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I mentioned this briefly in the 'New Games' thread but it's now available on the PSN for all users, and also I assume the XBox, and in my opinion deserving of it's own topic.

First of all I really enjoyed the 2009 version and had a lot of fun with it both offline and online, it's one of the few games I've played from purchase to present day around 11 months later. The more I played it the more I realised there were a few problems, especially the more real life MMA I watched, but for a first effort I thought it was a pretty good game.

I then last Thursday, (After waiting till 4am for it to be released because I'm that sad and that nocturnal) played the demo for Undisputed 2010 and was blown away.

I'm not sure if a game which is new to the developers has ever shown more improvement from one version to the next in under 12 months.

The main problems for 2009 that people were crying out to be improved were
* More detailed and thorough Career Mode
* More Fighters
* Southpaw Fighters
* Unique Styles To Make Each Fighter Feel Different
* Use of The Cage
* More Moves

Well it looks like the UFC and THQ listened because almost everything we asked for is now in the game.

The gameplay is much improved since last year, each fighter has their own unique style and moves, for example fighting with Machida really feels like fighting with Machida where as last year he was just any old kickboxer. Each fighter have their own unique moves, this time not limited to their 'style' such as BJJ or Kickboxing. They've now added the cage as another dimension to the fight which works well, allowing you to pin your opponent up against it, using it to help or hinder a takedown, wall walking to transition on the ground and more. The striking itself is much improved, on top of the new moves there is now a sway and lean mechanism to help you avoid strikes and catch them with beautiful counters. Circling instead of just backing away is now a lot more important too, otherwise you find yourself pressed up against the cage and in big trouble. The ground and submission game is very different, you can now transition from one submission to another and they've also taken away the button bashing element to stop those with turbo controllers taking advantage. I like the new ground game, it's a lot harder but it also means that if you're on the bottom it no longer means the end of the fight and that you'll be on your back for 3 minutes.

The career mode, although not featured in the demo, looks very good from the videos. You can style your fighter however you want him with his own moves not limited to certain styles. So in theory you could have things like Machida's straight karate left, GSP's takedowns and the ground transitions of Damian Maia. (I'm not sure exactly how it will work and what will be possible as certain moves will be more expensive but you'll certainly be able to make a much more unique fighter who suits your own strengths.) There seems to be loads more to do in career mode too, training camps are actually used properley this time, where you can go to spar and learn new moves etc. Your attributes will fluctuate a lot more by the sounds of it depending on what you do and how you do so training will be especially important. They've also added the WFA in to the game which is where you start off instead of jumping straight into the UFC, you only get to the UFC if you do well in WFA, although you can also be demoted again if you fail in the UFC.

There just seems to be so much added to include everything but there is also the new Tournament mode where you can do old style UFC events with 4-16 fighters to crown a new champion in one day. (You have the choice on whether or not damage is carried onto the next fight) They've also added a lot more Historic fights which you can replay.

I can't do all the positives without mentioning a couple of negatives I've found but to be honest I haven't found many yet. (I'm sure the more I play it I'll notice a few more but for a demo things are looking very good.)

The one big problem I can see is Shogun (One of the 4 demo fighters) has a omoplata of his back which you can apply more or less at will and then quickly release it to find yourself back on your feet. Now you can go for the submission without any intention, or chance, of submitting them and basically use it as a tool to get back on your feet immediately which makes it useless taking him down. Hopefully not too many fighters will have this transition and maybe they'll look to change it in the full version but otherwise you can pretty much expect every CAF to have this move online which will basically just turn all fights into a standup war.

The only other problem I forsee is the online mode. One of which I've just mentioned but the other is just a hunch really. In 2009 it was almost impossible to time your reversals to a mild lag problem which you wouldn't really notice at any time of the fight. It wasn't the end of the world and most people got by just fine, good players still somehow managed to reverse.

However from what I've played on 2010 on Expert Mode (As close as you'll get too the top online players) it's all about reversals. Well at least to a point anyway, whether it's in the clinch or on the ground you won't stand much chance of doing anything offensive. If the reversal system also suffers from the lag in 2010 then it's going to pretty much turn every fight into a standup war making the ground game almost irrelevant. (I mentioned it briefly earlier that's its easier to get off your back, so if people can't reverse then you'll soon find your way back on your feet as blocking transitions is nowhere near as effective as it used to be, for good reason.)

So all in all I'm very much looking forward to this game, which comes out May 28th/29th I believe but am a little nervous about the online mode.

Anyone else played the demo yet or have any thoughts on the game? I've now pretty much mastered Machida and can beat the other 3 fighters pretty comfortable on expert, probably had over 100 fights already though to get me there!

If anyone knows a Burnley fan that may be interested in becoming the new researcher for FM2011 then SiGames are currently looking for a new head Dingles researcher. Give me a shout if you know of anyone who may be interested and I'll put them in touch. They should obviously be a Burnley fan firstly, a fan of Football Manager and be able to look at them in an unbiased way and be sensible about their level of skill.

Oh and No I don't think they'd let a Rover do it and reduce all their players to sh1t, they're bad enough already anyway ;)

Apologies for starting a new thread, I remember seeing one a long time ago but it wouldn't let me search for UFC or MMA as it's too short so I couldn't find it.

Many MMA fans on here? About to watch WEC which has some great fights on it, anyone else watching?

Had a quick search and couldn't find any other threads on standup comedy so thought I'd start one.

I'm a huge fan of standup comedy and over the last couple of years I've watched/listened to a fair few of them. I was just wondering what comedians people on the board are into and if there are any that you'd reccommend that I might be interested in.

My favourite of all time is Jack Dee, I don't know what it is about him that makes him my favourite, maybe it's because I became a fan of his years before half of the others had even began performing, plus I find his dryness particularly amusing.

I'm also a massive fan of Joe Rogan (Also commentates on the UFC) who is not only very funny in my opinion but is also one hell of an interesting guy, his broadcasts on Ustream are excellent in my opinion where he covers all sorts of stuff from MMA to time travel to cannibalism to basically anything, not really in a comedy way but I still like it. To my knowledge he doesn't have many DVD's floating out there but the ones he does have I'm a big fan of, especially considering I don't usually enjoy American standup's as much as English ones.

Other favourites of mine that I won't go into too much detail with are Frankie Boyle, Michael McIntyre, Lee Evans, Russel Howard, Jethro when I can understand him, Jimmy Carr to an extent. Peter Kay's are funny as well but I wouldn't quite class him as a favourite, I think it's just because I prefer Phoenix Nights so much more!

So any top acts that I'm missing? I can't help but enjoy the overly offensive ones so feel free to point any out that I might like.

A few others I've watched recently were Eddie Izzard, Roy Chubby Brown, Russel Brand and Noel Fielding who I didn't think much of. The first two I was very disappointed in as I've heard a lot of their older stuff which I enoyed, Russel and Noel's weren't exactly bad but just didn't find it that funny apart from the odd chuckle.