To the people that have the game how is it? I haven't seen any reviews i didn't mind the demo but i am hoping that the full game is a bit of an improvement. I didn't mind the submission system once i figured it out in the demo. It came out to day in the uk and i was gonna go grab it but would like some peoples thoughts?

It's good, not great. The systems they have for standup are solid and enjoyable, but the ground game isn't very well done. There are lots of little issues that just make it overall unpleasant for everyone involved, so ground and pound isn't a very viable strategy and most fights will spend the majority of time on the feet. The game itself also does a pretty terrible job of explaining its own mechanics. If they tweak a few things with a patch regarding the grappling, it would be easier for me to recommend it.

On a positive note, the game really is beautiful. The animations, collision physics, body deformation, and fighter likenesses are near flawless. Overall I don't regret my purchase, but hope that EA supports it with some much needed patches. The current meta of low 70's seems about right.

Great looking game but that's about all the good things I can say about it. Major disappointment for me personally, if I didn't buy it digitally I would've returned it.

It looks great but it's a big step back from the previous games. While they nailed the fighter likenesses, everyone plays exactly the same (sharing the same special techniques and animations). There are also a lot of glaring omissions to the roster. TJ Dillashaw (the current bantamweight champion) isn't in the game and a bunch of fighters who are in the top ten of their division are missing. That weird stuttering from the demo that's in the pre-fight scenes is still in the retail version and there are performance hiccups during the fights as well.

Career mode is barebones, and the AI isn't really all that fun to play against. The basic structure of it is cool, since it takes you through the ultimate fighter show and then onto UFC cards, but there's not much else there. You have no options when it comes to picking your next opponent, it's literally whoever Joe Silva puts in front of you. Then you play 3 very tedious training mini-games in between fights, and you're rewarded with evolution points. These points are either dumped into your stats or spent to learn special techniques (the Anthony Pettis off the cage kick, superman punches etc.). After every fight they play a very poorly produced video of either Dana White or a fighter unenthusiastically reading a generic script at you for 30 seconds and then you repeat that cycle. You gain fans and sponsors as you go, but so far I'm about 7 fights into career and it doesn't seem to do anything other than decorate your shorts.

It's hard to get a realistic combo going since the AI is both really aggressive and parry happy. It doesn't feel like there's any point to using the basic strikes (jabs, leg kicks) to set up combos since they don't seem to stun and the following strike is immediately parried. Leg kicks are especially useless in this game since you can't get a tko and the stun state only prevents your opponent from kicking. They can still spam takedowns and any other strike. The game kind of forces you to just sit back and block/parry and then counter with a heavy strike or you can get a thai plum and just endlessly blast their face with knees. It seems like the only thing stamina has an effect on is your ability to block effectively. So the AI will spam attacks even though they have no stamina left, and can easily transition/reverse position on the ground when in the past games they wouldn't be able to. The ground game is really simple and submissions only seem to depend on your ability to play their mini-game and your fighters submission stats. I've gotten out of and locked in subs with no stamina.

Unless you plan on playing local/online multiplayer this game isn't worth it.

Played a good amount of career and a few online matches now. I'm not really enjoying it and I think I know why. There is little to no feedback in a lot of things. You and another person can wing punches nonstop until your stamina runs out and you connecting with your hits doesn't negate their swings it appears.

Mostly the ground game just feels bad. Sometimes it seems like I'm trying to transition several times and my character doesn't even do it. Not that it's being blocked but It's like it ignores my input. Not sure what's up with that. I'm constantly spinning the stick to make something happen and it only happens part of the time so it barely feels like I'm playing the game.

I'll keep playing but the more I play the less I want to.

The bigger the MMA fan you are the less you'll like it. Casual, only play the games, know who GSP/Anderson Silva/Jon Jones are but no one else, you might have a good time. If you liked Undisputed 2010 you'll probably love this. If you're a huge MMA fan the stuff like being reversed from top side control to bottom or guard to bottom mount will drive you nuts. The wrong gear and lack of walkout music won't be acceptable. Overly agressive AI. The dev teams siguature comeback AI. (Which is even more totally unrealistic here than in NHL.) All those sorts of things. It's very arcade like. I was excited when they got the lisence because EA MMA was great but a different team made that game.

Disappointing from everything I've read

I am a more than casual but not hardcore MMA fan and I am enjoying it, it is not that great though. The AI is overly aggresive most of the time, though it is fairly easy to deal with that and punish both the AI and other players for playing that way. The Career mode is pretty weak but at least it is fairly streamlined compared to previous games. The main core fighting I really like though. The striking feels great to me, easy to tell the severity of a strike and playing defensively is much easier now. The ground game is pretty much the same as the previous games with the exception of a slightly improved submission system, needs a lot of work in future installments but it is much better than the mashing from before. I can see it being a tough buy for many at full price. With all that said the game looks incredible, the fighters look great, the damage modeling usually looks really good, the animations work well, and the refs look weirdly really good.

