EA MMA Game

Dav · 21-10-2010 2:55pm

I'll finally be getting stuck into it tonight too myself

Zero-Cool · 21-10-2010 2:59pm

Dav wrote: »

I'll finally be getting stuck into it tonight too myself

Pity you won't be on PS3, could get stuck right into an online fight!

JohnMc1 · 21-10-2010 2:59pm

SuperWoody101 wrote: »

I have a review copy.

Thanks SuperWoody. I'm jealous.

Zero-Cool · 21-10-2010 4:40pm

Gametrailers review finally up

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/review-hd-ea-sports/706486

Richy06 · 21-10-2010 11:35pm

This looks like a good first step for EA. I think the nest version and other future ones could be even better. I will probably pick this up. Was pretty disappointed with UFC 2010. I've played the Fight Night games and really like the striking system in those games. From the looks of it, the impact from strikes in this doesn't look great, but the gameplay looks pretty crisp. I'm in two minds over the transitions on the ground to be honest, it looks a little to easy?

DeVore · 22-10-2010 12:47am

I got a copy and I've played the first championship (5-0 w00t! go me

).

Feels good, fun but a bit hit and miss. The tutorial is pants and learning it takes some time but its not a half bad game.

Oh, I uploaded a bunch of submission videos and named them after each sub.... when it came to "Rear Naked Choke" EA's servers censored me and refused the upload. LOL

So, its cool to have kids smash each others faces until they are unconscious but its not ok to use the word "naked". wow.... someones morals are screwy...:)

Good game though and very true to the sport to be fair to it. Surprisingly indepth and not button-mashing at all really.

DeV.

Dav · 22-10-2010 1:02am

Well I've just been playing it for the last 2 and a half hours and here are my thoughts (slightly longer than I first though post incoming)...

I quite like it but I don't quite understand it.

The "Total Strike Control" with the right analog stick works very well I think and feels quite good. You will soon be making some sweet punch and kick combos and it very quickly becomes a control interface you don't need to think about.

The ground game seems too random and inconsistent to me and I would say the same for blocking. It's not clear if you just hold the button down to block/pass/prevent pass or if you have to hit the button at the right time. I've tried all manner of permutations and combinations with very little success. The tutorial does explain about using a combination of the block button and left analog stick to parry strikes and catch your opponent with a nice quick jab as they've over extended themselves.

Creating a fighter is as you'd expect from any EA Sports game. It takes about 10 minutes if you want to play with it, but if you're not fussed, you can sail through in a minute or two. Game Face is present as always, but having tried to use that once (in Tiger Woods 2010), I don't think I would do so again as the mutant creature presented to me on screen looked like something that should've been put down at birth

The tutorials are reasonably clear but I was left wondering how exactly I'd managed to finish them in the cases of the ground game and blocking as I mentioned. Sailed through my first 2 career fights (1st round submission and 2nd round TKO respectively) and then started training for my third fight (against a submission specialist with me as a kick boxer). When you train before a fight, you get to spar with a "scout" which is a computer opponent with a similar style and attitude to the opponent you'll be facing and I'm just getting tied in knots. They haven't submitted me, but I just cannot get off my back.

I guess this is one of the underlying traits of an EA Sports game though - they are more of a simulation of the sport than a game of it (if you get my meaning) and you need to have a core understanding of the actual sport to do well. I'm just an MMA fan, not a fighter, so that's probably what's letting me down. You can't criticize the game for being what it is when you don't possess the knowledge to learn the skills

However, this being their first foray into MMA games, I think they could be doing more to help new players.

Having won my first 2 fights, I had the opportunity to travel to another gym to learn new things (and this it seems will be an important feature of the career mode so you can learn new skills). I went to Xtreme Couture to learn from The Natural (cause who's gonna say no to that?

) and started training for my third fight. I was given the opportunity to learn some new special moves and opted for a new kind of pass on the ground. It's a clever way of getting you to skill up as you have to complete a challenge - in this instance, your opponent is in your guard and you have to get from there to a full mount in 1 minute. I never once came close to completing this challenge in what must've been 15 or 20 attempts. I just don't understand how it's meant to work and would imagine that again, this is because I'm approaching it as a gamer who likes MMA rather than someone who knows and understands MMA and fancies playing the game.

At that stage frustration kicked in and I just left career mode to have a look at the "fight now" options. There's all manner of combinations of arenas, rules, rings and a ton of fighters and styles to choose from. I think I might spend more time in this getting to grips with the game.

I can see myself spending many more hours on this, I'm just not sure what level of success I'll be having, but I'm definitely looking forward to giving the online mulitplayer a go too.

DeVore · 22-10-2010 1:15am

I had problems with that challenge too Dav (though I managed to do it, because I'm not a quitting little girlie-man

). But yeah, I agree it took me about 10-15 tries. When I did manage it I wasnt entirely sure how I had done it either. I was just glad it as over

DeV.

