UFC 2009 - Undisputed

[Rendakor]

This comes out in a few weeks, anyone else gonna pick it up? I played the demo on XBL, seemed like a decent kickboxing game. Couldn't get a handle on submissions of any kind, but I figure having an instruction book might help there (as well as not playing as Liddel).

I know we had an MMA thread in General a while ago, so I figure at least a few people here are into UFC.

[Velorath]

There's been some pretty positive buzz going around for this, so I've been thinking about picking it up.  Depends on the final reviews I guess.  I might just wait and get Fight Night Round 4 at the end of next month instead.

[Rendakor]

I'm looking forward to Fight Night as well, but only because Round 3 was quite good. I'm not really into boxing at all, so I don't know who anyone is, etc.

[Margalis]

I heard a lot of positive things about the demo but I hated it. It feels like a typical wrestling game engine, complete with muddy imprecise animations. Typically the striking in wrestling games is really bad and this felt no different to me.

[NiX]

That's because THQ has been using the same formula for all of them. I wish someone else would get the licenses for these games.

[HAMMER FRENZY]

UFC 209 is really good. I have been playing the hell out of the demo and am getting a really good handle on how the game works. It is by no means friendly and is very much a simulator. Very well done though. I can't wait to pick it up.

[Falconeer]

I am really loving UFC2009. I think I'll pick this up.

Now, doesn't really belong here but I take every chance to remember everyone what a beautiful fighting/boxing game Victorious Boxer 2 (PS2) was.

[Rendakor]

HAMMER, Falc, have you guys had any luck pulling off submissions? I can't find a list of commands to do on the ground. Between my friend and myself we've seen armbars, kimuras, and triangles, but only through violent button mashing.

[Falconeer]

No man, I am button mashing too. Furiously.

[Rendakor]

So is it just me, or is Liddel totally overpowered compared to Shogun? My friend and I played like, 10 games, he won once with Rua over my Chuck. When we swapped characters, he got me 4 times before I managed a KO with the flying knee.

[Margalis]

From what I understand Rua is more of a clinch / ground fighter, which takes a lot more investment to get returns in.

[HAMMER FRENZY]

Yeah, rua can't stand with Chuck. You will need to time your attacks and catch him with the left hook/right hook as counters. (true to life! HA!)His strikes are really loopy. That being said, remember that take downs can't be countered if they hit as counters. (major counters. I think I have seen them countered on minor counter before.) So if you can predict the attack go for a take down. Also you can upperbody catch counter into clench then go for a take down from there, or do a couple strike, hoost push(Thai Post) that fool out and hit the take down on counter when he tries to zone you out after the Thai post.

[WayAbvPar]

Downloaded the demo and played for a couple of hours. Will definitely pick it up when it comes out, if only just to build my own guy. From what I can tell, the best way to get submissions is to make sure the difference in your stamina and your opponent's is as far in your favor as possible, and then either hammer the buttons or rotate the R stick. It will be more effective against fighters who don't have such a high submission defense rating (as I am told Chuck Liddell does). The demo also inspired me to watch 5 hours of UFC Unleashed Sunday afternoon while I was shooting POS in EVE. I had forgotten how much I loathe Matt Hughes. God that guy is a cock.

[WayAbvPar]

Picked this up yesterday. Played for 5 hours or so. It has a serious 'one more fight' quality that seriously sucks time. I am abysmal on the ground, but I am speccing my career guy to at least be good at submission defense- I think 3 of my 5 career losses were by submission. Haven't played online yet, but early feedback sounds like Royce Gracie clones are winning most of the online stuff.

The menu/ui is fucking terrible. It literally blows through 5 separate dialog boxes every time it saves. And it saves A LOT. There is no way to turn the autosave feature off, so you get unlucky in a fight that you don't want to lose, your only recourse is turning off the console and restarting (Fight Night was like that too IIRC). The email feature takes 4 or 5 different actions to delete a goddamned email, and you get TONS of them.

