After retiring 2019, the EA Sports UFC franchise will return this year. As part of the UFC 251 fight in Abu Dhabi, EA Sports officially announced EA Sports UFC 4. Jorge Masvidal and Israel Adesanya share the cover of this year’s game, due out in August for PS4 and Xbox One. In addition to a list of The best fighters in the UFC, the game features legends like Bruce Lee, Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury. However, a prominent UFC personality will not be included. The mode found in many other EA Sports games is also absent.
“EA Sports UFC 4 is the best fighting game ever created,” UFC President Dana White said in a statement. “Fans can play in the best arenas as well as in backyard and Kumite environments. This game lets you play with the best athletes in UFC history, plus legends like Bruce Lee and boxing champions Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury. It’s crazy how good this game is. “
In UFC 4, players can create and shape their created character, including fighting style and personality, and the game features a unified progression across all modes. There are five MMA disciplines to follow, including wrestling, jiu-jitsu, and boxing, along with over 1,600 pieces of equipment and over 120 smilies to create a character you can connect to.
EA Sports UFC 4 promises a series of updates and improvements over the 2018 game, UFC 3, including more responsive rivets, improved takedowns, and better ground mechanics. The game also offers a new career mode focused on minor division growth and the UFC main stage, along with new fighting environments including the UFC APEX Stadium, Kumite Stadium and The Backyard. There are also new multiplayer options in Blitz Battles and Online World Championships where players can test their mettle against others around the world.
Like its predecessor, UFC 4 continues to use Real Sports Motion (RPM) technology from EA Sports. For clinches in particular, EA says it will use RPM to make clinches look and function more credibly considering player positioning and physical context.
The game will also increase realism to emphasize the impact of attack moves. For example, EA says that players “will see, hear, and feel the disorienting impact” of fights. This will include a new presentation system that offers devastating reps of hits and more.
For takedowns, UFC 4 uses RPM technology to provide new takedown animations that will include a greater variety of results. These depend on how the player physically controls his fighter, along with the attributes of his fighter.
UFC 4 Creative Director Brian Hayes told GameSpot that RPM technology is helping the new game make great strides in terms of authenticity.
“It just makes those facets of the game look more realistic because the animation quality and responsiveness are better, but there has also been a benefit in terms of our clinch approach to the game and takedowns have more intuitive elements,” he said. . .
For rivets specifically, Hayes said the advances EA has made will be dramatic for players. “Previously, the clinch game was one of the least popular,” he said. “We know this from the telemetry of the game, we can see how much time is spent in the clinch. It was one of the least popular places because it was less intuitive than the field fighting experience. And now it is much faster.” get in. It is much easier to feel that you are doing meaningful things, whether it be harm or going on a trip or takedown, or whatever, that we hope it will be much more to play a bigger role in the fight fight. “
On the comment side, UFC 4 unveils a new commentary team comprised of former light and heavyweight champion Daniel “DC” Cormier and UFC Jon Anik. The elimination of previous commentator Joe Rogan, who calls UFC fights in real life, is not a big surprise.
Hayes told USGamer that EA had to use the audio from Rogan’s real-world broadcasts for EA Sports UFC 3 because Rogan “absolutely hates doing a voiceover for the game.” It’s no wonder EA didn’t want to work with him for EA Sports UFC 4, even if Rogan is still the UFC’s leading commentator in real life.
As for the new environments, The Backyard is exactly what it sounds like, while Kumite aims to pay homage to the underground melee arenas of the MMA tradition.
For The Backyard, Hayes told GameSpot that he was partially inspired by Kimbo Slice’s popular viral videos showing him fighting people on the streets. “I’m also a fan of the virality of old-school Kimbo Slice videos, and I’m a fan of martial arts cinema, and all of these things exist together for people who are fight fans, broader fight fans. And so we think there is an opportunity to create environments like this that are great places to be. “
For online modes, the online World Championship is an online series where you take your custom character and try to become the best fighter in a series of online events. Players who are successful in earning their title belt must defend it against challengers. The Blitz Battles mode, meanwhile, is described as “fast paced” and consists of a fast-shooting tournament with different sets of rules to deliver something new every time.
EA Sports UFC 4 is due out later this year for PS4 and Xbox One, and is also expected to be playable on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X through backward compatibility.
“If both consoles support backward compatibility for Gen 4 games, then presumably fans will be able to play UFC 4 on their Gen 5 consoles,” Hayes told GameSpot. “We haven’t had a chance to test this yet and determine if any additional development work is required to take advantage of backward compatibility, but we hope to see UFC 4 playable on Gen 5 hardware with that feature.”
EA Sports UFC 4 producer Nate McDonald told GameSpot that his team was fortunate enough to be able to record all of the motion capture for the game before COVID-19 locks arrived. Furthermore, all the audio recording work was also completed.
Something that UFC 4 it will not have, however, is an Ultimate Team mode. That may sound surprising given that the mode appears in all other EA Sports games and is known to be a source of income.
Hayes told GameSpot that EA decided to drop Ultimate Team mode for UFC 4 because it really doesn’t make sense for a 1v1 fighting game.
“There is no definitive team in UFC for this year that was a unique decision for us. What we learned is just looking at UFC 3. It just is not such a popular way for us in terms of what it takes to support and build and develop. Those modes because they are really complex, they are very broad, they are very deep, but it is not close to the level of popularity and commitment for us, since it shows that it is in games like FIFA and Madden and NHL. “
Rather than invest resources to make Ultimate Team mode work for UFC 4, EA spent time working on elements that would help the franchise reach a broader audience. UFC 4 will feature a progression system united in all modes, and this aims to offer some element of Ultimate Team.
“So we decided to take those resources and try to develop features that appeal to a larger segment of our audience,” said Hayes. “And that’s where we target that connected fighter profile, that progression of the game-wide experience by leveling up and earning a rewards system for trying to create something that still has elements of what Ultimate Team is, which is playing the game, level up, progress and earn rewards, but make those rewards not things that affect the game because it’s wrapping up the whole game now and it’s just focused on vanity stuff. “
Hayes added: “So, everything we would have considered investing in terms of resources to find a way to make an Ultimate Team concept work in what is a 1V1 sport, we decided, what is a different feature we can offer than hopefully would it be nice or to be involved, by a larger number of our players, rather than just the relatively small numbers we were watching Ultimate Team play? And that’s basically the trade-off where we said, let’s stop trying to fit a square peg into a round hole here, so to speak, and let’s take these resources and develop something that encompasses the entire game and hopefully provides a rewarding experience for each player rather than just those who are in a specific mode. “
UFC 4 launches August 14 for PS4 and Xbox One. Everyone who preorders gets exclusive fighters, Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua, along with customization packs for Backyard and Kumite. EA Access subscribers can start playing on August 7.
