Sports! EA’s UFC series has done alright for itself over the years, pioneering the digital pugilism of the Ultimate Fighting Championship across multiple games. It’s nowhere near as good as wrasslin’ mind you, due to it having a distinct lack of Five-Star shooting presses, story angles about undead wild west morticians looking to keep their winning streak alive at an annual showdown and a complete disregard for abandoning the rules so that people can see three stages of hell Armageddon matches. Nice gloves, wimp.
Before my head gets caved in by a legion of Monster energy drink guzzling bros flaunting the peacock colours of Ed Hardy clothing and going on about some soldier guy, here’s a look at the next game in the series, EA Sports UFC 4:
This year’s version includes Israel “The Last Stylebender” Adesanya and UFC welterweight contender Jorge “Gamebred” Masvidal on the cover, two brawlers who could probably turn me into a human pretzel with their big toe. One of the big changes this year is that UFC 4 will feature a more relaxed control scheme, after fans complained that previous games required your fingers to be yoga masters just so that you could pull off something as simple as a headlock.
You’ll now be able to use the face buttons for strikes, clinches and takedowns, with the attacks being more damaging the harder you press those keys. For grappling, players will focus on the left analogue stick and its new series of commands: Push up to get up, push left to engage in a submission, push right to mount your opponent and then you can start treating their head like a slap-happy side of meat. Overall, expect the transition between moves to be more fluid and simple.
For the right stick, there’ll be two new submission games that you wiggle that control in, with developer EA Vancouver being inspired by wrestling games for this feature and abandoning the “Break walls” of previous UFC games. Career mode has also been spruced up, with EA Vancouver aiming to make the mode less repetitive and feature greater options for customising your striker as you work your way up the match card.
EA Sports UFC 4 currently has a release date of August 14 for Xbox One and PlayStation 4, although there’s no official word yet on when it’ll deliver a one-two transition to Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5. There’s no mention of Fight Island either, but the game does have the next best thing: A bloodsport arena that looks like the perfect venue for a 1980s Jean Claude Van Damme action flick.
KUMITE! KUMITE! KUMITE! KUMITE! KUMITE!
Last Updated: July 13, 2020
Original Heretic
July 13, 2020 at 09:17
What? Attacks are harder if you push the buttons harder?
EA: not content to milk you with MT’s, they also want you to cough up for a new controller every month.
Skyblue
July 13, 2020 at 12:24
I’ve been pressing buttons in fighting games as hard and fast as I can since I discovered Streetfighter II in 1991 at the corner cafe’.
Original Heretic
July 13, 2020 at 13:50
I broke an Xbox controller due to the first UFC game.
Not die to hurling it, but just due to the constant circling motion required to lock in subs.
Skyblue
July 13, 2020 at 14:22
I hear that. I used to physically twist the frigging controller in the grappling sequences without realising it.
Kervyn Cloete
July 13, 2020 at 14:41
Ugh. I hated that.
Original Heretic
July 13, 2020 at 14:49
I LOVED that game!
I hated the second one, where the subs suddenly become some sort of cat and mouse crap.
Llama In The Rift
July 13, 2020 at 09:28
Regret waking up early for that Main Card fight of Usman vs Masvidal,
Thought Usman would go the striking way like he did with Colby but Masvidal did a good job controlling the damage in the clinch and ground, just was not enough.
Max Vs Alexander was good, Alexander did just enough in the last 2 rounds to snatch decision victory though most argue Max got robbed, Dana himself acknowledge it and the problem with Judges and Ref’s
Rose and Jessica was great fight, though girls, Rose really worked on keeping distance and clean strikes on Jessica.
Petr Vs Aldo was a awesome fight, late stoppage by the ref though, nasty cut Aldo got from that elbow.
Skyblue
July 13, 2020 at 12:51
I don’t know what fight that ref was watching but he let Aldo take way too much damage. That’s a couple years off his career right there. Jose’ is a 3 round fighter now. Father Time isn’t kind to anyone, especially combat sports contestants.
Original Heretic
July 13, 2020 at 09:35
Can’t fault Usman for what he did.
Like he said, he wasn’t training for Masvidal, so he had to make adjustments. Going in to strike with Masvidal when not 100% prepared? You’re asking to get KO’d.
Llama In The Rift
July 13, 2020 at 10:06
Yeah was pretty much expecting a mauling to be honest, considering what Usman did to Woodley and Colby, Masvidal got of lite from that fight.
Rematch with both teams at full camp should be interesting to watch.
