Breaking Down IGN’s First Look of UFC 2010: Undisputed…

From The 3rd String Safety:

As May 25th draws closer, I’m getting more and more pumped for UFC 2010: Undisputed. After last year’s game was awesome, you can only assume that this year’s is going to be even better. IGN.com did a first look at the game this weekend, and I’ll be bringing you the MMA fans view of some of the news.

Let’s get started.

Moments ago, the company ran UFC Undisputed 2010 through its first public match – Mike Swick versus Paulo Thiago – and although the gameplay demo was extremely short, THQ promised and showcased some really good stuff. For starters and piggybacking off of my complaint, the static animations of 2009 are gone. When your fighters are in the prone position or mid-hold, they’re not just sitting there — they’re living and breathing. You’ll see your arm struggle against a hold as you try and break it, there are transitions between takedowns, and – thank the Lord – there are cage moves. This year, if you’re good enough, you’re going to be able to slam coverboy Brock Lesnar up against the chain link and wail on his ribcage.

This is a great thing. The game did have a "rock’em, sock’em robots" feel to it at times because most of animations were stiff. This was especially true in the ground game, as the opponent would stand still during transitions. Besides that, cage work was one of the biggest gripes of players last year. The fact that the fights took place in a cage, but you couldn’t interact with it was a bit ridiculous. Look for things like clinches, flurries against the cage and switching levels for takedowns to be included this year.

You can switch to the southpaw stance if you click in on the right joystick, the fight animations have been quadrupled, the clinch has been reanimated, the number of front submissions have been doubled, there’s a new targeting system, and there are individual submissions like B.J. Penn’s arm trap. Not enough octagon goodness? THQ has added karate, Greco-Roman wrestling, and Sambo fighting styles while doing away with archetypes for fighters – created fighters will now use individual movesets.

All good news once again. Fighters like Rich Franklin will feel more realistic due to the addition of the south paw stance. More of anything is never a bad thing, and more submissions and animations are a really good thing. The same goes for more fighting styles as the original six that were in the game simply weren’t enough. Since they did away with archetypes, I wonder how the new movesets will work. MMA is a sport where everyone knows how to do pretty much everything, just with varying levels of skills and success. Will my boxer not be able to throw muay thai knees? Will a wrestler not be able to use a triangle? Actually, that one kinda makes sense. Still, I’m curious of how that is going to work. Fighter specific animations are cool, but it made Anderson Silva a bitch to play with last year.

It did look sweet – the graphics are no doubt sharper than last year, as sweat clung to the fighters’ chests and blood spurted out as punches rained down on Thiago’s face – but that was about it. To drive home that TV presentation, the match ended with the fighters in the ring in post-fight outfits such as Swick’s "Dethrone Royalty Texas" shirt.

YYEEESSSSS. Call me a dork, but I think that the presentation is so important. Things like walkout shirts and banners for the fighters makes it feel more like an actual UFC. Besides, I already shot walking out in the Josh Koscheck UFC 106 walkout shirt.

It wasn’t shown, but a THQ press release makes it sound like UFC Undisputed 2010 is making a serious play for one of the best online fighting games. In this year’s game you’ll apparently be able to form "fight camps and leagues, train like real-life UFC fighters and go online to compete against other camps." There will be online co-op sparring sessions that dictate your credibility, popularity and the types of sponsorships you get. On top of that, this year’s career mode will include the "Game Is Watching You" system, which will "track every action and use this information to dictate in-game commentary, opponent intelligence and overall career progression."

This is meaty stuff. The online "camp" system sounds awesome. Sign-ups for The 3rd String Safety camp will come. Since Jason sucks, we’ll need good fighters. Similar to NBA2K10, the game seems to use a dynamic commentary system which should bring your created character to life, which is a breath of fresh air after last year’s game. They barely even mentioned your character last year.

Typically in the world of video games, the first year a sports game comes out is dedicated to getting the gameplay right. THQ did that just about perfectly. The second year is when they add all the features that they wanted to add in year one but didn’t have time. That seems to be the direction that Undisputed is headed.

UFC 2010: Undisputed comes out on May 25th. Yes, my copy is already pre-ordered.