I love UFC 2. KO mode is a ton of fun, even if it seems like body shots are way more effective than other strikes in KO mode. Submissions are difficult, but that makes sense. The stand-up game is great, and punching people in the head with Tyson never gets boring.
Yeah, submissions still seem way harder to me than they should be. My reaction time isn't good enough to play offense and defense at the same time, which is what I think you need to do. At best, I can defend against them...but I'm not sure if I'll ever be able to pull one off...not when there's like five different levels to it. Maybe if I was playing on a smaller tv...where I could see the whole submission system quicker. Playing on a 60" makes it kinda hard to have my eyes on every side of the system though.
The only submission victories I ever got were with Rousey against Holly Holm (which is how the real fight SHOULD'VE gone) via armbar. Rousey's level 5 armbar game might've been the extra bit of aid that pushed for the sub victory, but I agree that the submission game as a whole is ridiculously hard. I remember it being really easy in EA MMA (I only played a little bit of EA UFC 1)