Zero-Cool · 22-10-2010 1:40am

Just played about 2 hours, really enjoyed it!! I cant go back to undisputed after this. typing this with ps3 joypad so will keep short an give proper update tomorrow. Lads, strike to pass is key. when u press X tmove position, opponent feels a rumble and will deny your move. if you throw a strike, they feel a rumble as well. so throw a few strikes then go for a position. hopefully they try to block a strike lettin you sail into next positon. also, body shots bring down stamina and they cant deny you if they have no stamina. used gameface, came out much better than ithought, need a better pic tho

o lads wit that Major Pass move, big risk/reward. pull it off and your in mount in no time. if opponent denies it tho, he sweeps you and swaps positions. will post review and highlight reel tomorrow. thanks again dav!!!!!!

Zero-Cool · 22-10-2010 10:29am

Hey lads, once ye register online within the game, you get a profile on the official site that tracks your records and holds your highlight videos. You can check out Fedor tapping me out on Legend difficulty

http://www.easports.com/mma/contender/id/177046337/name/sheehy83/platform/PS3

Here is a really good review as well from Cage Religion

http://www.cagereligion.com/2010/10/cagereligioncom-ea-sports-mma-in-depth.html

Here is a great vid on Ground tips by a dev.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTvkRye9icY

TheProdigy · 22-10-2010 12:39pm

Is this out today lads?

Dav · 22-10-2010 1:21pm

Yup, it's out today.

As luck would have it, I have 2 more copies to give away - one on PS3 and one on XBox 360! I arrived in this morning to find them waiting on my desk.

So I'm gonna start another thread for that shortly, just to keep this one on topic

fuzztone · 22-10-2010 2:16pm

Picked it up today after having mixed feelings about the demo. Luckily the demo is not a fair representation of this game at all, its fantastic! The difficulty levels are a lot more balanced and the AI doesn't spam take downs anymore. I'm delighted to also see that you can pick Dublin, Ireland as your hometown for your created fighter (take note THQ).

JonnyF · 22-10-2010 2:37pm

what fighters are in it? I know UFC fighters won't be there but what about some of their affiliates like WEC are Uriah Faber and Mike Brown in the game?

fuzztone · 22-10-2010 4:08pm

JonnyF wrote: »

what fighters are in it? I know UFC fighters won't be there but what about some of their affiliates like WEC are Uriah Faber and Mike Brown in the game?

Roster is available here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EA_Sports_MMA

There's also a fighter share option in the main menu that allows you to download user made fighters. There's quite a few UFC fighters in there already.

Zero-Cool · 22-10-2010 7:20pm

EA Sports MMA - Review - PS3

Big shoutout to Dav who sent me this game for free! Legend!

To start this review, I was a huge of fan of Unisputed 2009. It's very hard to emulate the sport of MMA but it was executed really well. Career mode was lacking but they got their basics down for their 1st attempt. Along comes Undisputed 2010 and somehow made the career mode worse, subs were even harder to pulloff/get out of (I never once managed to sub someone) and I ended up playing the game more like a K1 fighter. Very frustrating how the sequel went downhill like that. All this of course is just my opinion and to let you know where I stand on Undisputed before moving onto EA Sports MMA.

Okay, after booting up EA MMA, I chose Fight Now mode and picked Couture vs Fedor on Legend difficulty. Being the trophy whore, I thought I might get 1 trophy for just pitting these guys against each other and another trophy for beating Fedor on Legend.... At least I came out of the fight with one trophy! I learned 2 things for this one fight.

1 - Maybe I should start playing on Medium difficulty
2 - It's the best MMA game I have ever played....and here's why...

Graphics:

Very good graphics, especially in HD. Where as UFC was very shiny, this seems to be a bit dull but looks better because of it. Impressive graphics with the muscles, sweat and especially the blood. The way the blood transfers from fighter to fighter is just class!

Audio:

Soundtrack is a mix of metal and rap so completely depends on your taste. Plus you can pick a song for your walkout. No uploading one of your mp3's though (this should really be implemented in the next game). Punches sound a bit arcadey sometimes. Commentary is fairly good by the Strikeforce commentators Shamrock & Mauro who have their up's and down's. It really adds to the fight when they start talking about the history between 2 fighters or when Shamrock makes reference to when he was in the cage with a particular fighter. However, sometimes the commentary drags when they are saying how i'm in trouble on the ground and still talking about it but I had gotten up 4 seconds ago. I prefer Joe and Goldie but these boys do a good job. Bas Rutten steels the show audio wise. Absolute pleasure to listen to him during career mode. Loved it when I first heard him say DANGy DANGy DANGy when telling me to throw a combo HAHA. Also, very nice touch they have the Japanese ref's reffing the fight in Japanese.

