Previews// UFC Undisputed 2010

At this point it was time to see what Adolfo Kang was made of, so I hopped into Exhibition mode and put my 46-year-old, battle-scarred nostril-flarer into the Octagon. My experience of the controls was more like a journey of understanding – the shoulder buttons are used in combination with the face buttons to perform blocks, kicks and punches. Like any fighting game worth its salt, there are combination moves and other attacks that can be performed by twisting or pushing the analogue stick in a specific direction.

And then you have the grapples – possibly the biggest turnoff for me when it comes to this sort of thing, not that I'm uncomfortable with my sexuality or anything – which are initiated by pressing the right analogue stick. When you're in a lock with an opponent, it becomes a game of trying to second-guess the other player. Face buttons still attack – albeit looking like a flailing granny as you try to swing for your foe's face – but the trick is to weaken your opponent and then flick the right analogue stick to try and perform a pin manoeuvre on him.

At first it all seems very confusing, and you instead just settle for smacking the other player in the face until they twig that your only tactic is to blindly go on the offensive. Once you've figured out how to go about grappling and timing your moves to get an advantage, it all starts making sense and it's almost like a white light descending upon you, possibly as a reflection from Dana White's shiny head.

Some of the moves here are brutal though, especially when you do get that pin on your opponent and perform some bone-crunching submission moves on him – the reward for figuring out how to get the best of that right analogue stick, and perhaps the most powerful assaults in the game. It's great fun to see the other player squirm as you cheekily get their character into a headlock, or concuss them enough to beat nine types of shit out of them as they lay dazed on the canvas.

And of course, the camera slows down just a touch when you land a real haymaker, which is most satisfying. The best is the extreme camera slowdown that occurs when the loser falls from a total knockout – about fifteen replays (I may be exaggerating) of the final killer blow is more than enough to rub into someone's face. It even makes for great watching if you lose, actually.

The enhanced modes and tweaks to the gameplay and presentation could be the persuasion that fans of UFC Undisputed 2009 need to invest in this upcoming sequel. From taking the time to listen to complaints in the gaming community and implementing extended Career and online modes – one addition being a 'Camps' feature that works like clans, allowing online friend to spar with one another and earn more character building points – it seems that this could well be a case of 'more of the same, but better.' And I don't see many arguments against that.

UFC Undisputed 2010 will be released on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on the 28th May.