Fighting

Game Description: UFC Undisputed 2010 is action-packed fighting game that recreates the excitement and intensity of the real-life Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). The game features all aspects of the UFC experience, including a roster of more 100 UFC fighters, a wide range of fighting styles—including new additions Sambo, Karate and Greco-Roman Wrestling—authentic environments and commentary, and a variety of play modes that include Career, Title and Title Defense Modes, as well as multiplayer options accommodating up to 16 players in tournament and training settings.

UFC Undisputed 2010 is set to be released May 25, but I was fortunate to get an early hands-on preview as part of a THQ media event out in Las Vegas. After getting a crash course in Jiu-Jitsu, Boxing and Kickboxing as part of a mini-bootcamp, all of the attending journalists were given extensive time to play through the enhanced Career mode with latter part of the evening devoted to an elimination style tournament between the journalists. How did yours truly do in that tournament? I'll get back to that later, but first let me give my impressions of the gameplay changes and new features. 

Just End it Now

HIGH Unexpectedly cutting my enemy in half, blood cascading to the ground.

LOW The wretched music in the Wild West stage.

WTF The Engrish of "The Crimson Murderousness" and "Handing Sword Princess."

Tatsunoko vs. Capcom is a great game. Too bad it's on the Wii.

Beating Down An Entire City... And Loving It

HIGH It's dripping with testosterone and has machismo to spare.

LOW Accidentally stumbling into the last battle with a sliver of health.

WTF Four words: big yellow banana suit.

The world of video games is no stranger to inconceivable, bizarre, and at times downright irresponsible marketing.  Most recently, gamers were shocked by Electronic Arts' reprehensible "Sin to Win" promotion for Dante's Inferno. Now, Namco has decided to unleash a series of odd and, quite frankly, dangerous "viral" advertisements for the upcoming game Tekken 6.

As would be expected of any comic-to-game adaptation, Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 does not entirely replicate the storyline, but it does a surprisingly good job of recreating the key allegorical events: the attack on New York City, the atom bomb-like explosion in Stamford, and the escalating violence between the two factions of superheroes. While the game changes much of the end of the storyline, opting to have the two sides unite against a sentient virus and removing Captain America's poignant surrender and subsequent death-by-assassination, it still conveys important truths about what it means to surrender freedom for the sake of fear, and why even the seemingly powerful are so eager to give up their rights.