EA’s first foray into the world of MMA was considered a minor success with “EA MMA”. Featuring fighters not contracted by the UFC, “EA MMA” tried to produce a game that blended the control scheme of its “Fight Night” series into the digitized world of MMA. The results were mixed at best; leaving some players put off and disappointed. So there was a certain level of trepidation when it was announced EA would be creating the first UFC game for the eighth generation simply titled “EA Sports UFC”. After being somewhat underwhelmed with the initial release of “EA Sports UFC”, I came into the sequel with a sense of apprehension and, to a certain extent, an expectation for disappointment. My expectations were greatly dashed; becoming one of my go-to games on the PS4 from the day it was released until the end of the game’s cycle a month before the release of its successor. Before “EA Sports UFC 3” was released some gamers including yours truly got the opportunity to play a closed beta that eventually opened up and allowed players to experience the changes (or lack thereof) this latest MMA game had to offer – making me pleasantly excited for what was to come.
Did I Complete “EA Sports UFC 3”?
Just like the second EA UFC game, “UFC 3” provides a good amount of things to entertain one’s self both online and offline. After completing the mini-tutorial where the player takes control of cover boy Conor McGregor to finish a fantasy bout between himself and Tony Ferguson to help educate the player about the gameplay, “UFC 3” re-introduces the amount of variety the player can take part in including “Career Mode”. Like many career modes in the past, “UFC 3” allows for the player to create a male or female fighter and battle to the top of whatever division of ten the player chooses. Outside of “Career Mode” is the returning “Knockout Mode” and “Live Events” (the latter being a mixture of offline & online competition); as well as new modes such as “Tournament Mode” and exhibition modifying modes based around KOs and submissions respectively. There are also a pair of online modes featuring the journey toward championship glory – Ranked competition and “Ultimate Team” mode with the latter focusing on building a stable of fighters both potentially real and created to take on other players who have fighters ranging from digitized versions of themselves, to hulking, tattooed monsters (usually you’ll see more of the latter), to, most prominently, real UFC fighters.
Almost everything “UFC 3” has to offer is associated with a trophy/achievement – giving the player an incentive to test out everything EA has provided with this iteration. After nearly thirty hours of playing through the various modes, completing “Career Mode” and winning titles online in both “Ultimate Team” and Ranked competition, I was left with nothing but the grind-heavy leveling trophies associated with “Ultimate Team” and replaying “Career Mode” on the game’s hardest difficulty so I can eventually achieve platinum status.
Did “EA Sports UFC 3” Live Up to the Hype?
After two iterations and many improvements across the generation, “EA UFC 3” completely changes the basis of its franchise’s stand-up fighting system. Gone is the reliance on parrying strikes to complete counters & combos that could knock out an opponent in a flash. In its place is a focus on body movement, bobbing & weaving, swaying, distance judging & stamina conservation in a slower paced fashion compared to its predecessors. Rather than sticking with the previous control scheme when it comes to the type of thrown punches being connected to the movement of a character, each type of strike is connected to the face & bumper buttons. Every character’s base strikes are mostly the same with jabs, leg & body kicks, hooks & uppercuts attached to the face buttons. Pressing the bumper button(s) alongside the face buttons allows a fighter to throw modified strikes such as roundhouse kicks and spinning back fists. Holding the left trigger while tapping a face button focuses on body strikes. Using the right analog stick to move & sway the upper body of a fighter to set up a well-timed counter strike if done right or a potential knockout for the opposition if a player moves in the wrong direction really helps this version stand out compared to its predecessors. Holding the left bumper while moving the body allows for stamina-draining sways.
Unfortunately the control scheme feels a lot more awkward thanks to these changes compared to its previous offerings especially when it comes to blocking. In the previous “EA UFC” games, blocking the head by pressing the right bumper and blocking the body with the right trigger felt natural. Now the player is forced to block the head with the right trigger and block the body with both the left & right triggers. The input delay when it comes to blocking the body or to catch an incoming body or leg kick is rather annoying at times and can prove to be detrimental. Another issue with the controls is throwing uppercuts. Depending on what arm the player wants to swing with, utilizing an uppercut means tapping one of the punch and kick buttons at the same time. Depending on how your fingers come down on the controller can mean instead of throwing an uppercut the player might use a leg kick; leaving the fighter open to a devastating counter. After a while these problems don’t feel as profound, but the initial hours (especially if someone is used to the old style of gameplay) will be troublesome thanks to the new control set up.
