UFC Undisputed 3 vs. UFC 2010 at E3 2011: THQ fixed my two biggest issues on Xbox 360, PS3

Written by Hollander Cooper  on June 25, 2011

E3 2011 Preview: The UFC Undisputed 3 release date is in 2012, meaning there will be no UFC Undisputed 2011. With these fixes, it'll be worth the wait.

Tweet

Comments

I really, really enjoyed UFC Undisputed 2010. It's a fantastic game, and showed a marked improvement over THQ's first attempt at the Ultimate Fighting Championship series the year before. Even so, after dozens of hours spent bashing in faces, I had two major complaints: there were too many flash K.O.s, and the submission technique was god awful. After seeing UFC Undisputed 3 for Xbox 360 and PS3 in action at E3 2011, I'm happy to report that both issues haven't just been addressed vs UFC 2010, but it appears they've been resolved entirely, well ahead of the game's January 2012 release date.

Don't get me wrong: my issue with flash knockouts isn't that they're too frequent. In fact, I was extremely happy when one of the developers started off by saying that УUFC is still about knocking your friends the fuck out.Ф Sure, matches in professional UFC frequently go the distance, but I really don't want the game to be that way. Watching two men grapple on the ground for three rounds gets boring fast, and usually, when it's up to the judges, it's the result of at least 1-1/2 rounds of the fighters throwing tired punches and half-hearted takedown attempts.



My issue is that when knockouts happen in the game, the fighters are completely knocked out. Lights out--game over man, game over. These things barely ever happen in actual UFC, but nearly every match in Undisputed 2010 ended with a fighter's eyes rolling into the back of his head as he took a faceplant. In Undisputed 3, Yukes expanded the number of times the fighter needs to be finished off--even if it's just a cosmetic change, it's one that genuinely enhances the presentation and realism. Fighters will more frequently be allowed to dive onto the injured body of an opponent and finish the job, which should make for much more realistic finishes.

But that's just a pet peeve; the other issue is one that just about anyone to ever pop open a softball-sized blister on their palm can attest to. УThe shineФ takes all of the skill out of submissions, and usually means the player who had more experience with Mario Party back in the day wins. Getting an opponent to tap out (or resisting it) meant spinning the analog stick around in circles, which, beyond being absolutely boring, is just sort of stupid.



Now there's a more complicated mechanic that better factors in the player's stats and current status. Each fighter is assigned a bar on a 2D octagon, with a length depending on their fighter's condition. By moving their bars around the octagon, temptest-style, the submitter needs to cover the victim's bar up, but both are rapidly shrinking in size. Is it the best way to handle submissions? I honestly don't know. Is it better than the shine? Banging nails through my skull would be, so I think it's safe to assume this is a step in the right direction.