UFC Undisputed Career Mode Thoughts - Dave Pearson's Blog

Dave Pearson's Blog

UFC Undisputed Career Mode Thoughts

Posted on July 26, 2010 at 08:01 PM.

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The UFC is one of the most entertaining sports in the entire world,
and when THQ announced that they would be developing a next-gen MMA
game, I did my best Tiger fist pump and started imagining just how
great a career mode could be. Last year's game (UFC Undisputed 2009)
definitely seemed rushed, but it was still enjoyable. The bugs were
very annoying, and I swear to you, if I heard Anthony "Rumble" Johnson
say one more time say "Oh, I'm crunk right now, real crunk!" in the
background, I was ready to throw my controller through my TV.

The newest version of THQ's game is loads better than the 2009 version
in terms of gameplay. The fights are more realistic, and while there
are still way too many flash KO's for me, it's been a fun few weeks
playing. Of course, me being me, my first venture was into the career
mode, where THQ had convinced me that they had fixed most of the bugs
that had plagued last year's version.

I feel that the light heavyweight division is the strongest in the UFC
as of now, so I went with that weight class for my first career. My
character's name was Adolfo "El Diablo" Alvarez, a vicious Muy Thai
striker from Guadalajara, Mexico, coming in at a crisp 6 feet, 5
inches. I won my first exhibition fight within three minutes, as I was
less than pleased to see that spamming punches to the head delivered
an easy knockout.

After only one fight, my first complaint with the mode was that I
could not even attempt a head kick. I am a Muy Thai striker, known for
their knees and kicks, and I apparently was unable to raise my foot
while I kicked. I find it very hard to believe that a Muy Thai
specialist who is fighting for a spot in the UFC would ever enter and
leave a bout without throwing a single high kick. Why do they not give
you a base of moves to work with as you start your career, like last
year? I understand that the advanced moves should take some training
to master, but the fact that I was limited to leg kicks and hooks with
my hands was pretty disappointing.

Anyways, Adolfo Alvarez turned pro after one fight, and got stuck in
the WFA. I understand that you are trying to grind through the lower
ranks, but this was just extremely boring to me. No announcers, the
fighters I faced were god awful, and it just seemed like a timekiller
to me. Anyways, after six fights and six easy knockouts (playing on
the second highest difficulty), I was finally asked to join the UFC. I
was stoked, as the presentation is absolutely fantastic and was
looking forward to starting my journey to the top. Now, I had pretty
much figured out the training, which in this year's version now
includes diminishing returns and declines in skill if they are not
trained, which I love. However, I do not think that a fighter would
ever enter a bout with 0 submission defense and 0 ground grappling
defense, but it's really impossible to even keep 10 points on
attributes, and really limits the way you can fight early in your
career. Regardless, I put most of my points into cardio, speed, clinch
strikes, clinch offense, and takedown defense. I was hoping to come in
and look for the Anderson Silva/Rich Franklin style knockout as my
main goal coming into a fight.

My second biggest complaint about the career mode is the absolutely
atrocious matchmaking. I am 6-0 coming into my first UFC fight, with
no wins over anyone in the top 30 in my division, and I get stuck
facing Jon Jones in my first bout. For those who do not know, Jon
Jones is one of the brightest, if not the brightest, young fighters on
the planet. I find it EXTREMELY difficult to believe that the UFC
would place one of its best future draws on the undercard of an
Ultimate Fight Night, which is one step away from the pay per view
format. Jon Jones is headlining the next UFC on Versus, and I get
stuck facing him in a prelim in a shoddy card?

Anyways, as I trained for my fight, I learned two high kicks and a
superman punch, as well as upping my cardio and clinch offense. The
gameplan feature is fantastic and I hope that they continue to improve
on this, something that I will get into another time. I went for the
clinch gameplan and headed into the octagon to face one of the most
dangerous strikers in the game.

I ended up winning the fight in the 2nd round via clinch knees to the
jaw, as I pushed Jones against the cage and defended numerous takedown
defenses and completely battered his face in until the KO. Great
fight, I had a ton of fun playing, and I thought that this was the
start of an excellent, entertaining, and engaging career mode.

I went on to get as ranked highly as 7th in my division, defeating
guys such as Shogun, Thiago Silva (who beat me once out of three bouts
in an **** trilogy of striking contests), Ryan Bader, and Forrest
Griffin.

As I got 5-6 years into the career, I was beginning to notice, like
many of you, that the UFC cards were unbelievably stacked. Anderson
Silva will never, ever, fail to be the main event of a UFC pay per
view, and he was the third fight on the card, with the headliner being
Dan Hardy versus Josh Koscheck for the welterweight title. Brock
Lesnar versus Cain Velasquez was the co-main event of the evening,
with my #7 ranked light heavyweight Adolfo Alvarez versus #3 ranked
light heavyweight Chuck Liddell being the first bout on the main card.
THQ needs to go back and research past cards and really revamp the way
the cards are selected, a fight like mine versus the Iceman would most
certainly be a co-main event on most any UFC card.

The fact that I was facing Chuck Liddell, who apparently was still on
top of his game at the ripe age of 46, is my biggest complaint in the
game. To my knowledge, there are no retirees in the game as you
progress a long, and no new fighters emerge from the ranks as new
contenders. The fact that THQ can not generate new rookie fighters is
absolutely inexcusable and will make the game almost unplayable as a
repeat once you win the title in each division. What's the point of
playing the game if you just keep fighting the same guys over and over
again?

The game has so much potential, and just implementing a few minor
changes could make it that much more enjoyable and one of the best
sports video game titles on the market.