The UFC Undisputed franchise returns! After taking a year off, hungry fans are eager to climb back into the Octagon for some truly epic ground and pound goodness. 2012′s installment sees an even larger roster of fighters with the inclusion of Pride, improved online play, new submission mechanics, and a bevy of other features sure to make any MMA fans mouth water.

Graphics:

Series developer Yuke’s went back and did a ton of new motion capture for UFC: Undisputed 3 making the fighters look better than ever. The fighters physiques look more like actual flesh and much less like they were carved from stone this time around, and fighting animations look much more fluid and realistic because of it. Hit detection has been improved as well as the physics engine which calculates your response when taking a punch. Basically whether you are on the giving or receiving end, getting punched in the chops has never looked better.

Unfortunately the graphical enhancements made inside the Octagon do not extend to the rest of the game. Stadiums, fighter entrances, and training sessions all feel like they could have used another coat of paint to bring them on par with the pretty found inside the ring. It’s a small gripe but it’s there and it’s noticeable.

Where the presentation of UFC: Undisputed 3 takes a misstep is in the menu system, which players will spend an ungodly amount of time in thanks to the unbearable amount of loading screens. We’ll get to those later though. Each menu screen feels like Yuke’s said to themselves “We need to cram as many options on to the screen as humanly possible, while at the same time making it ugly as sin!” Well mission accomplished fellas. I actually dreaded returning to my fighters menu screen after a match.

Gameplay:

I mentioned that the UFC: Undisputed series took last year off, well that was so Yuke’s could address issues and shortcomings that players had with the previous two installments. The fruits of their labor can be found in the new striking, clinching, transition, and most importantly submission mechanics. While I love the way combos are more smoothly strung together than ever before while in stand-up and positioning up on an opponent feels much smoother, the new submission system is possibly the most god awful thing I’ve ever experienced in a video game.

When a submission is initiated by pushing the right analog, an overlay graphic appears on the majority of the screen with two octagons. One for you, and one for your opponent. What happens next I can only describe as a round of duck duck goose, as to perform a successful submission the player must chase his opponents octagon around the screen and attempt to keep his octagon on top of it. Sounds stupid right? Well it is, not only that but it breaks the flow of the match, and is more than a little disorienting.

There is also a new ‘Sway’ mechanic which allows the player to bob and weave while looking for the perfect counter strike. It’s great in theory but I couldn’t get the silly thing to work for the life of me. Matter of fact I only saw the AI use the technique once or twice, and I was playing on advanced mode.

Speaking of the AI, it needs work. Playing on the default difficulty proves to be no challenge at all to veterans of the series like myself, with most fights ending in a first round knock-out. Ratcheting the game up to the advance difficulty level though uncovers some serious inconsistencies in the way the AI approaches a fight. Basically I found that it has two modes, the first being “I have no guard, and am going to fall down every time you tap me with a light jab!” or “You have stepped into the ring with god, prepare to die!” Ok so I’m exaggerating a little bit, but not that much. It felt like if I went on a 3-4 fight win streak then all of the sudden I would get stopped cold by scrubs like Michael Bisbane or Kendall Grove. This happened both in the career mode, and title mode. I will tell you now that there is nothing more infuriating than having a high submission defense and then getting submitted in the first round thanks to that stupid ass submission system.

I can not stress how much better the stand up game is in UFC: Undisputed 3. It’s more responsive, there are a wider variety of strikes to choose from which open up the ability to create new and interesting combos. Kicks and knees to the legs and body actually serve a purpose in initiating and defending against takedowns. Knock outs can come from any direction at anytime which keeps the player on his toes through every second of every round. It doesn’t matter how well you have performed up to the point where you get caught with an unlucky kick to the face. All of the sudden you are in trouble and scrambling. It’s this dynamic style of play that had me screaming at my screen, be it in exhilaration or absolute rage…it was all fantastic.

The ground game, both offense and defense, is smoother and more responsive as well with transitions to the position you actually want being easier to perform. No longer was I constantly finding myself in the homo-erotic north/south position after trying to pass my opponents half-guard into side mount as I did in previous years. Now I found myself planted firmly in side mount delivering crushing knees to my opponents head. There are few things in life as satisfying as scoring a KO in this manner. I still found clinching and takedowns to be a bit rough though. They work well when set-up properly with an abundance of leg kicks, but even then I would find myself being peppered with uppercuts out of nowhere or having my double-leg stuffed 10 times out of 10. This is probably another AI issue more than the actual mechanics, but it was still frustrating.

I sampled all the various game modes in UFC: Undisputed 3, and there are a lot of them. This game does not lack for content or new experiences for a gamer to discover. That’s even before entering the online arena. The majority of my time was spent in the career mode. Being able to create a fighter and move him up the ranks of the UFC is by far the coolest aspect of this game. The basic premise is that your fighter starts off in the WFA and works his way up to Pride and UFC events. All the while you will be building your fighters stats, scheduling new fights, signing sponsors, training with camps, and developing game plans between rounds. It all sounds well and good in theory, but as stated before the menus are not all that intuitive. Couple that with the fact that training exercises are complete garbage, with a few exceptions, and the outside of the ring action gets tedious quick. I can’t help but feel that this facet of the game could have been streamlined to produce a quicker, more engaging experience.

For those just looking to jump right in with their favorite UFC or Pride fighter, the game offers up an exhibition, tournament, championship, historic fights, and create an event modes. All are robust and offer up new challenges for players to overcome which in turn unlocks new items to be purchased in the shop. Players will also unlock various interviews, fight clips, and other videos. This is a nice touch even if the the videos look a little low resolution. Here is where the game just killed me though…

THIS GAME HAS A RIDICULOUS AMOUNT OF LOAD SCREENS THAT MADE ME WANT TO TEAR MY HAIR OUT!!! Load screens kill this game, every action I took in the menus was met by 1-3 load screens before getting to where you want to be. It was terrible and completely broke my rhythm. Coming off big wins I wanted to get right back in the Octagon as fast as possible! 15 load screens later and my enthusiasm had died down a bit.

Replayability:

UFC: Undisputed 3 comes packed with more than enough bang for your buck, whether you are an offline or online player. The ability to create 40 different fighters, with different weight classes, styles, etc… looks to provide hours upon hours of flying fists of destruction. If you get tired of that you can always invite a buddy over for beers and then trash talk him as you slap a Kimura on his Rampage Jackson using sissy ass.

Then of course there is the online play which THQ has built all new servers for. Much like in years passed, being proficient in this mode is going to require a lot of commitment as there is a hard core community of UFC fans just chomping at the bit to tear you a new one. They don’t work, they don’t sleep, all they do is knock mother fuckers out. So if you want to run with the big dogs, plan on spending a lot of time here.

It all adds up to one hell of a gaming experience that Yuke’s and THQ have put together. Now it’s time to answer that all important question though, is it worth the $60 price tag?…

Conclusion:

Hell yeah it is, and thank god because I haven’t been able to answer yes to that question in my last few reviews. If you can stand the abundance and length of the load screens, are into every nook and cranny of the MMA world, and love to beat down co-workers and friends alike, this is the game for you. If you are a casual MMA fan who just likes to log in for a bit and do a little damage, this is the game for you. If you know absolutely nothing about MMA, have never seen a fight, and think the sport is a barbaric testosterone fest, this game will change your mind!!!

UFC: Undisputed 3 is the cream of the crop in the UFC gaming franchise, and the best MMA game on the market today. It is absolutely worth your hard earned money and considering the financial hot water that THQ has been in lately, that’s a good thing. I look forward to submitting all of your asses come this Tuesday!