By Martyn Licchelli
For years now, THQ and Yukes have released the annual smackdown vs RAW game. Each year a new game would come along, with an extra mode, a couple of different characters, and it took a long time before we finally got something which changed the main modes, that being the Road to Wrestlemania storylines, and the long awaited Create a Finisher. It took a long time to get there though, and for a few years Smackdown vs RAW was happy to just sit as the best wrestling game each year simply because no others were around.
So maybe we should be thankful that this year EA sports will be releasing their own MMA game, as it has forced THQ and Yukes to put a lot of work into the latest Undisputed game. Of course credit has to be given where it is due, the guys and girls who have worked on this game have done a great job and made sure that it looks and plays well, and made improvements in almost every single aspect. It would be unfair to discredit them and claim they only did it out of fear of competition and not desire to just make the best game they could, but I'm sure EA's MMA played a role.
So what's different this year then? Like I said just a moment again, improvements have been made to nearly everything. The only thing that remains the same really, is the graphics, which are still really good, and for the most part, provide great representations of the fighters, referees, and other UFC employees. There's a couple of uglies here and there, but they're limited to bit parts and don't really detract in any way. Despite the lack of improvement in the graphics though, the game does still look better thanks to the majority of animations being completely redone.
On the whole, once the action begins, the game moves a lot smoother. Transitions into submissions, and the new feature that allows you to transition from one submissions straight into another, are all animated really well and it adds a lot to the realism of the game. My only real concern with animations, is lack of limb damage being recognised. This really took me out of the game last year, and this year it's again a bit of a problem. If I throw 20 punches, my fighter will drop his arms and look tired. But if i'm kicked in the legs a thousand times, I'll still walk around like everything is fine, and throw leg kicks like no tomorrow. It's something EA's MMA has implemented in to their game, and I hope it's in UFC 2011 next year, as it's quite disheartening to work on someones legs all fight, and then not be able to win with any form of leg submission, but your first kimura has them tapping in seconds.
For some reason though, whilst this issue took me out of last years game, this year it's not so bad. I don't know why though, but I think it may well be due to the new fighting system. It's not incredibly different, you still do everything in the usual way. Face buttons are kicks and punches, shoulder buttons are modifiers, and right stick is grappling. The fundamentals are the same, but each fighter is now a lot more individual than last year. In 2009, you selected two bases for your characters. One stirking, and one grappling. If you had someone who had Kick boxing, and someone else who had kick boxing too... they're have the exact same move set for strikes. This is massively different this year, as well as adding new forms of martial arts like Sambo to the equation, you're not limited to two styles any more. Instead you select one type of base, and then throughout your career you attend camps, all based on the real MMA camps used by UFC fighters, and pick and choose which moves you want to learn.
What you're left with when you've finished levelling your character up, is a fighter who instead of having left superman punch, right superman punch, left head kick, and right head kick fixed as his modifiers. You can now have a dodging left hook, a Chuck Liddel overhand right, Left axe kick, and a flying knee. Giving your fighter an offence that is almost guaranteed to be unique, and it also means that every real fighter in the game is able to be recreated more accurately as some of the big names, like Liddel, BJ and St Pierre have moves that are solely used by them making them feel that little closer to the real thing.
The other main change in the fighting, is the use of the cage. You can pin your opponents against it, use it for leverage, spin off it, kick off it when on the ground to reverse position. It's very well implemented, and really adds to the game. You can also have matches ended by doctors if a cut is too bad. I beat many people to a pulp and the doctor showed up a lot, but only once did he stop it. I'm glad that it happens sparingly, because it could well have ruined a good fight.
Sadly, one thing still plagues me no matter how much I train in this years game or last years. I cant do submissions to save my life. In the 300+ fights I did before reviewing this game, I got KO of the night no less than 150 times, not once did I get submission of the night, cause I only ever made one person tap and that, I'm sure, was the game feeling sorry for me. I beat my opponents til they look like a beef burger patty, lowered their stamina and everything. But I can just never do it. I'm sure however that this is less a problem with the game, and more me being inept. Still, it would be nice if the tutorial explained submissions a little better than 'rotate the stick' because I do that relentlessly and get nothing. Slow. Fast. Medium pace. No matter what, they kick out and I'm left on the defensive. Thank god I trained my Liddel over hand right or i'd never win.
One of the other improvements this year, is the career mode. Last year was very basic, but this year they've added much more. It actually plays a little like a Road to Wrestlemania from the Smackdown series. You give your fighter a voice, and he does interviews and talks to his trainer. The voices aren't great though. When you make the main event of a Fight Night card, or the main card of any UFC show the game gives you a hype video which features your opponent talking about their strategy, and your guy doing it too. It's really cool, and a nice feature that i've wanted in a video game since they incorporated it in Smackdown 2, and then removed it never to be seen again.
