First impressions: EA Sports UFC demo

I love the UFC. I love the bloody fights in the cage, I love the fighters who leave it all on the line in the name of victory, I love the whole razzmatazz that comes with the big event as 20,000 fans fill an arena to see world title match-ups. So far no game has captured what the UFC means to me, although THQ's Undisputed series came close. This is EA's first attempt at a game using the UFC license; can they do a better job?

So far, it doesn't look like it.

One thing you expect from an EA game is slick presentation. We see it all the time in FIFA and Madden, superb player likenesses and animations that really give you a sense that you're controlling your favourite superstar. As far as EA Sports UFC goes, the fighters look decent enough. Jon Jones and Alexander Gustafsson are the two playable characters for the demo and they're definitely recognisable. But everything else seems a little bit lacklustre. The fighter introductions don't scream next-gen to me at all, they're barely a step up from Undisputed 3 which launched over two years ago on old hardware.

We start off in a tutorial which has 18 lessons, and believe me you're going to need them. Punching, kicking and blocking seems simple enough, then you move onto power strikes, takedowns and submissions. There seems to be a very wide range of different moves, including more extravagant ones like spinning back elbows, switch kicks and even a flying knee. The only part where I struggle is where you can tighten submission holds by pushing the left stick in a certain way. Figuring out the perfect time to tighten is very confusing and it took me more than a couple goes to get it right.

I do well in most of the lessons when I'm being prompted to press certain buttons at the correct time but putting it all together in a real fight will prove to be much harder.

Eventually I make it to the cage in front of the live audience and I'm in control of Jon Jones, the best fighter in the UFC right now. Unfortunately he doesn't start the fight by sitting on his knees like he does in real life - attempting to psyche out his opponent before a punch has been thrown - he stands in the orthodox position like I'm guessing most of the other fighters will.

Jones and Gustafsson start swinging straight away and immediately you can tell this is going to be a fast-paced game. There's no feeling out or getting to work on a strategy going on, it's all superman punches and axe kicks at 100 miles an hour. Unfortunately I've already forgotten some of the more complex controls and instead I'm just swinging for my opponent's head before he knocks me down, then a minute later I knock him down.

I worry EA Sports UFC will favour the players who just spam the punch and kick buttons over and over. There's a stamina meter in the corner of the screen, but it's pretty generous and you'll have to throw a hell of a lot of punches in a short space of time if you're going to gas out. There's also a damage indicator which shines red on a particular body part when it's taking a dangerous amount of punishment, and that can be useful if you want to target your opponent's weaknesses.

My biggest gripe is that fighters will perform the same move whatever the distance from their opponent is, unlike Undisputed where you could get in close to execute certain punches or kicks. This means fighters in close will still be going for huge roundhouse kicks when in real life it just wouldn't be practical to do so. The animations then end up looking strange and it breaks you out of the mind-set that you're in a proper UFC fight.

There are certainly things I like about EA Sports UFC so far, particularly the submission system. Submissions in MMA games have never hit that perfect spot, but this one comes as close as any. You have to push the right stick in one of four directions when trying to get someone to tap out, and your opponent tries to counter that by pushing their right stick in the same direction. It seems like a fair system for both the aggressor and the defender, which is the key thing. There also seems like a lot of potential for amazing knockouts, which can only be good.

I've only played around two hours of the demo and that's just two fighters, so there's still a long way to go before I figure out what this game is all about. Unfortunately it isn't grabbing me like Undisputed 3 once did, but maybe things will change once I see the career mode and online multiplayer.