Get used to this. You’ll be hearing it a lot, at least if the tournament I played is anything to go by. The development team at THQ have worked hard on making the commentary system sound natural. “You’re actually getting live broadcast feeds,” I was told by senior designer Wes Bunn. “The UFC gives us all their mic feeds and our sound team chop up every bit of commentary from every fight and incorporate it into the game. So when you hear a guy say ‘Oh, nice left head kick’, that came from a fight somewhere.”

Led by Antoine Peltier, the audio have actually done a great job, especially with the contextual commentary. Turn off the main VO and you’ll hear your coaches shouting at you to get your guard up or protect your head. Still, when certain submission positions like the Kimura are easier to get into than others, you’re bound to hear some lines repeated over and over (and over) again.

The team had to use a different approach for the new PRIDE mode in this game, since PRIDE matches no longer take place. “We’ve added a whole new commentary team with the PRIDE Fighting Championships so everything you have in the UFC had to be mirrored for PRIDE. We did that with Bas Rutten and Stephen Quadros who were two of the commentators at the time. It’s a little more WWE-ish – they’re making jokes, they’re talking about the sport and the history as opposed to technical descriptions of what’s going on in the cage.”

I also spoke to Bunn about the game’s controls. “One of the big pillars that we wanted to do for this game was accessibility. We kind of fell into a lull with [UFC Undisputed] 2010 after 2009 came out. We just assumed everybody knew how to play our game and what we found was that the new players who picked it up were getting lost and frustrated and didn’t understand how to do things. We went back to our roots with 3 and brought back more of the tutorial aspect so whenever you jump into a fight for the first time, you’re gonna get these pop-ups that come up and tell you how to play the game.”

The last fighting game I played was WWE ’12 and the contrast between controls for the two games is obvious. Where W’12 requires frequent and confusing shifts between the face buttons and the thumb sticks to pull off a single move, UFC3 splits control-sets into a number of different “modes”.

Loosely speaking, you focus on the face buttons for out-and-out combat and the thumb sticks for grappling and movement. You’ll have access to different types of punch, kick and motion (or “transition” in UFC parlance) depending on whether you’re standing, in a clinch or on the ground but the controls themselves remain consistent. With the help of the initial tutorial pop-ups, this separation makes the system much easier to learn and modifiers like the left stick, bumper and trigger add depth and variety for the more experienced fighter.

Exhibition matches are your quickplay option to fight as a professional UFC competitor like Anderson Silva and this is what’s available in the demo that came out this week. As a mixed martial arts competition, UFC is more brutal than its entertainment-focused contemporaries. There are two ways to win a match: tire out or beat your opponent to a bloody pulp until he can no longer intelligently defend himself; or hold him (and it’s always a him) in a submission pose until he “taps-out” and admits defeat. In Undisputed 3 you’ll find that fighters have noticeably different strengths and weaknesses. Swinging punches with a kickboxer will deplete your stamina faster than it should and trying to throw an experienced wrestler to the ground while playing as a boxer will get you on the wrong side of a submission. Knowing your individual fighter’s skills is key. This is where Career mode comes in.

Supposedly the mainstay of UFC Undisputed 3, the Career mode is where you design and train your own fighter to battle your way up the ranks. In focusing on accessibility for new players, it seems to me that the team have erred too far on the side of education. Creating the avatar for your new fighter is easy enough. The problem starts when you choose your fighter’s specialities.

Everything seems to require half a dozen button presses to either select something, learn about it or skip the annoying verbal history. Once you finally navigate through the maze of menus you’re forced into a sparring session to determine your level of skill in that particular discipline.

This is fine for the first couple of rounds of just mashing the punch/kick/grapple button until the sparring meter fills up. When 15 minutes later you’re still struggling through menus and tutorials, it’s very tempting to just put the controller down and walk away. Sure, you can skip the sparring matches (after sitting through the loading screen) but you won’t get the stats boost for your character. Given that there are 62 individual tutorials you can choose to play through from a separate menu, forcing this seems like an unnecessary hindrance for those who are experienced or want to just get on with it.

When you’re in the cage, this game can be great fun. Pounding away on your opponent as he lies dazed on the floor triggers an incredible endorphin rush of satisfaction. Even watching other people play is entertaining. Matches are brutal and quick and I guarantee that any spectators will let out a collective “Ooo” of anticipation when you successfully daze your opponent with a solid blow to the head. It’s what happens outside the cage that lets it down.

UFC Undisputed 3 will be released on 17th February for Xbox 360 and PS3. The demo is available for download now.

