7. Every fighter will feel unique
At least, that’s the aim of Jackson, who’s super confident about it: "It’s a really important thing that we’ll do better than anyone has ever done before." Nothing wrong with a bit of ambition, certainly, but Jackson cites Fight Night Round 4 as an example of a game that already did this pretty well.
Abover: Playing as Fedor we expect to lose only once in our career
That’s true of the big names like Ali, Tyson, Lewis and Pacquiao, but the fighters on the bottom end of that roster felt less unique. Either that or Generoville’s a hotbed for young brawlers these days. The good news is that Jackson is aware of this potential trap. "For the less known guys there may only be one thing that people recognise. So it may be more difficult, but I think we’ll be able to do it."
8. It might just turn you into a fighter
So says Strikeforce boss Scott Coker, who tells us that this is more than a videogame. He reckons that playing the MMA game could actually set you up for a career in the sport: "The beauty of this game is that it’s so real, you’re going to actually learn how to fight mixed martial arts by playing the game. How do you get out of the mount, how do you block the kick? There’s going to be a lot of education."
Above: Playing MMA will definitely make you as hard as this man
Before seeing MMA we got to meet Fedor and, despite being a good six inches taller than him, one look into his cold, stern eyes was enough to put us off the idea of a fight career for life. Just leaving the house has become mildly terrifying. Sorry, Scott.
9. Ladies will probably feature
And we don’t just mean strolling around the outside of the ring in their underwear, holding up boards and looking hot. (Although they’d better be in too, or we’re staying with Undisputed.) After our sneak peek at the game we see a real fight between psychotic Dutch lassMarloes Coenenand humble-but-a-bit-rubbish American galRoxanne Modafferi and it’s amazing. (Coenen, unsurprisingly, wins in round one.)
Above: Roxanne Modafferi - not exactly Stacy Keibler, but she'd have you
UFC doesn’t have fighting chicks, so surely they have to be in EA’s game? "It’s something we’ve discussed a lot, but we’re not ready to talk about that yet," says Jackson. "It is unique about Strikeforce - we’ll see where that goes." Definitely a maybe, then. Which is more than good enough for now.
10. It’s out next year
Fight Night seems to have fallen into a pattern of coming out every second summer, so it’s natural that MMA should fit snugly into that gap. Our money’s on it landing in June. And we’re going to predict that THQ releases a UFC game to compete with at almost exactly the same time. If you’re going to gamble, gamble big, right?
For more on EA Sports MMA, including further insights from Dale Jackson, Scott Coker and Fedor Emelianenko, look out for feature on the game in Issue 40 of Official PlayStation Magazine, out 22 December.
Nov 17, 2009
