How times have changed when it is money that ultimately does the talking. In the late 2000s, Electronic Arts obnoxiously turned down UFC president Dana White’s proposal for an EA Sports UFC video game, even going as far telling White it’s not a real sport. Which is somewhat ironic considering that EA made a couple of awful WCW wrestling games and the Toughman Contest games a few years back.
After turning down the UFC’s proposal the series landed with THQ resulting in the well-received UFC Undisputed series. With the meteoric rise in MMA and the decent reviews, the games sold well enough that EA decided that they wanted a piece of the MMA pie for themselves releasing EA Sports MMA but without the brand name it failed to sell.
Unfortunately for THQ, the company ran into major financial difficulties that resulted in bankruptcy in 2012 and the UFC license was up for grabs. Meaning that EA was fortunate enough to pick the rights to make the EA UFC series.
The new UFC games were a clear step up from EA MMA, but neither games were without their flaws and debatable whether or not it's better than the Undisputed series. UFC 3 is definitely an improvement over the previous EA efforts but there are several drawbacks hol🐻ding the game back delivering that crucial knockout blow.
20 🃏 Good: The Striking Game Is Better Than Ever
The EA MMA games have always had a fantastic striking system, and in UFC 3 it’s better than ever. It’s probably the best seen in sports combat game since EA’s own Fight Night series, and coming from the 🥂same development team, that experience has translated beautifully to the octagon.
The punches and kicks feel like they have real weight behind them and it’s incredibly satisfying when every punch and kick connects.
Whether it’s chopping someone down with leg kicks or throwing a fluid four-hit combination it's a joy to play. There are few things more satisfying than land🔯ing a devastating uppercut for the KO after you've slipped your oppo🗹nents jab.
The fights feel tactical as you target specific body parts and whilst watching your own stamina and damage. In addition, there’s a real risk and reward system where going to the well once to🍒o often can cost you. An example of this is if you keep going for leg kicks as your opponents keep checking them you run the risk of damaging your own legs and even losing via TKO Anderson Silva style.
19 ♕ Bad: The Ground is Still The Worst Part Of The Game
EA’s UFC series has always had one big problem, and rather than listen to complaints the developers have done very little to improve the ground game.🌄 The submission system involves enterin🃏g a frustrating mini-game that seems like it would be more at home on a tablet game.
It is so at odds with the excellent striking system that it feels completely divorced from the rest of the action.
The ground and pound controls aren’t much better either. On the plus side, the developers have offered up more ways to escape and transition on the gr🔯ound supposedly giving those who are used to striking a bit more of a chance to escape.
In addition, the animations on the ground look awkward and stiff to the point of silliness, which is a huge contrast to the near-perfect motion capture when the fighters are on their feet🌠.
T🍌he bottom line is, if you despised the ground game in EA’s previous outings then you’ll be disappointed to find out that they’ve done very little to remedy the series biggest flaw. There's an option to mash the buttons instead ofౠ the minigame but it is absolutely useless and you're completely at the mercy of the game.
The minor improvements won’t be enough to win you over this time around. In this regard, the game is still inferior to THQ's UFC Undisputed series.
18 Good: UFC 3’s Motion Capture Is Some Of The Best You’ll Ever See 𒁏
As mentioned the stand-up gameplay in UFC 3 is absolutely fantastic and much of this is down to EA’s Real Player Motion Technology. Fighter movement is more fluid than ever and it has captured the actual m💯ovements of real-life fighters. As a result, each fighter from St𝔉ipe Moicic to Conor McGregor feels unique.
UFC 3 is closer than ever to make you feel like you’re watching an actual UFC broadcast.
In the build-up to the game’s promotion, EA has promised a lot with its motion capture technology and it ha😼s certainly delivered one of the most visually stunning and accurate sports games ever released.
17 𒐪 Bad: There's A Heavy Learning Curve
To be fair to EA’s UFC 3 the developers have catered for the casual players that just want to get in the cage throwdowᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚn without worrying too much about the technicalities. For the kind of gamers that just want to sit around the TV with a few friends and beers, there’s Stand and Bang and the Knockout modes.
However, serious players will want to get to grips with the game’s real combat system and progress through t⭕he meat and potatoes of the game’s career, and online modes.
The game does a terrible job at teaching how to play.
It’s a good thing t🐼hat UFC 3 is deep and technical, it’s not good that the game does such a poor job with its tutorials beyond a few unhelpful videos in the menu syst🔴em and random prompts during the fights.
16 Good: The Presentation Is Fantastic 𒈔
UFC 3 really is 𓂃one of the best looking games this generation, but the game’s presentation really goeဣs beyond its visuals to present you with a great MMA video game.
