This game was a great game that was cut up and undermined by minor shortcuts and oversights by the developer. It is very obvious that 90% of the developers attention went into the gameplay itself. This is not a complaint in the least, the ground game is fluid and any fan of the sport that has any actual MMA knowledge or training should easily pick apart most of the kick/punch happy gamers across the net. The career mode is really the biggest downfall in the game, the ability to create a custom fighter that can later own the online divisions is nice, but the long drawn out menus throughout the course of the game becomes slightly monotonous. Having to put a patch on your shorts for extra cred shouldn't be an issue but when it takes five minutes to back out, apply it, sorting through 4 or 5 menus, and then finally waiting for it to save things start to get annoying. Especially when a new patch or email comes in after every other match if not every one. Also I found that it took about one full career to use a tutorial to understand the necessary approaches and controls to truly hold your own. Also a more intelligent political side of the career mode should have come easy and with no problems amongst the company of next-gen games. Taking short notice fights is a good way to boost stats but why in the hell is Dana White asking you to give up a number one contender fight for a rank 12 player in a week that you've already beat 4 times instead. It makes absolutely no sense and eventually just seems like the title really doesn't matter in the game it's ALL about upgrading your character. Also reading emails from fighters about how they're excited to finally fight you, ignoring the past 3 match ups you already have had really takes you out of the virtual fighting world. One of the greatest draws to UFC is the grudge matches, Chuck's hunt to make up for his three losses drew you to follow him for years, at least until his three losses grew a little and revenge just kind of fell out of his grasp. So why doesn't the game ever talk about or even acknowledge your fighting history, you can't even find a stat page that tells how long of a win streak you are on, and unless you yourself remember your rivals, you won't have any. All of these minor bits can be overlooked when you get into the game, and the accurate simulation of the sport kicks in with probing hits, power attacks, and an extremely fluid ground game. It's a great feel and I have finished a few of my fights online so far with my heart pounding not sure how it was going to end. There is little better than snapping some 16 year olds arm after listening to him smack talk you as a total stranger for the couple minutes before hand, and not getting arrested for it. Since this was practically the first true UFC game, my expectations were very low and I'm not sure how much I was pulling for THQ as a fight fan, but the game definitely past my expectations, and with easy modified tweaks I'm sure this will become quite the fighting series.