EA Sports UFC

[sportdan30]

I'm not real sure I'm going to purchase this game, but the first gameplay video is pretty darn impressive.


http://www.pastapadre.com/2014/05/20/fi ... play-video

[Pete1210]

Video was amazing until the fighting started. The kicking and fighting animations had an arcade fighter look to me (too snappy) and it killed the immersion I was feeling up to that point.

[Macca00]

Video was amazing until the fighting started. The kicking and fighting animations had an arcade fighter look to me (too snappy) and it killed the immersion I was feeling up to that point.

Agreed. In screenshots I also thought this game looked incredible - reminded me a lot of the first time I saw Fight Night on the 360 - but in motion the fighters seem stiff, particularly the transitions between animations.

Are these the same guys who made the impressive UFC games on the 360?

[sportdan30]

Demo set for June 3rd.

[grtwhtsk]

Anybody try the demo yet? I downloaded it last night, but haven't given it a go yet.

[TCrouch]

Played it quite a few times last night. Surprisingly got KO'd 3 or 4 times even though it's on Easy mode. At first the controls are tough to come to grips with, and the CPU fighters are hyper-aggressive unless you really move around a lot and use leg kicks and things to try to keep them at bay.

It's much more of an arcade brawler than a sim, but on easy mode, I would expect it. The ground game is interesting, in that you have to hold the stick one direction to get ready for a transition, THEN move it to advance. Think of something like slipping your leg out of half-guard to get ready to transition to side guard. If you're on the ground, you can see the leg movement, and holding R2/RT and moving the R stick to block it blocks that transition. The longer you hold R2/RT, the weaker your guard gets, so you can't just sit there all day holding the block button like in THQ's UFC games.

The striking is too fast and looks very jerky, like some transitional animations are missing, but it's not something that will bug me so much I can't play it. It's just that the guys LOOK so good standing still, that it's almost the uncanny valley effect once they start moving.

Takedown defense takes some focus to execute well. if you're backing away with the L stick and the CPU fighter shoots for a takedown, you have to LET GO of the L stick, then hold R2/RT, and hold down on the R stick. There's a lot of finger gymnastics going on in each fight, so I don't know how accessible it will be.

All in all, it's pretty much what I expected. It's got a lot of flash, the fighter intros and presentation is top-notch, and the fighting itself can quickly appear to be closer to Street Fighter than UFC. But when you get another 10 fights under your belt, you find that quick movements (flicks of the L stick, as there's no "RUN" button, oddly enough) and in-and-out techniques really are something you can execute. Plus it's kind of nice to just move back and hit punch to throw an upper cut, rather than strange combo presses. You can flick L stick in, pepper the CPU with a couple of head shots or body shots, and then flick back. As he tries to chase, hold back and upper cut. Had a nice KO that way when you start to really get in a zone.

I think the bottom line is that guys who like fighting games and aren't necessarily UFC fanatics will dig it. Guys who want a UFC sim-style game will have a lot of issues with it, at least based on the demo on Easy (which you can't change). I'm fine with a game in between, and can look past the non-sim stuff, but I can see it turning some gamers off.