Dare to step into the cage?

When it comes to MMA games they are only a handful of games that come to

mind. The one that is on the tip of everyone's tongue is UFC Undisputed.

This is the third installment of the MMA Fighting simulator, and by far the

best....for multiple reasons. Once again THQ has delivered on excellent

graphics and realism. Everything from the character models down to the cuts

and bruises look as if you're watching the PPV from home. You can see the

sweat and blood fly as you cut your opponent open from a spinning back fist

or well placed elbow.

By far the biggest improvement that has been made has to be the new

submission system. Instead of the rage inducing button mashing and circling

of the joysticks with no idea of how sunk the choke in or got out of it,

there is a new simpler system. When you start a submission a outline of a

white octagon appears with a red bar on the inside and a blue bar on the

outside. Depending on which corner you're fighting out of (Red or Blue)

will dictate which one you are on the screen. Each bar is different size,

if you just got dazed and knocked down your bar will be considerably

smaller than your opponents. For the sake of argument let's say you're

fighting out of the Blue corner. If you are being submitted you simply try

to keep the Red bar from overlapping yours until the bars run out by

rotating your right stick. So there is no more "How in the ^%#& did I not

get out of that?" moments.

Also this year you can test your martial arts skills in the PRIDE arena.

Now I know EA Sports MMA had something similar to the no holds barred

league, but PRIDE fighting is legendary. The signature face stomps and head

soccer kicks, which is the first thing you think of when you think of PRIDE

are amazing and have great animations to boot. There is nothing better than

dominating your friends and finishing the fight off with multiple

heel-to-face stomps until the referee decides he's had enough. With the

addition of PRIDE comes a list of the greats who have graced the PRIDE

arena. Don Frye, Dan Severn, Bob Sapp, Kevin Randleman and my favorite Mark

Coleman are just a few of the greats you can play with. I myself have put

somewhere around 10-12 hours in this demo since it dropped almost a week

ago. I'm a fan of the sport and the game, and this one seems to rise above

the rest.