as a Randy Savage looklike for ten years, and has seven Macho-style outfits, all of them self-created. “It takes about two months to make one outfit, and it’s not as expensive as you think. It’s the belts that are expensive.” Do we sort of want him to make us one ahead of Mania 32 in Dallas next year? Ohhhhh yeeeah.

Though some mock its legitimacy – the Bushwhackers, really? - WWE’s annual Hall Of Fame ceremony has become a fixture of WrestleMania weekend. Glitz and glamour is laid on thick, with wrestlers and divas kitted out in all manner of designer suits and expensive gowns. The thing you don’t see on camera: their front row seats are reserved using nothing more than names on pieces of paper, just as yours might be at a local theatre for an amateur production of Battlefield: The Musical.

While we might lament Luke and Butch’s induction, one Hall Of Fame entrant deserves every last ounce of recognition. Connor ‘The Crusher’ Michalek, a young wrestling superfan who passed away from brain cancer at just eight years old, was inducted via a series of moving speeches from Ultimate Warrior’s wife Dana, Daniel Bryan, and his father Steve. It was a stirring reminder of how this fake sport touches very real lives, with the male bravado so commonplace among wrestling fans replaced by humility and tears throughout much of the speeches.

17 minutes, 23 seconds. That’s the total amount of time it would take for you to sit through Ronda Rousey’s catalogue of UFC fights, all of them wins. It’s unsurprising, then, that the most dominant woman on the planet got a near-deafening reaction from the 70,000-plus crowd when shown on the big screen at WrestleMania. But this was a mere hint at what was to come.

Rousey later joined The Rock in the ring to send cocky ownership duo Triple H and Stephanie McMahon packing – and she did it wearing a Dragon Ball Z T-shirt. As reported by , away from the Octagon Rousey is a huge World Of Warcraft fan, and also used to moderate a Pokemon forum. There’s always been a crossover between wresting and games, but this goes down as the most high profile example ever. The only way it can be topped? Goldberg returning at Summerslam in a Cloud Strife tee.

Anyone who’s seen the fantastic Fighting With My Family doc showcasing the Knights of Norfolk will be aware of Norwich lass – and two-time Divas champ – Paige’s initial struggles with homesickness on arrival in Orlando. “I’d lived by myself in England, but here it was so different,” she tells GamesRadar. “I’m different from the rest of the girls, and they weren’t very nice to me for the first six months. They were very territorial. I got a lot of crap, and was crying every night on Skype.”

She says the turning point was realising she wasn’t here to make friends, and in the 18 months since has grown to love her adoptive homeland. “Great food, great company, great people. You get to see so much more than in the England. Desert, mountains…. and the weather’s a little bit better, isn’t it?” As for the American thing she loves most: “I enjoy the junk food, I’m a big cheesecake fiend. When I came over here I put on 40lbs of cheesecake weight.” If only we could look similarly svelte after a twelve-pack of Krispy Kremes.

At a Fairmont Hotel conference call to promote WWE 2K15 on Monday morning, Hulk Hogan openly told journalists that he was meeting Kevin Nash and Scott Hall in the afternoon to go over plans for that night’s Raw. But when the time came, both his NWO troupe and rivals DX – who’d received huge ovations from the crowd when interrupting Sting vs Triple H at WrestleMania – were absent. So too Trips, Undertaker, The Rock, and Bret Hart, all of whom had appeared the previous night.

Instead, on what is essentially the start of a new WWE season, younger bucks and beauties were given a chance the shine, with sparkling results. Every match delivered. Lucha Dragons and Geordie high-flyer Neville’s aerial prowess shone through on their official debuts; both title bouts (Bryan vs Ziggler and Cena vs Ambrose) could believably have headlined most pay-per-views; and despite some unnecessarily base chants regarding their sexual preferences, the six-woman tag bout showcased particularly strong work from Natalya, Naomi, Paige and AJ, proving that the #givedivasachance hashtag has turned heads backstage. A sign that WWE finally recognises wresting fans love /wrestling/? We can but hope.

A full four days after the San Jose State University show, city-wide fan love for NXT showed no sign of dying down. GamesRadar saw more grown men wearing Bayley T-shirts than those bearing many main roster stars, even before AJ Lee adorned that particular purple-and-yellow garment on Raw. Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens merch was omnipresent, too.