Kervyn Cloete
July 13, 2020 at 10:11
Yeah I definitely want a rematch with a full camp for Jorge. You could see in the opening mins how dangerous he could be for Usman… and then the gas tank just totally disappeared. Not unexpected. Dude was walking around at 192 lbs five days before making the 179lbs weight limit
Llama In The Rift
July 13, 2020 at 10:27
Usman knew Jorge’s conditioning was not gonna be on par with that weight cut in 6 days notice, so clinch against the cage and defending take downs was gonna gas out Jorge pretty quick, think Usman was a bit surprised that Jorge lasted all 5 rounds and how good his defense in the clinch and on the ground was for such a short notice fight.
Kervyn Cloete
July 13, 2020 at 10:29
Exactly. Which just proves that they need to run this back properly. But Gilbert will get the next shot, and then maaaaybe Jorge gets the winner.
Llama In The Rift
July 13, 2020 at 13:04
Wonder….Connor might go after that BMF title or a re-run with Nate, if any of those fights net’s him more cash than a title shot he would go for the money…..But Gilbert and Usman should be interesting….both have the exact same fighting style but it’s to be expected, they are training partners.
Skyblue
July 13, 2020 at 14:38
I hated the idea of this fight the moment it was announced. I love watching high level ground games but when they can nullify each others strengths it usually does provide a decent match-up as the fighters have to improvise. As it stands, Usman does need a Burns or a mid-2000’s Chuck Liddell who simply had the best takedown defence during that era. Things have evolved though.
If only Khabib was big enough to take on Usman, that would be fun.
Original Heretic
July 13, 2020 at 15:01
If Khabib was bigger, he’d rule the world.
Skyblue
July 13, 2020 at 16:15
I agree to an extent. He doesn’t have the best standup game but he can drag anyone down. Dagestan wrestlers have a massive wrestling culture and that’s why he’s been so successful. He will get caught by a striker eventually however. Everyone’s “0” has to go.
Original Heretic
July 13, 2020 at 16:24
He uses his striking to close distance. That’s mainly all. Cause yeah, he’s got holes there.
Which is why it was so surprising when he actually knocked Connor down in their last fight.
Those Dagestani’s are freakin’ dangerous…
Kervyn Cloete
July 13, 2020 at 16:54
Well, when you wrestle bears as a kid…
Original Heretic
July 13, 2020 at 17:04
He did that recently again, not sure if you saw it! Even though it was actually kinda playful.
But it’s not just that. Dagestan is historically one of the most contested regions in Russia. There have been so many violent uprisings there.
Quite a few Olympic level wrestlers have been killed in police shoot outs.
Kervyn Cloete
July 13, 2020 at 10:11
Max won that fight. All three judges gave that 3rd round to Volko which just boggles my mind.
And I’m very happy that Rose won as I’ve been a fan of hers since her Ultimate Fighter debut, but I wouldn’t have been too upset if Jessica took the W. She looked massively improved. Finally putting together proper technique with all that brawling and power. Rose just scraped by to beat her.
Llama In The Rift
July 13, 2020 at 09:28
So just Izzy left to see if the EA curse strikes again.
Masvidal looses as soon as the game got announced with Izzy and him on the cover.
Game looks like a re-skin from UFC 3, not so much improvement graphical wise.
Skyblue
July 13, 2020 at 12:12
Masvidal took that fight on 6 days notice, cut 20 pounds and then still went 5 rounds with a beast of a “jock sniffer” as Conor likes to call wrestlers. I always had Usman down to beat him unless Masvidal could pull a rabbit out of the hat like he did against Askren.
I stopped playing the UFC games after the first iteration from EA (I loved the THQ titles) as the controls were just too frustrating.
Llama In The Rift
July 13, 2020 at 12:51
Gained allot of respect for Masvidal, was a bit curious if he was just all talk but i get where Masvidal comes from, dude is from the streets as you can get, this fight gave me an idea of just how dangerous Masvidal can be if he had a full camp and some preparation.
Skyblue
July 13, 2020 at 12:52
He’s done pretty well for a guy who used to bare knuckle box alongside Kimbo Slice 20 years ago. He’s also far more developed now. He’ll never have a world class ground game but his takedown defense and resilience are outstanding. You can’t break him in a fight… I used to say that about Tony Ferguson as well though…
The D
July 13, 2020 at 15:15
This entire thread…is this what it’s like when I talk Destiny lore?
Skyblue
July 13, 2020 at 15:15
No Darren. This thread is based on reality ;-p
MechMachine
July 14, 2020 at 10:24
@Darryn_Bonthuys:disqus Did you know that Bloodsport was entirely fabricated.
The D
July 14, 2020 at 10:48
Dude, Bloodsport is my favourite film based on pure bullshit. Like I’m well aware that everything about Frank Dux is a lie, but it’s a hell of an entertaining one.
MechMachine
July 14, 2020 at 11:44
Dang, foiled.