The only problem is, I gave my guy voice #4 which is meant to be british I think, and my god did it irritate me to hear him say “At the end of the day, you got to respect my powahhhh... cause if you don't i'll knock you oughtttt” In the doziest slurred voice ever. This wouldn't be much of an issue, if I didn't hear it all the time. You do say different things for different matches, but that one line was repeated in 25% of my fights and it made me want to knock my character out.
It's also irritating when you are interviewed post fight by Joe Rogan. It's a nice feature, that lets you respond to questions in 4 different ways which will earn you respect, lose you respect, as well as earn and lose credibility, fans and sponsors. But once you make the main card of the UFC shows, the interview is after EVERY fight and it gets a bit repetitive. You can skip the talking, but you still have to wait for it to load and show it. It would be nice if an option was put in to do an interview, or skip it.
Other than these new additions though, career mode is largely unchanged despite it's new look. Training requires slightly more micro management, but it is far easier to make the fighter you want. There was just one thing that annoyed me though, I went through my career, won the middle weight title, defended it, moves up to light heavyweight, won that title and defended and I was only in year 7 of my career. I was inducted in to the hall of fame in year 9 I think and had a champ vs champ match. I'd done everything, but was unable to retire. I had to go til year 12 had ended. I may have missed it, but I saw no option to retire, which meant that for my trophy or achievement collection on the PS3 or Xbox respectively I had to go through 6-8 more fights with no real purpose.
Still it gave me chance to practice submissions. I subsequently lost all 8 matches, I should have been fired.
Other modes included in this years game are tournament mode, which does exactly what it says on the tin allowing people to set up tournaments for whatever title they want. Create a card allows you to make your own event, much like Create a PPV from Smackdown. Online fighting returns from last year, but this year is improved slightly as you can now have a camp, which essentially is an online 'clan'. I noticed no benefit from being in a camp, but it was better sparring against friends instead of random fighters.
I did suffer a lot of lag on the PS3 online game, but I'm hoping this was just poor connection between myself and the americans I was facing. I believe that after fridays release in the UK, I'll be able to get much more stable matches.
The last mode that returns is the Ultimate Fights mode. This time there are 20 matches split across 4 catergories. Each match has 3 sets of goals for each fighter to achieve, meaning that I think this mode is probably the mode that will keep my attention longest. Each fight comes with a hype video, with all the talking from the build up included, and if you achieve your goals, you're also treated to highlights of the real match and points to buy extra gear for Created fighters, and sponsors too. As much as everything has changed, I believe this is my favourite improvement. For some reason, I dont feel inclined to go through career mode more than once, but i'm going back to Ultimate Fights time and time again, trying to get every last goal unlocked.
The one problem with UFC really, in taking this on as a yearly game, is that there's not much you can add. In their WWE series of games THQ and Yukes are able to add new match types, as well as new wrestlers. With the hefty roster included in this years UFC, and the fact that there's only ever one sort of match in UFC, there's not much they can add in adition, which could potentially mean that UFC 2011 ends up being a very small improvement that's not worth the money. 2010 however has enough new things, enough changes to gameplay, and enough of a roster improvement that it feels like I got my value for money.
The last thing to cover, I guess, is the comparison between PS3 and Xbox 360. The PS3 wins outright in my opinion, as you get 5 extra Ultimate Fights, those being UFN 18 -Carlos Condit vs Martin Kampmann, UFC 102 – Nate Marquardt vs Demian Maia, UFC 60 – Hughes vs Gracie, UFC 66 Keith Jardine vs Forrest Griffin, and UFC 66 Martin Kampman vs Drew McFedries. Being as how I already stated that this was my favourite mode, its not surprising this makes me prefer the PS3 version. But there is more, as the PS3 also gets 3 bonus fighters Royce Gracie, Jens Pulver and Dan Severn, and to round it off the PS3 also comes with 5 full matches for you to watch. Including Brock Lesnars win over Frank Mir to become the Heavywieght champion, with post fight promo included.
Whilst the Xbox 360 has no extras included, it should be noted that it does like a little bit smoother on the Xbox, with no jagged lines, and the control pad seems to suit this game better than the PS3 one. But the PS3 extras win out over this in my opinion.
So on to the rating then, UFC 2010 is a good game. It's easy to recommend to fighting game fans, and UFC fans, but it does still have it's niggles. The right stick based movement on the ground for transitions works fine, but the rotating of the stick for submissions can be awkward and seems too hit and miss. Some body damage would be nice, and maybe a reduction of Flash KO's, which seemed to come in 85% of my fights. But apart from these small issues, I really enjoyed my time in the Octagon.
Oh, and Shaquille O'neal is a bonus character, so this game was always going to be good.
8/10
