OS Fact or Fiction: UFC vs. Fight Night Edition

[RaychelSnr]

This week's Operation Sports Fact or Fiction takes a look at several issues in the sports gaming business today. Will UFC Undisputed be able to compete with fight night? How good will NCAA Footbal 10 be exactly? Chase Becotte and Bryan Estrella have the answers to these questions and more on this week's Fact or Fiction!

Read More - OS Fact or Fiction: UFC vs. Fight Night Edition

[acarrero]

Fight Night should be the better game. First, it has better athletes than Undisputed. You just can't compare a game with athletes like Ali, Tyson, and Frazier, Pacquiao, Cotto to one with Spider Silva, and whoever else is good in MMA. Obviously I'm not a big MMA fan, but lets face it, it's not the big leagues of fighting - the real money and the really good athletes are in boxing. The tradition also counts for something.

That being said, MVP 06: NCAA Baseball was a better baseball game than any MLB game released that year despite inferior athletes being featured, so Undisputed could be the better video game. I just think with the amount of time and money EA has spent on Fight Night, plus all the intangibles that boxing has over a new sport like MMA, it's expected that Fight Night will be the bigger, better game. But I must admit I'm intrigued by the MMA demo. I might just download it. Even people who don't like MMA are raving about it, so this is certainly a good question you bring up. It's possible MMA lends itself better to video games than boxing, but that's hard to believe considering the rules of each sport and how MMA features both wrestling and boxing.

[Stumbleweed]

Re: OS Fact or Fiction: UFC vs. Fight Night Edition

Heh, you made a LOT of MMA fans very angry with that post... I expect a barrage shortly.

[kennytomson]

there are not enough active boxers in FNR4 to make the career mode interesting. it's like playing the NFL 2k9 career mode with the classic players. i for one would rather all current boxers, even lesser name ones, instead of ali and tyson.

[SHO]

acarrero, you are incredibly ignorant about mixed martial arts. It is not worth the time to completely dismantle your post.

I'll simply leave with this note - for being such "inferior" athletes, I find it hilarious that Freddy Roach and other popular boxing trainers love working with them and even try to persuade them to become professional boxers.

[Ziza9Noles94]

The first post is bordering on the ridiculous as far as it's ignorance of the various forms of martial arts present in the "new " sport of MMA aside from just boxing and wrestling. So I won't even address that any further. I think the UFC game will hold it's own for several reasons. 1) It looks to be a fun game to play from what little the demo has shown us. 2) The controls seem responsive for the most part and the come back for more factor should be pretty high. 3) As THE game representing the fastest rising sport (not new), it will surely attract MMA fans and UFC fans, BJJ, Muay Thai, wrestling, boxing, kickboxing, etc. fans looking for a solid fighting game. FNR also looks to be a solid title and has series pedigree and name recognition on it's side. But both games have world class athletes in them. Some better than others, but I won't get into who's better than who right now. Bottom line, I think the UFC game will sell quite well and be a good solid challenge for FNR4.

[fpac]

Re: OS Fact or Fiction: UFC vs. Fight Night Edition

Maybe it's just me, but I don't understand why so many people are so ******* obsessed with comparing the 2 games.

[afro_dogg20]

Looking foward to getting Fight Night and UFC.....both should be good games.

[DTX3]

Re: OS Fact or Fiction: UFC vs. Fight Night Edition

Fight Night should be the better game. First, it has better athletes than Undisputed. You just can't compare a game with athletes like Ali, Tyson, and Frazier, Pacquiao, Cotto to one with Spider Silva, and whoever else is good in MMA. Obviously I'm not a big MMA fan, but lets face it, it's not the big leagues of fighting - the real money and the really good athletes are in boxing. The tradition also counts for something.

That being said, MVP 06: NCAA Baseball was a better baseball game than any MLB game released that year despite inferior athletes being featured, so Undisputed could be the better video game. I just think with the amount of time and money EA has spent on Fight Night, plus all the intangibles that boxing has over a new sport like MMA, it's expected that Fight Night will be the bigger, better game. But I must admit I'm intrigued by the MMA demo. I might just download it. Even people who don't like MMA are raving about it, so this is certainly a good question you bring up. It's possible MMA lends itself better to video games than boxing, but that's hard to believe considering the rules of each sport and how MMA features both wrestling and boxing.