Unlike the stand-up portion of the game, nothing has changed when it comes to the ground & clinch action outside of more indicators flashing on screen than can be turned off in the options menu. “UFC 3” utilizes “EA UFC 2’s” simplified grappling system where all the player has to do is hold the right analog stick in one of four directions. Thanks to the HUD, the player is told exactly what position in the clinch or on the ground their character will move to if the gamer goes left, right, up or down with the right stick. Just like the grappling in “UFC 2”, “EA UFC 3’s” transition action is less of a chess match and more of a game of chance as completed transitions might not be effective as the opposition somehow wins the “race” to a better position. The windows for blocking and/or reversing transitions vary; especially in the online realm. The submission system based around the “Gate” system where the fighter on the losing end of a submission would have to move the right analog stick in various directions in hopes of attaining freedom while the player initiating the submission would try to match their opponent’s direction while waiting for a prompt to move the left analog stick in a certain direction to advance the positioning and effectiveness of the hold is back again. There are several variables that make submissions effective in the game including a character’s attributes, stamina and the power level of the intended submission. But the system itself still feels flawed and rigid in execution. There’s a new “simpler” submission system based around mashing one button, but it’s pretty bad as well considering it can only be used offline and the AI’s meter never moves in comparison to the player’s to indicate who is winning the submission battle.
“EA UFC 3” keeps the tradition started in the previous game by featuring a slew of modes to keep one busy both offline & online. First there’s the aforementioned “Career Mode” where a player can take either a created character or a real UFC fighter through the ranks in hopes of not only winning the World title, but also becoming the “Greatest of All Time” by accomplishing certain criteria such as going on an undefeated streak or breaking pay-per-view buy rates all the while attempting to avoid enough damage in fights to stop deterioration of the “longevity” bar. Between the fights is what makes this iteration of “Career Mode” the best one yet as the player can choose to spend the weeks leading up to their fight building up a following of fans through means such as tweeting and holding after-parties to visiting various gyms to learn specific moves a la the best part of “EA MMA’s” “Career Mode” in gym traveling. There are video montages, random updates courtesy of the “UFC Minute” and even tweets from fans that either hate or love the player’s character. There are problems with “Career Mode” including the “adaptive AI” continuously boosting their stats alongside the player’s character; meaning by the time the player’s character reaches near the top of whatever division their fighter is a part of they’ll be taking on opponents with ridiculously high stats. By the mode’s end it just becomes random fights without much hype until either the player achieves G.O.A.T. status or their longevity bar wears down to nothing to force them into retirement. Even with its flaws, this is the first “EA UFC” “Career Mode” that might entice someone to play it again.
Also for offline players is the returning “Knockout Mode” – which is exactly what it sounds like. A player (or players) can pick two fighters to stand up and go to war (no grappling allowed) in the UFC version of “HORSE” where each character has a specific number of bars representing one’s health. With each significant shot comes a dwindling of the bar until one character is in a fetal position. “Knockout Mode” is a fun “party” mode where friends can sit around and see who goes down first. Why “Knockout Mode” isn’t offered online is beyond comprehension as it would be incredibly fun online just as much as it is offline especially considering Snoop Dogg is the special guest commentator for the mode. There is another pair of complementary modes for offline players including “Stand & Bang” (“KO Mode” without the meter or Snoop Dogg) and “Submission Shootout” (a grappling-only fight ending solely in a submission), but they don’t have the same level of pure fun as “Knockout Mode”. “Custom Events” mode (where you can create and play your own custom fight cards) is also back alongside the new “Tournament” mode and even “Custom Fights” for exhibition battles where the player can have fighters with even stats or a AI opponent featuring max damage potential.