Of course I’m bloody not. As anyone who’s seen the trailers, previews or the previous game can attest, The Darkness II was always going to be an adult title. A big feature of this game is the executions – you can grab a man by the legs and bisect him through the groin for a lovely move called “The Wishbone”. You’ll spend an awful lot of your time looking for beating hearts to refresh your health. And, of course, you can rip a man’s head from his body, both with and without his spine.

I played through two different builds of the game. One was a specially constructed demo rooted in the game but designed to tell a coherent story and showcase various different features. The other was a trip through the aforementioned brothel, showcasing the combat and environmental tactics that you’ll need to employ.

The biggest change between this and the original Darkness game is the introduction of the Darkling, a scuttling creature who tells you what to do, helps you in battles and occasionally lets you take control of him. Cue vent-crawling exploration puzzles and other knee-high sneakery.

I’ll skip the story bits of these builds to save you all from spoilers. You’re the dude from the first game. You have some horrific demon powers that only work in the dark. Everybody wants to kill you. For those who haven’t played the first game, said demon powers consist of giant snake-like tentacles with pointy, pointy teeth that erupt from… actually I don’t know where they come from. Somewhere out of your back presumably, or maybe your shoulders. Possibly your neck, though given their thickness you would think that would impair your ability look up and down. Good blood supply though.

Okay, let’s presume they come out of your back and curl around so they’re floating on the periphery of your vision whilst not impairing your ability to pick up guns with your human hands. As Jackie Estacado, your job is to kill and/or violently dismember basically everyone you meet.

Sure you have a gun. Sure, you can grab car doors and riot shields with your demon-snakes, to protect you while you shoot the bad men with your puny human weapons. But it’s far more fun to grab the shiny metal poles and fling them across the room, impaling distant enemies through the chest. Grab the weak men by their squashy arms and tear them limb from feeble limb. Plunge your gleaming fangs through their puny rib cages and devour their dripping hearts, still warm and pulsing, fresh red blood arcing through the air to leave glistening trails of…

Wait, what was I saying?

Oh yeah, I’m talking about a game, right. A game and certainly nothing else *shifty eyes*. You’ll run around some dark city streets ripping people apart. Then you’ll run around a carnival after-hours ripping people apart. At some point you’ll run around a subway platform ripping people apart. Eventually you’ll run around a brothel ripping people apart and that’s where it gets interesting.

The brothel is conveniently low on power – something to do with part of it being under construction so there’s a big room filled with throwable metal poles and lights running on generators. For some reason that I can’t really remember, you’re beset from all sides by dudes who want to kill you. The game turns into a nightmare of trying to kill dozens of enemies while smashing generators and avoiding flash grenades that will blind you and cause your tentacle-demon-snakes to retract into wherever it is they go. Me? I died a LOT.

There was more to this demo but I’ll be honest. I got bored after the fourth attempt at this room. It’s a difficult game and, while I like a good story, I don’t really have much interest in shooting out lightbulbs. Those of you who enjoy gory dismemberment and light-based obstacles (i.e. Alan Wake and The Darkness fans) will probably have a great time. There’s some pretty good voice acting and the cut scenes I saw show that they’ve made a good stab at a proper narrative. This is shaping up to be a solid game. It’s just not my sort of thing.

The Darkness II will be out in Feburary 2010 on PC, PS3 and Xbox 360

In Saints Row: The Third I got to play the leader of the Third Street Saints, who are treated as national superstars in the city of Steelport following their all conquering exploits in Saints Row 2. They even have their own clothing line and energy drink. Life is just one big party. The Saints do what they want, when they want and to who they want. Drew Holmes, one of the writers of Saints Row: The Third, has previously said in our interview with himit’s not a sandbox, it’s a toy box. I was about to find out if this was true.

The hands-on demo started me off right at the beginning of the game with a bank heist mission. It was a plot heavy mission which introduced me to several of the in-game characters, the Saints. It was also the most insane training level I’ve ever played! For a start I was handed control of my Saints character in the middle of an intense fire fight as the bank heist took a violent turn for the worst. After quickly learning how to shoot and use cover I killed the heavily armed gunmen hiding behind the teller counters. Before long I found myself perched on top of a bank vault suspended underneath the helicopter which had ripped it from the bank moments earlier. At this point in the level I learnt how to gun down armies of armed guards and blow up helicopters using my automatic weapons. These are important life skills. Yeah, you will not be surprised to learn that I had a big grin on my face at this point. Once I’d finished this mission it was time to explore the city of Steelport.