I find it hilarious that someone who isn't even an MMA fan could come up with such a ignorant post. I'll leave it at that.

[jusmegamer]

2K is still light-years ahead of EA when it comes to basketball games. I agree that College Hoops 2K was a crushing blow for me. I also agree that 2K botched the 2K Team theme and everything else that had to do with online. They came out of the gate and removed the cheesy 2K Cam for online play because they were going to focus on sim play in the online communiites, but they didn't have the guts to stand up to the majority of online players, which are cheesy-plug pulling quitters. They dont punish these quitters appropriately. So, the online ranked games or 2K Team theme is a joke. 2K fails in every way possible online, but they are still lightyears ahead of EA when it comes to basketball games. EA has still not got the lighting correct.

[jusmegamer]

By the way, EA hardly ever improves on there titles, that's why 2K took the industry by storm and forced them to use their best asset, pure hard cash to buy exclusive licenses which has hurt us as gamers. Nonetheless; as long as NCAA Football 10 is decent I will be buying because its the only College Football game on the market and it has a decent online following. I will give EA props for punish cheaters and quitters a lot better than 2K.

[Gotmadskillzson]

Re: OS Fact or Fiction: UFC vs. Fight Night Edition

Boxing has been on a decline for a decade now. And EA has been making boxing games for about 10 years or more now. It takes more then just legends to make a game great. I mean seriously I have been playing EA boxing games for years and I am at the point now that I am tired of playing as people who don't even fight anymore.

UFC on the other hand, for THQ 1st MMA game, they have knocked it of the park with 82 fighters that are STILL FIGHTING. They all might not be in the UFC currently anymore, but they are ACTIVE. And the commentary is top notch. Makes you feel like your watching a PPV.

NCAA 10 will sell simplely because they are the ONLY college football game out there. Same reason why Madden sells, they the only game in town. Give EA competition and they will fall back like they always do.

To be honest, I think it is a sad reality of your so called greatness for EA, when you still have thousands of people who still play ESPN NFL 2K5 on their Xbox 360 or PS3 with updated rosters then play Madden 09.

[ChaseB]

Since I'm not a fan of boxing or UFC, the thing that throws me off is why does it even matter in this sense? What does having "better athletes" have to do with the quality of the game?

[Gotmadskillzson]

Re: OS Fact or Fiction: UFC vs. Fight Night Edition

That whole better atheletes came from boxing purist on HBO that dismissed MMA fighters as bar room brawlers. And said that being in MMA don't take no skill at all and that it will never over take boxing in anything. Not in Las Vegas, not in sales, not in ratings or fan base.

Years later, oh how wrong they were. Change has come and it has come in the form of UFC under Zuffa.

[Acedeck]

MMA is rising up through a perfect storm of events in society and circumstances. Currently there's no big names in the heavyweight division. There hasn't been anyone marketable for far too long now. Boxing is suffering because of it. Additionally, MMA has been picking up a lot of steam, starting many years ago. It's the perfect time for MMA to explode.

Boxing is down, no matter how much history and talent there has been in the sport previously. Also, I think MMA is taking advantage of our society becoming slightly desensitized to violence. If they tried this 20 years ago, they wouldn't have stood a chance to make it. We definitely wouldn't be seeing a MMA video game, at least not one that is as deep and enjoyable to play as UFC Undisputed. Society certainly wasn't ready for it back then, as a little over decade ago the UFC was turned underground by government restrictions. Not to mention, a person named Tyson at the time wouldn't allow for a sport like that to rise up. He had all the attention.

Also, MMA fans, don't jump on people's cases too hard for calling it a bunch of bar fights in a cage. If you research your sport enough, you'll quickly see that the UFC was marketed as just that when it first started. It wasn't until they implemented rules that it became more of a strategic sport. Prior to that, it really was a brutal, bloody, unbalanced at times (big fighters vs small), human cockfighting going on in the cage. In fact, groin shots, hair pulling, and fish hooking were still around until UFC 14. If it weren't for the sport being banned in many places, they'd probably still have all of those aspects in the sport. It was a reluctant change they made, in an effort to keep the sport going. It's hard to wipe that image off, so I don't blame people for thinking that way still.

It's the perfect time for MMA to rise, and boxing purists will have to accept it. Let's just be thankful it's a big enough sport now to warrant an incredible video game to go along with what looks to be a great boxing video game.