On the good side, the commentary is very good (but will eventually get repetitive)- it matches the action really well. Even a replay of me getting submitted had commentary explaining how the guy did the move...pretty cool. The emails from Dana White have the exact right touche of douchey megalomaniac to them (I would be willing to bet that he wrote them or approved them). There are 85 different fighters, so you get to learn some of the lesser known guys. It should lead to an uptick ins Spike's ratings, since I am sure I am not the only casual fan who skips most of the smaller fights. Now that I know many of the guys involved, I am really curious to see them do their thing IRL.

I would give it 3.5 or 4/5. Fun and worth the investment if you are a UFC or fighting game fan.

[Rendakor]

I picked this up Monday night (midnight launch) and played the hell out of it. I agree with WayAbvPar on the menus and saving; if they made the save one window that just took 5x as long it would seem less annoying. For the emails, I don't bother deleting them. It only saves one UFC/UFN update email at any given time, so when you get a new one it just replaces the old; that alone cuts down on most of the spam.

In career mode, I'm currently 6-0-0, most wins by ground and pound. Wrestling seems rather OP (at least compared to striking), and I keep pumping my submission defense up so I don't get tapped. Once I learned the ground transitions a win is simply double leg, half guard, side control, mount, posture, pound pound pound.

The career autosaving only makes sense though, since you're not SUPPOSED to be undefeated. A career should have wins and losses, so being able to reload would just give everyone a perfect record when they finally got the top. A game like this shouldn't be excessively punitive for a loss, it's not a game over. Of course, I say that without having ever lost. If you lose stats or some similar bullshit I'd be powering off too.

The only multiplayer I've played was offline against my boss; going to try the online out once my career character has been grinded high enough to be competitive (and beat the shit out of Anderson Overrated Silva).

[Hoax]

The only multiplayer I've played was offline against my boss; going to try the online out once my career character has been grinded high enough to be competitive (and beat the shit out of Anderson Overrated Silva).

...   

[Rendakor]

What in that quote merited that reaction? I am very confused.

[penfold]

Anderson being "overrated"

[Morfiend]

And here I though it was the "grinding" part.

[chargerrich]

Interested in this title, really enjoy the UFC.

Two questions:

1. Is James "sandman" Irvin in there?

2. Can you create your own guy and if so how is the character generator?

[HAMMER FRENZY]

You can build a character outside of the Career and he will be just as strong as he would if you grinded him out. There is a attributes point limit that you ration out to the multiple skills/attributes stats. Based on how you spread them out the game will rank your character. (I think) The Career mode CAF's will also be limited by this attributes point cap. I made one CAF of me for vs. play and one for Career.

Also, I want to play with some of you. Live account is NapkinSchematic   

[NiX]

Anderson being "overrated"

If they're not too up on UFC and only saw his last two fights, you can only come to the conclusion that he's overrated.

[Hoax]

No you really can't.

I mean you can do what you want but it doesn't make you any less of a dumbass.  If you had only ever seen the Cote fight, then yeah you might have no idea if he's good or not.  If you saw the Leites fight and you don't realize just how that wasn't a fight because one guy was just so much better...  Well your just stupid.

[NiX]

No you really can't.

I mean you can do what you want but it doesn't make you any less of a dumbass.  If you had only ever seen the Cote fight, then yeah you might have no idea if he's good or not.  If you saw the Leites fight and you don't realize just how that wasn't a fight because one guy was just so much better...  Well your just stupid.

Um, no. UFC is an interesting beast. Unlike wrestling it does take some fundamental understanding of the sport too. Such things as octagon control and defense don't occur to the new comers or casual watchers. Based on the last two fights and a very basic understanding of the UFC, yeah, Silva looks overrated. I know he isn't, but I can definitely see where that idea came from.

[Rasix]

Got this for the PS3.  I'm having a lot of fun despite being absolutely terrible at the ground game.  Every loss (2) since losing the intro bout (I had no idea what I was doing), has involved me getting destroyed by ground fighters.  Evans and Rua both kept me effectively out of my stand up game.  It seems like some striking is a little under powered as some of the tougher fighters can seem to eat about 10 unblocked head kicks before it starts really affecting them.