The first thing I did in Steelport was to call in an airstrike on a shifty looking cement truck. KABOOM! Not only did the airstrike take out the truck and its driver but also the nearby shops, cars, people, trees and anything else within a blocks radius. Well, I do find that a bit of fire and brimstone is a good way to announce your arrival in a city, rather like an Apocalypse Now version of “Hello World.” I’ll admit I did get a little bit addicted to the airstrike weapon which resulted in large areas of Steelport getting destroyed. At one point the cops turned up, only to die in another of my airstrikes. As the Saints are elite criminals running around with a puny pistol is not their style. Air strikes, Professor Genki’s Octopuss Gun, grenades and assault rifles are more their thing.

It was now time to change my appearance. The character editor was located inside the Images As Designed plastic surgery clinic. After wandered inside the clinic I couldn’t work out how to change my appearance. After a few minutes of fumbling around the clinic, I realised I’d killed the receptionist. Rats. Bad Nick. Fortunately, leaving and re-entering the clinic meant that dead receptionist had been replaced with a live one and after a quick chat the character editor appeared. The editor was easy to use and stacked with options but lacking a little bit of subtlety. For example the sex appeal slider controls boobs and willy size. In the Saints Row Universe high sex appeal equals massive boobs. Who knew?

Drew Holmes then showed off the truly horrific character that he’d created. Imagine a very skinny girl with ridiculously huge boobs covered in the brown wrinkly skin of a 90 year old that had been baked in an oven for days so it was nice and crispy. Yuck! After playing around with the editor I settled on a dark skinned female with some gravity defying cleavage. Once I’d found the Let’s Pretend fancy dress clothing shop she came out dressed as a beautiful cowgirl. It was a close call between that and some of the furry outfits. They are so cute and fluffy. It’s a real shame I wasn’t allowed to video her running down the street brandishing her giant pink dildo weapon. That was truly a sight to behold. Just ask @Thrungus who was playing Saints Row: The Third next to me and witnessed it all.

I decided to take a break from all the air strikes and tried out one of the mini-missions called insurance fraud. I was challenged with causing $70,000 worth of injuries to my body within a time limit. This actually proved quite hard as there weren’t any cliffs or tall buildings close by to throw myself off. Instead I discovered that sprinting and driving in front of cars speeding down a highway catapulted me huge distances into the air causing massive amounts of bodily trauma when I landed. This really racked up the medical bills and before long I’d reached my goal. The bone crunching sounds that accompanied my suicidal efforts were really juicy too. There was something rather satisfying about hearing lots of bones snapping during each horrific accident.

To help me find my way around the metropolis of Steelport I had a phone and a map showing the locations of shops, missions and other interesting areas. Once I’d set a waypoint on the map giant arrows would show me where to turn as if they were part of the city streets. Whilst these arrows made it very easy to find my destination via the quickest route I did find them a bit distracting.

With so much stuff to do all around the city I barely got to scratch the surface of the game. I did assault a ton of pedestrians with over the top takedowns, like smashing them between their legs with my gun. Several people exploded after being hit by my Apoco-fists and beat a man to death with my a giant pink dildo bat. I also hijacked a police car, turned on the sirens and raced around the city firing semi-automatic weapons out of the window killing anyone and everyone. I like causing mayhem and this game really makes it fun.

Summary

One of the craziest, daft, violent, destructive and fun games I’ve ever played. It started off with an outrageous bank heist which set the tone for the rest of the game. The whole experience was insane amounts of fun. Saints Row: The Third is going to be an epic game.

Saints Row: The Third is due for release on the 18th Nov 2011 on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC.

The past 4 weeks has been rough, there is no lie. Sweat, hardship and pub lunches all attempted to stop me in my path and destroy my goal. The past week especially has been difficult with illness forcing me to miss 3 of the 5 planned workouts. Today I am pleased to announce I have now made up for missed time and officially completed the 30 Day Cut Weight program (check my achievements list if you don’t believe me. My gamertag: aelincorp).

For 30 days I tackled T-ups, V-ups, sprawls and all manner of ferocious activities. Hardly being the healthiest of people to begin with I overhauled my diet and started extra weight training and cardio activities. For 30 days I gave up caffeine, alcohol, double bacon burgers and extra fries. This competition wasn’t without it’s smack talk – I wasn’t actively participating but you may have seen elsewhere Gamespot UK’s Johnny Chiodini and Ginx TV’s Neil Gorton attempting to one up each other.

1. Johnny Chiodini lays down the challenge
2. Neil Gorton kicks it up a notch
3. Chiodini responds in kind
4. Gorton sets the world on fire

Pity they’re wasting all that energy. The holiday is mine! We’ll find out who the winner is when everyone finishes at the end of this week.

Here are some posts from my fellow competitors: Guy Cocker, Greg Ellwood, Steve Hogarty, James Harvey and Neil Gorton.

