UFC 3 and earlier games listed specific holds and postures for the player, and asked them to choose which one to attempt. On the plus side, now it only gives me the information I really need. Once locked up, though, the simplified grappling worked with and against my intentions.

In UFC 3, where the command was a trigger and the right stick, even when I had backed up my opponent and had a good opportunity to go for the takedown, I often ended up matadored into the cage. Going straight to a takedown (trigger and face button) is more viable. Starting a clinch also felt a lot more purposeful, using a face button and bumper modifier. Strikes are as thwacky as ever in UFC 4, but the stamina penalty for spamming them is more severe, especially if you’re trying to finish a hold later. Takedowns from the standing clinch position felt a lot easier, and consequently, a lot harder to defend against, even with both triggers held down as the game instructed.

That’s a very basic approach to fighting in the UFC games, and with it, the new transition grappling system really does shine. I seem to remember things going that way in EA Sports UFC 3, as the game starts you out in the lowest of three competitive tiers and gives you ample time to build your fighter into someone who can handle the big time.Īfter getting worked over, even by my sparring partners, in the game’s introduction to the fighting basics, I found my tried-and-true ground-and-pound game gaining traction in my fighter’s first few bouts.

Maybe I’m supposed to get my ass beaten badly (in a parking lot, no less) in the onboarding scenarios during the game’s single-player career. The new grappling/transition system UFC 4 implements is definitely simpler, but there’s still a lack of feedback, leaving me wondering at times if I’m purposefully leaning on my left stick, or just spamming an input in desperation to advance or break free from a hold. This connective tissue of mixed martial arts is critical to the sport, but over three different video game series, spanning more than a decade, it has been inscrutable to my only casually interested mind. I confess some frustration with the career mode of UFC 4, despite EA Vancouver’s third attempt at refining the grappling, along with the transitions to stronger positions or to submission holds. But when the game’s release cycle is longer than a year, what happens to the folks in between? I mean the apostates, who may have the last game in the series but may have not played it in a year, which describes my situation with EA Sports UFC 4. Yearly sports titles try to straddle a line separating accessibility for newcomers and familiarity for lifers.

Ufc 2 controls ps4