Controls/Game Modes:

2 types of control's. Total Strike Control & Classic controls.
Total Strike or TSC uses the right analogue stick to strike. Pressing it in a certain direction throws a jab, hook, uppercut, etc. Holding down L2 and pressing the stick in a direction throws different Kicks. The face buttons are used for takedowns blocks and ground moves. This was all new to me at first in the demo and couldn't get the hang of it so tried Classic controls (just think Undisputed) and it was instantly easier yet it didn't feel right. I went back to TSC and once you get enough practice in, you will be throwing combos and spinning back fists in no time and feels much more rewarding for rocking an opponent with a well timed combo.

The game modes are bit of a let down having only a Fight Now, Career or Online mode. This actually suits me okay as I stick to either online or career anyway but I know a few people out there like their tourney's. I havn't attempted Online yet as I really need more practice first so will report on that later. Onto Career, the main event!

Career:

First things first - Create A Fighter (CAF). There was a lot of complaints about this in other forums. Okay, THQ have a much more detailed CAF but they didn't give you a chance to pick Ireland as your home country! EA's CAF is limited in certain areas like only being able to choose from t-shirts to walkout in. No Gii's. Maybe I will unlock some along my way but so far can just see t-shirts. Gameface is in. Take 2 pictures of yourself, front view and side view (side not needed but will make a better caf) and upload them to EA. Then in game, you have an option to download those pics and it generates a fighter after som tweaks and dot placements on your face. It actually comes out pretty good so in my opinion way better than Undisputed if you are trying to make yourself in game. You even have a list of first names, nicknames and last names that the commentators and announcers will call you by. A LOT of names, unfortunately not mine but you might be lucky! You choose a fighting base -boxer, brawler, Judo, kickboxer, etc and it gives you an instant bump and decline in certain stats. Choose walkout type, walkout music, ackmowledgement and celebration types and you are good to go.

This is exactly what I wanted out of an MMA career. THQ tried so hard but forgot to make theirs fun and it was just a chore to do training, decreasing stats and difficulty acquiring new moves. EA has come up wit the fun approach. No need to rest between training! You get 8 weeks to train, travel to gyms around the world and acquire new moves. Can be challenging but nowhere near as frustrating as Undisputed. Bas Rutten is your main coach but you fly around the world to different gyms meeting new trainers who specialise in certain area's and have their own special moves to teach. You will meet the likes of Couture and Rickson Gracie among many others in a real representation of their gym. Randy will show you wrestling and positioning moves while Rickson will show you BJJ moves.

There are low level, mid level and premier leagues in Career and you get a choice of 2 for each level. This is a great addition and really mixes up the career as you can fight around the world with different opponents, arena's and rules. Head to Japan for all you're soccer kick needs! I

I'm not finished career yet but already can't wait to start a new career in a different division as you can definitely feel the difference fighting between say a HW and MW. HW's are slower but can finish the fight really fast with their KO power.

Online:
I havn't gone online yet because I don't want t obe stuck with a horrible record in ranked matches. You can play unranked fights but have to set up a fight card to do so. You make make it public or private and the card is run in real time. so you gotta wait for your fight but have the joy of actually watching the other fights. Chat is enabled but I havn't tested it yet. Gonna be some great Boardsies fight cards with this feature! When I actually play online, I will report back!

Overall: 88/100

It can definitely improve in the next installment as i left out some things that Undisputed already has and the lack of real Ref interaction is a real let down. They went to the trouble of really showing of the legendary Big John Mcarthy but the ref doesn't break you up in stale mate, doesn't stopp you throwing digs in a TKO and doesn't throw you off when your opponent is tapping to your sub. Can be a real anti-climax feeling to the end of your fight sometimes. I'm really enjoying it tho and I think I will for a long time yet! See you online! My PSN is sheehy83

TheProdigy · 22-10-2010 8:05pm

I have uploaded my 'photo face' to ea sports and have generated it but I'm unsure how to download it to my PSN?

Edit: Got it

JohnMc1 · 22-10-2010 11:42pm

Anybody have any tips on completing the Darce Choke Challenge? The guy seems to buck me off no matter what I do.

Zero-Cool · 23-10-2010 12:24pm

JohnMc1 wrote: »

Anybody have any tips on completing the Darce Choke Challenge? The guy seems to buck me off no matter what I do.

You're ground skills mightn't be high enough so train on theose for a bit before doing this challenge.

Other than that I would say to throw 2-3 strikes and then make a move straight after throwing the last strike. If he tries to buck you off, you should feel a vibration so just be ready to press O to deny it and then try make a move straight away. Some challenges I can do 1st go but others like spinning back kick took me about 20 goes, couldn't knock the guy just using kicks.

Loving career mode, actually feels like i'm building an MMA fighter!

