UFC Undisputed 3 Review (X360)

• Publisher: THQ
• Developer: Yuke's
• ESRB Rating: “T" for Teen
• Genre: MMA Fighting
• Pros: Fantastic presentation; PRIDE; more approachable thanks to new controls; new submission system actually works; solid career mode; great roster
• Cons: Still a bit overwhelmingly complex for newbies

Pride FC

The biggest feature addition in UFC Undisputed 3 is definitely PRIDE. If you aren't aware, PRIDE was a Japanese Mixed Martial Arts promotion with a slightly different rule set from UFC, a square ring, and a focus on pro-wrestling style presentation and entrances (though the fights were real, of course). Everything that made Pride FC fun to watch back before it was purchased by the UFC in 2007 is present here in UFC 3. The awesome entrances, all of the rules differences, Japanese ring announcers, and even Bas Rutten doing commentary. Pride FC is basically a separate mode in UFC Undisputed 3 complete with its own presentation and everything, and it bought a big goofy grin to our faces seeing how faithfully it was re-created here. Between the normal UFC stuff, along with Pride, you are really getting two separate MMA games here for the price of one. And that is awesome.

Roster

The roster of fighters is pretty crazy good with both UFC and Pride well represented. Since most of Pride's big names ended up in UFC eventually, there are UFC and Pride versions of many fighters (just different looks, years passed in some cases so they look different). Not every big name is here, due to licensing garbage elsewhere, but almost every fighter that actually matters is present and accounted for.

Modes

The main single-player mode is the career, and it has been greatly improved over past UFC games. You start by either making your own character or using an existing fighter. It is sort of interesting to use a roster fighter since you can direct their career a little differently and turn a wrestler or jiu jitsu specialist into a boxer or however you want them to fight. You start the career as a low-tier promotion and work your way up to Pride and eventually the UFC. There are video packages and interviews with real fighters talking about all of the milestones you're passing - first fight, first win, first title, etc., and it really gives the career an epic important feel.

The biggest improvements in career comes in the pacing. The focus now is on actual fights and not on training and camps which were, frankly, kind of boring. Also nice is that you can skip training entirely by letting the CPU auto-train. You only get half of the stat improvement, but it lets you just focus on fun stuff (fights) rather than stat management. You still control what your character trains in, or what moves they learn, so you still have control over your progression even if you aren't directly doing it. It is a good system.

Other modes include exhibition, multiplayer, online play with tons of community features, Ultimate Fights mode where you re-create classic matchups (and can now play as both sides to try to copy history, or rewrite it), Tournament Mode where you can make oldschool UFC or Pride tournaments, an Event Mode where you make your own PPV, and an arcade-style Title Mode where you fight up the ranks to win a title.

The submission system has been completely reworked so now when you get into a submission situation, an octagon appears onscreen with two energy bars - you and your opponent. You have to more your energy bar over theirs, which causes it to drain, and when they run out of energy you win by submission. Escaping submissions works the same way, but you're just trying to avoid the opponent's energy bar for long enough that you break the hold. The system sounds kind of "gamey", I know, but it works quite well and makes it actually possible to do submissions this time around. Seriously, I don't think I ever submitted the A.I. in the last two UFC games, so it is a big improvement that subs are actually useable here.

The rest of the gameplay is mostly like the past games. The controls are still complex where you occasionally seemingly need to have three hands to actually do everything to perform certain moves, but the game does a better job of trying to teach you to play properly than past games. The complexity is necessary to realistically re-create real MMA, so dumbing everything down too much would kind of ruin the experience. We saw that with EA's MMA game a couple years ago - it was too simple to be fun for long. UFC Undisputed 3, on the other hand, has a ton of depth, plus accessibility, so that whether you are an MMA expert and want to play the "right" way, or a novice that just wants to mash buttons, the game is still a lot of fun either way. That balance makes it pretty easily the best MMA game yet. And the rules differences between Pride and UFC mean the two promotions play differently enough that there is a ton of content and varied gameplay here that will take weeks to fully absorb.

The audio is also quite nice with great sound effects during fights and it is neat to hear the crowd react to what you're doing. The UFC announce team of Mike Goldberg and Joe Rogan do a great job, as always, and the Pride team of Bas Rutten and Stephen Quadros do a good job as well.