The EA UFC 3 Beta was released on the 27th of November. The Beta has received some mixed responses; some love it, some loathe it. I’ve played the beta for around 5 hours and this is a list of the things EA need to fix before the game’s release on February 2nd.
*It’s worth noting that it’s only a Beta and my opinions do not reflect the overall final released game*. I’m only talking about gameplay improvements that need to be made before release.
1. Leg Kicks are awesome – Good
Back in UFC 2, leg kicks did basically nothing. All they did was drain your own stamina. They did almost zero damage. In UFC 3 leg kicks are great, you can easily chop away at your opponents legs and rock them; this means you can more effectively switch it up between leg kicks and punches. This is something UFC 2 & UFC 1 did not allow the player to do.
2. The Ground Game refinements – Good
Not much has changed in the ground department, but they’ve threw a spanner in the works by telling the player what direction they need to flick the analogue stick, in order to defend transitions.
3. Jabs aren’t effective – Bad
In MMA a good jab is one of the most effective weapons a fighter can possess. Fighters such as Gegard Moussasi and Nate Diaz use their jab to keep their opponent at bay. In order to jab in UFC 3 you must be very close to your opponent. This sucks as it’s unrealistic and in order to jab you need to engage in a slug fest; this eliminates the point in using a jab. This wasn’t a problem in UFC 2, in UFC 2 it was very fun to use movement and jabs to tag your opponent up and then move in for the kill once your opponent’s stamina is gauged.
4. No TKOs – Bad
After KOing a fighter in UFC 2, you could dive on top of them and ground and pound your way to victory. They’ve sadly removed this feature from UFC 3 and replaced it with the KO Sequences from UFC 1. I don’t understand why they’d remove a good feature.
5. Fighters don’t feel unique – Ugly
After playing for about 3 hours I noticed that fighters didn’t have their own unique abilities. Where’s Tony Ferguson’s iconic elbow strikes? Where’s Conor McGregor’s capoeira kick? Where’s Marc Diakiese’s spinning shit? Where’s Anthony Pettis’s Showtime kick? I know they may be withholding this due to it only being a beta, but come on EA.
6. Cut scenes are recycled – Ugly
I manged to put near 2000 hours into UFC 2 and I find it pretty ugly that most of the animations are recycled from UFC 2. The walk-ins are identical. The introductions are the same as UFC 2 and there’s not much of an upgrade yet.
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I hope EA can make these changes before release. Let’s also hope that the career mode meets the high expectations set by the fans.
Stay posted to MiddleEasy. We’ll definitely be reviewing UFC 3 on release. You can check out some Gameplay footage below.
