After the mixed reviews, mixed reactions and awesome glitch videos, I wasn’t sure if EA would create another UFC game. But here it is. EA has announced EA Sports UFC 2 and — perhaps worryingly — it’s making its debut without a shred of gameplay footage.
This tweet, for example, posted yesterday is literally a number inside a shape. That’s it. And a promise for more today.
The Wait is Finally Over! Tune in tomorrow. pic.twitter.com/r8fQnsEWZg
— EA SPORTS UFC (@EASPORTSUFC) November 9, 2015
As a huge UFC fan I was keen to see precisely what the game looked like, what improvements were being made, etc. So I awaited the full reveal with anticipation.
Here’s what I got:
This is quite literally a video game trailer without a video game.
It’s a series of highlight reels, slow motion knockouts, edited alongside some generic ‘sports’ music and a voiceover with a series of promises. That’s it. A very strange debut indeed.
Especially when you consider the reaction to EA Sports UFC, a game that disappointed many MMA fans, casual or otherwise. A game that ended up being notorious for its bugs. You’d think EA Sports UFC 2 would come out swinging, but no. It’s a very strange unveiling indeed.
According to the EA Sports UFC Twitter account, this trailer is “setting the tone” for a full feature reveal this coming Friday. So hopefully this is just the start of something a little more substantial in terms of gameplay footage.
Setting the tone. #EASPORTSUFC2 full feature reveal this Friday. https://t.co/VJTRKS4JjT
— EA SPORTS UFC (@EASPORTSUFC) November 10, 2015
The game is scheduled for Autumn 2016 in Australia, which actually isn’t that far away. It reminds me of the way the original EA Sports UFC was revealed to fans — EA didn’t reveal footage of EA Sports in action until relatively close till release. Maybe the team feels like that’s the best course of action here?
But most likely EA has decided that this week — in the lead up to UFC 193 — is good timing for the announcement of the video game. Ronda Rousey is fighting in the biggest live UFC event of all time and a lot of mainstream eyeballs will be on the sport of MMA. It makes sense to announce the game now. I just want to see the actual video game.
Comments
11 responses to “We Don’t Know What EA’s New UFC Game Looks Like”
Looks like it will crash and burn spectacularly.
Why do you say that?
I got the impression that EA really rushed out the first game to capitalise on the new licence and while it was bare-bones it still set a pretty decent platform. There’s lots to tweak but they’ve given themselves a full two-year cycle to do it.
That trailer is the standard EA-brotastic affair, but it doesn’t even have gameplay!
Not a lot of focus on grappling in that trailer, which is kinda what I expected.
I enjoyed the last UFC game, but it was a (very fun) brawler first and foremost, with takedowns only being used as a cool way to mix up the striking.
I’m not volunteering to do it, but they need to find a way to make it easier to hold guys down without making the game frustrating as hell. It’s a bit ridiculous when the guy on top in mount has the same chance of landing a single strike as the guy on the bottom does to escape (both requiring a single input).
They also need to fix the frame rate something fierce. The 1st game (on Xbone at least) was jittery as hell once the fighting stopped. The slow-mo replays, cut aways and camera changes all ran at sub-15 fps and stuttered all over the place.
Still early days though. Colour me excited!
The biggest bug bears of mine on UFC was that you could strike someone about 500 times and it wouldn’t take them down. I understand that you can power up each arm and leg individually but they should put more weight on a knee vs a jab, they seem to be equal. So I could knee someone in the face on full power about 20 times and they just cop it down to 85% health, very lame.
The grappling, I dunno…. in theory it was decent but in practice it was super annoying. Basically whenever you were about to KO an opponent they would just take you down and waste time. Maybe that’s actually how it happens in the real world but it felt kinda like a cheap out to me for opponents.
In it’s current form I preferred to strike but maybe if the grapple system was more fluid then I’d consider trying to dominate that side of things a bit more.
One thing I thought they nailed in the last game was the balance between the timing and stuffing of takedowns, so I didn’t have that problem much with people taking me down once they were hurt. Shooting for a takedown is a common sense strategy when hurt (both in real life and in the game) so you normally know if it’s coming and can just sprawl.
I agree that the fighters were generally damage-sponges and that the game didn’t do enough to differentiate between strikes. The game had baked-in “counter damage” for the strike that followed a counter, but failed to account for extra damage if the fighter is off balance, misses due to range or falls into something. It’s pretty annoying when you can counter a jab with another jab and be rewarded for it, but the game registers a flying knee to an opponent who’s dropping into a takedown the same was as it would if he’s standing up.
Like the grappling balance it’s another thing that’s REALLY difficult to replicate in a game without being frustrating. In a sport as dynamic as MMA, how do you replicate the craziness of a 5 second KO, doing what Clay Guida did on Sunday and getting choked out on your first takedown attempt or the small nuances that mean Demian Maia is a beast from top-position without being frustrating or inconsistent?
Disappointed in that it looks like there will be no PC release. I do remember some of the developers/community managers hinting that a PC release was possible but I’m not surprised with this result given how few EA Sports games are released on PC.
I loved UFC3. THQ had MMA down to a fine, fun, arcadey art. It was easy to be OK at, but hard to master, especially on the ground. There were barely any massive bugs, the very occasional, easily forgivable minor hiccup here and there but no falling through the floor or going through one another or anything like that.
Me and my mates played it ALL THE TIME. Tournaments, Pride mode (clearly the only mode), it had everything. Absolutely loved it.
Upon hearing EA had purchased the license I knew they were going to pump out garbage but thought what the hell I will give it a go. EA MMA wasn’t COMPLETELY terrible though still nowhere near UFC 2010, it was playable.
Well. I downloaded it on PS4 when it was 50% off a few months ago and couldn’t have been more disappointed. It was as if Dana White had just walked into my apartment and straight up bricked in the middle of my carpet, called my mum a slag, spat on me, flipped me off and walked out. Mind boggling glitchy, slow menus, boring tutorial, and the fighting was just awful. Truly, truly awful. Super spammy, completely unbelievable signiature attacks, no real flow. Just a mess. The character models were OK, but that was literally about it.
Unless they have hired THQ’s production staff and told them ‘Make UFC 4. Make it as well as you possibly can’, I am not going through that again, and I love the UFC and MMA in general.
Its sad it has become what it has.
Your summary is more harsh than mine but I get the sentiments and agree with them…. how could I forget how damn slow those menus were sheeeeeesh.
They show motion capping and the collision system with a model of Gus’ head…
And then there’s a few views of the UI – They at least had some stuff in there!
I think you hit the nail on the head there EA probably wants the trailer out before 193. Although i cant figure why they wouldn’t have a trailer already done if they knew the date for so long.
they fooled you mark, that entire trailer was in-game footage… 🙂 #notreally