Then there were the chants outside hotels, while waiting to head inside Mania and the Hall Of Fame, and – incredibly – throughout the six-man main event of Raw. Bayley, Zayn and Owens were clamoured for alongside Hideo Itami, Tyler Breeze and Sasha Banks, as veterans Big Show and Kane looked exasperated (and Randy Orton furious). But while the big names mightn’t like it, this fan love for its next wave of stars is exactly what WWE needs. Adam Rose and Bo Dallas floundered on the main roster as NXT’s cult-like popularity hadn’t reached wrestling fans’ wider conscience. Now the opposite is true, and names like Owens and Finn Balor should be instant stars as a result.

WWE announced the live attendance as 76,976, which, to our eyes, seemed slightly exaggerated. The stadium was sold out, but one entire side of it housed three massive video screens and the entrance way. Including the pre-show, 39 men and four ladies competed, 9 of them pulling double duty. With 23 matches and 22 wins Undertaker remains the most experienced, and successful, WrestleMania combatant. 11 wrestlers or divas actively participated at Mania for the first time, among them Sting, Paige, Rusev and Hideo Itami.

Three belts changed hands: Daniel Bryan scored his first Intercontinental title victory, while John Cena’s US Championship triumph kicks off his fourth reign with that particular strap. The total wrestling time on the show was two hours, six minutes and 51 seconds, with Sting vs Triple H having the longest match from bell to bell, at 18 minutes and 36 seconds.

That then, was WrestleMania weekend. We’d love to know your views on the event itself, as you saw it back at home. Match of the evening? To our eyes, the honour goes to the Brock Lesnar vs. Roman Reigns main event, chiefly for the impromptu, unconventional title-winning introduction of new world champ Seth Rollins. And that ladder match. Good Lord, that ladder match...

Want more wrassle-related content? Check out our interview with .

When Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: China was announced last year as part of Unity’s cancelled Season Pass, it looked like a pretty addition to the franchise but perhaps something that would sit better on mobiles than the intended PS4, Xbox One and PC. Side-scrolling 2.5D stabbing? Really? The AC universe is surely all about exploration and freedom? But, now part of a trilogy that also travels to both India and Russia, it transpires that this is a much more substantial affair than we thought. Going hands on with Chronicles: China and Chronicles: India proves that the series fits 2.5D like the arm of a certain Italian nobleman into a Da Vinci designed gauntlet.

Developed by Climax Studios in association with Ubisoft Montreal, the key pillars of the series haven’t been forgotten. The main focus is on stealthy super-sneaking, but the stylised environments are far teractive than they first seem. Neither has all-out combat been forgotten, watercolour blood spatters spraying the screen during many a satisfying throwdown . Let’s take a look at the ways Chronicles keeps to the Creed without that pesky half dimension. Because it does a very convincing job indeed.

Those familiar with the series will feel instantly at home with Chronicles control scheme. The ol’ free running sits happily on the right trigger while the left is on crouching and sliding duties. The flowing movement of the Brotherhood hasn’t been forgotten here. Protagonist Shao Jun is nimble. Climbing between ledges before yanking an enemy off his feet with a rope dart is effortless and delightfully slick - wait, sick, that should be sick - experience. Sliding under timed doors is consustently fun, and there’s a particularly nifty new slide-and-assassinate motion that looks more than a tad painful for everyone involved.

The side-scrolling action flows nicely into the series' existing play-style, and the lack of a third-dimension almost entirely eradicates any of awkward the ‘Oh Arno/ Ezio/ Edward/ Altair’ climbing moments we’ve all encountered over the years. Shao Jun jumps neatly and happily in and out of windows, and she can leap between hiding spots with a simple tap of a button and slide of the analogue stick. Meanwhile in India, reminiscent of the Ezio trilogy, Arbaaz Mir takes on perilous environmental hazards as he leaps between stalactites crumbling under his weight.

Yes, never fear, haystacks and haycarts clearly have their place in 16th century China too. Climax Studios has intently focussed on stealth - which makes complete sense for Chronicles’ more focused, side scrolling design - and that means plenty of hiding spots to pick off guards. Under ledges, inside shadowy doors, behind pillars, in the long grass like a Lost World velociraptor… Shao Jun can make herself invisible in all of them and pick off enemies with a snap of the neck. Hiding bodies is essential too, and it’s in the little moments where you snatch a corpse just in time before plonking it into the shadows that the stealth shines.

