I'm Not A Sports Fan, But I Love This Game!
The first thing of course, would be the controls. This is THQs first outing into the UFC, and it's a pretty diverse system of combat. The controls are, in a word, terrific. I never found the controls or camera interfering with my experience.
The audio is mostly great, but the announcer does tend to repeat. That said, the announcer is also very accurate, and they seem to repeat in real life too. Kicks produce a good meaty THUD, and punchs have sounds that fit their power. It helps to produce the intuitive sense of "health" and "stamina" you need in the fights.
The graphics, are very impressive, but that is a bit easy in a "ring" game. That said, the animations are clearly top-notch motion capture, and they are stunningly good. At no point that I played, did I experience a "street fighter" or "Tekken" moment... it was all UFC.
On that note, you have a lot of options, from your fighter's career, to how you approach each match. It's entirely feasible for people to approach the same situations with completely different methods... and that is very refreshing.
The challenge is consistant, although playing the AI will eventually become very easy for experienced gamers. The real draw here after the career, is playing MP, and it is GREAT. There's a little lag, but hopefully that can be solved with a patch or redirection of resources... either way it's still rarely going to be an issue, even at this early date.
The bottom line, is tha this game is as close as a sane person wants to get to stepping into "The Octagon", and it's a blast. Of course, if you don't like fighting games, or can't accept that as with any fighting game, mastery takes time... this game isn't going to change that. For fans of boxing, wrestling, and other contact-sport games.... this is a must. For UFC fans... well they probably preordered.
All in all, this is a shockingly good start to what I hope will become a polished THQ franchise. Do yourself a favour, and at least give the demo a whirl.