I can’t stand the new EA Sports UFC game. I bought it, excited as could get and it turned out to be dog shit. The game is a FRACTION as good as UFC Undisputed 3, and even 2010. I’ll tell you some reasons why before thinking about it gets my blood pressure up again.
If you’ve even played UFC Undisputed 3, you will hate this game unless you’re an idiot. That is a fact, even though it’s really just an opinion. This game has a smaller roster, by far. It has poorly animated moves and punches. Sometimes, the fighter’s arm or leg will twist or twirl in the air or on the ground. The punches are slow-nightmare punches. The ones you throw that don’t hurt the guy who ends up kicking your ass (or in my dream’s case, gets his eyeballs gouged with a hooked-thumb).
The game lags MAJORLY BAD online. I don’t know what the netcode is for this, but I assume its a 10 MB file for every hit, since I seemed to experience delays of a second or more for every swing in some matches. At one point, I stopped swinging, mentioned it (since I was Twitching, a phrase that would have sounded like I was on speed in 1990), and my character took two more swings before stopping.
Bruce Buffer, who in the previous game, did his signature, lively voice-work, delivers a completely unrealistic lackluster performance here. He almost just casually says the line, while his character in the game mimics someone screaming their guts out. This is poor, lazy voice-recording by people who should be fired or who should get a crash course in quality.
Electronic Arts also displayed its cheap nature by removing at least one fighter’s tattoos, making the guy a vanilla version of his real-life counterpart. Read more on that here.
I don’t know where to begin with the submission system but here is the best example I can offer. Do you remember the game “Simon”?
Imagine having two of these, one under each hand, and attempting to play simultaneously. THAT is how the submission system in this game is!
What you actually must do is use the right joystick to block your opponent as he presses UP, DOWN, LEFT or RIGHT to escape. Then, a few seconds in, a light blue bar will appear in a direction, UP DOWN LEFT OR RIGHT, and you must press in that direction with the left joystick – all the while, still countering your opponent with the right joystick. You have around one second to press the direction with the left joystick and then your opponent will escape.
In previous games, you would rotate the joystick around in a circle to avoid your opponent who was doing the same and the submission move either advanced or was slowed and countered depending on who progressed. In this title, it actually functions like the fighters are slow, turn-based robots. Reality-wise, it’s terrible. Game-wise, it’s also terrible because it’s incredibly difficult to do a submission vs. relatively easy to escape one. Add that you must advance the move, for some insane reason, and it makes it look like you’re studying a frame-by-frame account of a fight. If you hear or see someone defending this submission system as better over previous UFC games, you know they are a fucking dumbass.
The blocking in this game could have been a redeeming quality but unfortunately, it is nothing of the sort. For some dipshitted reason, EA chose to use the right TRIGGER button in the blocking process. That’s right – I said IN the process, because you can’t just block by pressing R2. You now must press R2 and Triangle, Square, X, or Circle (or whatever the XBOX One’s stupid buttons are). Doing so will allow you to block either high or low. If you miraculously hit the button combination at the right moment, you might even parry a punch giving you a chance to throw a slow-molasses punch back at your foe.
Trigger buttons are the WORST choice for block in wrestling and fighting games. They take a second to press, vs. a button that presses instantaneously. Why is this a problem, some moron may ask? Because all of the punch or grabble buttons are INSTANT buttons and this one takes time to press! So for that reason, in itself, it’s a flaw. But in this game’s case, you have to press an instantaneous button AND a trigger button and somehow, do it at the same time. Stupid stupid stupid.
I hate the menus in EA games. This one is awful too. You have 4 or 5 windows you must move side-by-side through to do whatever you want. It isn’t organized very well and it takes a month to get to options if you want to do something.
The commentary is pretty good but it always has been in UFC games. However, it’s not as good as the previous games.
The graphics in this game, for the fighters, look insanely good. Too good, in fact, because not enough time was spent on punch animations, falling animations and other movements. So, even though it looks like two real guys are standing there, it also looks like they are 90 year old men in a play fight when one punches the other, the collission doesn’t have the glove even touching the face, and the man lays down (not falls down, lays down comfortably) to simulate the effect of being knocked out. You can’t even punch your opponent while they are DOWN after knocking them out! That’s something you could always do previously.
The training modes are not very good, either. For starters, the “intro” training you do when you first play the game will not be enough. You will get your ass destroyed if that is all you know and go online (trust me). So you must go through many hours in the training section to learn how to do things in this game that have been changed from previous UFC titles for no reason. You must use R1 to throw some punches, meaning you must have your middle fingers on the triggers. Some punches require you to use L2 + L1! Both triggers on the same side at once. I don’t normally hold my controller that way, so this game is audacious enough to tell me I need to use a trigger with my middle finger. Yeah, not a natural movement guys.
Also, your training partner is an idiot in many instances. I was doing a session where I had to dodge the guys punches and throw hits back, but he would simply stand there for many seconds at a time, without throwing a punch! Then, he would open up on me, somehow hitting the exact opposite spot I was blocking every time. Often with combos that didn’t even make sense. This is supposed to be a training partner – not a fuckface.
This is just lackluster EA Sports trash and for the people out there saying it’s a good game or a “respectable first round” they’re full of major shit. It isn’t worth a damn and I’m going to take it back.
UPDATE: 6/20/2014
i’ve been playing more and I noticed something. The submission system seems to change colors sometimes, and I can’t figure out what it’s for. Maybe which corner you’re in? I don’t know, but this adds another LEVEL of confusion to the already ridiculous submission system. Just as you figure it out, they change the colors for the joysticks. Is EA Sports Canada or whoever made this trying to be as complexed as possible?
