EA MMA - DoubleJMix965's Blog

DoubleJMix965's Blog

EA MMA

Posted on October 21, 2010 at 12:11 PM.

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I was really on the fence about the EA MMA game. I was happy to see competition coming for the UFC Undisputed series. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE the UFC games, especially the last two. However, I was afraid that without big level competition, they would "pull a Madden" and not really overhaul the game with each release. When the EA MMA news was released, at first I laughed because they shunned Dana White years ago, saying that MMA wasn't a true sport. I find it ironic that since now the UFC and MMA in general is becoming increasingly bigger in the states, EA decides to jump into the genre.

After watching several videos, it seemed like the gameplay was slow and almost clunky. I thought that the controls were going to make the game a bit more approachable to the casual gamer/mma fan, but still wondered how it would play out. So time fast-forwards to the demo release. I downloaded it and gave it a shot. I enjoyed it but it still felt "broken" to me. Too many shoots from the computer was my biggest complaint. Seemed that as soon as the match started, he was trying to take me down and any chance he got from there, it was a shoot. Needless to say I got good at sprawling fast. I liked the animation and the characters. Everything seemed to flow but the controls were a touch slow at times. That put me on the fence. However, when the game was released and I read that the game was far better than the demo, I immediately became more interested. Reading that the career mode was a blast really got me. I'll be the first to admit, I'm not THAT big of an online gamer. Here and there with a good FPS, but sports only sparingly. The news of a great career and a game that was better than the demo told me to buy the game. You know that voice in the back of your head that tells you "just go get the game, you'll thank me later" ? Well it got me. And so far I am LOVING this game. The control scheme was fairly easy to get used to. I still try to hold the right stick back to sprawl on a takedown and I keep trying to use that right stick to clinch, but I think once I get the UFC controls out of my head when I play this game, things are going to go much smoother. I made my career fighter a heavyweight. I guess I'm a glutton for punishment, going up against Fedor eventually. I just wanted to haha.

That's also another thing that has annoyed me somewhat since the release of the game. I've seen alot of people, most of which I'm assuming are relatively new to MMA, who think that there aren't good fighters on here. I have to assume that they mostly know UFC. I will admit, the overall talent in UFC may be better, HOWEVER, there are some GREAT fighters in this game. Fedor is one of top 5 best overall fighters in the world. Many put him as the #1 (I tend to lean towards GSP myself, but I will say Fedor is the best heavyweight). I think I like him mostly because he's a humble fighter, doesn't talk trash and he's deadly in the ring. One of the reasons I like GSP as well. There's also Randy Couture, which, for a man in his 40's is very good to this day. He's stayed in great shape and has won at many different levels. Bas Ruten is on there and if you haven't seen much of this guy, you have to look up some of his videos. Dude is HILARIOUS and it translates well in this game in the career mode. Another favorite fighter of mine, who happens to be in this and the UFC game, is Andre Arlovski. He's a bit past his prime days when he was a UFC champion, but he's still deadly and just looking at him is kind of scary, although I think the knockout he got from Fedor set him back a bit. And for people who say this roster isn't solid because they're not UFC fighters, if you do your history you'll see that most of these fighters have had successful runs in the UFC. You can say they're not there because they're old and not very good anymore all you want, but I still think they are great. There's a great mix of classic fighters, new talent and the option to create and share the UFC fighters in the Fighters Share if you absolutely have to have them.

I can see this game getting old fairly quick in career mode, only because it seems to move fairly quick. I love how you can do training simulations after you've got a good grade in a category before. This game is very good and although I've just started playing it, it may become more fun than the UFC game. Having both games is nice because they're different from each other and ultimately boils down to a personal preference. But to EA, I tip my hat to you for putting out such a great MMA product and I hope that with the success of this game, you will be able to build on it and make the next version even better! And to everyone that has played it so far, what do you think? Better than the Undisputed games? Lacking? Let me know! Til next time GO CRAZY FOLKS, GO CRAZY!

Comments

# 1 malachijohn666 @ Oct 21

sorry dude, but could you please break you comments up into paragraphs?

# 2 DoubleJMix965 @ Oct 21

I never really noticed that it would be hard to read while I was typing it, but thanks for the info! Hopefully that helps it read smoother.

# 3 stlstudios189 @ Oct 21

EA MMA's roster is better than most new fans would think. I have been watching MMA since 1996 and this is a legit lineup.

# 4 DoubleJMix965 @ Oct 22

Yeah this is a very good lineup, and the more I play with it, the more depth I find and the more "balanced" I guess you can say it is. I'm glad that when we set up matches (this frustrated me on UFC) it's not a Machida vs Jardine fight every other match.

I think that since the biggest majority of MMA fans lean towards the UFC, they think that since this doesn't have the UFC license, it's automatically worse than Undisputed.