Anyhow, this is still a very cool game, and I really haven't even mastered much of the countering/defense.  I'm always offense first, but I can see that playing a more careful game here would be successful.  Well worth the purchase, especially since I traded in two disappointments and got it for $20.

[stray]

Semi-interesting to me that this a Japanese developed game.

[edit] the guy s who gave us Rumble Roses in fact. lol

[Rendakor]

It's not like MMA is a foreign sport to Japan.

[stray]

I didn't say that. I'd be the first to tell that MMA is quite popular there.. I'm just talking about game design sensibilities.. just curious on how the presentation is.

edit - actually these guys made a WWE game too. hmm..

anyways, I'm gonna play Machida and knock out Rashad 

[NiX]

Finally got to play this today and I didn't have time to learn the entirety of the controls, but it was damned fun. Ground game is confusing. My friend has been playing it since it came out and he refused to tell me how to throw and get out of ground positions. Toyed with me each match and I knocked him out each time too. I even won with him as Rampage and me as Machida.

[stray]

How does Machida handle anyways? Technically, you should barely get hit playing Machida.. think that guy has never lost a round, let alone a fight. He's quick, and unorthodox being southpaw and all that, but he fights with his back and head bent out.. curious if that's a factor.

[Johny Cee]

How does Machida handle anyways? Technically, you should barely get hit playing Machida.. think that guy has never lost a round, let alone a fight. He's quick, and unorthodox being southpaw and all that, but he fights with his back and head bent out.. curious if that's a factor.

The last time Machida lost a round,  it was when he fought BJ Penn at a catchweight (BJ is a natural 155 lber).  That was also the last time Machida ate a power punch.

That says something about Machida,  and that also says something about BJ Penn.

Edit:

Bah, Machida might have won all three rounds.  That was the last fight where Machida was hit with a power punch, though.

[HAMMER FRENZY]

hahah there is NO southpaws in the game. All the SP characters are orthadox....silly...

[NiX]

How does Machida handle anyways? Technically, you should barely get hit playing Machida.. think that guy has never lost a round, let alone a fight. He's quick, and unorthodox being southpaw and all that, but he fights with his back and head bent out.. curious if that's a factor.

They didn't add in his trademark lean. There's a few things missing that only people really into UFC will notice, like the inability to lean or sidestep easily. You also can't block leg kicks by bringing up your leg or turning it, the most you can do is grab their foot when they kick. I will say that Machida's spinning elbow is devastating in the game.

[frankaustin]

Played a couple rounds of the demo, and it always went the same way.  I'd utterly dominate in the first round and lose by sudden, annihilating head-kick about twenty seconds into the next.  Didn't really sell me on picking up the full game.

There was a lot to like, though.  The presentation was spectacular, and I was surprised at how not annoying the commentary was.  Controls seemed to be complex to get into but simple enough to use, and that's really all you can ask for in a game like this.

[stray]

How does Machida handle anyways? Technically, you should barely get hit playing Machida.. think that guy has never lost a round, let alone a fight. He's quick, and unorthodox being southpaw and all that, but he fights with his back and head bent out.. curious if that's a factor.

The last time Machida lost a round,  it was when he fought BJ Penn at a catchweight (BJ is a natural 155 lber).  That was also the last time Machida ate a power punch.

That says something about Machida,  and that also says something about BJ Penn.

Edit:

Bah, Machida might have won all three rounds.  That was the last fight where Machida was hit with a power punch, though.

Well Penn is pretty awesome too. Hapa powah yo! Both of them

k, that probably didn't make sense ;)

Machida is the man though. I thought it was already cool that he humiliated my most hated fighter Tito, but the other night was an indication that the league needs to friggin change. It'll be interesting to see what new approaches come into the league to either answer to him, or to imitate him.. like fighters in other classes and such. Even though MMA is cool, for awhile it's either to not be very "mixed martial arts" at all and just train MT-BJJ - and pit two fighters with that same skillset over and over again... Or I'm just watching two meatheads brawl it out.

edit - Just to add, if the stars aligned right, Fedor would be his best challenger. Back in the day, weight class was a non-issue. Nor does Fedor even fight in UFC :\ I don' t think there's anyone else competing atm who can beat Machida though.