EA’s UFC franchise returns this year with UFC 4 and is shaping up to be a powerful entry in the series. EA is making a number of major gameplay changes this year, improving and expanding punches, engagements, takedowns, and clinch play. Additionally, UFC 4 brings EA’s Real-Player Motion technology from Madden, FIFA, and NHL to provide a more authentic representation of MMA cage matches.
GameSpot recently caught up with Creative Director Brian Hayes, who delved deep into the numerous game enhancements this year. He says the changes to the clinch game will be immediately recognizable and highly impactful, while players should appreciate the improvements EA has made in sending and hitting, Hayes said.
Also in the interview, Hayes talked about why the UFC parted ways with commentator Joe Rogan, who calls the real-life fight for the UFC. “He hasn’t been shy about saying this on his own podcast like he hated doing it,” Hayes said.
Be sure to check out the full interview below as Hayes also talks about the benefits of launching at the end of the console cycle and more.
UFC 4 launches on August 14 for PS4 and Xbox One. Those pre-ordered by exclusive fighters Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua:
What are some of the biggest gameplay changes and improvements this year?
Probably the biggest change we’ve implemented / made this year was just to completely overhaul and rewrite the clinch game, take EA Sports, the actual player movement, or RPM technology, as we call it, and just expand that beyond the locomotion and blow in a new clinch system. Thus, the clinch game is much more accessible, fluid – its ability to get in and out of it using locomotion, throwing punches into the clinch in transition to different positions, and actually doing trips and takedowns – it’s just a whole new system. . So the part that is unique is that earlier in other iterations of the game, the clinch was essentially an extension of what the core game is.
And you were essentially playing the ground game standing up, you know, in the clinch. Now, it actually looks more like the closest possible range of foot fights and punches. So it’s much more accessible and fun that way. Is it for playing beta on a weekend or you know, earlier this week, you just know, quickly grab someone with a single collar and throw some uppercuts before they break apart, it just completely changes the way that the closing factors in each fight compared to previous iterations of the game.
“If you try to throw a spinning side kick to the head, you don’t have to hold as many buttons to release it as it used to in the past.” – There is
That is the most significant change we have made. But it has also been the addition of grip assist controls to make the existing running game more accessible to more players. And we’ve updated foot kick controls with a kind of dynamic kick inputs. Therefore, there is a touch / hold mechanic to make each hit not only more responsive, but make some of the more complicated ones that were previously more accessible to throw. So if you’re trying to throw a spinning side kick to the head, you don’t have to hold as many buttons to release it as you used to in the past.
What about subtle changes?
Some subtle things we have done is add levels to some of the attacks. So for many of the more hardcore fans like that, being able to see that when you are, if you are in career mode, or if you are a licensed UFC fighter who doesn’t have a surprisingly high skill level. The technical skill with which a fighter throws some blows will be different depending on whether or not it is a level one or level two or level four or level five blow.
So as some attacks increase and level out, they actually launch with more technical prowess as I said, so it’s a nice subtle wink that we actually hope to expand to move forward. But it’s a nice touch to see that, yes, this guy is not really a great kickboxer. He has sloppy leg kicks, unlike guys like Edson Barboza. As if he had good-looking kicks.
There are elements within the presentation game like being able to attack. I mean, it’s not really not subtle when someone hits you in the face when you’re, you know, they’re trying to put an arm bar on you, but it’s something that has never existed in our series before. So by adding new items like that to the shipping game. The important thing is that there are two new presentation games, one for choke presentations and one for joint presentations. But so are the cases depending on the submission you are in, where you will have the opportunity, either as a defender or attacker, to throw hammer fists or different blows at your opponent to try to ruin them during submission games, of In different ways to get away from likes, some slam escape the opportunities that will come up during those experiences.
And then, I mean, I think there is a lot of subtlety in the clinch game: it’s a review obviously, like a technical thing, but the positions, the transitions that happen, you know, the fluidity with which players sort of change positions and navigate through the octagon when you know when they are in the clinch. There’s a lot of subtlety to that, it’s not just a feature it’s not just a great entry. It really is something that is the sum of many parts.
