Jerkfacefave’s Early UFC Impressions

Here are some of my early thoughts on UFC 2009 Undisputed as I walk through some of my experiences in the first day. More to come soon along with the videos and impressions from Pastapadre.

The install to the hard drive was one of the longest I have seen so far, about 12-13 minutes. Still worth the wait though to do that.

I went into the classic fights mode first. I figured I was going to like this mode, but the more I thought about it I realized that it is just filler. I think after playing them once you would never go back to that mode. The catch is that there are unlockables here to get and you have to finish the fights the same way that they happened in real life, pretty annoying, especially the fight between Griffin and Bonner. I just backed away for three rounds. It got old real quick.

The commentary seemed like it was going to get repetitive in the demo but it changes quite a bit based on who you are fighting with and against at the time.

When you are at the player select screen in a ranked match you can see what your opponents tendencies are such as “he is an aggressive striker” or “he looks for the KO”.

The first ranked match I played was against a guy that was 5-0 with 5 KO’ and he murdered me with Anderson Silva (the highest rated player in the game). The connection I would call “good” but there was a clear difference between on and offline. I won my next match, but the connection was pretty poor, I think there is going to be a few issues from match to match.

There is an interesting medal system that goes with the online you get “fans” and points based on what you do online. I have not been able to skip the introductions to the fights so far, takes too long.

My third fight was great, the connection was fantastic, I would not say perfect though. I was knocked out in the third round but this was the first guy that did not fight like a berserker, it was back and forth. I had him mounted at one point, but he was able to counter me into an arm bar attempt. This one felt like more of a chess match.

I am now 1-2, I don’t know if I am just lucky, but the last three people that I have played have not quit. The first guy had no reason to, but I destroyed the second guy, and the third I almost pounded out. Did they fix that issue with quitters already? I want to check out the other modes but I am having too much fun with this right now. Well so much for that, I cant seem to get a match now.

Checked out the online leader boards, there are already guys that have upwards of 250 matches on line, is that even chronologically possible?

Checking out the records mode. There is a feature in there that shows every strike that you have thrown online or offline and a percentage success rate. What you have done in each position is also shown, its very detailed and looks to be a great way to analyze your play tendencies, and what works and does not work for you on and offline.

I am now playing offline, I turned on the stamina bar, might be a good idea for those learning the game. It shows you what missed take down attempts and swinging for the fences all the time does to your stamina.

Played three exhibition matches, bored, want to get back online.

OK good, it works again, connection is great in this fight, I am already very sick of the introductions. Won by KO, 2-2, good fight, he looked to submit me a lot. So far I think the game favors striking quite a bit. Very fun so far, I am very pleased to this point.

George St. Pierre and Anderson Silva are picked way too much. You can pretty much assume your opponent is going to choose one of those two.

Played a bunch more online games up to 22 of them now and since earlier they have all been great connections. Really happy about that.

Will be will starting my offline career soon and taking on pastapadre online and recording those for the UFC 98 preview.