UFC 2009 Undisputed Preview

A strong ground game is essential

While UFC isn't gory, it does make you cringe. It's not just because the graphics are hugely impressive either. It's because you know that the game is based on a real sport, with real punches, real kicks and real broken bones. When you see a punch land in the game, it's hard not to feel it as if the fighter crawled out of the TV like that scary Japanese girl from The Ring and punched you himself. THQ confirmed to us that it is submitting the game to the BBFC for rating, which suggests it'll get an 18 - a warranted age in our opinion. It's actually the first licensed sports game ever to earn a mature rating in the States.

"In a lot of the other licensed sports franchises a lot of the developers are limited as to what they can do in those games because the leagues don't want them to showcase too much of a violent aspect," explains Tim. "They don't want to show some of the rougher foul play that goes on, especially with American Football. You can't show really big hits. You won't see guys getting injured. This is two guys going at it and kicking each other's ass."

Fans of the UFC will be delighted by this. They don't want a dumbed down video game of their favourite sport. They want the real thing, and from what we've seen it looks like they're going to get it.

Looks like he's won. Will you?

They're also going to get a create a fighter mode, online play, a single-player career and story mode to play around with. As for future downloadable content, Tim says it'll probably come in the form of new fighters who burst onto the UFC after the game's release.

So far so brutally good. UFC 2009 looks like a game that could have the kind of quality combat system to put current 'next-gen' boxing games in the shade. For us though, our standards are higher. Tim says the team sees it competing with beat-em-ups like Tekken, a game we love here at VideoGamer.com HQ. We're sceptical, of course (that's our job). But we'd be delighted to be proved wrong. We'll be keeping a bloody eye fixed on this one.

UFC 2009 Undisputed is due out for Xbox 360 and PS3 in spring 2009.