You’ll get a chance to impress the big man himself, earning a UFC contract as a reward. You’ll start off scrapping in the fictional WFA, eventually attracting the attention of Dana White in his “Lookin’ for a Fight” YouTube series. Sure, you’ll have to make decisions like balancing fight camps against promotional events to build your personal hype, but overall it’s about how you perform in the ring. In practice, the team made the wide decision to keep the bright lights where they belong - in the ring. The whole system reminds me of games like Fight Night Round 3, which is no surprise as EA Canada was behind the wheel of that product, as well. Like any good fighter, you’ll also want to take a moment to try to get into your opponent’s head through the new social media system. Ken Shamrock anyone?), creating a rivalry that’ll bring in fans. As you take out other fighters, you’ll eventually make somebody dislike you to your very soul (Tito Ortiz vs. Do you become a gym rat or push the hype by talking smack and pushing the excitement? Bigger draws mean bigger contracts, but the higher you rise, the further you fall. That belt doesn’t come without building a reputation as an exciting fighter, so in between you’ll get the chance to make a few choices to build your hype. After you build your fighter (as in the second game, there are multiple archetypes - striker, brawler, balanced, grappler, and submission specialist), you’ll start on your journey towards the ultimate prize - a shot at the title. Not unlike EA’s other sports titles, UFC 3 now has a fully featured career system. You can make some real “interesting” looking characters. There are far less flash knockouts, and overall it’s a more clean execution for the physics engine this time around, or at least in my two dozen hours with the game thus far. Similarly, getting tangled up on the ground no longer results in obtuse angles and bizarre physics engine freakouts. The striking feels more authentic, and clashes like two kicks push the fighters back as you would expect. In the ring, these new animations make for smoother movement, far more realistic looking outcomes. It helps alleviate the feeling that every fighter has the same front kick, and rounds out some of the more unique movements of specific scrappers like Yair Rodriguez and his kicking style, Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone’s Muay Thai skills, Stephen Thompson’s picture perfect hook kicks, and Champion Conor McGregor’s overall general swagger. Dubbed RPM (Real Player Motion), the team has added over 5000 new motion captured animations that every fighter can use in the ring. With a staggering roster of over 200 fighters, each with motion capture to bring every bad tattoo, ring entry, and celebratory move to life, it’s amazing to think that the developers had time to go back and add even more animations to the mix. This is a pretty big fight card, so let’s get to the tale of the tape on each of these new features. Ultimate Team re-enters the ring with a few new tricks up its sleeve such as Ultimate Team Solo Challenges, Ultimate Team Sets, and a vastly expanded combined roster of Create-A-Fighters and real-world brawlers and grapplers. In addition to that, we see the return of Knockout Mode, a new Submission Showdown, Stand & Bang, and a completely revamped Tournament Mode. Since I’m primarily a single-player fighter (though I dabble in the online fight game), I was most interested in the all-new G.O.A.T. Using every bit of the 18 month development cycle, the team at EA Canada has had plenty of time to shore up its previous efforts with new features, as well as delivering a handful of new ones.
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Can this one break the split decision curse? Iiiiiiits TIIIIIIME! EA Sports UFC 3 fresh off its year and a half long training camp returns to the fight. I also knocked it for its thin career mode, cheating AI, and raised an eye at the real world money-fueled Ultimate Team.
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In my review of this second outing I praised the vastly improved animations, the new Knockout Mode, and the new expanded female roster. Ronda Rousey and Conor McGregor both graced the cover, and both lost their titles shortly thereafter, continuing the “EA cover curse” tradition from its Madden roots. Fast forward to March of 2016 and EA returned to the squared circle for another round with EA UFC 2. As I wrote in my review of EA Sports UFC, the EA Canada team had perfected the submission mechanics and raised the bar for what the visuals of a fighting came could be. That was in 2014, and EA had taken over the UFC fight game after the collapse of THQ. Jon Jones was one of the most powerful fighters ever to step into the Octagon, Ronda Rousey was the reigning undefeated champion, and the most dangerous fighters on the mat were coming out of the TUF house.