And then there’s the online portion of the game. Not shocking, “Quick Fight” and Ranked online modes return with the latter focusing on a player not only winning titles, but also moving up numbered divisions where the higher the division the harder the real-life competition (most of the time). Connections and finding fights are usually strong and easy respectively, though I’ve witnessed a few laggy encounters. The biggest addition to “EA UFC 2’s” online offerings returns here as well in “Ultimate Team” mode. In “EA UFC 2”, “Ultimate Team” mode allowed the player to create up to five fighters to battle other online competitors with the intent of moving up the leaderboard, earn coins and become a champion while attaining and/or purchasing card packs that contained moves, supplementary items & perks. In “EA UFC 3”, “Ultimate Team” focuses not on created fighters, but randomized real UFC fighters taking one of four slots depending on the division (Lightweight, Middleweight, Heavyweight & Women’s Bantamweight divisions)that fighter is associated with in a rounded manner (all women are Bantamweight fighters in the mode for example).
These UFC fighters are attained from card packs that can be earned by the player leveling up their team through completed fights, spending coins earned from completed fights to buy packs, or using real money to buy EA Points to purchase those packs (card packs can also be obtained outside of the mode thanks to “Live Events” mode – a fantastic, pseudo-fantasy UFC mode where the player is allowed to “bet” on upcoming events with the potential of winning card packs depending on who walks away with the victory and in what way during the next UFC event). Thankfully the player doesn’t need both points & coins to buy packs this time around, but buying with coins cost usually ten times more than buying with points. Attained fighter perks and certain boots are limited to a certain number of fights while moves are unlimited. Also changed is the division title rankings. Instead of having every division separated by character wins & losses, the chance of fighting for “Ultimate Team” gold solely depends on a three-fight winning streak culminating in a title fight. But for the improvements & changes to the benefit of “Ultimate Team” mode there’s one crushing modification: a lack of created fighters.
The original premise of “Ultimate Team” mode was using created fighters to take on other created fighters. In “EA UFC 3’s” version, created fighters – the options for creations being almost on par with the last game including “Game Face” implementation minus a couple of odd things such as not being able to have a belly as a Light Heavyweight fighter – in “UT” mode are strictly connected to tokens – a new implementation to the mode where the player must sacrifice a variety of items be it high-level moves, perks or even fighters, or play the various “Solo Challenges” to attain tokens that can be redeemed to purchase randomized created fighter cards. One of the key words in the previous statement is “randomized”. Every fighter attained in a card park has a random set of stats and, most importantly, a randomized fighting style. While one person could get a striker-based McGregor in one pack, another could get a grappler-based version – the same goes with created “UT” fighters.
This takes away the freedom & fun from the last game where a player could choose how they wanted their created character to fight out of the gate and modify them as they saw fit. While some might condemn the mode as “pay-to-win”, the fact is this version of “Ultimate Team” mode is more disappointing for hindering the key thing that made the original iteration so great (using created fighters built from the ground up to take on other created fighters built from the ground up) than whether or not someone is using a character jacked up with purchased gold-star moves & perks. There are also “Solo Challenges” and a single-player aspect of “UT” mode to get those tokens & card packs, but neither is a fulfilling experience.
The graphics, which were a highlight in the last game, are somehow better this time around; especially when it comes to the created fighters when put side-by-side with real fighters. The animation can get a little janky at times with clipping and unbelievable falls, but nothing close to the ridiculousness of “EA UFC”. The commentary courtesy of Joe Rogan & Jon Anik is rough with fighters getting called by the wrong names, repetitious commentary, and moments when Anik might ask Rogan a question and gets no response. There’s so much to enjoy about “EA Sports UFC 3”, but certain aspects when it comes to both the modes such as EA focusing on real fighters at the expense of created fighters in “Ultimate Team” mode and the grappling system having the same problems as the last game really drags it down from being the greatest of all time into something a gamer would consider just another contender.
Should You Play “EA Sports UFC 3”?
The third iteration in this now four-year-old franchise is nothing short of a mixed bag. For previous “EA UFC” players, the change in how the stand-up works might be a major turn off, but those coming in with an open mind will definitely find great joy in improving their fisticuffs game the more someone plays. For newcomers, the control scheme and overall flow both on the feet and on the ground might be a little too overwhelming. There are a slew of modes to keep things fresh, but the biggest draw when it comes to online competition in “Ultimate Team” doesn’t fully improve upon its predecessor while “Career Mode” is worlds better compared to the previous iterations. Coming from a dedicated “EA UFC 2” player, this is definitely worth a rental to see if the game clicks with you. Overall it’s a lot more enjoyable if you’re someone ready to adapt and accept change, but there are definitely glaring flaws that makes “EA UFC 3” standout as something not worthy of a full-priced purchase.
