Old-school cool via free download

Martial artist Bruce Lee is in EA Sports UFC, somehow. You can play as him after b?esting Career Mode on Pro difficulty or higher, or instantly if you pre-ordered the game. Because money.

That's how it was, anyway. Electronic Arts is now offering Lee (for all weight classes) as a free d???ownload on PlayStation Network and Xbox Live until January 5, 2015.

So do that, if y?ou want. Or unlock him the hard way.

The post It’s now easier to unlock Bruce Lee in EA Sports UFC appeared first on Destructoid.

Causing brain damage never looked so good

Usually when I'm watching two grown men be?at each?? other up, their names are Ryu and Ken.

I am a fan of a good fight in games, but aside from the occasional boxing match I have never been very interested in MMA. After watching trailers for EA Sports UFC, I figured now might be the ??time to st?art to learn the sport through the game.

EA Sports UFC (PS4 [reviewed], Xbox One)
Developer: EA Canada
Publisher: EA Sports
Released: May 20, 2014
MSRP: $59.99

This is the biggest MMA game release since EA Sports MMA in 2010. The game features a roster of 97 UFC fighters, as well as two DLC characters: former UFC superstar Royce Gracie, and Bruce Lee. The first time you start, it presents you with an 18-step tutorial which shows ??you how to do everything from throwing punches on your feet to breaking submission holds on? the ground.

Unfortunately, right after the tutorial, you are presented with your first fight.?? I hesitate to use the word fight, however, as the opponent had knocked me out within 30 seconds. Not a submission tap out, or a win by decision, just a cold hard knockout.

The tutorial at the beginning is both too dense and not specific enough. It is too dense as it presents you with several options on how to win, but if you forget the specifics of one you are out of luck. If you want to be refreshed on, say, how to start a submission hold while you are on top of your opponent, you may think to access the player handbook from the pause menu. However, when you select this, you are just prompted to visit the EA Sports website for a digital version of the guide. Pressing start to look at your controls is something that has been in not only fighting, but boxing games for years and it could have really bene??fited UFC.

There are also dozens of moves you can use at any time which can be very overwhelming. Each punch or kick (controlled by the four face buttons) can be modified by holding any direction or a shoulder button, and are different depending on if you are holding your ??opponent or not. It's not unlike in a fighting game, where without playing around with one fighter for hours you will not know which move to use in which situation.

Unlike fighting games, however, there is no accounting for frames or combos you need to practice, so a lot of the time y??ou will find yourself in a situation where you and your opponent both try to punch each other and both awkwardly miss. There is also a m??inigame when trying to put your opponent in a submission hold that is fun when it is two human players who understand it, but incredibly easy to manipulate against the AI, leading to easy wins.

When you're on the ground after getting pummeled, you really start to notice how beautiful this game is. Everything from the glistening sweat dripping down characters, to the detail of the muscle -- this game is beautiful. UFC really shows off the power of the current-gen consoles. I think it's the best-looking sports ?g??ames out today, and definitely high on the list of all games.

The career mode does a much bet??ter job at teaching you how to play than the tutorial. I would suggest starting it immediately after you get beat up by the AI for the first time. You can choose one of the game's fighters or your own and take it into a simulation of one man's rise from nothingness to Spike TV celebrity. Before your first fight, you get a more detailed version of the tutorial which breaks things down into simpler, repeated commands that you have to master if you want to stand a chance. There are also frequent FMV cutscenes from UFC president Dana White, which is really goes at odds with the game because it looks so good, but obviously not as good when you're just seeing video of the humans the simulation is trying to emulate.

The character creation process in UFC goes above what you would come to expect. You can make everything from the typical scary-looking UFC dude who unironically wears Tap-Out clothing and walks into the ring? to “Radioactive” by Imagine Dragons to a dreadlocked giant with the same chicken tattoo seven times named Turducken Hammerfist. It has stat manipulation like other EA Sports games, with attributes based on a style of fighting you can select like boxing or greco-roman wrestling. It also has a sort of perk system where you can have three different loadouts for your character, and different abilities based on standing offense, ground game, or defense that you can set up and choose before a fight based on your opponent.

After completing a career mode, the versus mode is where you ??will be spending most of your time offline. The way it operates is smooth and easy, and great for both MMA fans who want to see their favorite athletes duk?e it out to fans of the game who want to test specific matchups. The online is completely functional, and presented a mostly lag-free experience for me.

EA Sports UFC is an odd package. It might be too deep for fans of MMA to get into, and ??not cohesive enough for fans of fighting or boxing games to get into. Walking away from the game, I have no desire to go watch an MMA fight anytime soon, but I am not turned off from it completely. I can understand why it is only growing in popularity.