The game itself isn’t perfect. Kinect’s tracking is a little iffy, to say the least, and frequently loses track of you during ground work. Sometimes it plain out refuses to register a rep. Other than that, UFC:PT holds up fairly well [though that's a fairly crucial thing - Ed]. The menu system is well designed and there are plenty of different activities and programs to keep you busy, from quick 5 minute workouts to intensive 40 minute sessions burning hundreds of Calories. Of course UFC:PT has the added bonus of achievement points and rewards for completing set challenges. What better way to appeal to the heart of a gamer? Despite all its flaws I have enjoyed my time with the game and am now all too aware that I “don’t want to exercise cold muscles”.

Sweet appley ambrosia

This all brings me to the final weigh-in. Before I started the challenge I weighed in at 117 KG, a lot lighter than I had been but still not an ideal weight for someone with a sedentary lifestyle. I now fit into jeans 2 sizes smaller then I did before and my upper half is nowhere near as tight in my favorite tees. I am pleased to reveal that I now tally up at 107.5 KG – a loss of almost 10KG or well over a stone. To all those who followed me along the way, those who gave me the motivation to carry on through illness and pain and especially to all those who took part in the UFC:PT MCV Challenge, I sit here drinking a hard-earned cider and say thank you, congratulations and lastly… see you from Vegas.

Lewis - Before the challenge

Lewis after completing the UFC 30-day Weight Cut programme

THQ have also released parts 1 and 2 of the video showing the Metro: Last Light E3 2011 demo in all its glory. The remaining parts will be released over the coming weeks over on the MetroVideogameUK YouTube channel.

What aspects of Metro: Last Light are the development team especially pleased with?

Huw Beynon: Well, there are two main focuses underpinning everything we do at the moment. The first is that we are really thrilled with the response we got to Metro 2033 [Our reviewer Jon Jones liked it - NS]. THQ put their hand up and said that they probably didn’t give the game the support that it needed. We’ve really seen over the past year that we’ve got a huge, incredibly passionate fan base behind it that really understood the thing we were trying to do a little bit differently. The hallmark of the Metro experience is the splendour of the survival horror, exploration and discovering the world. As well as the combat, the stealth and so on. It’s really important to us that we keep that. It’s like the DNA of the game.

Even after the Apocalypse, rush hour traffic is still a bitch

You didn’t want to make the game too heavy with action.

HB: We are perfectly happy to leave that to other games. When we do action we want to do it really well and I think that’s where our storytelling was great in the last one, we did have those scripted cinematic moments that were really quite memorable.

The core shooting which you kind of expect to behave in a certain way in a first-person shooter I just don’t think we nailed quite right first time round. By fixing that I don’t think it’s making it a fundamentally different game, it’s just making that particular part of the game feel a lot, lot better and I hopefully it will make the overall game more satisfying to play.

So you wanted to change aspects of the game but you didn’t want to alienate the people who liked the first game.

HB: Absolutely, you saw a very action heavy sequence and its got to survive in this E3 crush with all kinds of audiences coming in here. Hopefully our core fan base can trust us that we haven’t forgotten the exploration and survival horror aspects of it. Those quintessential Metro experiences when you’re out on the surface and you have 3 rounds left in your pistol, your gasmask is fogging up. You’ve got one filter spare, you can hear mutants howling in the darkness and you have to go into some kind of tunnel and you don’t know what’s in there. That’s absolutely part of the experience but it’s not so easy to communicate that angle when you have noises and explosions and guns going off at every corner around here [E3 2011]. We really wanted to show what we done differently this time around. All of those aspects of the game that people like about the first one are definitely in there and we want to keep that balance between exploration, survival horror and combat.

Are you rewarding those players who explore the in-game world?

HB: Yeah, I mean there were a huge number of little Easter eggs in the first game if you went looking. It is very much a linear story-driven game but the outside areas in particular and some of the larger environments had all manner of secret passages to discover. There would be Easter eggs at the end of passages and certain routes that would get you access to weapons that you wouldn’t be able to afford until much later in the game quite early on. We used a number of ways to incentivise players for exploring. I mean when you’re outside it was almost essential that you had to scavenge around to find the last bits of ammo or the gasmask that you needed to carry on.

We tied a lot of achievements into rewarding players for taking a more inquisitive approach. Whether it was finding all of the Rangers stashes in the dead city levels or if you take Front Line where there were two achievements for that level. One for killing everyone in the level and you had to basically fight your way across this front line. There was also an achievement for getting through the level without killing anyone at all. To get that you had to keep your eyes and ears open and you’d overhear a couple of people and they tell you about a secret route and then when you discover it and you realise you can ghost your way past everyone.

Has anyone got some Mulled wine? I'm feeling Christmassy.

