At some point in their lives, most men dream of having a proper MMA fight. But few of us, Men's Fitness included, have the discipline to go through years of training, merciless 12-week fight camps and the soul-crushing weight cuts required to get ready for a bout. And that's before we even get onto the balls you need to step into the cage and throw down with another dude who might just knock you into next year.
Thanks to UFC Undisputed 3, you can experience what it's like to be a UFC fighter from the comfort of your own living room. We played the game at a recent UFC press event in London and were shocked just how much of a fighter's life the game incorporates. From training drills in real world camps, including Greg Jackson's and the Wolfslair MMA Academy here in the UK, to coming up through smaller fight promotions, such as the WFA, Undisputed 3 features everything a young up-and-coming fighter would go through.
In at the deep end
Since we didn't have time at the press event to play an entire career, we jumped straight in at the top level and got stuck into a middleweight bout between current champion Anderson 'The Spider' Silva and Britain's own Michael Bisping. We were playing as 'The Count' – that's Bisping's nickname for the uninitiated.
The title's graphics have to be seen to be believed. As well as possibly the best facial likenesses we've ever seen in a game, the stunning detail of the sweat and blemishes on the characters bodies make it feel as if you're in front of a TV bout. In fact, we lost the first couple of fights to Anderson Silva because we got distracted by the sweat glistening on his well-muscled back. The next couple we lost to the kind of front snap kick he knocked out Vitor Belfort with at UFC 126.
The game play is superb too – we particularly liked the new cat-and-mouse submission mini-games. When we did finally catch Silva and got him to the ground, an outline of an Octagon appeared on the screen and we had to chase a small dot representing Silva around it with our bigger one. If you can lock your colour over theirs for a certain period of time before your dot shrinks to nothing, your opponent's character will tap out or go to sleep.
Show some pride
Once we'd got bored of guillotining Silva, we had a go at the Pride mode, fighting as Mauricio 'Shogun' Rua and taking on Quinton 'Rampage' Jackson. The Pride Fighting Championships was a Japanese MMA promotion that for many years was bigger than the UFC, but it eventually folded due to financial problems.
Unlike the UFC, which makes use of a caged Octagon during fights, Pride matches took place in a roped ring similar to one used in a boxing match. Pride rules allowed moves that are illegal in the UFC such as kicks and knees to the head of downed opponents. In its Pride mode, Undisputed 3 lets you to get stuck into your opponents using these attacks, and we got a massive buzz out of soccer kicking the tar out of Rampage once we'd kneed him to the ground.
With more than 150 playable characters, the career mode, Pride mode and an exhibition setting that allows you to sit back and enjoy hyper-real bouts between fighters who are going to meet in real life in the near future (great fun if you want to try to predict what's going to happen at an upcoming UFC event), Undisputed 3 is as real as it gets – without you getting a beat down.
For more information about UFC Undisputed 3, go to ufcundisputed.com.
