UFC Undisputed 2009 Exclusive Early Look (CBS)

[BSanders]

CBS has posted their exclusive early look at UFC Undisputed 2009.

Quote:

"On the surface it's a fact that's almost unfathomable. Sports video games are a billion dollar industry, driven heavily by young men who love Madden, NBA Live and the like. Few sports are more successful at reaching that young adult male demographic than the Ultimate Fighting Championship. Yet it has been almost five years since a UFC video game was last released. Well, the wait is almost over, guys. On May 19, video game developer THQ will release the first UFC video game since the MMA boom. It's a potential cash cow for all involved if the game clicks with consumers. So what can fans expect? I recently had the opportunity to try out a near-completed version of the game at THQ Studios and discuss with the developers the various aspects of the game."

[ThreeKing]

Can't wait for this game.

[Parasight]

I like how you fight on a real card with other fighters. Kinda like a progressive/always different career path.

[NYG_Meth]

Must have now. I'm interested to see how detailed the create-a-fighter mode is.

[allBthere]

This was a great article for me personally. I asked for the Calendar thing, and it's exactly what we're getting. I always though fighting games needed that micromanaging factor - instead of JUST playing minigames. And they got that, and probably have some minigames, but also sparring to improve some skills. This matched with what imo makes the whole thing worth it - the balacing act of peaking for a fight and making sure you are resting enough without slouching either. It makes so much sense to have some time of time-management, or practical choices as to how to distribute your training.

At first the 10 hour carrer, 7 years until retirement had me a little skeptical - but my thinking is that they did this to have us engage in a realistic number of fights. After all, Look at Chuck Liddell - he's got like 32 figths? something like that - most guys when they retire will not have records like 45-8 if you know what I mean and I think their career mode, while cutting some short, will mitigate that issue.

At this point there is virtually nothing I don't know about the game aside from a couple suprises (legend such as couture?)
so anything from here on out is a bit redundant and slightly torturous.

DEMO NOW - GAME NOW PLEASE

[slip3rman]

In the beginning of his article, Martin seemed to describe in detail the fight introduction, but didn't mention fighter walk-ins, so I wonder if that's part of the game.

A ten hour career mode seems rather short, so I guess for me that leads to hopes the online experience does not lag and that this game plays (or can play) sim with no cheesing.

[allBthere]

Quote: Originally Posted by slip3rman

In the beginning of his article, Martin seemed to describe in detail the fight introduction, but didn't mention fighter walk-ins, so I wonder if that's part of the game. A ten hour career mode seems rather short, so I guess for me that leads to hopes the online experience does not lag and that this game plays (or can play) sim with no cheesing.

confirmed that there are zero walk-ins. The fighters are introduced and that's it They didn't want to spend the time adding the different uniforms and all that and music etc...I totally undertand why a lot of people love that, it's not my thing, but yeah, sorry it's not in the game.

About the 10 hours - I'm not sure how they came to that - it's not like that would include me sitting there contemplating when to rest and how to train etc. I'm assuming you'll have at the very least 25 fights in your career - so I think the replay value will be very substantial. It's the AI that will determine how many times you'll WANT to go through a career.

[DTX3]

Quote: Originally Posted by allBthere

About the 10 hours - I'm not sure how they came to that - it's not like that would include me sitting there contemplating when to rest and how to train etc. I'm assuming you'll have at the very least 25 fights in your career - so I think the replay value will be very substantial. It's the AI that will determine how many times you'll WANT to go through a career.

That's not good.

[MC Fatigue]

Aye - it was confirmed quite some time ago that fighters start in the cage.

10 hours seems good to me. Training shouldn't take up much time in the game; as the focus should be the fighting... And even if all your fights go to a decisions, that's 4 fights in an hour, which is 40 fights - which is a hell of a lot. And from the sound of the game, not many fights are going the distance.

Even if you get the championship and have 5 round fights that go the distance you can defend the title around 7 times in 4 hours of play. That is again if the fights go all the way, which they won't.

So really - even taking out the time it'll take to train (however, they do that), 10 hours is a hell of a lot for a single career.

Then once he's done, you can move on to a totally different fighter - or try again and see how it turns out that time.

[allBthere]

Quote: Originally Posted by Timmay

Aye - it was confirmed quite some time ago that fighters start in the cage. 10 hours seems good to me. Training shouldn't take up much time in the game; as the focus should be the fighting... And even if all your fights go to a decisions, that's 4 fights in an hour, which is 40 fights - which is a hell of a lot. And from the sound of the game, not many fights are going the distance. Even if you get the championship and have 5 round fights that go the distance you can defend the title around 7 times in 4 hours of play. That is again if the fights go all the way, which they won't. So really - even taking out the time it'll take to train (however, they do that), 10 hours is a hell of a lot for a single career. Then once he's done, you can move on to a totally different fighter - or try again and see how it turns out that time.

just to piggyback on your post a little bit. The round time for the demo's I've seen was about 2:38 seconds of real time for 5min game time (accellerated clock). I'm not sure if there are any options to make the rounds real time, but the eb-and-flow of the fight I saw it looked pretty balanced. So in that setting the fights will be numerous and there will be time for training/micromanaging too.

I've never seen a number tacked on to a career mode for a fighting/boxing game before, it's a bit strange - and I'm sure the number will vary wildly for all of us. I think back at past games and if I had to guess most were probably under 10 hours for the career. The fight night series was, most of the K-1 games were half that or less for sure. The dreamcast UFC was probably 1-2 hours. So anyone concerned about that number I really wouldn't worry about it.

I was thinking the 7 year thing would tick way more people off - but again, I think it's a standard to keep people from having records of 105-11-2. I thought for a while how it might be interesting to have a fighter that doesn't fight often getting a similar number of fights in a longer time span - but the problem with that is many of the 80 fighters would be in their 50's (and possibly 60s) if you dragged out the career too long.