It’s also worth noting how satisfying it is to finally know exactly what guards can see too. Every enemy has an awareness cone, a simple beam of light that means you can stay just out of eyeline if you play your sneaking right. Carrying forward Assassin’s traditional colour coding, get spotted and this goes yellow before quickly turning red if you don’t hot foot it out of sight.

Shao Jun redefines the idea of a hidden blade in one exceptionally delightful, not to mention nasty, move. Sneaking up behind an enemy until a skull indicates that an assassination can occur, she will shake a blade out of her boot and with a swift kick will embed it crunchily in her unsuspecting victim’s face. Nice. Meet the Footblade.

Jun is also armed to the teeth with a Jian sword, throwing daggers for snapping ropes - to drop items and distract guards - and an ultra-useful rope dart that can be used to gain access to the ceiling for Spiderman-style hunting of enemies. Jun also has a handful of firecrackers to throw in villainous faces as a distraction tool before creeping past undetected. In Chronicles: India, Arbaaz Mir has a different set of deadly toys including a traditional disc weapon known as a Chakram for throwing in the same manner as Jun’s daggers. In Russia, the less agile Orelov is armed with a rifle, which is certainly less stealthy but gets the job done when it comes to taking down foes.

The main focus for Chronicles might be on stealth, but that doesn’t mean these Assassins can’t murder folks hand to hand (blade to blade) like the best of them. Combat controls will be familiar to Creed aficionados but they’re not identical. None other than Ezio Auditore himself teaches Shao Jun to brawl in a handy White Room where you learn normal and heavy attacks, as well as how to dodge crossbow bolts, and a stylish leap over the heads of enemies.

The counter button must be pressed at the exact moment an enemy goes to strike, and combat overall keeps you more on your toes than ever before. The lack of that extra third dimension means it might look as though enemies are queueing up to strike, but Shao Jun’s overhead counter move is essential, and the relentlessness of enemies armed with crossbows makes for tough battles overall. Add in an exceptionally low health bar, soldiers armed with shields, and Reinforcement Zones where more guards will hurtle in from doorways, and sneaking in the shadows is far less stressful than a full-on brawl.

Even in 2.5D there’s no escaping the rather useful second sight that travels down the Assassin lineage. Eagle Vision in Chronicles is handy not only for clearly identifying enemies - that’ll be them in red as usual - but now has an essential indicator of enemy paths. Guards have set rotas and you can see their plans to make sure you map your movements accordingly. Enemies need to be predictable if you’re aiming to get by undetected sneaking into a hiding place.

Chronicles will reward you with a stealth rating after each encounter, which adds up bonus unlocks at the end of each level. Setting off distractions - such as cutting the ropes of wind-chimes or throwing a dagger at a caged bird (to make it chirp, you animals!) - work as nice ways to keep enemies busy if you don’t fancy getting blood on your footblade.

Assassin’s lore hasn’t been forgotten here. Despite no mention of the modern day aspect of the series, there are plenty of gentle reminders that you’re still in Animus territory. Those glittering fragments hide in hard-to-reach places for the collect ‘em all fans of the Brotherhood, and will unlock various pieces of Animus lore and juicy character information and history. Plus, in a nice touch and an attractive contrast with the 16th century art style, the awareness cone of enemies is represented by animus fragments.

And plot-wise, there’s no escaping the fact that we’re in the delightfully ridiculous realm of Eden Apples and giant laser temples. Shao Jun is questing not only to avenge the death of her Brotherhood in China, but also to get back an Artifact taken from her, while a section I played of Chronicles: India is set in one of the Vaults of the First Civilisation.

It was never going to be easy to transform the series into a side-scroller, but Chronicles currently seems to nail it. It not only manages to look like Ubisoft concept art come to life, but has managed to get in more than enough AC staples while making them feel entirely right in the new format. Sync points let you unlock extra items on the map - complete with an exclamation mark for your main mission - while Shao Jun’s leap of faith is complete with scattering birds.

This might be a 2D world in practical terms, but the camera glides smoothly around corners, adding new levels of perspective and extra depth as you swing or run cinematically between layers. Instead of the white of the original series, splashes of red show you where to go next, and there’s a surprising amount of choice in the ways you can explore (highlighted spectacularly as I get lost exploring the Great Wall Of China). The Chronicles trilogy looks to play with the conventions of the Creed just enough, and with a beautiful fresh art style for each entry, it’s going to be interesting to see how that feeds into differing gameplay in the different locations. .