UFC Undisputed 2010 Review (PS3)

Naturally the roster has been beefed up, with now over one-hundred fighters to choose from. The gameplay's also been tweaked, with defensive sways now added to heighten the countering strategy during gameplay. It's the career mode, however, which has had the biggest tweaks made to it. This feels more RPG than ever, with post-match interviews, pundit appearances and cameos from the UFC's Dana White and Rochelle Leah.

UFC Undisputed 2010 features plenty of content to keep fans playing right through the year, with multiplayer options providing plenty of human competition.

In many ways UFC Undisputed 2010's depth is a double-edged sword. The game is super-super technical, and that makes it as close to the real-thing as humanely possible. The downside is that it can take hours and hours to learn the intricacies of the mechanics and feel comfortable with the controls. Of course the opposite is also true. With plenty to learn there's expendable depth for those who want to take advantage of it.

Punching feels great in UFC Undisputed 2010. More so than any other game we've played. It just feels satisfying when you make contact. The punches feel hard, they feel powerful. There's nothing really more satisfying in games right now than knocking an opponent to the floor and repeatedly smashing his face in while you cower over his helpless body. You feel tough. The visual feedback is also exciting - your opponents will bleed and bruise naturally with each punch and kick connected. This is all enhanced by a sublime graphics engine which really brings characters to life.

Creating events in UFC Undisputed 2010 brings the video game as close to the real thing as possible. You get pre-match quotes from the fighters, pundits, commentary, post-match interviews, and all the swipes and euphoria you'd expect from a UFC fight. You can basically set up your perfect Event Card and watch the computer duke it out - because it feels real. And that's something UFC fans will enjoy the hell out of. The problem is, as with any sports game, it's not long before the illusion's broken as spoken quotes keep popping up and animations keep looping. Still, this is class-leading for now.

If you're new to the UFC video games (or new to the sport as a whole), our advice is to brace yourself. It took us about an hour to get even the most basic grasp on the game's mechanics, and even then we didn't feel comfortable with the controls. Around the ten hour mark is when we started to get comfortable with the gameplay. It's intimidating. Perhaps that's testament to the game's depth, but with so much time spent in the tutorial mode, we kinda found ourselves wishing for more bells and whistles here.

When Dana White came out at the end of one of our fights to tell us that we were to have a shot at the light heavyweight title we were stunned, nervous and excited. The sensation that you are a real sports-star is ever apparent in UFC Undisputed 2010. With post-match interviews, ring-side pundit slots and appearances on magazine covers, UFC Undisputed 2010 really puts you in the action. The problem is it all gets a bit repetitive. When your fighter starts saying the same things in interviews, the illusion gets broken, and those opening couple of hours seem less amazing than they first did. Still, UFC gives you a connection with your fighter like no other sports game at the moment, and it deserves recognition for that.

UFC Undisputed 2010 has a full online component which we will detail in a future article.