Posted by Ryan Sz in UFC on February 17, 2012  |  0 Comments More from this author  |

This last Tuesday, the latest edition of the UFC Undisputed series was released and already the praise is being heaped upon it. I myself have been salivating at the chance to finally play the game since I pre-ordered it four months ago. Each week new facts would be released about the game culminating in the roster being revealed on ESPN.com, making the release date seem so much farther away. So with everything that was being revealed I wrote an article a while back about what I would have liked to see in the new game along with what was already announced, and from what I've seen so far and what I've played, I think THQ and the UFC has really listened to what fans were upset with in the previous games and have made one of the most appealing fighting and sports games in recent memory.

Graphics

One of the first things players will notice is that the game is a lot better looking than the previous editions, fighters look lifelike down to creases in the face and moles around the body. One thing that I had brought up in my previous article was a big difference between the last Undisputed and its chief rival at the time EA Sports MMA was the lack of realism in the damage shown on fighters and how fights played out. In the last Undisputed, the animations were limited in how fighters showed damage or how they fell when knocked out. In this edition, fights are much faster and much more realistic. Every bruise, swell, and cut look different from one another, and blood on the canvas doesn't look like pixels on a white floor but rather splotches and smears like in real life.

Fights and Fight Modes

A big change has been made to fights in general this year in order to make them more lifelike. Damage is more brutal, fighter animations are more varied so as you're not seeing the same thing over and over, and stamina has been made more important in the long run for matches to where you can't always spam the same move without getting winded. The impact detection is also vastly improved to where it's like you're watching a live fight. Another key element added to create realism is the “Finish the Fight” ability where fights ended almost immediately after knocking out an opponent, that is no longer the case. Now you can dive in on a downed opponent and keep pelting them with strikes until the ref jumps in to stop the fight. And for most cases, you will have to do that because your opponent can pull a Cheick Kongo and rally back to try and beat you.

For example, during a Pride rules match I was having playing as GSP taking on BJ Penn, I connected with a hook that sent Penn to the ground. I dove in for some knees to the head, landing a couple before BJ sprawled out and attempted to get back up, I hit him with a soccer kick to the face before landing four head stomps causing the ref to step in and stop the fight. As I was playing this out, I was almost grimacing at how brutal the head stomps were as well as how lifelike BJ looked as he was trying to get away from my attacks rather than turtleling up as was common in the last game.

This year, tournament mode is back with both UFC and Pride rules. It's a nice addition along with being able to have both UFC and Pride fighters face off against each other or even have fighters face themselves in both UFC and Pride form.

One of the biggest changes is to the submission system. In previous installments, players had to either button mash or rotate the analog stick a certain way to get a tapout, using only the TV as a clue of if you were doing it right. Now there is an actual visual of an octagon that contains a red and blue bar for fans so they know which way to turn the analog stick, with the submitter having to have their bar over their opponent's for a period of time depending on the opponent's level of submission defense.

Another thing that has been revamped is the Ultimate Fights mode. In prior years, the player was given a list of objectives to meet in order to unlock a video clip of the fight. This year, the objectives are given in real time during the fight and the player has a certain amount of time to meet the objective. In my match between Mirko Cro Cop and Heath Herring from Pride, I had to block strikes from Herring for about twenty seconds using the new block controls. From then I had to hit a certain number of body kicks and counter punches before finally winning by TKO or KO. The new objectives add a sense of urgency that adds to the excitement of trying to get the video clips from classic matches.

Yet while that is a great upgrade, it also comes with my biggest complaint about the game. Like many sports games coming out now, UFC Undisputed has what's called a season pass. This costs $16.99 and is required if you want to play the game online, though you get it free if you pre-ordered the game from certain sellers. Along with being able to play online, the season pass allows you free download of most of the DLC that is set to come out. It's unfortunate that this has become the norm in sports games that you have to pay for online use after you have already bought the game, but Undisputed 3 takes it a step further in trying to push you towards buying the pass.

The Ultimate Fights mode is separated into different categories such as best of Pride, best upsets, knockouts, submissions, and more. But the only things that are available from the start are about five Pride matches, everything else is locked until certain DLC packs are downloaded. This is a horrible idea as it alienates fans who would have loved to play these matches have to fork out even more cash just to play something that may already be on the disc, but needs to be unlocked.

Career Mode

Perhaps the biggest changes came in the career mode. Last year the mode was bogged down with small issues that together became a big problem for players. Instead of the numerous menus that were displayed all over and hard to use that were in last year, the menus are grouped together based on whether they are fight related or customization related. While the commentary was overly repetitive last year with in-fight commentary and post fight interviews, this year no longer has the interviews and commentary is based around things that the player has been doing during his career or his training leading up to the fight.

Another big change is the prep leading up to each fight. Before, players had to manage time between training the three main attributes of strength, speed, and cardio, sparring, and visiting camps to learn new moves. The need to rest was also there in order to keep your fighter healthy and his stamina up and this would all be spread over a period of eight to fourteen weeks. With the new edition, worrying about stamina is removed since the prep time for fights is now in the form of “actions” where the player chooses to either visit a gym, training using one of fourteen minigames that work different stats, or working on a game plan for stats to be spread out over a group of skills.

Some other positive changes made to career mode is the ability to change divisions at will, either moving up or down in weight class. In the previous games, once you decided to change weight class, you were stuck in that division until the end of your career. Now you can go up or down in weight unless you are a Bantamweight or Heavyweight where you only have one option of change.

One change that is a bit annoying is the way training camps have been revamped. In last year's edition, you had your choice of dozens of camps to train at and learn different moves and styles. Though the camps shared many of moves, it was interesting to train with different fighters. This year you have the choice of six gyms: AKA, American Top Team, Black House, Wolf's Lair, Sityodtong, and Greg Jackson MMA. For your first few matches you can train at any gym to learn some moves, but eventually you have to choose one gym to be exclusive to for the rest of your career. While it's a novel idea, it makes the decision really tough as it was great being able to visit different gyms and learn different styles and make your fighter more well rounded.

As stated before the post fight interviews have been removed along with the number of fans that you have. In their place is an added importance to the CRED that you receive from winning fights and having sponsors. It has been made into the currency of career mode as you use CRED to buy training sessions and camp visits. You also use it buy new clothes for your fighter along with new sponsor logos.

Customization

One of the best things about the Undisputed games have been the amount of customization that is allowed to the player. This year is no different as players are allowed to not only customize their fighter, but also their entrances for when the enter as a regular fighter or as a champion. Other changes that have been made include being able to fully customize your banner by putting sponsors on it, accomplishment badges, or your gym logo. Another nice addition is how you can modify your trunks, before you were only able to put logos on in different places and change the size, but now you're able to rotate logos in order to make them fit in order to get the maximum CRED from your sponsors.

Final Thoughts

Overall, the game is a vast improvement on the last installment of the series and is a must own for MMA fans and gamers. Nearly everything that has been added to the game from Pride mode to the revamped career mode are fantastic and add to the fun of the game along with the replay value. The only real drawback is that some of the things in the game like Ultimate Fights have to be unlocked by buying a DLC pack, but other than that the game is worth every penny. If you haven't already, go buy this game.

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