The growing popularity of the Ultimate Fighting Championship and Mixed Martial Arts has driven droves of people to appreciate the sport. Unfortunately I’m still not one of those people, and UFC related media like the Ultimate Fighter and UFC Undisputed game series continue to slip under my notice. Or at least that was the case until last week, when representatives from THQ stopped by to show me UFC Undisputed 3 — the highly anticipated third sequel of their popular video game brand. I receive a quick crash course in UFC fundamentals as I sit down for a three fight slugfest with senior designer Wes Bunn while producer Neven Dravinski provides commentary.
Round 1: Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone (THQ) vs. Jim Miller (1UP)
The first thing I see after the new ring entrances during my demo is something Dravinski calls a, “heavy handed approach to in-game education.” A skippable tutorial acclimates me to the basic control scheme, and gives me a quick breakdown of how to takedown an opponent and fight for position on the ground. The developers realize that they needed to make a better attempt at teaching players how to play the game, and Bunn seems to be taking it pretty easy on me at this point.
