What new ideas the game brings to the table and how well old ideas are presented.
How good a game looks, taking into account any flaws such as bad collision or pop-up.
Does the game’s music and sound effects get you involved or do they make you resolve to always play with the volume down?
Basically, the controller to human interface. The less you think aout the hunk of plastic in your hands, the beter the playability.
Flat out, just how fun the game is to play. The most important factor in rating a game.
UFC athletes spend months – even years – on special diets, working out, and practicing their martial arts; they train their bodies until their whole routine flows like a well-oiled machine. Anyone interested in dominating the Octagon in THQ's new UFC 2009 Undisputed will need a similar prizefighting spirit if they want to master the complexities of the combat system.
Like most good wrestling titles, UFC has a full-featured career mode that will have you training and sparring to climb the championship ranks. The game's AI is pretty easy to exploit early on, but this mode is a good way to learn Undisputed's complicated fundamentals. Retired career fighters can be taken online in a series of exhibition matches, but if you want the real deal, you can step into the skin of masters like Georges St-Pierre or Forrest Griffin in the Classic Fights mode – a collection of scenarios that let you reenact some of the UFC's more historic rumbles.
The game's wealth of combos and grapples are made even more impressive by Undisputed's nearly flawless collision detection and animation. These brawlers move convincingly like the real thing. It doesn't hurt that this is one of the best looking wrestling titles to date; I never thought I'd be drooling over a bunch of half-naked men jumping on top of each other, but THQ has proven me wrong.
The meat of the game is its deep – though not easily mastered – grappling ground combat. After you take your opponents to the mat, you'll be in a constant battle for the best position to hook them in a submission hold. The mechanics for this portion of the game feel a little awkward at first, but you'll eventually get the hang of how to deliver the pain. Once you start to go up against more skilled opponents, the ground combat becomes a strategic battle of blocks, reversals, and escapes.
Given that the standing combat and the ground game play out differently, this is kind of like two fighting games in one. You'll have to master them both if you want to be the ultimate fighter. If THQ's history with the WWE is any indication, Undisputed is likely the first entry in what will be a yearly franchise. Thankfully, the series has started off with a solid foundation.
Undisputed is certainly a good start if THQ is hoping to kick up a yearly UFC gaming franchise. The character models look fantastic, clipping is almost a non-issue, and the fighting system offers some serious depth. This is by no means a pick-up-and-play fighter, though. Your created character will take plenty of lumps in the early career with the perfect storm of wimpy stats and a tough learning curve. But once you gain some traction, the thrill of victory snowballs and you feel like all of the training is paying off. I wish there were more modes like Classic Fights that show real fighter personalities. As it is, it's difficult to differentiate generic challengers from some of the lesser-known names in the sport.