HB: Yeah, you don’t want the level complete ones. Ours tend to be rewards for doing things that we didn’t necessarily signpost and that people discover by doing stuff. We get to see what achievements people go for and earn in the game. It’s very interesting for us to see the volume of these quite difficult achievements and often achievements that we know that you must have flown through the level twice to be able to get it. I think people found a lot of replay value in the first one because we kind of put all those open ends in there.

How long is Metro: Last Light going to be?

HB: We are aiming for a single-player campaign that is at least as long as the first one. It’s difficult really to talk about an hour this and an hour that. I would say that Metro 2033 was substantially longer as a single-player campaign than probably most first person shooters out there, whether you think that is long or short and how many hours you get out of it. It will be at least as long as Metro 2033.

Thanks for your time.

Metro: Last Light is due for release sometime in 2012 on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC and Wii U

Some sort of monstrous ab exercise

Sorry, that was a lie. The truth is that this week I was hit with illness. Whether influenced by my new diet and exercise regime or otherwise, this knocked me for six.

Day 20 20/07/2011

Thankfully the UFC fitness gods were merciful. The 20th day of my quest was bereft of T-push ups – much joy was taken in that fact. This was only temporary… each week UFC drags something from the depths of Satan’s pit to torture me. Sprawls were my enemy today. I quickly vanquished this demon and moved on to my extra workouts before calling it a day.

Total workout time: 1 hr 30 min.

Day 21 21/07/2011

Jab, Jab, Cross, UPPERCUT

Total workout time: 0hr 0min

Day 22 22/07/2011

Up and at ‘em as they say. Despite feeling under the weather I still plowed through the morning’s workout. No extra reps or sessions for me today, just more vitamins and rest. See you on the other side.

Total workout time: 0hr 30min

Day 23 23/07/2011

Not much better today but still finished a small core workout with energy to spare so piled it into tire flips and an arm workout. 30 Reps each of Arnold Press, Press to Curls, Bicep Curls and One Armed Rows left me with a bit more energy for the rest of the day.

Day 24 24/07/2011

You know that feeling when you wake up one morning regretting doing something the night before? This was kind of like that. It seems my idiot decision to try and work through the illness had left me feeling worse. A lot worse. Another day of vitamins and rest before being dragged to a family barbecue. Other than that, the diet is going well. I’m still limiting my calorie and carb intakes and it seems to be working so far.

Total Workout Time: 0hr 0min

Day 25 25/07/2011

Come Monday morning I was refreshed and ready to go. A huge workout was awaiting me that tested all areas of my body and even had me doing both sprawls and T-push ups, the evil thing. I rounded it all off with some extra focus mitts activities and a long hike with a child carrier. That’s a backpack that carries toddlers, just for all you non parent-savvy folk.

Total workout time: 1 hour 45 minutes.
Hike time: 2 hours carrying 25lb of sprog.

Day 26 Weekly Thoughts

Thanks to missing 2 workouts my routine now finishes on the 1st of August which means you lovely people will still get one more update from me. As you now know my week was destroyed thanks to me being ill. My doc has advised upping my vitamin intake in case my body isn’t getting enough thanks to my changed diet. Arm strength has definitely improved. I still can’t do push ups – not sure why but hopefully that will change over the next few weeks.

While my 30 day challenge is almost up the MCV 30 day challenge still has 2 weeks to go (I think) so I will be working hard to hopefully win that Vegas trip. If you want to find out my final weigh-in score then keep a close eye out next week. For now it’s remaining under wraps.

Lewis

On Friday 2nd Sep 2011, The London Philharmonic Orchestra will be taking part in a Video Game Heroes concert which will include some of the best symphonic music from Little Big Planet, Elder Scrolls, Mass Effect, Angry Birds, Final Fantasy and Grand Theft Auto in the Royal Festival Hall, London. The concert starts at 7:30pm with tickets priced at £39, £33, £27, £21 and £16 which you can buy here. There’s still lots of seats available, even the £16 ones.

Talia al Ghul from Batman: Arkham City

You can now play Codemasters F1 2010 game on your iPhone/iPod Touch or iPad. It’s available from the App Store for £2.99. It features all the tracks and drivers from last years F1 World Championship, but doesn’t include any of the racing. On the bright side, at least you don’t have to worry about Lewis Hamilton crashing into you.

THQ have released a brand new trailer for their upcoming Saints Row: The Third game. It includes bits from the live demo that was shown at this year’s E3 Expo where I interviewed one of the writers Drew Holmes, who described the game as a toy box. I think you’ll agree, after watching this trailer, this game is looking mental!

[Thanks to @ChrisVideoGamer for the concert info]

For those of you who are joining me fresh this week, UFC: Personal Trainer is a fitness game available on Kinect for Xbox 360, Move for PS3 and Wii. Published by THQ, UFC:PT guides you through a basic but intense set of workouts to help cut you into that UFC body. This is done through a mixture of traditional exercises and MMA (mixed martial arts) based activities.

