My hands-on presentation with EA Sports MMA at gamescom 2010 was pretty unusual, and very peculiar when measured up against all of the other demos El33tonline attended.

First of all, there was no line for the demo. Second, the door to the presentation room was wide open, with two EA developers sitting inside furiously pressing buttons and twiddling analogue sticks on controllers. I noticed the two were virtually beating each other to a pulp in the game I was there to see, EA Sports MMA, and having a jolly good time doing it, but this wasn’t part of the demo.

The second I stepped inside the room, they looked up, welcomed me in, and finished up the match, at which time one of the developers bolted upright and dashed out the door as though hurrying to a demo of his own - he was only there to catch a few rounds of MMA before getting back to work!

What was also different about this presentation is that I was handed a controller and was able to play MMA straight away, and within two minutes I was throwing punches, blocking, kicking, grappling, performing takedowns, fending off takedowns and defending myself on the mat – a far cry from the laborious half-hour tutorials found in a certain other game*.

Of course, not everyone who plays EA Sports MMA is going to have their own personal developer alongside them to explain the controls and get them playing in such a short period of time, but the game does feel very intuitive and easy to get up and running.

First of all, the development team is taking a similar approach to fighter control as EA’s boxing series, Fight Night, by using a controller’s analogue sticks for punches and kicks. Whip the right stick in any number of directions and combinations (half-circle up or down, full circle, quarter-circle up or down, flicks etc.) and your on-screen fighter will dutifully throw a variety of punches, including jabs and uppercuts.

Hold down the left shoulder button and these movements are modified into kicks. Hold down the right shoulder button to modify regular kicks and punches into low attacks to focus on wearing down the lower body and legs of your virtual opponent. You can defend against incoming attacks with the right shoulder button.

So far so good. During the first 30 seconds of my time with MMA, I was having a little trouble performing the exact punch or kick I wanted to due to the nature of the right analogue stick movement, but I had the same problems with Fight Night and even EA’s Skate, and after a little while I was pulling off most every move exactly as I intended.

It was at this time that I was told about MMA’s focus on ensuring players always know why actions are playing out the way they are, and that they have a good sense of cause and effect. For example, if you catch an opponent off-guard with a straight punch as he’s winding up for a wide swing, your attack will be that much more effective, and give you a better chance of dizzying him. As I was all too aware, in the UFC Undisputed games, there are times when you or your opponent is hit into a dizzied state, but you’re not quite sure why. EA wants to rectify this.

We then moved onto more complicated mixed martial arts manoeuvres with takedowns and clinches. When I knew we would be getting into this area of fighting tactics, my heart sank; “I’m no good at that stuff in UFC Undisputed,” I thought.

In EA Sports MMA, however, I found out I have nothing to worry about and I’ll still be able to use a good deal of strategy and skill during these crucial moments of a fight.

To attempt a takedown (i.e. bring another opponent to the ground), all you need to do is press a controller face button, at which time you’ll either rush the other fighter or, if you’re closer, simply tackle him. Once on the ground, a press of the same face button will transition you through a range of dominating clinch positions as you ready yourself for submission moves, or just cruelly batter your opponent with punches and kicks.

Once again, another face button press will get you into a submission manoeuvre, at which time a little mini-game will play out where you and your opponent need to tap a button (X, or Square, for the aggressor, and B, or Circle, for the defender) as an energy meter depletes. Every tap of the button depletes the meter a little further, but it also regenerates if you don’t sap too much juice, so you’ll need to time your button presses with those of your opponent and make sure you don’t run out of energy before he does. This can be very tricky, but also pretty rewarding knowing you outlasted the other guy.

There is a chance, however, that these particular mini-games can last a little too long as both players arrive at a stalemate, both ably keeping their energy reserves up and keeping the challenge alive. It’ll be interesting to see if EA keep it the way it is, or tweak it in some way. Still, a fun little pace changer.

That B/Circle button, though, is going to come in handy during a fight. For example, if an opponent has you in a clinch and is transitioning to another position, your control will rumble just as the transition is about to happen, alerting you to the move. At this instant, you need to push B/Circle to either cancel the move, or reverse the cycle of dominance.

Oh, and wonder of wonders, getting up off of the ground is performed with a simple button press. Revolutionary!

The magical B/Circle button will also deny takedown attempted by an opponent, but be careful about using your defences too much, or initiating too many punches or kicks. Players will need to keep an eye on their fighter’s vital statistics because if you’re running low on energy, your movement will be slower and punches less effective. Statistics that also govern your speed and effectiveness in the ring will be the relative health of your head and body. If you take too much of a beating during a fight, once again, you’ll move much slower.

Fighters that receive such a beating will also realistically reflect their physical state with all manner of cuts, bruises and blotches of blood – either theirs or smeared on them by an opponent during the fight.

Now, all of this information was disseminated during my hands-on with MMA in mere minutes, but unfortunately it’s a bit cumbersome describing everything in text. Hopefully EA Sports MMA will feature a clever tutorial to teach gamers how to play as easily I was taught.

Some miscellaneous things I noticed while playing? Fighters in EA Sports MMA look different from one another. While this shouldn’t come as a surprise, it was interesting to see that the heavier weight class fighters physically appear muscular and enormous, compared to the lower weight classes who are more ‘toned’ than ‘ripped,’ and are slightly smaller individuals. Character detail is also impressive and is brought out the most when blood and sweat begins to form.

Call me crazy, but the other game’s characters all look kinda similar.

Another thing is that (like that other game), control input is slightly slow to respond (measured in milliseconds). It’s enough that you can feel it, but also like that other game, it’s easy to get used to and you’ll eventually work it into the flow of a fight.

An additional cool thing that was shown to me were the different ring layouts that are available in EA Sports MMA, from circles to squares to octagons - they’re all there - while different MMA rule sets can also be applied, from the sophisticated to the brutal.

Lastly, EA Sports MMA is set to include a heavily extensive range of online features. Really, online is going to be a massive part of this game.

Everything from your basic matchmaking for online fights, to an enormous list of community features (where you can look up your statistics and compare them to others), a Fighter Share ability (create your own unique fighter and upload him for others to play as), a Fight Card feature (set up a mini-tournament for you and nine friends, and provide play-by-play commentary for your friend’s matches with a headset), as well as the ability to save, upload and search videos of your (and other gamers’) MMA matches.

Then, there’s Live Broadcast, which is where you’ll be given the opportunity to fight in a once-a-week online broadcasted match, commented on by live sportscasters, with the chance to win real prizes.

I’m blowing over these features because they’re incredibly in-depth, so I’ve included two videos that explain most (if not all) of the online stuff that will be included with EA Sports MMA, just a little further below.

From my brief time with EA Sports MMA, I can safely say that the mixed martial arts crown can no longer be safely tucked away at THQ headquarters. If fans of the genre and the sport don’t swap to EA’s game (or at least seriously consider it) when it’s released in late October, I’ll be very surprised.

EA Sports MMA will become available on October 19th in North America and October 22nd in Europe, the UK and South Africa.

Have a good look through El33tonline’s previous coverage of EA Sports MMA for more information, as well as a host of screenshots and videos.

EA Sports MMA - GamesCom 2010: Online Mode Guide

EA Sports MMA - Live Broadcast Trailer

*… and by other game I mean UFC Undisputed 09/10