Yet another good post over over at The UFC Undisputed community site. This one focuses on the revamped striking game that will be in this year’s game, and answers some very important questions that we have all had since last year.
We’ve done a great deal to revamp striking. Last year, many of the reactions that could be generated in the Octagon (like receiving a body kick/punch/ elbow) were tied to pre-scripted animations. This meant that if you were tagged by certain strikes from your opponent, you’d lose control of your fighter for a very brief bit as you recovered your footing or stopped wincing from a body blow.
This time around, we’ve made the stand up much more true to life. Now the reactions generated by dealing and receiving blows and strikes rely greatly on our physics engine. Tech speak translation: the game is faster, more fluid, and more intense, with the player maintaining a greater amount of control over his fighter due to fewer preset animated reactions to fists/shins/elbows meeting someone’s chin/face/obliques. We’ll bring you all a much more detailed post on this topic in the weeks to come, as it has some important standup implications that we want to go in-depth on.
I remember a specific moment in which I realized that as good as 2009 was, it needed work. After watching 3rd String loyal fan and friend Brandon Steinberger and I make a match between Josh Koscheck and Jon Fitch look like an elaborate dance, two of my non-MMA fan friends wanted to play. They picked up the controllers, ran to the center of the cage, and threw elbows at one another from clinch range. The problem was that once one hit, the other person was frozen in an animation, so he couldn’t do anything to block. It was horrifying.
It’s good to hear that this has been fixed. Physics appears to be a big focus this year, which should make for a much more realistic game.
We’ve brought a new layer of striking defense to Undisputed this year by way sways and counters. Why take a haymaker to the face from Wanderlei Silva when you can duck it, right? Mastering the sway in 2010 is going to be a very important key to you competitive Undisputed gamers. There’s more than one way to sway out of the way of strikes, but we’re going to let you discover which sway is right for the range of strikes that will be headed your way.
Also, be sure to keep an eye out for Sway Counters. On the dev team, we refer to a perfectly executed sway counter as “the magic moment”. Again, we’re going to let you find out why we call it “the magic moment”, but it might have something to do with it looking awesome, being a sure sign of elite skills, and being able to do some horrible things to the guy on the receiving end of the counter.
Here is a dirty little secret. When last year’s game came out, I was only about two or three months into being truly obsessed with MMA. Now, I know so much more than I did then. One of the things I’ve learned is that blocking in MMA is not a very functional form of defense due to light gloves. Head movement is what separates good MMA boxers from great ones. Now that this will be represented, it will create a whole new way to counteract all those stupid people online who try to run the center of the cage and overwhelm you with strikes in the first ten seconds of the fight. Duck, Counter Hook, Give me my check.
I’ve always imagined myself as somewhat of a feminist. I beleive that women have a place in MMA, the same way that they have a place in any other sport. However, I’ll be perfectly honest, I can’t watch women’s basketball. I can’t watch softball. Women’s MMA, I can watch, and I like it almost as much as the men. That should say something.
So, when I come across something like this, I make sure to bring it to the masses. This is Michelle “The Karate Hottie” Waterson. She is 7-3 in her MMA career. She weighs in at 105 lbs, so for those of you who think it’s important that she is good looking, she is. As a matter of fact, check this out.
Now, pull your tongue off the floor and focus. Michelle pulls off a truly spectacular move here, and although the ref is blocking it a bit, Bas Rutten, MMA godfather, goes nuts on Inside MMA.
A chick that looks like that and can pull off a flying armbar? Sold.
While it’s a really cool video, and B.J.’s narration definitely gets you seriously pumped up, I’m a little bit upset that we didn’t get a little bit more gameplay. There are a few things that I noticed:
In the first bit of gameplay, B.J. lands a really nasty looking takedown. You can tell the animations have improved from last year, where every double leg looked the same.
The second gameplay bit shows B.J. trainsitioning to rubber guard, and this also appears to be reanimated. It also could be him setting up for a triangle as well.
