Im glad they realized that the submission system was flawed. Even the old THQ Pride game had a better submission system.
E3 2011: UFC Undisputed 3 Exclusive Hands-On Preview
By
Shaun McInnis, Editor
With a lengthier development cycle, the next UFC game is somehow on track to become more brutal and more welcoming at the same time.
There's a certain thought that runs through the minds of sports gamers year in and year out. It's that nagging idea that the latest installment in their favorite franchise could have been that much better if the developer had just had a little extra time and breathing room to try something new. Most of the time it's just wishful thinking, but every so often sports gamers get a chance to see that logic in action. UFC Undisputed 3 is one such opportunity. Scheduled for release in early 2012--nearly two years after its predecessor--UFC Undisputed 3 represents THQ's effort to deliver a genuinely fresh sequel not often seen in the sports gaming world. After playing through a number of different match types, we're pleased to say that the third installment in this mixed martial arts franchise is definitely benefiting from that extra development time.
Perhaps the biggest difference in UFC Undisputed 3 is that this isn't purely a UFC game. Pride Fighting Championships, UFC's once-edgier, more-eccentric rival, has been virtually resurrected after the organization folded in 2007. All the hallmarks of Pride fighting are here: the brutal attacks, the relaxed set of rules, and the outdoor venues filled with neon lights and smoke. There's also a completely different pair of ringside announcers for Pride matches in former real-life commentators Bas Rutten and Stephen Quadros.
Pride matches in UFC Undisputed 3 have a much more vicious feel to them, thanks to a different set of rules that allows for dirtier fighting. For example, when your opponent gets knocked on the ground, you can start kicking him in the face or stomping his head with your heel--a tactic that would get you immediately thrown out of a UFC match. Being able to throw knees at your opponent's head in a north-south ground grapple and kick his face when he misses a shoot takedown are some of the other brutal but legal techniques. Since the league is no longer running, the Pride fighters you see in the game are shown as you would have seen them in their heydays, including Rampage Jackson and Wanderlei Silva represented in their younger, more intimidating days. (And in case you're wondering, yes, you can bring UFC fighters into a Pride match and vice versa.)
Besides just a new fighting variant in Pride, there are numerous changes and tweaks to the basic UFC fighting system, in terms of both striking and grappling. As far as striking goes, kicking is a much more effective tactic than in previous games. You've always been able to land a knockout kick to the head, but it used to be that kicking an opponent's legs or body was little more than a nuisance to your foe. Now, if you damage an opponent's legs enough, you can actually deliver a technical knockout. We fell victim to one of these, making the mistake of not guarding our knees enough before that final blow arrived that caused us to hit the ground clutching our twisted knee in agony. There's a counter to this, though, in a new kick-checking move (down on the right stick) that lets you brush off an opponent's blow. And according to producer Wes Bunn, there's a very small but real chance that your opponent can break his shin on your leg if you pull off a successful kick check.
The grapple system has undergone some changes as well. You will no longer be able to spam the standing Muay Thai clinch now that the player on the defensive end can struggle out of it more easily. On the ground, there's an entirely new submission system that replaces the analog stick twirling that led to so many blisters in previous games. Now it's a sort of cat-and-mouse minigame where an octagon image pops up onscreen with red and blue lines on the perimeter of it. Basically, the player being submitted has to outrun the one doing the submitting, with each player represented by their red or blue line that they can move around the perimeter of the octagon with the analog stick. It sounds a little bizarre, but there is a logic to it: the size of your line is affected by various factors, such as how fatigued you are, whether you've rushed into a submission prematurely, and the general effectiveness of a certain hold. So if you've ground-and-pounded for a solid 20 seconds and your attacker immediately goes into a submission, his line will be substantially bigger than if he'd rushed into a hold, making it easier for him to chase you down in the minigame and thus cause a tapout.