I would pretty much say that if you like the other EA sports games, then you will probably be able to get into this one. Just like Madden and NHL it has some rough AI at times and does lean towards arcade more than sim.

@thelark: I tried to bring it back...so...not good.

Most people that I've seen complain played it for a few minutes and didn't get it. This isn't really a pick up and play game. You have to learn the controls. MMA is not something that's easily translated to a controller.

I've heard numerous complaints about the grappling/ground system and it kind of boggles my mind. It's not really any different then past games.

I picked it up yesterday as part of my "I've never played sports games before" experiment. So far, viewing it as some kind of werid, hyper technical, fighting game, I quite like it. It could do with a few more modes but it looks great and I'm having fun with my two created fighters (one of which is just a human punching bag with high stamina but low everything else)

Alright the online can be totally gamed it seems, just had a fight where the other guy chose Valasquez (like every single person playing Heavyweight) and I go Dos Santos. I land about 300% more significant strikes than him and all he does is take me down and try two really bad sub attempts. He seriously attempted somewhere around 25 takedown attempts in a single round at one point. The fight ends up going the distance and he wins by decision, likely because he has so many takedowns (you can only defend so many), even though I landed vastly more significant strikes and defended 90% of his takedowns and reversed/got up from the successful takedowns within a few seconds. So yeah kind of salty but also totally annoyed that it seems like you can cheat the scoring system with pointless takedowns.

This is what I'm thinking, I played all the THQ games and this feels almost identical...I can't be crazy, do I have to go back to Undisputed 3?

I'm having a pretty rotten time with it when it comes to the ground/submission part of the game. I've already created a topic expressing my problems with the tutorials.

That said, the stand up always feels like a war and the game looks incredible compared to the old entires. And there's a DMX song in it.

Overall I'd say the game is ok. Not great, maybe not even good depending on you love of the sport or understanding of the ground game. I wouldn't pay full price for it.

I went and grabbed it. I am liking the stand up but as said the ground game is shite to put it politely. The really frustrating part is when you feel you are doing the correct motion with the analog stick and its just not transitioning well. I am enjoying it though i just try to play it like fight night with kicks!

@taargus_435 It looks great but it's a big step back from the previous games. While they nailed the fighter likenesses, everyone plays exactly the same (sharing the same special techniques and animations).

this was one of the main things that worried me from the demo. Is it seriously just "press Superman punch combo to do Superman punch?" I don't watch UFC but I wasn't under the impression that was a move everyone did. I feel like in the THQ UFC games it was, like, Chuck Liddell's signature finisher or something?

@nodima: The superman punch has been used by a lot of fighters but it's not a really common technique (GSP was known for using it a lot ). Chuck was all about swinging wild overhand punches. I meant the ridiculousness of almost everyone being able to do the jump off the cage kick that Anthony Pettis is famous for and only actually did once. Cain Velasquez who is a heavyweight and uses a more boxing focused style of fighting irl can do it in the game. Most of the roster can also do some crazy cartwheel kick and jumping switch kicks that most fighters aren't able to do irl, especially not during a fight. The AI really likes to spam them out too and it ends up looking ridiculous. They all share the exact same takedown animations as well.

It was bad in the Yukes games and it's bad in this. Say what you want about EA's first MMA game but the transitioning felt a lot more reliable. (I thought the stand up also seemed more natural even if you didnt have as much control over it) The stand up in this feels as though it lacks the impact of the past MMA games. The career mode is also tedious as hell, it wasnt great in the other games but you at least had a lot more options between fights that made things more interesting. (the option to skip training was nice)

It does look good though.

While I do think the game has a lot of nuance that is completely overshadowed by how the AI never lets the match turn into it (mostly due to them being very aggressive and your stamina completely depleting faster than their do, for some reason), I am still enjoying it and hope they learn some things from feedback for a future release. Also, as someone playing a Heavyweight career, I am a bit disappointed by how many slender "Light Heavyweight" looking fighters the computer generates to fill the roster for me to fight.

A double edged sword I've found is the career balance. I am playing on Easy (becuause it feels like in this game Easy is Normal, at least compared to previous MMA games last gen) and so far I have played through Ultimate Fighter up to getting the championship title and done about 6 title defenses and one Super Fight against a Light Heavvyweight. I will have maxed out all of my stats (100/100/100) with my next win and I have unlocked more or less every move available and unless I remember something wrong, they said the career will end when your fighter has taken too much damage over their career and that bar for me isn't even half full. Am I going to have to play my dude until he's 95 years old in order for him to retire? At this point I am feeling pretty "done" with this career, but I am guessing he needs to retire for me to get him in my Play Now roster with his actual end stats.

The good aspect though is I hate playing career in sports games where your dude is constantly underachieving in stats and you end up with a retired dude in the roster you can use outside of the career mode that has shitty stats. So in that regard, it's great.

The in game tutorials simply suck, if you guys have problems with the mechanics should check out the video tutorials on EA's website here

It doesn't excuse the game, but the ground game is pretty much the same as before, its just not explained very well at all in the game.

@penderton: Not having the proper in ring gear and walkout songs is a function of licensing and UFC not wanting some of the stuff in the game (jones not being allowed to show his Nike logo at 172 cough, cough, cough)

All the negativity bums me out, I was really forward in getting in when I buy a PS4 down the line and really enjoyed the THQ games. Such a shame EA couldn't take the good things from those and improve on that.

I bought this game and have been playing with friends and have done nothing but enjoy what I've been playing. We've been doing Bruce Lee mirror matches which almost changes the game to the point where it should just be called "EA Sports' Bruce Lee". Honestly you need to just do the submission tutorial, and for ground transitions to get out of the mounts by holding L1 and right stick movements. Once you learn that you can dominate the ground.

It is better than people have been saying it is. Play it with people and mess around and be impressed with how the knockouts and models look.

It looks amazing. I'm really enjoying the striking element of the fighting, but anytime the fight "goes to the ground game," it's a nightmare.

lol at least the judging sounds like the real thing.

So it really is a simulation.

But then Nike is a sponsor in career mode. Regardless, the excuse doesn't matter. It wasn't a problem before and if it is going to be a problem they can do better than the default generic shorts. Like they couldn't add some yellow to Silva's? Even with the walkout music, they have a Linkin Park song in the game and then Machida doesn't have Bleed It Out? They got *a* DMX song but more than one fighter uses a DMX song so why do they only have one? The soundtrack in general is mostly rap/hip-hop when there's a wide variety across the UFC.

The problem with the ground game is the ridiculous transistions. Some of these just don't happen. Others happen incredibly rarely but are a frequent occurance in game. A sweep into mount from bottom guard for example. Has it happend in real life? Yes. Has it happend every fight? No. Not only that but they're doing it with 0 stamina. The other problem that I've seen is the AI will spam transistions while you're on top of them (also with 0 stamina) and all you can do is defend which eventually leads to a stand up, even in side control. You'd have to be having a nap on the other guy to get stood up from side control in a real fight. But that's ok because at worst you can spam submissions and win by decsion. Which reminds me of another issue, when you apply a sub the AI oft ends up in an advatageous posistion they have no bussiness being in. But that goes right back to having the ridiculous transistions which are then yours to use.

Career isn't great either. You've got no choice in training. My guy is 20-0 and has thrown a total of 17 strikes in his entire career (all on the ground no doubt) but I have to try and train kicks? There's a humorous lack of effort in the fighter videos. Particularly BJ Penn and Rory McDonald. Urijah Faber is the only one that seems like his normal self. No choice in who to train with either. Just drop guest fighters in there. I wouldn't spit on Dominick Cruz if he was on fire, sure don't want to train with him. Which reminds me there's no personality either. There's no chance to touch gloves at the start of a fight. There's only the scene during main events but there's no choice there either. GSP touching with a Diaz, bahahahahahahahaha.Put in the Bell Centre and Diaz didn't even get booed, in fact he got cheered. There was a "GSP" chant during the walk-in then a "Let's go Diaz" chant when the fight started. In Montreal. Against GSP. No.

Forget who asked but career automatically ends at 40 fights.

I've also noticed there seems to be a lack of standing submissions.

Could be worse, should be better.

It's an alright MMA game but is it worth $60? Not really.

I kinda also find the submission system hard to wrap my head around and most of my matches ended with me KO'ing the other guy. I DO like they make you start in TUF and make you fight random dudes until you get higher in rank.

Controls are overly complicated and while I practiced and took my time to try to learn it, I never felt that my inputs on the controller were translating to the action on the screen. Strikes lack impact standing and on the ground, fighters move sets are all the same regardless of styles. Submission system is fun in theory but against a human opponent you'll be lucky to sink one in at all unless they are completely drained of stamina.

I'll sum it up with one statement. This is the most disappointing game since Aliens Colonial Marines.