New Features and Modes for the next UFC

The third edition of the UFC Undisputed video game series hits stores in January. UFC Undisputed 3 will offer new options, new fighters, new features and most importantly Pride Fighting Championships!
The third edition of the UFC Undisputed video game series hits stores in January. UFC Undisputed 3 will offer new options, new fighters, new features and most importantly Pride Fighting Championships! THQ are back at it again. THQ will release its next UFC Undisputed video game this coming January. That makes almost a two year break between the last video game, UFC Undisputed 2010. After such a successful debut with the first Undisputed game, Undisputed 2010 was a sales disappointment. THQ has a big task on their hands if they plan to match the success of the first edition with the 2012 UFC video game.
One of the biggest additions to UFC Undisputed 3 will be Pride Fighting Championship fights. The game will offer a Pride FC mode ripe with a Pride-like atmosphere of Pride FC rules, Pride FC outdoor arenas, big entrances, and commentary from the legendary Pride American commentary team of Stephen Quadros and Bas Rutten. Now that is something that can take this game to another level!
The rules of Pride FC were a lot more relaxed or what some may call “dirtier.” These will likely make for much more brutal fights than you will see under the UFC rules. An example of this will be the player allowed to throw knees at a downed opponent, which is sure to Michael Bisping happy. Another exciting aspect to the Pride Fighting Championship mode is that the game will include retro Pride characters. For example, players can fight with a Rampage Jackson or Wanderlei Silva that look more similar to their Pride days as opposed to their current look in the UFC. Players can fight with anyone in the game in Pride, but it will be cool to see a younger Wanderlei back in the ring. Bring back the Pride ring announcer and I will pre-order today!
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The game will boast more than 150 playable characters which is a boost of about 50 more than UFC Undisputed 2010. The game will also feature the new bantamweight and featherweight UFC classes. There is nothing official yet as to whether the Strikeforce guys will be included in the game. I would expect Randy Couture to make his UFC Undisputed debut now that the EA MMA franchise is done.
UFC Undisputed 3 also has made improvements to the fighting system. The kicking game is improved and is reportedly more effective in this game than previous versions. Leg kicks will have much more impact in this version than in any other edition of the game. Leg kicks can lead to TKO victories. To counter the leg kick, the new game offers a check although the developers say that there is a small chance that a player can break his shin delivering the check.
Grappling is also improved. Thank God, the analog spin submission counter is over! Although the game’s new submission defense doesn’t sound too promising either. The game will now feature a graphics-based submission system. Gamespot who saw the first version of the game at E3 described it like this.
“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.”
The game will also feature an alternate control scheme. According to THQ, the original control scheme will remain in the game. However, an alternate control scheme which makes the game more playable out of the box will be included for the first time in UFC Undisputed similar to Fight Night.
There are still two very big questions left unanswered in early reports of the game, the first being the career mode. It is long, it is tedious, and it is way too menu heavy in past editions. THQ has not revealed plans one way or the other for the career mode. That could be a deal breaker for a lot of frustrated Undisputed players who continue to gripe about the mode.
And oh yeah, there is that online mode that has frustrated just about anyone who has tried to play UFC Undisputed online. One of the biggest complaints about the last edition was the number of glitches in online playing. It appeared that THQ rushed the game out without fixing any online issues. I played online and I experienced constant lagging. I haven’t read anything about the online mode in early reports which makes me skeptical that it will be fixed. It is almost unthinkable that THQ would release the product for a third time without fixing the issues but they did it twice.
There are a lot of things to get excited about, but at the end of the day I found UFC Undisputed 2010 to be a huge disappointment. I loved the first version and ran out to buy 2010 on the day it was released. I don’t think I have played it more than five times. I found the game boring for the most part and wound up playing the first version more than the last one. A big disappointment was not being able to upload my past CAF fighters to the new game. But most importantly, I just found the flow of the game to be fairly boring after I played it a few times. The overall play needs a huge improvement. The game is slated for a January 2012 release.