Press Trip Diary

Booze, UFC fighters and a wet patch.

In the middle of January THQ took me over to Dublin to see upcoming next-gen brawler UFC Undisputed. As well as getting some quality hands on time with the game, the gathered press got to see a UFC event live at the O2 Arena. This is the story of my trip: booze, UFC fighters and a wet patch on my trousers included.

9.24am Jesus Christ my head hurts. When the hell am I?

9.25am Ah, I remember now: I'm in Dublin to cover Undisputed, the new UFC game from THQ and Yuke's. A coach is picking us up in roughly half an hour; we're going to the O2 Arena to check out the game, and then we've got front-row seats for tonight's fight. Ace!

9.26am I appear to be quite hungover, but I'm still doing better than on my previous visit to Ireland. Last time I ended up with alcohol poisoning...

9.55am Due to a lack of time, I was forced to choose between taking a shower and having breakfast. I opted for the former, but the hotel buffet is looking mighty tempting right about now. Is there time for a lighting raid?

10.02am I board the coach, slightly dazed from the impact of the world's fastest breakfast. A piece of scalding hot sausage appears to be burning a hole in my right lung.

10.12am Okay, I'm beginning to wake up a bit now. From what I can remember, the main fight at tonight's event is between a bloke called Rich Franklin, and someone called Dan Henderson. Both men have been middleweight champions within various Mixed Martial Arts organisations. I don't know much about UFC or MMA, but the consensus among my more learned colleagues is that the match will be close and that Franklin will win.

10.38am Our coach arrives at the O2 Dublin. In a groggy stupor, I manage to spill water all over my leg. I now look like I've had "a little accident". A good start to the event...

10.58am Thankfully my leg has dried out by the time we are finally hurried into the venue, up a glass elevator and into a large hospitality lounge. At one end of the room is a bar, and nearby is the familiar sight of a dozen-odd flatscreen TVs hooked up to Xboxes. At the other end of the room is a large screen, in front of which are around forty cushion-stool things with goodie bags on them. The uniform rows of black baseball caps looks like some kind of bizarre war memorial.

11.04am I gratefully accept a cup of coffee from a friendly Irish woman behind the bar. "Hangover?" she enquires.

11.28am I mingle with the other journalists. At a rough guess, there are around 40 of us: there's our small group of Brits, quite a few Irish writers, and the usual assortment of Euro-journalists. Lots of people are discussing tonight's event: Franklin is the crowd favourite, but I've also heard that the best fight may be come earlier in the evening: a grudge match between Mark Coleman and Mauricio "Shogun" Rua.

11.30am We are called to the War Memorial - it's time to take a look at Undisputed. I'm quite excited: I've not seen a huge amount of the game, but what I have seen looked interesting. This is supposed to be quite a big title for THQ, so my expectations are fairly high.

11.32am Nice goodie bag! In addition to the baseball cap, there's a decent T-shirt too.

11.34am Well, Undisputed certainly looks pretty tasty: large fighters, a slick frame rate and lots of brutal-looking injuries, inflicted in real-time. According to Nevin Dravinski, the product manager giving the presentation, each character model is made up of roughly 30,000 polygons. I'm too hungover to count, so I'll take his word for it.

11.40am It looks like there's a lot to learn here. In addition to the bits where both fighters are standing up and belting each other, there are loads of floor-based clinches and holds. There's also something called The Transition System, a set of grappling controls which involve moving the right stick in quarter circle motions. The direction of movement relates to which part of the screen your fighter occupies, and where they're moving to. I don't fully understand, but perhaps all will become clear later.

11.47am A large percentage of the room is very excited - Michael "The Count" Bisping has shown up. He's a UFC fighter from Lancashire, apparently - and he wants to challenge Mr Dravinski.

11.55am Bisping emerges victorious! Well done that man. The presentation is now over, so everyone heads for the consoles. But minutes later we are called back to the screen...

12.15pm ... because a very muscular bald man has arrived on the scene. It's Dana White, owner of the UFC! And he wants to challenge Bisping!

12- 12.30pm In a mighty display of gaming prowess, Dana makes short work of Bisping. "The Count" isn't too happy about this and demands a rematch, only to lose a second time. It seems that the owner of UFC is quite a solid gamer! Or perhaps the game is rigged; it's his franchise, after all!

12.31pm With the second fight over, I make a dash for one of the consoles. For my first match I choose Franklin and play against Henderson. I lose within the first 90 seconds of the opening round. Ouch. I hope this evening's fight is less one-sided!

12.45pm I only find time for three more embarrassing defeats before the UK press pack is hurried upstairs to an interview area. We are joined by the French group, and then by White and Bisping.

12.47pm Dana White really is enormous - he absolutely towers over the rather nervous-looking Frenchies next to him. He grins. "How'd ya like the ass-whooping I gave Bisping?" The Count shrugs. "I got my arse kicked... fair enough!" he admits.

12.48pm Michael reveals that he used to run Street Fighter II tournaments on his SNES when he was at school, "...like a sad bastard." Apparently his favourite character was Ryu - and he pronounces it correctly too: "Ryoo", rather than "Rye-yoo". One of the French hacks asks if the virtual Michael Bisping is better than the real-world Michael Bisping. "I fookin' hope not!" he exclaims.

12.49-13.04ish Michael and Dana both seem like pretty decent guys. Then again, I wouldn't say anything if they didn't - either one could easily rip off my arms and beat me to death with the wet end. To his credit, Dana really seems as if he wants this game to be a decent representation of UFC - and he's more than happy to acknowledge the myriad of flaws that dogged the last game.