Aside from the obvious, like the facial mapping, the much talked about Real Player Motion Tech, and the fact that the game is running on the DICE engine UFC 3 feels like you’re watching a live broadcast.
From the audio, the fights, and the menu system everything just comes together nicely.
The figh꧒ter’s walkouts, Bruce Buffer’s introductions, and Joe Rogan’s rundown of a fighter's strengths as the referee checks out each fighter. The career mode offers a McGregor era-like ಞexperience by taking the WWE 2K route and added trash talking and social media skills as a way of advancing the up the ladder.
15 Bad: The Commentary Is A Step Backw⛄ards And It's Joe Rogan's Fault
Let’s get this out of the way first the commentary in UFC 3 isn’t bad in fact its quite good and is a million times better than WWE 2K18. However, it’s quite frustrating to know that it could have been better especially when compared to ꧂the likes of the FIFA and NFL games.
Regular UFC commentator Joe Rogan refused to record any more voice work for the game because he absolutely hated doing it for the first two UFC games.
Rogan made no secret about this and was quite vocal on his podcasts. So the development time had to take WWE 2K route by mining in-game broadcasts and scouring hours of live pay-๊per-views in the hopes of finding clean samples that match 🎃up to the action in the cage.
Considering the difficulty the team had, the commentary is very good, but there are times where it just doesn’t 𒅌flow naturallyও between Rogan and his commentary partner.
14 Good: Snoop Dogg's Commentary In 🔜Knockout Mode Is Exactly What You'd Expect
This inclusion may be a love it or hate it feat🎶ure, but one person who did record a load of new voice work for the game is Snoop Dogg. Not in a million years did we ever think that the rapper would upstage Joe Rogan in a UFC game but it’s happened.
While not everyone will be thrilled at the prospect of the rap star providing commentary, his style is a perfect fit for the game’s Knockout Mode.
The development team reached out to Snoop after hearing his commentary with UFC fighter Urijah Faber for Dana White’s Tuesday Night Contender Series that aired last year. No stranger to providing his voice work to games with Call of Duty: Ghosts, Snoop enthusias𒀰tically said yes and it’s probably the freshest c𝕴ommentary in the game.
13 ❀ Bad: Create A Fighter Is Lacking Options
To get into UFC 3’s career mode you need to create your own fighter and work your way up the r🐭oster to become the greatest of all time (G.O.A.T). However, the limited options in a create-a-fighter can prove problematic for those who like accuracy if they either want recreate themselves or an MMA fighter that’s not on the roster.
There’s a very limited amount of hairstyles, beards, and importing your face can be a frustrating game of trial and error.
Depending on the photo's lighting you’ll either end up with a face that looks jaundice or have a ridiculous orange tan that wouldn’t look out of place on Jersey Shore (or Geordie Shore if you’re from the UK).
There’s a serious lack of locations to choose from too. In 2016 the UFC signed the Welsh fighter Jack Marshman who is undefeated in eight of his last ten bouts. So it’s rather disappointing that E💧A seems quite content with pretending that 🐟Wales doesn’t exist (again) despite having a capital city from every other part of the UK. There are other notable omissions too so it's either ignorance or an oversight that not every country is represented fairly in the game.
Th🧸e plus side is you can create hide𒊎ous looking monstrosities if you want to.
12 𝕴 Good: Career Mode is An Improvement
One oඣf the most notable improvements in the game is the career mode also known as G.O.A.T or Greatest Of All Time for the uninitiated. In this mode, you have to complete the majority of career achievements in order for your fledgling rookie fighter to🗹 become the G.O.A.T.
UFC 3's career mode is a step in the right direction.
You get meaningful choices of what to do between fights in order to get your fighter trained up and noticed. Depending on what fight discipline you want to follow or improve your fighter in, be it boxing, Brazilian Ju Jitsu, wrestling, a♏nd other martial arts.
Your resources are limited, however, and you’ll need to balance what you need to do to get the job done. Better gyms cost more money but rewards you wit💟h more accomplishments in a shorter space of time, but smaller gyms cost less an🥀d take more time reach the desired goal. The risk and reward system extends well beyond the cage.
11 Bad: 🥀Career Mode Also Lacks A Soul
There is a good amount of variety in the career mode, interacting with fighte🌊rs via social media, playing v𝐆ideo games with fans to raise your status, the presentation keeps things interesting.
However, as promising as UFC 3’s career mode is almost everything happens in a boring menu system.
Much of the game's promotion relied on the rivalry system, seeiꦫng two fighters square off at press conferences will no doubt attract a lot of fans who love the McGregor era🃏 of trash talking and the war of words between fighter before bouts.
The system doesn’t really amount to much though, it’s a massive ജimprovement in so many ways on UFC 2, but there’s also a🔴 ton of untapped potential there.