So this is what pain feels like?

Day 6 06/07/2011:

After Tuesday’s recovery day it was straight back into the program with the toughest workout I have had so far; the UFC staple of V-ups, squats and leg-ups were mixed with Arnold presses, bicep curls and a whole horde of lunges and holds, totalling a whopping 350 calories burnt in 20 minutes. Not much for some but this was more than enough for my considerably streamlined body (or not).

I had a small issue on day one of the program where UFC failed to save my data and I had to repeat a workout the next day. Well it decided it wanted to scare me again. Sadly when I returned to test a few features, my progress from the morning was no longer seen and I was prompted to restart the workout. Not to be deterred, I soldiered on and finished it for a second time in one day. Of course, the end of the final stretch was the point at which my Xbox 360 chose to freeze on me. This meant it – once again – hadn’t registered my progress. I finally finished it for the third time and triple-checked that I had seen the save icon. If there was ever a point I wanted to quit, this was it.

Total workout time: 1hour 30 minutes including warm ups and cool downs.

Just one more day

Day 7 07/07/2011:

Thursday was thankfully a relatively easy day compared to the previous… except for the PAIN! It wasn’t really crippling but it was uncomfortable enough to make even basic leg lifts awkward to complete. Wednesday had really worked me over but I slogged through and completed everything I had to, to pass.

My limited calorie diet is still going well. I’m making sure to stay hydrated. Keep my vitamin and nutrient levels up at the same time is the trickiest part but it is all falling into place.

Total workout time: 25 minutes.

Glorious rest

Day 8 08/07/2011:

On the 8th day there was rest…and plenty of it.

Back on the grind

Day 9 09/07/2011:

With 3 days of workout ahead of me I upped my game. Using the extra workouts available I increased my workout goal to a substantial 800-1000 Calories worth of workout per day. After my rest day I seemed to come out stronger, faster and most importantly, fitter and perfectly capable of doing this. The program assigned me a strong cardio workout with lots of core exercises and weight training, bulked out with a repeat of the 5 hit-the-mitts activities I had done earlier in the program. I finally finished off with a pre-built Mark Dellagrotte workout. This was very combo-heavy and intense on my lungs with its jumping jacks and tuck jumps scattered between.

This was to be the basis of my workout for the next 3 days; the only variable would be the intensity of the programmed exercises. I felt great having set a task and completed it. My muscles were aching but nothing matching the pain from the Day 6 incidents.

Total workout Time: 1 hour 35 minutes

We hates him, doesn't we? My prrrrrrecious...

“Let’s see how far you can push”

Day 10 10/07/2011:

As usual, I started the day slightly stiff. A good set of warm-up exercises had me pumped and ready to go in no time. The program started me off with a good mix of ab-intensive lifts and crunches and then moved me on to core and upper body with plank presses, the usual bicep curls and Arnold lifts. Having said I hated V-ups in the last edition of my diary, I think it would only be fair for me to mention my new hatred – leg wipers. Despite having the abdominal strength to handle them, these dastardly devils had me in a fair amount of discomfort the first time and they still do.

Again, I topped up with hit-the-mitts activities and the Mark Dellagrotte Cardio Combo 2. I finished the day aching slightly but feeling great for my accomplishment. Day 10… owned!

Total workout time: 1 hour 27 Minutes

They ain’t heavy, baby

Day 11 11/07/2011:

Today I dug out my weights. As my rest day was the following day I decided to experiment a little. I would use my weights with all the upper body and core exercises for the day. As some of them weren’t designed to be performed with weights I started light enough to not be an issue but heavy enough to actually give some resistance.

Hurray for me, the workout was a core-heavy routine with plenty of weighted functional exercises such as arm extensions and various curls and presses. Following on from these I pushed into my extra activities. Mark pushed me hard and fast as I improved my times. Tired and sweating, I saved my data and finished up my 3-day challenge.

Weekly thoughts

Day 12 12/07/2011:

Lewis - Day 12*

All in all a successful week, despite the Day 6 Incident. My scales are actually broken at the moment after they fell off a shelf [yeah, yeah - Editor] but the last time I weighed myself on day 8 I was 112kg meaning I had lost 3kg in the week since I started training. Result, I dare say.

Check back with us next week for part 3 in my diary and a photo of my newly ripped frame, if you’re lucky.

*This may be a lie

Greg Jackson, UFC Trainer

For those of you who aren’t aware UFC: Personal Trainer is the latest fitness game for Kinect, PS3 Move and Wii systems. Using workouts and activities designed by professional Mixed Martial Arts trainers UFC:PT aims to give you a full body workout. One of the main features is a series of 30 and 60 day programs designed to tone muscle, cut weight or build cardio endurance using carefully selected exercises and workout routines.