Also, on a Playstation 4, it’s unacceptable for your game to fucking lag when it’s offline but this game does. Punches and kicks and movements and button combinations lag so obviously, if someone doesn’t notice it, it’s not because “theirs is working right,” – it’s because they’re not perceptive enough to notice things.
Here is what I thought about UFC Undisputed 2010. Or check out what I thought about UFC Undisputed 3, compared to this!
Your spot on this game is a steaming pile of crap
Please do not buy this game, save your money. My opinion on this game; It sucks.
this game is unrealistic horse shit.
Your comments tell me a few things about you. One, your hand coordination sucks. You can’t push L1 and L2 at the same time? That’s pathetic. Two, you just like complaining. Trigger button has a delay on press? Either you lack the ability to find the button or the strength to push it…either way see a doctor. He will either say you are mentally challenged or experiencing muscle deterioration. Third, you’re incredibly stupid. The submission system confuses you? I just submitted four opponents in a row without a problem. If you can’t handle moving two joy sticks at the same time you must hate every shooter game ever made. If something as simple as two different colors throws you off I would suggest you quit playing video games. I would hate to see you play tetris. “Why the f**K are the blocks different colors?”
Congratulations on your 4 submissions in a row. I’m working on Gracie Pride and just submitted Rogerio Nogueira and Jon Jones in career mode, so it isn’t that I can’t do the submissions – I can. The problem is that this system is fundamentally frustrating. When some of the indicator colors are the exact color of the mat, you can’t see what to do in time.
I’m glad you’re enjoying the game. I checked with my doctor and he said EA’s UFC sucks, too. In fact, the search engine terms for people finding this article include:
“i hate the sub system in ea ufc”
“ea sports ufc submission system sucks”
“ea sports ufc submission slow”
(those were actually three in a row, today)
The list goes on, full of people typing “EA’s UFC sucks” or going with something more specific about it that sucked. Whatever the case may be, thanks for the Web traffic.
Ya FUCK EA!
End of story.
Everything said here is pretty much my opinion as well. The striking is sluggish and riddled with clipping issues as well as plenty of over-powered strikes. The game also seems to beg you to constantly throw strikes if only for the random Health Events they will yield. (also the move set is extremely limited.)
The submission system is a huge mess of an over complicated system that is more luck than timing based. Even though I myself sucked at it, I would say the shine sub system worked the best with the cat and mouse system of UFC 3 coming in second. (also you can still spam a submission attempt if you somehow do wind up in trouble.)
The grappling however is the real low point in this game for me however. Filled with awkward pauses and next to no way to land any real damage unless your opponent is the cpu or wholey incompetent on the ground. Couple that with the mind numbing inclusion of full guard to mound transitions and it’s really obvious that the devs just had no idea what to do with the grappling side of the game at all.
The transition from full guard to mount is ridiculous. This might be my favorite reply on the site to date. Thanks for coming by.
Although I agree with some points on here, I also enjoy the game. Like you stated the graphics are insane, may have spent too much time on it. You just seem to have some issues with the way you play. Although, it is quite different and not quite as good as the older UFC games, once you get used to it the sub system isn’t as horrible as people make it out to be. If games weren’t challenging what fun would they be? Only a grade school kid would be confused by it.
I cant even get my guy to start a submission, I just get battered by the guy on the bottom as I try to do it R1 + push right stick left right up or down, does nothing, works in the training mode though, I did a guillotine submission in training & the guys head isn’t even under the guys arm or trapped at all, really bad. I don’t like that you don’t see the damage on the other fighters face at the end of the round like in the other UFC games & that you cant do follow up punches when you get a KO so you just stand there throwing punches at thin air & look like a retard in the replay.
Oh my god! Thank you! You have just covered what I have been telling my friends about this bandwagon jumping game. You can tell the developers creators and everyone included in making this game know nothing about ufc, where is the the touching of the gloves, why can you only view entrances during a title fight, why does it take 16 consecutive wins until you get a title shot in career mode, how come I only fight caf idiots instead of actual real ufc fighters, why do I get the same video messages over and over in career mode, how come I am forced to retire after I get promised a title fight during my last fight, why can you not pounce on an opponent after rocking them, oh my god I could vent for hrs on how this game is a complete failure. I just bough the xbox one for this game! Now I’m taking both back. Graphics are amazing, menu and options suck, wow I can play online. But not every weight class is even available and each weight class has like 12 people in it. Haha ea, you suck my friend. Thank you for covering my frustrations with the game.
EA sports UFC is a horrible game,
Again EA has ruined another game by covering up huge flaws with pretty graphics and morons are too dumb and gullible to know the difference.
I feel every fighter pretty much feels the same to fight with, theres no diversity between move sets.
The ground game is so shallow and boring, and theres no lead up to knocking someone out, when your ground and pounding you get no sense of when the fight is going to end…couple of jabs and the figgts over and your sitting there like you just watched a romantic comedy with the mrs and not a big epic ufc match.
Commentary is robotic, submission I think an improvement from undisputed 3 but personally I liked the shine system best.
EA should give this title back to THQ and stick to makng shit recycled madden and fifa every year.
Yeah is game is garbage..the only good thing is the graphics but everything else is trash…ea has fucked this game up big time. The fighting doesn’t make sense…I don’t feel like I’m playing in the octagon but instead playing in a backyard…the punches and kick doesn’t make the same impact as you see on TV and I just wasted $99 on a game that’s not even as good as ufc undisputed 3…your meant to make the game Better then the predecessor not worser!!!
Sounds like you guys just plain don’t know how to play the game at all. Dumbest article ever. How is a trigger hard to push? lol. And its every hard for you oppnenent to escape a submission if you know how stamina works, stats etc. Learn how to play before writing some trash like this.
Learn how to spell for replying with some trash like this.