If all of this sounds a little bit confusing or you just don't consider yourself a huge UFC fan, you'll be happy to know that UFC Undisputed 3 is aiming to chip away at the barrier to entry that existed in previous games. There's a new, purely optional alternate control scheme that takes the bevy of intricate quarter-circle analog stick motions used for transitions in the grapple game and replaces them with simple up-and-down motions on the sticks. Having played with this alternate control scheme, we can definitely say it makes the (often byzantine) grapple game far less intimidating and ultimately friendlier to newcomers--if you can use the word "friendly" to describe two dudes trying to punch each other senseless. There are also new in-match tutorials that produce text balloons relevant to your current actions, giving you a little heads-up about how a certain technique works and the best way to use it. The tutorial prompts also show up between rounds, giving you positive and negative feedback on your performance to let you better focus on your technique in the next round.
Those are a few options for newer players to make the game a bit more accessible. If the opposite approach is more your bag, you're in luck. There's a new match variant for simulation stamina usage, making things like high leg kicks and heavy strikes cost far more energy than they normally would. In our experience, this mode tends to make the match move a lot more slowly, with an added cost and consequence for each attack that adds a certain game-of-chess feel to the proceedings. There's also a new competition match variant that removes all randomized elements, such as flash knockouts, in order to make it a true test of skill. You can even go a step further and use this variant with an equalized stat modifier that both removes randomized elements and takes any fighter in the game and keeps his skills balanced at 80s across the board.
There are some visual changes to be found as well. While character models look more or less the same as they did in previous games, animations seem to be a bit smoother, especially in the way counters and dodged attacks look. There's also a new camera that trades in the broadcast camera perspective for a new ringside view. The camera is lower to the ground, a bit more zoomed in on the action, and makes the audience a bit darker and more shadowy in order to focus on the fighting itself. This is also the first UFC Undisputed game with pre-match entrances, which you'll be able to customize with music and outfits much like in THQ's WWE games.
All told, we're really liking what we've seen (and played) of UFC Undisputed 3. Those Pride matches make for a much different, more vicious experience than we've ever got out of an Undisputed game, while the various changes to the fighting system should make the game more smooth and authentic. The big question we're left with is what's being done with the career mode. This series has always had a very menu-heavy, often-tedious career mode that has never been able to fully capitalize on the excellent core fighting system. If this is the game that finally nails the career mode, then you're going to see a legion of ecstatic UFC Undisputed fans--us included. But we'll just have to wait and see. In the meantime, you can expect UFC Undisputed 3 to arrive early next year.
By
Shaun McInnis, Editor
Shaun McInnis has always dreamed of an a open-world driving RPG based on Jack Kerouac's On the Road. Outside of video games, he enjoys photography and learning impractical coffee brewing techniques.
69 comments
ok since it looks like they have entraces this time..put custom soundtracks on entrances pls do not leave that out.
They need to make sure the submission system and career mode are not **** before I even consider getting this one.
I can't wait to play this game! I'm glad that they're taking the extra time to get it right this time. I hope they eventually include an ultimate fighter reality show mode in the list of new features.
@sonofsmeagle Good luck with that man, i doubt we'll see him. Dana is probably still butt hurt about Fedor and M-1 being such a hassle to deal with. My guess is that M-1 will ask for too much money for Fedor to be in the game (shocker) or that DW won't even bother asking them. All in all it's not like it matters, their only competition on the MMA video game market is EA, and they don't have anywhere near the roster (though hopefully Bellator fighters will change that.)
I cant wait for the Pride mode, I HOPE TO GOD they make a Pride Openweight Grand Prix mode where you can choose who fights in them so i can relive the Mirko rampage of 2006 and Ko Wandy, But if they have a Pride mode one thing i will do 1st is play as Fedor against every single heavyweight
Here is what I want to see included in the game: - A mode where you can only standup with your opponent, essentially a kickboxing/muay thai mode. - A mode where you can only grapple/submit your opponent, essentially a jiu jitsu mode. - More realistic cuts, swelling, redness, bruising, and INJURIES - As a sidenote to this point, I would like to see an option to tap when you are being submitted. If I am caught in an arm or knee bar and I choose not to tap, I want to see gross looking broken bones. And if I choose to tap too late there could still be an injury received. And finally on this point, if I am about to win or have won by submission I would like the option to hold the submission for a little bit longer, maybe with the risk of being considered a dirty fighter which could change future dialouge for my character in career mode or something like that. I think there are a lot of improvements that could be made in this area that wouldnt require an inordinate amount of work. If anybody reads this and can put me in contact with game developers I have many more ideas so hit me up and perhaps we can craft a far superior game to anythin else you have ever seen.