Daniel2oo9 · 23-10-2010 1:00pm

Gonna Rent this today is it worth it?:D

JohnMc1 · 23-10-2010 1:18pm

sheehy83 wrote: »

You're ground skills mightn't be high enough so train on theose for a bit before doing this challenge.

Other than that I would say to throw 2-3 strikes and then make a move straight after throwing the last strike. If he tries to buck you off, you should feel a vibration so just be ready to press O to deny it and then try make a move straight away. Some challenges I can do 1st go but others like spinning back kick took me about 20 goes, couldn't knock the guy just using kicks.

Loving career mode, actually feels like i'm building an MMA fighter!

Thanks Sheehy83.

Daniel2oo9 · 23-10-2010 7:52pm

Awseome Career Mode! An Awseome Game too.:D
Played 3 Ranked games,Lost 1st By TKO v Fedor,Won Next 2 By KneeBar With Rodger Gracie so im 2-1 at the moment.Rodger Gracie is Unreal,Once u get Someones Limb with him,Its Just a Matter of Time Before You Win.:)

Minstrel27 · 24-10-2010 1:26am

I rented this game and I have been having a mess around with it tonight and it is superb. THQ should take note. Definately one to buy imo. The demo really doesn't do it any justice.

jayteecork · 24-10-2010 2:17am

fuzztone wrote: »

Roster is available here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EA_Sports_MMA

There's also a fighter share option in the main menu that allows you to download user made fighters. There's quite a few UFC fighters in there already.

Definite lawsuit brewing there. That's exactly the type of thing that gets Dana into one off his little hissy fits, especially since he owns or thinks he owns the image rights of every fighter on the UFC roster.

In the City of Heroes/City of Villians MMO Marvel successfully sued the publisher because in the "create a hero" bit individual users were creating Marvel Comics-alike heroes like Spiderman.

Zero-Cool · 24-10-2010 12:13pm

Just pulled off my first climbing armbar! Was beautiful! Replays need so much work though. Only shows me performing the armbar. Would have loved to have saved the whole move.

I picked Generalist for my career, average across the board. I keep trying to build up my standup but my submission skills are always higher, strange. Anyone pick a certain fighter base other than that, Do your stats increase more for certain skills?

GTR63 · 24-10-2010 3:06pm

Thanks for the review Sheehy83.It was genuinely the best I read.At least you didn't say,it has no UFC fighters like every other review.Glad you enjoyed it.Might get it myself next week but my brother hinted he'd bought it for me for Christmas.

Zero-Cool · 24-10-2010 4:26pm

GTR63 wrote: »

Thanks for the review Sheehy83.It was genuinely the best I read.At least you didn't say,it has no UFC fighters like every other review.Glad you enjoyed it.Might get it myself next week but my brother hinted he'd bought it for me for Christmas.

Haha cheers man! Ya, in every review it received negative score for no UFC fighters. Ya Undisputed has a much better roster but that game wasn't any fun to play. Saw a great Brock Lesnar on the fighter share so if you want UFC fighters, they are there!

I totally forgot to mention the sub system in my review tho!! Such a noob mistake! I'm loving the subs, even when I try to focus on my standing, a position will open up and will feel right to go for the sub and with a great sub system, I think this is THE mma game on the market. I might take my balls outta my purse and try an online fight tonight!

Minstrel27 · 24-10-2010 8:48pm

Yeah I am enjoying the submission system. Much mor enjoyable thatn UFC Undisputed

Zero-Cool · 25-10-2010 9:42pm

Career mode is getting a bit weird. I just became Strikeforce champion on a 14-0 record (or close to that) I only fought one real guy, Benji Radach, and that was for the title. All fights leading up to it I finished easily enough in the 1st round. This was the first fight that gave me trouble. It was a war of a fight. Went to the 3rd round, both bloodied and rocked multiple times. I was able to finish him with a triangle for the bottom. Best fight I played so far! Next fight against Mayhem Miller so expect another war. It's a pity you didnt' start fighting real guys as soon as you get into a premiere league. It's probably because of my win streak. I was ranked 22 in SF when I got my title shot, a bit strange.

I'm playing on medium, will def be playing next through on Hard. Still loving it tho. Look forward to training. Only 2 moves left to get. I wanted the counter takedown guillotine but could not pass the challenge for the life of me. Don't get taken down for 1 minute......and oh ya, no sprawl button. All I can do is tap direction one way to make him dodge (can't remember what the movement is called) but he has a dashing takedown which puts me on my back everytime. Anyone pass this challenge?

GTR63 · 26-10-2010 4:35am

Sales haven't done well the first week.EA MMA entered 23rd in the UK charts.I'd say its up in the air if EA will make a Sequel. Hope they do the UFC games got lazy on their first attempt at a sequel god knows what it'll be like 5 years from now with THQ having the licence for another 8 Years.EA originally planned on building on this game by trying to get the UFC rights.

EA MMA Game

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