Preview

Nevin Dravinski Provides An Inside Look At UFC Undisputed 2009

July 03, 2008

THQ set up shop in a $25,000-a-night Fantasy Suite at The Palms Casino in Las Vegas to debut their first offering in the five-year exclusive video game licensing deal with UFC. The new PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 game, UFC Undisputed 2009, which ships in spring 2009, was shown to a packed house of video game, MMA and mainstream sports reporters. On hand for the festivities was UFC president Dana White, light heavyweight champion Quinton Rampage Jackson and his opponent in this weekend’s fight in Las Vegas, challenger Forrest Griffin.

“I’m not a big video game player,” said White. “I’m old school. I played games like Pac-Man. But we’re really excited about this game because everyone knows the first one really sucked. That was a deal that we were locked into when we bought the company. With THQ, we’re building the best fighting game ever created. We want our fans to enjoy this game and forget that the first one ever existed.”

Nevin Dravinski, THQ’s product manager for the UFC franchise (yes, fans, there will be new games every year and there’s the potential for additional platforms down the line), outlined the new game’s features in a presentation that included in-game footage.

“We have Rampage and Forrest looking over our backs making sure this game is done right,” said Dravinski, as Jackson and Griffin stood to the side of the stage. “The UFC brand is powerful. As soon as we announced that we were doing this game we had developers who had worked on games like Fight Night, Tony Hawk and Spider-Man come join our team.”

That Los Angeles team is working with Japanese developer Yuke’s, which currently makes the WWE games and previously created THQ’s short-lived Pride Fighting Championship game. Dravinski said there will be 80 fighters across all five weight classes in the first game, including Anderson Silva, Chuck Liddell, BJ Penn and more.

THQ has made 3D scans of each fighter to create 30,000-polygon avatars of each man and bring a photorealistic representation into the virtual Octagon. The Mature-rated game will also include dynamic bruising, cuts, and swelling. Blood and sweat will spray freely with each blow to the face. As a gamer takes his fighter through a match, he’ll become more worn out and visibly damaged. In addition to the expansive roster of fighters, THQ has also included everything from the Octagon girls to the refs like Mario Yamasaki and even the UFC’s most recognizable cut man, Stitch.

Calling the shots in this game are UFC commentators Joe Rogan and Mike Goldberg. Rather than bringing them into the studio to fake their play-by-play, THQ has gone through hundreds of real fights and grabbed audio clips from them. By piecing these clips together dynamically, the game will offer a blow-by-blow commentary on each fight that’s based on what the player is doing in the ring for contextually accurate play-by-play.

“One of the major goals of the team is constant control,” said Dravinski. “No matter what angle you’re at or what position you’re in, you’ll always have full control of your fighter. The move sets will be contextually based, so that when you’re on the ground your options are completely different from when you’re standing away from your opponent or going toe-to-toe with him.”

Half of the combat in the UFC game will come from the clinch and grapple position. There are defensive maneuvers for each position, as well, which adds a lot of strategy to the game. There’s a wide array of moves a player can perform. Dravinski added that blocking and counter-punching are key tactics.

“You can’t go into this game button-mashing because you’ll lose,” said Dravinski. “You have to strategize in the Octagon and think about each fight.”

Two developers from Yuke’s were on hand to demonstrate the game. Each took control of Jackson and Griffin as the real fighters stood behind them coaching. In the second round, after much yelling, Jackson finally grabbed the controller out of the hands of his player and conveniently knocked out the virtual Griffin as the crowd erupted in cheers.

One of the most impressive things about this demo was that there were no issues of clipping in this game. When a fighter punches or kicks another fighter, his arms and legs will not go through their opponent’s body (which is the case in many fighting games, including THQ’s WWE games). Instead, the blow will deform the body, whether it’s a punch to the face or a body blow. This makes the game look and feel like a real fight. The fact that there are no on-screen icons or health bars also brings the broadcast presentation to life.

THQ’s gearing up for a major new brand with UFC and this game already looks impressive with almost a year of development still to go. That’s good news for UFC fans who purchased those old Crave games. In the words of Dana White himself, everyone knows those old games sucked. We’ll see what the UFC and THQ have in store for us when the game drops this spring.