I Love Knocking Out Rich Franklin

So, the Red Ring Repaired X-Box 360 returned home a couple of days ago and tonight, I finally had the energy to open it up and re-connect it.  I was greatly surprised to discover that a] it's either a new unit or b] they updated the software for me which is greatly appreciated since I do not have an Internet connection within range of it.  They also tossed in a one month free subscription to X-Box Live for my "troubles" which is kinda nice, I guess, but I can't use it at the moment so it's also useless.

I popped in the UFC game finally that had caused this whole scenario to unfold and was immediately taken aback by how nice the opening sequence was.  The menus were straight forward and I was able to figure out what was going on pretty easily.  I skipped the Tutorial because I'm a guy and we hate learning how to do something before we just try to do it.  Duh.

So, in mere moments, I was in an Exhibition fight at the Light Heavyweight level between Kenny "Ken-Flo" Florian and my opponent - I think it was Thiago Alves?  Can't remember.  This one was a slugfest which I knew it probably shouldn't be but it was all my button mashing would manage.  After a hard-fought first round, I looked up how to do a takedown attempt but I kept getting stuffed with it.  I went back to the punches and kicks and scored with an awesome high kick to floor Mr. Serra and end his night in the third round.

I was overjoyed by how beautiful this game is.  Nicely done characters.  Good textures on the skin tones and the little things like ink, blood, and sweat.  Even the cornermen were holding up sponsor sheets.  I didn't get annoyed by the commentary immediately which gives it a plus from most of the WWE games.

I moved on, determined to do at least one match at every weight level before calling it a night [another 7 AM start at work tomorrow.]  The Welterweight division saw me use BJ Penn to KO Matt Serra in the second round.  The Penn character was pretty dead on while the Serra was not so much.

At Middleweight, I absolutely had no choice but to kill Rich Franklin with Anderson Silva... again.  By this point, I was playing with some of the more advanced offense and was trying to hit the Thai clinched knees.  I could get the clinch with ease but couldn't really take advantage of it.  I threw some knees to the body but couldn't score with the big knees I wanted.  On the break, I snapped off a flying knee that made me freak out but I hit nothing but air.  In the end, a big kick knocked Franklin's mouthpiece out as he hit the mat for the KO.

At Light Heavy, I decided Wanderlei Silva needed to get some shots in.  The computer randomly selected Rampage for the opponent so I was a little worried.  I shouldn't have been.  The Axe Murderer ran right through him, finishing him with strikes on the ground.

At Heavy, I was planning to use Lesnar until my old friend Mirko Cro Cop's name showed up.  Being arguably my favorite fighter, I had to give him a workout.  The computer selected Heath Herring for the slaughter... which came in mere seconds with a brutal left high kick.  God, I loved every moment of it.  Even if it's a video game, it's awesome to see Cro Cop dominate again.

I went back for seconds at heavy, beating Gabriel Gonzaga with Lesnar using strikes on the ground.

All in all, I had a blast in the one hour I played it and I'm looking forward to starting the Career mode on it over the next few days.

Oh, and I think there was a real UFC fight tonight too but I was too busy beating up digital copies of those guys.