It's about time PRIDE is represented in one of these games! As a long time PRIDE fan, it will be nice to revisit the glory days of fighting, and to have the option to play the game in my favorite era of the sport! I'm actually interested in this title!
@Rasputin2011 I prefer using UFC's right stick motions to make transitions than mashing a button to change positions or mash a different one to get the seperated from the opponent. I will say though that the muay thai clinch was ridiculously hard to get out of, and it was often that the opponent would just put you in the clinch again as soon as you escaped. Fighting Anderson Silva on the harder difficulties is a nightmare due to the muay thai clinch. Thankfully they've said they've fixed that. Let's hope so.
MMA EA SPORTS... it's a better... I have played a LOT of games, MMA and everthing around... the EA SPORTS has a good feel, the UFC it's robotic, almost to dificult to gain control... it's a GAME, so it's suposed to be FUN... i have UFC and MMA.... UFC it's more complet but EA it's better... simple like that.
the pride mode is a BIG MOVE for ufc fans and mma fans who miss that brand. kudos 4 ufc & thq for putting that in undisputed 3, i going to play that mode.
@SicklySunStorm Randy vs Machida? Sorry but that was never a good matchup. Randy is so old now no one expected him to win. He might have been legendary once but those days are long gone. Besides, the matchup was just weird even to look at. Was anyone ever calling to see Machida vs a 50 year old Randy? It seemed very out of place ... just like Mir vs Crocop. 129? That was the greatest offender. Like I said Machida vs Randy was just a strange fight. But GSP was the biggest offender. I never want to see that guy fight again. He even got booed by his own home crowd. Some other fights on the card were fun though. 128 was good but mainly for seeing Shogun get dismantled. The good fights are getting too far between now. They're actually running out of fighters to put up against the best guys so they started hyping guys like Shields who never had a chance against GSP to begin with, now they're hyping Diaz, who we know has no chance. There's very few fighters left to enjoy, then very few who are genuinly good and not just "hype good." The fact that Silva, Machida, Rampage, Evans, GSP, are still schooling young fighters in their prime really tells us what the standard of the next gen is going to be. It's not that there aren't goo fights left to be had, just that they're coming few and far between.
They need to axe that auto sub crap. No legitimate fighting game has anything like that period. They need to stop making these games easier. That's what EASY MODE is for. More complex games = more possibilities = more for my money. easy games = rent at best....
what we want is: -better graphics ( dont bring us the same old thing! Youve had 2 years, and gamespot says the character models are basically the same?) -Smoother gameplay! -Blood! More blood! -A thousand new animations..
This is good my favorite fighter Urijah Faber is in this Carlos Condit, and Thiago Alves. I'm excited for E3 this year cant wait. No this is not the only game I wanted to see this year this is just an added bonus.
@irishdude199210 Valid point about the stand up game in EA MMA but it was leaps and bounds abouve the UFC games in the ground & clinch game.. I love the UFC and really want a complete game so hopefully this one does the trick
in eu, online multiplayer is LAGGGY like hell. cant play at all. this is the biggest gripe with ufc 2010 for me. cause i rape my friends so terribly (and they're good cause they've been playing since they were kids like me) that i have no one to play against... and online lags so hard so... if they make smooth online matches, then i will instabuy this for the sweet undisputed fights
@irishdude199210 Yes Online is probably my biggest problem because of it's problems (which I already addressed). I thought the fighting in the first game was sort of clunky because it just did not seem real enough but it did improve a lot in the second game, The grappling aspect of the game is perfect. And as for Career mode, What I mean is that you really just start off as a UFC fighter in the first game and in the second it's no challenge to get to the UFC. I wanted something more realistic, An actual challenge to build up to get to the UFC then work on it. They sort of did that in 2010 but it wasnt all there, It was all training and nothing else to do between fights. The series is getting better but there is alot of room for improvement. The second game was really an overall improvement addressing minor issues and not the big ones, Hopefully in this game they truely fix the submission system (their biggest problem) as well as addressing some minor issues. As I said, The idea of adding a Pride style fight is awesome.
