UFC Undisputed 2010 Hands On Preview – Freshly Grounded And Pounded
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Friday, April 30, 2010 @ 11:35 AM
Friday, April 30, 2010 @ 12:12 PM
Friday, April 30, 2010 @ 12:42 PM
Friday, April 30, 2010 @ 01:35 PM
Friday, April 30, 2010 @ 02:19 PM
Friday, April 30, 2010 @ 05:03 PM
Saturday, May 01, 2010 @ 01:49 AM
Saturday, May 01, 2010 @ 03:01 PM
Monday, May 03, 2010 @ 02:46 PM
Friday, April 30, 2010
Like UFC Undisputed 2009 before it, 2010 offers up another dose of unreserved, no-nonsense violence, seeing blood and sweat being liberally spattered across the canvas of the trademark octagon ring – UFC's uniquely shaped arena of combat. Essentially pitting two pulsating mounds of muscle against one another in the eight-sided ring, UFC Undisputed 2010 has a number of improvements over its predecessor, which should add up to make this a more comprehensive iteration. At least that's the plan.
Getting a first hands-on with the forthcoming game, we can immediately see the new gameplay tweaks at work in the enhanced fluidity of the action. Initial impressions are that Undisputed 2010 feels faster and less stilted, and it does, thanks in no small part to the removal of canned animations, which have been replaced with proper reactions to strikes handled by the new physics system.
This added fluidity also extends to the controls, which have been made more intuitive and logical, mapping move modifiers to the left triggers, high and low blocks to the right triggers and grapples to the right analogue stick. Moves still adhere to the Tekken-style 'button-per-limb' configuration, which makes stringing combos together a breeze. Still, being the cheap fighter that we are, it seems difficult to avoid simply battering our opponent around the head repeatedly with strong one-two punches until he drops his guard, leaving the opportunity wide open for a devastatingly quick flash knockout. You can throw up a block or lean and sway to avoid incoming swings, and counter with a stinging jab or uppercut, but there's always the danger of having your lights smacked out by an unexpected vicious smack in the chops.
On the game's tougher difficulty settings, bashing buttons like we did is punished like a swift kick to the nuts, although not necessarily by a swift kick in the nuts – that's illegal. Instead, if you attempt to launch an all out punch and kick assault with no strategy to back it up, you can expect to be kissing the canvas before the end of the first round. That kind of thing just doesn't wash with Undisputed 2010, which Dravinski states is all part of the franchise moving closer to emulating the “as real as it gets” tagline used by the UFC.
While the core fighting mechanics have been given a significant revamp, the career and customisation options have been expanded massively, offering a “Create A Fighter” mode that's incredibly detailed and in-depth. Encouraged to play around and create our very own custom pugilist during our hands-on demo, we set to work building a freak using the simple analogue sliders. One pink shock of hair (long tresses are in this year), green beard and blue moustache later, and our 6' 8” tall hairy fat man is almost ready to waddle out into the ring. But first, we need to give him a voice and assign his attributes. This is all part and parcel of the added immersion for career with Dravinski confirming that there's “more investment in your created fighter this year.”
Although our hands-on time was extensive but ultimately rather limited in terms of things to do – we spent hours sampling every single heavyweight and welterweight fighter on offer in the code – we got a very real sense of how much smoother the action feels to play. Everything feels slicker and more intuitive, and the wealth of depth promised for the other modes - outside the Exhibition and Tournament modes we tried out – will surely make UFC Undisputed 2010 another watermark year for the franchise. How it will measure up against EA's MMA title is yet to be seen, but being the more established of the two will surely help THQ's game immensely. And it's like UFC owner Dana White says during his in-game invitation to join the UFC for your custom fighter: “that's right, bitches! Only the biggest and best fighters in the world fight in the UFC!”
We'll be the judge of that when UFC Undisputed 2010 releases on May 25th.