The challenge itself has been set by games industry trade publication and website MCV, in association with THQ and UFC. This will see many of the industries workers such as myself and Editor-in-Chief Debbie metaphorically fighting it out to see who can get in the best shape using UFC:PT in a 30 day time period. The pictures have been taken and the diet plans laid out. I will be writing up my experiences day by day and publishing a weekly diary detailing my progress and my thoughts on the game itself.

Our intrepid guinea-pig, Lewis - before the challenge

Name: Lewis Rayne
Height: 5ft 10in
Weight: 115kg
Age: 21

Day 0 – 30/06/11

UFC: Personal Trainer Kinect popped through my doorway all purple and eager to be tested. After a quick setup of personal details including weight, height, and age, it went on to calculate my base metabolic rate. Esssentially your BMR is how many Calories you will burn just doing nothing around the house or in other words, how many Calories you need to consume to maintain your bodyweight. The BMR calculation was closely followed by an intense fitness test with a few exercises such as push-ups and star jumps.

Having looked through my options I decided I would start the 30 day Cut Weight program the next day. This would see me performing set workouts on Friday, Saturday, Monday, Tuesday and Thursday with recovery days on Sundays and Wednesday. Alongside my program I am also undertaking extra workouts from the UFC:PT game and cutting out my alcohol and energy drink consumption completely.

Day 1 – 01/07/11

This is a V-up

After a long session of warmups and stretches I was introduced to the regime with no mercy at all. The morning’s session consisted of 26 Leg Ups, 26 V-ups, and 26 Bicycle Crunches. Each was split into 10 reps and had a timer accompanying it. The set routine also featured a “focus mitts” activity – these ask the player to perform a series of combat-based moves.

Once I was done, I felt awesome. The rush of exercise left me refreshed despite my muscles aching from the onslaught.

Total workout Time: 30 mins.

Day 2 – 02/07/11

Strangely, despite completing the previous days workout when I went to the calender it had an X over Friday and was telling me I had missed one. Not to be disheartened I repeated fridays workout with much greater speed and ease, despite my body aching in places I didn’t know existed. I also tested a workout from one of the 3 sets of trainer specific workouts (more on these with my impressions).

Total workout time: 1hr 5 mins, including warm ups and cool down stretches

Day 3 – 03/07/11

Sunday should have been a recovery day for me. Sadly, because of Friday showing as missed, my recovery day seems to be reset to Tuesdays and Fridays. This workout was similar to yesterday’s, starting with the focus mitts and moving on to lifts and crunches. Today the game introduced the Leg Wipers exercise. The aching from the first few days has gone and if anything I am feeling better and looser now.

The diet is going well too. I am still consuming breakfast, lunch and a proper meal on an evening so as not too crash too hard. The portions are smaller and contents are generally home cooked with fresh ingredients.

Total workout time: 45 minutes

Day 4 – 04/07/2011

The last workout before my recovery day, again a core workout of crunches and abdominal exercises, with press ups thrown in for good measure. Lead by a speed ball challenge to get the heart pumping, I followed up with a trainer specific exercise built around dodging and agility with fast strikes. Abdominals noticeably tighter now and Leg Lifts/ V ups performed at a greater speed with more ease.
The aching has now completely gone as my body conditions itself to my new routine, mentally feeling clearer despite the caffeine withdrawal headaches.

Total workout time: 1hr 5 minutes

Day 5 – 05/07/2011

Recovery day didn’t quite go as planned. After a small workout with 100 reps of various crunches and lifts to keep my abdominals working hard, I can finally sit and write out my thoughts.

First Week’s Impressions

From my experience with UFC: Personal Trainer so far, it works wonderfully with Kinect, as do most fitness games. A few notes though: firstly, it can be cheated. The right movements at the right time can convince Kinect you have done the required actions but you will have your conscience to deal with if so. Secondly it does take a fair amount of space, especially with some of the more energetic exercises with hops and jumps in various directions.

Mark Dellagrotte, UFC Trainer

Other good points are the variety of workouts available. When not being assaulted by the 30 day program you have access to workouts taught by 3 of the best trainers in the UFC world, each focusing on a different discipline: Muay Thai with Mark Dellagrotte, Kickboxing with Javier Mendez and Greg Jackson with his own Gaidojutsu.

After 5 days I am happy to say I am now at 113.5kg and overall feeling much better. Having seen the schedule for next week things are only going to get tougher. Wish me luck and check back next Wednesday for an update.

Lewis Rayne is on loan from Fusion Gamer. We’ll try to send him back in one piece.