I would recommend anyone with a little bit of interest in the sport and a lot of patience check out EA Sports UFC. There is a fun game in here somewhere -- it's ju??st behind a lot of barriers.

The post Review: EA Sports UFC appeared first on Destructoid.

As expected

My gut reaction to hearing that Bruce Lee would be playable in EA Sports UFC was "Huh? That's a bit odd." In recent weeks, I've come around to find his inclusion to be i?n good fun.

If you remain unconvinced, here's a video in which various UFC figures do their best to justify his virtual debut in the Octagon. It's also a good look at him in the game, something we haven't seen a whole lot of up until now. Lee is unlockable by clearing the career mode or pre-ordering.

The post Here’s Bruce Lee kicking ass in EA Sports UFC appeared first on Destructoid.

Game is out June 17 for PS4 and Xbox One

Legendary martial artist Bruce Lee will be a playable character in EA Sports UFC and with that knowledge, I can't imagine why you'd choose to ?pla??y as anyone else.

Now, EA is taking the usual "pre-order the game for access" ro?ute but, thankfully, Lee is not restricted to customers who reserve the game -- they're just getting him quicker. Everyone else will need to clear the game on pro difficulty or higher, unlock?ing Lee for play in the Flyweight, Bantamweight, Featherweight, and Lightweight divisions.

"The EA Sports UFC development team has been incredible to work with, and they've done a great job capturing the look and feel of my father," said Shannon Lee. "I think people will love getting a chance to fulfill a fight fantasy by playing Bruce Lee in the new UFC game."

Here's a new trailer for EA Sports UFC with a few seconds of footage showcasing Bruce Lee?:

The post You can play as Bruce Lee in EA Sports UFC appeared first on Destructoid.

Nip tips

When I previewed EA Sports UFC last E3 my intent wasn't to write erotica, but I did, a little. Similarly, my intent when I watched this UFC?? trailer wasn't to focus on the highly detailed, true-to-life nipple recreation on each fighter, but I did.

And after watching the video four times to examine the nips, I noticed the crotch bulges. It's not my fault. They didn't show off any fighting to distract me with. Just enviable examples of the huma?n form.

For the first time in the series, the new UFC will also feature female fighters, who don't have faithfully recreated nipples because they wear tops. EA Sports UFC is coming to PS4 and Xbox One this spring.

The post EA Sports UFC fighter??s look great, have detailed nipples appeared first on Destructoid.

A first for the series

For the first time in the history of the official UFC game series, female fighters will be playable in the upcoming EA Sports UFC.

“This is a great moment for videogames and for Mixed Martial Arts,” said Dean Richards, General Manager, EA Sports UFC. Dana White, UFC President, also added that “since we added the Women’s Bantamweight division earlier this year, the women have impressed everyone.&rd?quo; 

The full roster hasn't b?een announced yet, but Batamweight champion Ronda Rousey and top contender? Miesha Tate will be featured in the game.

The post Female fighters will be playable in ??the new UFC game appeared first on Destructoid.

Erotic

EA wrangled glistening, sweaty hold of the UFC license in a closeted deal with defunct THQ and have a game, EA Sports UFC, in ??the works for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One slated for spring 2014. Here at E3, we were shown a presentation about the amusingly named title and a brief snippet of pre-alpha footage.

The focus of EA Sports UFC is, as one might expect, realism. All the fighters have had a 3D head scan in order to help represent their likeness in game and the tech demos of facial animation shown off were pretty neat. Nothing as terrifying as Lebron.

Then again, behind me was a row of monitors with animated, subtly moving facial busts like Futurama's head museum, all looking at me, menacingly.

In addition to fighter likeness and facial animation, EA Sports UFC is touting touches like "real time skin discoloration" as the result of submission holds and visible veins that pop out even more distinctly when fighters are exerting force. We're ?far beyond the days of joking about developer's freaking out over player sweat physics.

Additionally, the game will feature real time damage with much more ??variety than we've seen in the past. Before, a player might develop a cut and then several more blows would be needed to make the cut visibly worse and everything was very linear and repeated. Now, a hard-hitting elbow could open a blood fountain 15 seconds into a fight.

The game's director also touted the soft and squishy body physics of the new game that also our soft human fo?rms to mold over and interact with each other du?ring submissions -- no more hands floating next to a character being held.

All of this was a pretty i??mpressive tech display, so hopefully the game itself holds up. The snippet of real time action we were shown looked great despite being pre-alpha. With EA's new Ignite engine, the players appeared to have sufficient weight and heft and everything appears to mak?e contact. You can even do moves off of the cage.

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