EA Sports UFC has its third patch out, and EA is once again showing that they’re at least committed to making meaningful changes to the gameplay months after the initial release. There are quite a few changes in this update, and there are two new fighters as well. Here are the details.

The new combatants are Tim Kennedy at middleweight and Gunnar Nelson at welterweight. EA has also allowed Nick Diaz to fight at middleweight. Tim Kennedy has a 91 rating, and that comes from his 91 in striking, 89 in ground and 88 in submissions. I’ve had success with him against moderate competition (on the hardest difficulty) such as Costa Philippou, who is rated 87 overall. Kennedy’s perks are geared around clinch work and pushing the pace (both in the clinch and on the ground). Gunnar Nelson is s 90 overall, and his ratings are 90 for striking, 87 for ground and 91 for submissions. He has strong ground perks, including “Infinite Core,” “Chess Master” and “Crushing Presence.”

As for other gameplay tweaks…

EA previously added finish the fight moments on the ground, so it’s cool to be able to chase guys down and create some Vitor Belfort moments. The animations look okay, as the weaker fighter will sort of stagger backwards as you're blasting them with jabs and hooks. It’s a fun addition.

For those who have a guillotine, it’s a nice trick to have in the bag. That said, it would be best reserved for matches where you (1) have a massive submission rating edge and (2) have a massive lead in stamina during the match. Still, the more tactical options the better.

In some limited play, I’ve definitely noticed a lot more variety in how the takedowns play out, with some kick catches resulting in pushes of the foot or trips. Standard takedowns are also more varied, and the impact and animation is much more dependent on the vulnerability of the defender.

The window for slipping strikes does seem a bit longer, but I don’t think this is something that is going to radically change up evasion all that much. The game is still in need of a refinement to its parry system, which is too powerful, and the slip and feint system of Undisputed 3 would be welcome, but that’s probably in the next game.

It did seem like kicks came out a little slower and were easier to catch when low on health, and I don’t usually try throwing any kicks during health events. This animation change is pretty subtle, but I’ll need to test it online to really know what this has done to spamming at low stamina levels. Regarding kicks, EA still needs to tweak kick catching for AI offline, as they are god-like in their ability to scout kicks and take you down. It’s a great feature, but it shouldn’t be that common of an occurrence.

The update also contains lots of tuning and tweaking, with the most important change coming from the combo branching system. You’ll probably notice that strikes are bit faster now, as you can set up new strikes a few frames earlier. It’s more subtle than I thought it would be, but there is some extra fluidity and speed on the combos. My worry is that the stamina system, while improved, isn’t where it needs to be to handle this sort of addition to the game.

We’ll see how things look online — and against AI offline — in the coming weeks.

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