Game Details

• Title: UFC Undisputed 2010
• Format:PS3/X360
• Players: 1/2 (Local) 16 (PSN/XBL)
• Genre: MMA SIM
• Price: £39.99 (RRP)
• Previewer: Stuart Burnside

Being a big UFC fan myself I have been eagerly awaiting the arrival of Yuke's 2009 title (Undisputed 2009 surprisingly enough) with baited breath. As patience is not my strongest quality, I couldn't wait for the official launch of the demo on XBL so instead, I signed up to the UFC forum and managed to get a pre release download code. After a fair old wait whilst the 1.5GB demo downloaded, I was presented with a much slicker menu screen featuring hulking mutant of a man, Brock Lesnar in the background. By now I was really hoping that he was going to be one of the demo's playable characters.

Sadly though, Dana 'Scrooge' White decided to cut the demo's roster to just four fighters. To be fair it's still not a bad roster, featuring four of the current leading fighters from the Light Heavyweight division: 'Sugar' Rashad Evans, 'Rampage' Jackson, Mauricio 'Shogun' Rua and Lyoto Machida. Whilst generally resembling their real life counterparts, the feel of characters can be a little hit and miss. Rashad can only really be described as the 'special' one amongst them, with hideously twisted features and bulging eyes. I have a feeling that at some sort of facial mapping session he may have annoyed someone with one of his yo mumma jokes and has ultimately paid the price. The demo also features two of the ever popular and hugely attractive Octogon girls (Arianni Celeste and Chandella Powerll) and all I can say is 'Oh Dear.' Both look like a rushed afterthought based on a totally generic template, with almost entirely identical, androgenous features. Trust me I know exactly how these girls should look and last time I checked, neither of them resembled Lily Savage.

Flicking through the locked fighters there does seem to be a great selection of your favourites there. Also I believe that there are unlockable and downloadable fighters to further increase the numbers. Fans of The Ultimate Fighter will be able to get fighters from last season on some pre-order deals. I feel that if you are going to do a game based on real fighters you have a responsibility to get the detail and look right, so I am sorry Yuke's but it could be back to the drawing board for 2011!

Once the fighters have been chosen the game drops into all the standard presentation of a UFC fight night. The same graphics boards and menus display key facts about the fighters, whilst the typical brash music plays over the top. The Octagon and ambient features such as the crowd behind are also presented to a high standard with good animation from the Judges and watching fans etc, even responding as the fight happens especially when combos connect or big moves are pulled off.

One feature which did impress was the quality of the commentary that is supplied as ever by Joe Rogan and Mike Goldberg. This flows almost naturally as the fight happens and is nowhere near as repetitive as some sports titles. There is certainly enough variety here to ensure that even if you're not a huge fan of the commentators, they rarely become an actual hindrance to the game. In actual fact, I found the commentary to add to the immersion and experience significantly.

The controls and fight mechanics do seem to have been changed from Undisputed 2009. A surprise move by THX especially when fans of the older game will not be wanting to have to learn the controls all over again. Some of the nice features like mounting seem to have changed. Not sure that this change of direction has added anything to the game play either unfortunately.

Personally, I couldn't resist matching up Rampage Jackson and Rashad Evans for my first fight and overall I was very impressed with the way the action ebbs and flows and one does get that sense of the punch or kick connecting. But there is still room for improvement to sharpen this up. Some knock out blows seem to happen even though on the slow mo replay nothing connected, or otherwise heavy looking blows like a head kick or haymaker can have next to no impact on a fresh opponent.

From what I could tell from the demo there seems to be no real difference in the fight styles of the fighters which surprised me. Maybe this is just because i was playing the demo but I hope that this isn't the case in the final game.

With never being a Street Fighter fan this might be the beat em up for me. I liked the first game and hope that this is going to be every bit as good.

This is due for release on May 25th