We recently got a chance to sit down for nearly a whole day and play through a final build of THQ’s next iteration in it’s highly popular Ultimate Fighting Championship video game franchise, titled UFC Undisputed 3. The development team decided they needed a bit longer than the usual year-to-year cycle and took some 18 months to tweak and add-to UFC Undisputed 2010. It seems as though this decision has paid off ten fold because what we played showed so much polish and forethought that it was hard to imagine this is just another sports title, thankfully it’s so much more. UFC Undisputed 3 not only includes everything you would expect from a UFC branded video game but it also throws in the much-anticipated Pride mode, as well as a massive roster of both UFC and Pride fighters (they are now folded together into the UFC, thanks to the recent purchase of Pride by Dana White and company). We played through a good bit of the career mode, which included training and tournaments/title fights, as well as a number of local multiplayer matches. There are a lot of things that kept fans from getting too excited about the last UFC game; all of that is in the past – UFC Undisputed 3 is the MMA video game that will conquer 2012.
First up is the career mode, which will look familiar to those who have spent any time with a UFC title before but below the surface there are plenty of changes for the better. You start out by either creating a custom character – including all the tweaks that we have come to expect from a creation system of this type – or you can pick your favorite UFC fighter and recreate their illustrious career as you see fit. Mike Golderberg is back to help you along your way, thankfully with Undisputed 3 the developers have forgone any in game cinematic and this time feature real videos taken from the UFC archives, as well as some never before seen interviews and behind the scenes footage. As you progress in your career different real-life fighters will get in front of the camera to give you tips, or discuss the importance of your first title fight, first loss, and so on. It did a great job of pulling us into the action, giving Undisputed 3 a sense of reality that previous MMA or WWE games never had. If you’re a fan of the UFC its also nice to see some unreleased footage from training centers or PPV fights from way back to just months ago.
Speaking of training we were able to see a big focus shift for this year, training camps. Throughout your UFC career you will be able to pick, and change between, some of the best real world MMA training camps. THQ even brought in one of the best trainers in the world (think the guy you see behind World Champion Jon Jones) to speak with us on the importance, and realism, that went into UFC Undisputed 3’s training system. Everything from the training mini-games to exactly how the training camps themselves are presented was given countless hours of thought and preparation. Using this newly improved system, players can take their custom fighter from zero to UFC Champion with a much simpler, and computer guided, system than was available in previous UFC Undisputed games. Time and time again we found ourselves going to our virtual coaches for advice, tips, and instructions on how to improve our fighting skills and abilities. THQ has also updated the in-game tips system to take place during fights, instead of having a standalone tutorial that most people skip anyway.
This featured preview concludes on the next page, please click Page 2 below to read more of our hands-on time with UFC Undisputed 3.
