10) The good fighters usually know more than one style of fighting. It's definitely to their advantage to know how to handle themselves on the ground in a grapple or lock, and they also need to have good stand up skills. A real fight between two fighters who have mastered several different styles of fighting almost turns into a bit of a chess match. Players will learn this in the 'Create a Fighter' feature.

The fighters have been very excited to see themselves in the game, and surprisingly a lot of them actually are gamers themselves. Some of them even use video games to train their reflexes before fights.

11) Do the fighters display real-time facial and body damage, such as bruises and cuts?

No bruises or cuts, but the spray of blood will occasionally leave a stain on the UFC mat now.

12) How much blood can players expect to see in the game? Is the amount of bloodshed in the game comparable to the real UFC?

We are trying to keep the amount of blood at a realistic level so that we stay true to the sport. One recent addition that we have made is that you can now leave stains on the mat if things get a little brutal on the mat.

13) Will there be any music backing up the on-screen action? Do the fighters have special entrance music and animations as they enter the Octagon?

There is no music during the fighting. This was a decision to make the fight feel more like a real event, and less like a video game. The music that you will hear in the game is straight from the UFC archives and is the exact music they play at the events and on the live PPV TV broadcasts. Another thing that I think we have done really well with on this project is that we have made the in-game presentation of everything identical to how it's done on TV.

14) Besides Bruce Buffer, the official Octagon announcer of the UFC, did any other UFC personalities or fighters lend their voice to the game?

We also brought Big John McCarthy into the VO studio and recorded him saying the various different things that he says during the fights along with a hundred different variations of "Let's get it on!"

15) Is there any unique VMU support or VMU mini-games included for the Dreamcast version? What about online support?

The VMU will of course be used to save your 'Create a Fighter' but no mini games or online support.

16) When are the Dreamcast and PlayStation versions scheduled to ship, and is there a PlayStation 2 version in the works?

Ultimate Fighting Championship for the Dreamcast will ship in September and the PlayStation version will follow in late October. We don't have any plans set in stone yet for the PS2.

17) Anything not mentioned you would like to add?

I'm really excited about this game and I want everyone to know how awesome it's going to be. We took 'Best Fighting Game' of the show at the recent E3 show in LA, and we had some strong competition with Tekken Tag, Dead or Alive 2 and Power Stone 2. We have a demo coming out soon, and once people get a chance to play this game they are going to have a hard time putting it down. Keep an eye out for it, you can play as Tito Ortiz or Frank Shamrock, and recreate the best UFC fight of the century!

We would like to thank Jeff Barnhart of Crave Entertainment as well as Cliff O'Neill for their part in the interview.

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