EA Sports UFC - jaredsmith83's Blog

jaredsmith83's Blog

EA Sports UFC

Posted on June 18, 2014 at 08:57 AM.

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I commented on the initial thoughts post on the main page, but I thought I would use this little area that I have to go into a bit more detail. I didn't want to take up a glob of space there. But here, ALL THE SPACE IS MINE! So, why not, right?

To preface this blog, I'll speak on my knowledge of UFC and MMA in general. I've been a fan for quite some time. I do remember seeing some of the first UFC fights with a good friend of mine and being a little amazed that someone the size of Royce Gracie could run through all these big bruisers the way he did. But, this being in 1993, I was only 10 years old and still enamored by professional wrestling and guys like Hulk Hogan. It wasn't until several years later that I came back to watching UFC. By this point, its popularity was on the rise, in the middle/late part of the 2000's. The Ultimate Fighter drew more attention and with UFC on after wrestling, it was easy to stick around and watch. It appealed to me, not so much in a brutish way, but in a sporting way. Very organic, very real. I had given up on pro wrestling before this, I guess I was "mature" enough to handle it now. I don't know all the history that some folks do, but for what I've seen and what I know now, I thoroughly enjoy it. Even now, although their shows are starting to get spread too thin with talent. Oversaturation maybe.

Thus far, in terms of gaming, I didn't jump on board with the UFC gaming until the PS3/360 generation. My first experience was with UFC Undisputed 2009 on PS3. I knew there had been other UFC and MMA games out before, but I never really had a desire to play them. But this was timed perfectly for the big mma boom, so of course it was a must have. And I enjoyed all 3 of the Undisputed games, with 2010 probably being my favorite although the Pride mode on UFC 3 was awesome. I even owned the EA MMA game, which finally gave us the chance to play as Fedor! Who I still think is a great, yet overrated fighter. Say what you want to that, I'm quite ok.

Now that we have that background lined out, I feel that I'm comfortable discussing the EA Sports UFC game. Out of the box, just looking at the game on screen, it is a truly beautiful game. This Ignite engine has impressed me so far in this and the FIFA 14 game. Fighters move very freely and don't seem to be stuck to the mat. The fighters look truly authentic and even have signature moves like Anderson Silva's hands down and Benson Henderson pushing hair out of his face. Little things like that were very well represented.

However.....and unfortunately, there are a lot of other little things that are left out. During a knock down/knockout sequence, the ref just hangs back and doesn't jump in. Same with a ground and pound TKO sort of thing. The match just...stops. To me, this is the most glaring omission. Referee intervention happens very regularly in the sport and with the new systems being able to handle more in terms of animation and such, this is something that should be in there. Also, I have yet to see any glove touching. Its a small thing, yes, but something that happens before almost every fight (save for those bad blood fights.) As far as the sights of this game, its a beautiful mixed bag. The animations are fluid, save for a random hiccup when strikes are being thrown at the same time. There can be a lag in some combos here and there, but so far nothing that has thrown off my offense.

I will say that, this game is frustrating as hell when you first start. It took me four tries to get past my TUF (Ultimate Fighter) qualifier fight! I was getting knocked out, cut, bloody, everything! At that point, I was ready to say the game just wasn't going to work for me and take it back. But, I gave it another shot and tried a different strategy. I went into it with the same sort of mentality that I had in the Undisputed series, where I could take a few shots and bounce back. But, it didn't quite work that way. However, once I came back into it a bit more reserved and not aggressive, I finally won my fight. Then that opened up well as I was able to time strikes better and block better, which opened things up considerably. So, my best advice from a strategy standpoint, is to go into it a bit less aggressive than you would have in Undisputed. Don't try to outslug your opponent in stand up. Especially right now, because the A.I. is strongly favored in the stamina department. I can throw a few punches and start to gas, whereas the A.I. can keep trading. Surely this will be patched, but just be conscious of it going into your fights.

The control scheme of this game can be a bit much at times. And its not all that well explained either. If you go to EA Sports website, they have a map that you can read to study up on. If that's your sorta thing. There are some modes where you learn moves, kind of a practice mode so to speak. But it didn't seem too in-depth. Plus a tutorial when you first turn on the game, but that's the same scenario with it as well. There's some questionable move mapping placements that confused me, such as the sway being opposite the block. It also seems a bit too modifier heavy and sometimes you're pushing two modifier buttons and another button to do a move. I think it could stand to be toned down a notch.

All things considered, this game isn't THAT bad. If you're looking to get in and throw punches with a buddy, this is a great game to do so. If you enjoy looking at beautiful graphics, oh heck yeah, step up to the plate and take a swing! But if you're looking for an authentic UFC experience, then you may want to wait this one out a little bit. And if you're looking at this game being the reason to purchase a new system, I believe I would hold off as well. As it stands right now, out of the box, this game is around a 6.5/10, if I were to give it a rating. Once they get some DLC flowing in to get the roster up to date and (hopefully) they patch up the stamina issue and minimal things, this game will get better. And if you are patient, that's a good thing, both in terms of waiting for a patch and fighting. Hope this helps you with your decision going forward!

Comments

# 1 RUFFNREADY @ Jun 18

Nice write up smits83; but there was one small (if you want to call it that) argument in your posting; the touching of the gloves, does occur at the beginning in most of my fights, but I haven't seen it throughout the fight, if that's what you were referring to.
cheers

# 2 jaredsmith83 @ Jun 18

Yeah throughout the fight was what I was thinking. I didn't quite clear that one up. Just seemed weird to me that wasn't a taunt option like it was before. I guess I should stop comparing the Undisputed games to this now, though. Thanks for reading and responding!