It's either loved or it's despised. It has the potential to be great but it's flaws and lack of innovation stops it.
UFC 2009
The UFC 2009 game is a very hard game to review. I'm going to start by going into "expedition" mode and just talking to you about the general fighting mode.
The controls are very unfriendly to newcomers. I must point that out as I felt the same way. They take a lot of practice to get use to. X + Y are for punches and A + B for kicking. Holding down LB will change them depending on what style is picked (I will get to that in the next paragraph). Grappling and takedowns are done with the right stick. Blocking is done by RT and RB for body and face blocking.
Every character has 2 different disciplined styles. These can be Kick boxing, boxing and Muay Thai for striking. Grappling is Wrestling, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu(BJJ) and finally Judo. I recommend Boxing and wrestling; it will get you far – and be much better to use than anything else (I've tried them all).
Fighting in the octagon is great fun. Though what I and many many many others have disliked is the fact once you are on the ground - the match is either over, or you're going to turn the console off in boredom. If in a match sometimes the referee breaks you up and stands you back up. Though if it's in training then have fun spending 5 mins on the floor switching between several positions.
I want to talk about career mode because is where the game really starts to fall. For starters I was let down by the fact you cannot select a UFC fighter and do a career with them: you've got to make your own person and start from scratch, which is fair I guess. You start with low attribute points and have to build them up by going down the calendar in the career menu. This is boring and I'll explain how it works. You get a calendar. You will get an email here and there offering a fight with usually 8 odd weeks notice – and for the rest of the time you have to train. But training is nothing but clicking menus for a while until it's time to fight. Boring.
You will spend x10 time on menus than you will of fighting.
Create a fighter is pretty limited too but it gets it's job done. There's no medium or longer hair lengths and all CAF's end up looking either the same or very very similar. It's mostly based off selecting already-given templates and applying them to a person.
The sound…voices are good and the music is ear torture. That's all I'll say.
So what do I think overall?
It's a game which has potential to be a good game but its ideas have not been executed as well as they could have been. The combat system is great but very difficult to get use to at first and it's very precise. Career mode is a shambles and horrifying to play for over an hour. Try it for a long time before you consider buying it.
Gameplay: 7
Sound: 6
Career mode: 5
Presentation: 7
Overall: 25/40
Times by 2.5 = 62.5/100
6/10.