The third gameplay shot shows B.J. throwing bombs from back mount. Correct me If I’m wrong, but I don’t think that was an option last year, as any thing you had the opponent back, you rolled him over to attempt a rear naked choke.
We get to see some of B.J.’s signature style next with the arm trap against Matt Hughes. It looks awesome. Enough said. I can you tell you right now that Jason’s CAF will have that ability.
Next up, we see B.J. in his UFC 107 Walkout Shirt, wearing the belt in game. Was the belt redesigned? I’m thinking maybe. All I know, is that it looks shiny and It makes me want it around my waist. The shirt looks exactly like it’s real life counterpart.
The Kenny Florian section shows some B.J. pressing Kenny up against the cage, and generally kicking his ass all over the octagon. Just reminds me what a big letdown Kenny’s gameplan in that fight was.
The rest of the video shows off the redesigned clinch, but is hard to tell the difference from two brief seconds of gameplay. It also B.J. slipping a punch which looks slick.
Not the massive reveal that I hoped it would be, but I’m definitely pumped for May 25th even more now.
Love Nintendo? Love Kimbo Slice? Well do I have news for you!
This shirt is similar to the one that TapouT put out for Jens Pulver for WEC 47. For whatever reason, people seem to find these 8-bit shirts nostalgic. Come to think of it, I suddenly want to KO Glass Joe…
The back has the 8-bit font saying “All Day” which is Kimbo’s nickname. I know a ton of people who are going to be in front of their TV for Kimbo’s next fight, and a bunch will be wearing this shirt.
Each week, THQ has decided to answer some questions that the public has about UFC 2010: Undisputed. Since most game sites aren’t exactly versed in Mixed Martial Arts, We’re here to breakdown what the answers mean to us fans.
A quick note before we get started this week. If you are amongst the people leaving questions (which you should do), then please think about what you are writing. Far, Far too many people are focusing on the wrong things. I’ve seen some pretty rediculous questions on the thread, including beating on already unconscious opponents, and having UFC 1 style matches with no rules. Let’s think people.
Now, on to the questions!
XPlicit asks, “When you notice your opponent is rocked can you rush them as hard as you can and throw with all your might wasting every last bit of energy just to finish that person.”
You will get a bonus after you rock an opponent. We implemented the new “Adrenaline Rush” system into fights which should make things pretty interesting. You will not be conferred a movement speed bonus, but your fighter will have his energy replenished. This means you can execute the full array of moves without worrying about getting gassed yourself. We wanted to give the player that feeling of mastery and dominance that comes with rocking an opponent and following through on it in the real Octagon — from playing with it and testing it, it brings a ton of excitement to Undisputed 2010.
Interesting development. One of the complaints that was common last year is that every rocked situation ended the same the way. The winner would just stand over the helpless loser throwing bombs until the fight was stopped. The “Adrenaline Rush” would seem to indicate that the stamina boost will be necessary to try and finish fights, which means there will be someway to recover from being rocked.
Fornez1 Asks “How will escaping submissions work with the new system? will you always wind up in an advantages position or will sometimes you escape to standing and sometimes escape to side mount(for example)”
Last year, when you failed a submission, you’d almost always end up in a tough situation — usually on your back or with a player in control. We wanted to move away from this system and towards more of an organic, and realistic submission escape system. There are a number of positions that you can escape into that are beneficial, neutral, and even disadvantageous depending upon what has been happening during the fight. In keeping it real as it gets, escapes will never result in only side control or a full guard.
Another complaint from last year addressed. Fighters never really escape submissions and wind up in dominant positions. Last year, so many subs would be reversed into side mount that it often was worth it try for the submissions. This should also take away some of the predictably from a game that was stiff last year.
SleepyWeasel asks “In the new Career mode, does your fighter age at all? Or does he stay the same age throughout the entire career?”
