UFC 2010 Early Reviews Glowing But Flawed
by 
The first reviews for UFC 2010 Undisputed are starting to roll in and they heaping praise on the game. Official Playstation Magazine has given it a 9/10 while GamePro has awarded it a perfect 5/5. Clearly it looks like UFC 2010 is going over well and is likely headed towards getting high scores across the board. Given the great response to the demo and publicized improvements and additions that shouldn’t a surprise.
What is irksome about these reviews is that they did not do any evaluation of online play. The online functionality has not even been turned on yet for the game as noted in the GamePro review. That could explain why news of the code needed to access online play has not gone mainstream. No one has needed to input it yet with online still not having been turned on.
UFC 2009’s online play actually turned out relatively well considering THQ’s track record, though it definitely had its share of issues to deal with. Users were able to quit out of fights without receiving losses and lag was hit and miss. Attempts were made at improving both in a patch that came about two months after release.
The GamePro review admits that online wasn’t played and basically turns from evaluation of the game to basically hoping that things turn out to be good.
“Multiplayer is another important aspect of the game, and while I didn’t get a chance to try out the mode — servers were not available yet — I have high hopes that Yuke’s has addressed the issues which hampered last year’s online fights….There’s no telling how the mode will hold up over the long term until the servers go live”
With the importance that online play has taken on, and developers continuing to advance in the area to provide fuller experiences, it is stunning how many reviewers continue to overlook it. It wasn’t until this year that The Show and NBA 2K series started getting nicked for poor online. How can reviews can be put out, and with of all things a perfect score such as we have here, and not have actually evaluated half the game? Troubling to say the least.