What challenges do you face as a writer with the popularity of the first 2 games?

I think we really wanted to take a look at the direction of the game and where we wanted to take it in terms of the tone and the style. We really wanted to push that crazy over the top, ridiculous aspect of it, that’s the crazy sandbox. We said that we need to have a narrative that matches that, that equals it and in some respects pushes the envelope more than our open world gameplay. So it was a challenge to come up with this ridiculous, outlandish story with its twists and turns but without going too far. You want to keep it within the rules of the universe.  

Did you write the whole story first and then the game came out of it?

This is our third game, so we know what the structure really needs to be. We knew how we wanted activity to play out and open world stuff to fan out and the flow of the missions. But the narrative kind of helped us structure all of that. We knew what the game does well, we knew what our strengths were so we developed the narrative before we started to work on the game proper as we wanted to build the gameplay so it’s always serving that story and vice versa.

Was the writing process fairly fixed then, or dynamic? For example, part way through development it would be really cool if the characters did this?

Yeah, it’s still fluid, if you put something in the game and it doesn’t quite work, you’re tweaking and pushing early on. At this point we’re really full steam ahead. We’ve got a narrative that we feel really fits, we’ve got missions locked down. Early on there was a lot of iteration and a lot of back and forth in terms of changing the way the story flowed and dropping some characters and adding some new ones. So early on there was a lot of in-flux stuff.

Will players have different paths through the game?

Absolutely, Saints Row in itself is all about customisation, building your own character and dressing them. You build you character and then in the  cinematics that character shows up and you can choose your own voice from the multiple character voices. Each character is written in a different way so that if you play through it one full arc with one voice and then play through with another one then the diagloue is going to change. The situation will stay the same but the tone and the take might be a little different based on what that character is saying.

We’ve also incorporated player choice into a few of the missions. There’s going to be critical points as your playing through the game were you’ve got to make a decision based on what happening and it will affect the ending of the game.

Did you have an boundaries? Was there anything that you’d written down and then decided that you just can’t put it in the game?

We have a pretty good sense of what pushes things too far at this point in Saints  Row. It’s kinda like pornography when you see it, you can’t necessarily define it. We’ve frequently sat in brainstorming meetings and said no, absolutely not. We can’t do that weapon, we can’t do that part of the story, it’s much too ridiculous and doesn’t fit within the realm of the universe that we want to create. But I think we certainly right up close to that edge. Absolutely.

What are you particularly pleased with from a writing perspective? What has come out really well?

I think our characters. The new characters that we’ve introduced along with the story, much more colorful, much more outlandish and funnier than anything that we’ve ever done in previous Saints games. It just comes from experience, we’ve really learned from the mistakes we’ve made on Saints Row 1 and 2 and the success its had as well. It’s just about refining that experience and bringing our full force to the game.

So does the quality of writing match something like Batman: Arkham Asylum or Portal 2?

We want to hit that quality bar, they are completely different games so you’re not going to get that style necessarily. You’re not going to get a Valve Software type of story from Saints Row, it’s two completely different experiences, but that level of quality is certainly going to be there. People are going to be pleasantly surprised in terms of how we’ve challenged ourselves to raise the bar of how we tell the story.

There were some great one liners in the live demo that was shown earlier.

Yeah, it’s gotta be funny, it’s gotta be short and sweet. Get it in there so people remember it and don’t overstay your welcome

Do you go through your writing as a team?

We’ve got a core writing group at Volition working with the guys at THQ. It’s merciless, you throw an idea out there and if it doesn’t work you have to recognise that and go back to drawing board. But I think working with a really solid team has really helped us to really get that level of polish that we wanted from the game. We think it is going to really stand out this fall.

How has the new city influenced the writing style and story?

It’s much more over the top, more outlandish almost to a cartoonish level in terms of the story that we are telling, the level of violence, the level of ridiculousness. With the new city being built on our brand new engine, we’ve built the city from the ground up to take advantage of the gameplay that we wanted to do. I like to say it’s not a sandbox, it’s a toy box.

We are giving you lots of different crazy, stupid options. If you want to go and play it through straight as Mr tough guy then absolutely go ahead and do that, but we want people to have a whole range of options to play the game in the way that they want. In terms of writing for that then I think it’s just been about having a lot of flexibility and I think that the experience that we have now, we kind of know what players want to do so we’ve been trying to accommodate that.

I look forward to seeing the Kinect version….

[Laughs]

Especially seeing how it works with that giant dildo weapon.

There’s no sort of Kinect integration at all! We are focused on just the hardcore controller based aspect of it.

Thanks for your time.

Saints Row The Third is due for release on the 15/11/11 on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC.