I've only messed with the striking last night, but they've brought it back to how undisputed did it (L1 high attack, L2 low attack, R1/R2 high/low defense) I got used to and ended up liking EA UFC's striking but Undisputed's is a lot better for people to pickup and play.

Character models and damage looks good, they just need to fix the frame rate, but so far it looks pretty good.

Anyone else get in the beta?

@belowstupid: I got in there - I honestly started laughing so hard when I KO'd the other guy that I thought about preordering. I'm going to try the finished product on EA Access first, as fighters and past UFC games are at most a 10 hour sweet spot for me anyway. Curious to hear finished thoughts from the Bomb crowd.

I'm doing the same thing.

It's 10% off with EA Access and EA Access is $6. Right now I'm playing the 10 hour trial, and if I like it I'll get it with the 10% discount. I might be done with it before that 10 hours.

I'm also doing the same thing with Need for Speed on the PC. I did $6 Origin Access to play Need for Speed for 10 hours. I did maybe 3 hours. I've seen all I need to see in that game, not going to buy it.

I played the demo (maybe I rented it) of the original UFC game and remember it being confusing as hell. I love the Fight Night games and this seems to be the evolution of that, but I can't figure out the grappling stuff for the life of me. The AI completely manhandles (sometimes womanhandles) me when we're on the mat. Most of the time I can't tell if I'm the one in control on the mat or not. I also seem to never be able to counter take-downs from the AI, even after doing the practice for a bit.

That's exactly the vibe I got from the demo and why I actually liked it - I would get taken to the mat and pretty much just forfeit because I couldn't figure out the grappling or mounts - and honestly didn't care to learn it.

@joe_mccallister: I watch mma. I can see it being difficult for someone who doesn't watch mma. Is there a manual with the game that explains positions for you guys?

Looking forward to picking this up today. I played the demo and the grapple game destroyed me. However, I've been getting more into UFC, and after watching the Quick Look, I decided to buy it and dedicate some time to learning the mechanics more.

I'm loving the Ultimate Team mode, I usually don't like those modes because it's always seemed like you are constantly changing and losing players, but with the way this is set up with the cards being your moves that don't have a lifespan, attributes that are permanent, perks that can be switched out and fitness/stat boosts that are temporary(chin/leg/body health, toughness) I feel like I can really get into this mode, both the online and single player version.

Definitely going to take me a while to get the ground game down completely but I like it so far, and I'm sure once I can remember which direction is going to be each transition the same way I can remember what combination of button presses/left stick placement is going to throw a move without having to really think about it I'll really like the system, much more realistic as far as your options go.

If anyone on ps4 wants to have some fights I'm always up for getting my ass kicked

PSN: ehbunner420 Just do me a favor and put Giantbomb or GB in the friend request

@travisrex: I honestly don't know - it'd be interesting to get into the actual strategy of the fights though, I only know what I've seen in the big fights I've watched at parties. Namely "don't let em get the arm bar dammit!"

Man I'm an avid MMA fan but I don't know if I can justify pulling the trigger on this one. I think UFC Undisputed 3 was the best MMA game I;ve ever played, I was pretty bummed when EA got the license and put out EA UFC 1. The striking there was alright but the ground game was absolutely trash. I tried the beta for this one and it actually looks like they've managed to make the ground game worse. I know the Undisputed ground game was "complicated" or whatever but the transition and reversal system was so much more intuitive than EA 1 and for the new one there's something about just pushing a direction that I can't stand.

Also I'm not 100% clear on transition defense on the ground but what I have gleaned of it sounds terrible, I know it involves holding the right trigger and pushing a direction but if I push right and the opponent transitions left does it just not work? In the THQ games you simply held the stick left or right and you blocked transitions in general, the caveat was that you could not block strikes while you did this. If you're forced to pick a direction and it prevents blocking strikes that just seems silly.

That's where I'm at with these games. No one has made any of that fun and it just detracts for me. I still think Fight Night Round 3 was the best they've done mechanically and since then they messed up that series and then these MMA games have had pretty fun stand up but the rest is just awkward, mechanical, and most of all not fun.

Fight night champion is the best combat sport game ever made and i hate that they let fight night die to make these ufc games. I thought ea mma was alright with the analog control but the rest just feel like arcade brawlers with overly complicated button commands. I wish they had built off the mma game instead if trying to emulate the thq ufc games.

@overnow: To be fair you don't hold the transition block ahead of time now it's a reactionary thing so you're not really giving up blocking punches because when they go to transition they aren't throwing strikes, and just like real jiu jitsu you need to block the move they are doing(and like real jiu jitsu you have more than 1 or 2 options to transition to).

I think a combination of it potentially needing a little tweaking on the size of windows to block a transition and knowing the controls a little better will make a huge difference in the long run of this game. As it stands I hardly ever remember to use the advanced transitions and can't get the timing down of blocking transitions, but I put that more on me not mastering something not the mechanics being a poor choice.

But who knows maybe I'll be on here in a couple months complaining about the terrible ground system, I'm just not ready to write something off when I can easily see the problems being my own. Also I never got up to undisputed 3 because of the awful striking system in the first game so I could see where it might be disappointing if they had a better system and now you're playing an inferior one.

Anyway I just wanted to play devils advocate and make the argument for the other side as I don't feel it's as bad as people are making it out to be and reminds me of people complaining about the striking in EA UFC when the problem was that they just hadn't put the time in to understand it.

@joe_mccallister: As far as strategy, Standing I find a lot of success with using a lot of jabs(either y/triangle or x/square with no left stick input depending on which foot is forward) to set things up mixing in head and body shots often finishing with a leg kick(same deal as jabs/straights no L stick input)

Pay attention to the reach of the fighters, if you have a longer reach try and find the range where they are just inside of your range but you're out of theirs, if you don't have the reach try and get on the inside and stay in close unless you need to regain stamina or get rocked.If they are messing you up on the inside try switching to parrying their strikes from a medium distance and follow up when you can.

I try not to over do power shots and throw them when they make sense. An opening for a kick perhaps after you've made them miss by being just out of reach, land a crushing headkick, or if you have a powerful hook/uppercut/elbow/knee throw that in the middle of a combo, i.e. Jab, Jab, lead hook to the body, Power overhand, leg kick

Basically it boils down to mixing your strikes up, going high and low utilizing the jab and leg kick to stifle their offense throwing in more powerful strikes when it makes sense, and finding the range and timing that works best. There is a few other things you do in real fighting that I do in the game but I'm not sure they actually matter in the game. I always try and keep the center of the octagon and I try to circle away from their power(rear) hand, it may or may not matter in a meaningful way but I feel like it makes a better looking fight but that's probably just me

As far as the ground game you'd pretty much always rather be on top than bottom, the more your legs are between you and them the better, full mount being a position you really don't want to be in with side mount not far behind and really it boils down to mixing up strikes and transitions/submission attempts...I'm sure there is more to the strategy of the ground but that's about as far as I've got it, I generally just try and get back to the feet, and so far my opponents have done this as well

Damn this ended up being a long post that sadly is most likely filled with a bunch of redundant information and not the kind of thing you were looking for but I do like to try and help....key word there being TRY

@ehbunner: Awesome reply! Thanks for the tips - I think our discussion of Fight Night reminded me of what the purpose of each strike - jabs and front kicks to make a bit of room for the longer range strikes. Damn it now I'm going to get into this game. And with the Division staring at me - oh well it'll be a nice variety.

I am so conflicted on this game. I love how it looks and mostly feels. The ground game looks so much better, much more natural. Though at the same time the simultaneous transition stuff needs to be tweaked, the windows for which player wins seem way too tight. I often have it happen where my meter will totally fill and I will start the full animation to transition only for the opponent to suddenly transition (even with transitions that make no sense such as them moving into Side Control from Half Guard while I am in the process of pushing them into Full Guard). The window for blocking transitions needs to be increased as well, as right now there is no reason to try and defend a transition when you can just do your own.

Striking hasn't been changed a ton in my opinion but the general flow and feel has improved. Some of the desperation stuff seems a little unresponsive, I think it is less the game not registering me blocking but more the game not letting me know I am KO'd making me think I still was in the fight.

Career mode is massively better now and Ultimate Team seems fun, even if I find the online as bad as every EA Sports game online. Like the idea of picking and playing out upcoming events.