Your fighter, and all other fighters will age. Aging occurs in two ways. As your fighter becomes more experienced at certain skills and moves after training, it’ll become easier and easier to better maintain your proficiency in that field. For example, once you get so good at wrestling, you don’t have to train as extensively to keep up your skill as a wrestler. On the other hand, we’ve implemented a decay system that’s a function of your age. Once your fighter gets up there in the years, you’ll find that you need to focus on maintaining your core stats through your weekly training routine a bit more to stay fresh in the Octagon. Along your career mode playthrough, you’ll even see the greats of the UFC retiring.
Yes. Thank goodness. Last year’s career mode was underutilized in many different ways. One of the main ones was that once you became champion, you fought the same people over and over again. As fun as it is beating down B.J. Penn, I wanted some new blood for my fighter to face. This year, it seems that the divisions will be thinned out by retiring fighters and re-stocked with new talent. One big step for a better career mode.
Kurowski God asks “Are there different “rocked” stages, like you hit with a head kick, maybe he gets more rocked then a good right hook.”
In this year’s game, we shared that you can be rocked from any position and by almost every move. While these moves, and by extension the rocked states that they’ll be causing, will look different depending upon what you do (head kick, uppercut), being rocked will not have varying degrees of ‘rockiness’ or grogginess. What’s important is how the player who rocked the other executes his next few moves. If you have your combos down and have excellent timing, you’ll be able to quickly level some devastating moves on your groggy opponent — you might even knock him out. These ‘follow up’ combos are going to be tough to execute, as any other button inputs after the rocked animation will derail the combo. But the skilled player who uses caution and foresight when he knows his opponent is struggling will get an awesome payoff.
This seems to relate to the first question of the day. It seems that some skill will be needed this year to finish a rocked opponent. It’s no longer enough to just land the big punch and pound out every opponent. This should lead to longer fights and more decisions.
Check back Tomorrow afternoon for the full B.J. Penn Trailer!
With Dominick Cruz winning the Bantamweight title, I beleive that the 135 pound division in the WEC has officially entered the transitional period that the light heavyweight division did when Forrest Griffin defeated Rampage Jackson. There are a few guys who are capable of holding the belt, and I’m not sure that any of them can hold it.
However, if there was a gun to my head, I would say that Joseph Benavidez would be the guy to do it.
Let’s take a look at the two fights from last Saturday that contained the four best fighters in the division.
When Dominick Cruz won his belt, he did so by TKO because of Injury. It wasn’t an injury that Cruz cause by doing an immense about of damage in the cage. Hell, it wasn’t even a freak injury like Patrick Cote suffered against Anderson Silva. It was a pre-existing injury that snuck up on Brian Bowles and bit him in the proverbial ass. He broke his hand knocking out Miguel Torres, and took seven months to heal up. Then, he throws and lands one punch on Cruz and breaks it again. So, are we really going to pretend that Cruz’s victory isn’t somewhat tainted? Yes, he was winning the first two rounds, but he was doing so with a jumpy, twitchy style that just screamed “Punch me in face!” Bowles continued to rush Cruz, and just seemed a second late at all times. If Bowles had connected, you might not be reading this right now.
Now, look at Joseph Benavidez’s fight against Miguel Torres. Look at the way that he snuffed out almost all offense from a guy who was at one time considered the best fighters on the planet. He continually moved forward, landed his offense and put Torres is tough positions. Most importantly, he finished the fight. He pushed Torres up against the cage, pounded him, and opened up a cut that I’m pretty sure that he used a samurai sword to create. Once the cut was open and Torres was off-kilter, Benavidez finished the job with a guillotine. Done. Fight over, all doubts alleviated.
Can you say that about Cruz?
Yes, Cruz does have a victory over Benavidez. However, as everyone always says, fighters change from fight to fight. I beleive that Benavidez is a better fighter than he was WEC 42, and with him training at Team Alpha Male with WEC godfather Urijah Faber, There is no doubt that he is. As for Cruz, he showed us jab-leg kick-escape over and over again. The best thing he did was gameplan for a fighter who wasn’t as athletic as he was.
This is a prediction and like all predictions has a chance of going terribly awry. However, if you told me that Cruz and Benavidez’s rematch was tomorrow, I’d take Benavidez every single time.
March 19, 2010, at 3:35 pm
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