UFC rules They are improving with their every game which is waaay better than releasing a 'patch' game like 'soap oprah show'
This series has A LOT of improving to do if it wants to compete with EA Sports MMA. Seriously, once you get use to that game, its system is so much more balanced and competitive.
@dizzyrhino - are you serious? Both UFC 128 and 129 were epic... the Aldo VS Hominick fight I've already mentioned below was awe inspiring, and the way Lyoto Machida dropped the legendary Randy Couture was just unbelievable... a Karate Kid style crane kick no less causing a KO on the great Couture, no-one saw that coming (especially Randy!).
@thorughfire Your major issues seem to be with it's online features, something I never actually bothered using. Maybe the online features suck, but the rest of the game is fine (bar the submission system). I don't know how you think the fighting in UFC is clunky. Sure it's a little robotic, but it's alot faster than EA MMA. And much more exciting at that. The career mode needs improvement yes, but look at the Fight Night games. The career mode in those games has been virtually the same for 3-4 games and it sucks just as much as the UFC career mode does, yet no one is too bothered by that. EA MMA's career mode was better, but it was still far from great. And you do start at a lesser organisation in the UFC games (it has no commentary) but I forget what it's called.
The fact that PRIDE rules and fighters are in this jumps it up on the must-buy list. Excellent move to include it! In it's heyday PRIDE was a superior organization to the UFC in both fighters and rules.
The UFC have really gone down hill as of late. The fights are so bloody boring now. Everyone wants to play it safe.
@irishdude199210 I gave UFC Undisputed 2009 a 7 because while It was enjoyable for a few hours, It had quite a few problems. Online was really laggy, Fighting seemed clunky and not as fluid as it should be, Submission system was terrible, Career mode was horrible. It was overall just a bad experiance for it's first outing. I think it got such a high score because compared to the other UFC games it was great and there was nothing to compare it to because there hasnt been an MMA game in a long time. UFC Undisputed 2010 I gave a 7.5. It did improve the overall experiance but it wasnt great either. Online training camps were a huge flaw, You cant join one unless invited and you can only make your own so that was an epic fail. It would have been a ton better if it had a Lobby to search camps to join. Career mode was a slight improvement but again, When compared to EA Sports MMA it was down right terrible. It doesnt take you on the journey of going from a nobody to a legend, Itd have been better if they built it up like you start with either a small promotion first or you start on the prelim cards and work your way up while doing interviews and other such things to make your character face (good) or heel (evil). Fighting was a lot more fluid, The ground game was a huge improvement but the submission system was still there and striking sucked a lot more then it did in the last game. Undisputed 2010 was a game that's parts were better then the sum.
I'm guessing we won't be able to cause Hematoma's on our opponent's heads a-la that massive second head that Mark Hominick grew in his epic battle against Jose Aldo in UFC 129... can't wait to give this next UFC game a try
I am not interested in this either. Sounds like they may have made a few changes for the better though. UFC 2009 knocked me off my feet. Was an amazing game at the time. But UFC 2010 was terrible. The series reminds me of the Smackdown games; once you have played one there is no need to play the rest. I'll stick with UFC 2009 and EA Sports MMA and the Fight Night series.
Finally, i've been waiting for a new UFC game. I love the UFC series, I saw a huge improvement between 2009 and 2010. I know i'll see better graphics, more moves, new clothing in this one. Can't wait.
Been there and done it... I'll just play the first ufc since it probably be alot like this one....
Good, i missed the second one, it was too fast for a second release in my opinion...But i am waiting for this one!
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| Platform | GameSpot | Metacritic / User Score |
|---|---|---|
Game Info
- Release Date: Feb 14, 2012 (US)
- ESRB: TTitles rated T (Teen) have content that may be suitable for ages 13 and older.
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