How has UFC 4 impacted the implementation of Real-Player Motion technology?
Well, we have expanded our use of Real-Player Motion technology and the two biggest areas would be the full clinch changes. But then also a review of how takedowns are done in the game. So yes, the clinch game has seen a complete overhaul. Thus, there are new removal entries as part of a surprising new dynamic control. So you’re really trying to shoot down with button inputs now instead of analog stick inputs, but then there is a chance that there will be battles to shoot down, so you could shoot for a takedown and if your defense is decent, but not perfect, in It will actually end in a situation where you can continue to drive down and with locomotion to try to lead me to the cage and reach the end where I can use my locomotion to try to escape the takedown by counteracting what you are doing against me, that Kind of idea of a takedown battle is something we never had before and is accomplished by expanding RPM technology in the takedown system. And then there is also a full list of new takedown animations in the game, depending on the context: if I get to be super good and have little resistance, it will be just a dynamic like throwing the spear directly to the ground.
There are high impact hits, where do you like the guy from Daniel Cormier on your shoulder and basically put them on the kettle, forgive my French and hit him on the head? So the true player movement technology, basically the two most important things, the extent of that, not just hitting the locomotion, but checking the clinch game and then rewriting the takedown system as well.
In terms of feedback, how much of this year’s changes are based on what fans told you about previous games compared to their own game design ideas?
I think a lot of the great ticket ideas or a lot of the great things will be based more on a kind of internal concepts like looking at larger data sets and then a lot of nuance changes. … There are many tunings and balances that occur in terms of how much, how much vulnerability a fighter should have when he leans in this direction and his opponent throws a hook. Those kinds of changes, tweaks, tweaks, and balances are things that we share when playing the game through an internal testing environment with our community. That’s where many of those conversations are handled.
In terms of balancing the minutiae, the subtlety, the nuance of, very, very much like meta changes and rebalances. So if we’re looking in terms of code change, it probably leans a lot towards, like, you know, a lot of code changes are things that the team invents, but a lot of things like tuning changes the things that we associate with that , that kind of central community, so if that makes sense. “
You are launching UFC 4 at the end of this console cycle; What are you doing to make the most of the new systems?
Just doing everything we can basically is not an easy thing … especially coming out the end and with the recent announcement of [PS5 and Xbox Series X], to make a big surprise, but we’ve always been a title that prides us on having strong images. And we have just done our best to take full advantage of our existing technology to create a compelling visual and gaming experience. So there are a lot of things we’ve done regarding the game camera update, a kind of update, lighting, and shaders to give the characters more shape. More or less, they make your musculature transmit in a way that it hasn’t in the past. And then there are new experiences with things like career mode, having a new onboarding experience with a bit more of an introductory cinematic narrative, featuring characters to help you get on board with the experience, but for the most part … we’ve been pretty good to make games in the current generation. You know, this is our room, our room in Gen 4, so it wasn’t necessarily much like now, we already knew what we were doing with UFC 3. So this was more of a how can we create new experiences given our knowledge of creating games in Gen 4? How can we create new experiences instead of necessarily something that is pushing technology to a place it has never been before?
“We have always been a title that prides itself on having strong images.” – There is
For this year’s review team, you’ve drifted away from Joe Rogan. Can you talk about that
He hasn’t been shy about saying this on his own podcast like he hated doing it. If you’re not a person who just mentally enters that space, then I can see what a very, very challenging, you know, potentially mind-bewildering experience could be for a certain type of individual. And he hates hating to voiceover, that was something we knew about UFC 1. He was honest with us from the start that he hated his experience of voiceover in previous iterations of other UFC games, and things were no different. for us. I hated doing voiceovers in these games too. That has nothing to do with us in particular, or, you know, our games versus other games. He just doesn’t like sitting in a booth reading lines for hours on end.
