EA Sports UFC 2 Features Revealed

[aholbert32]

Quote: Originally Posted by mgoblue

Aaron...can you go into the discussion about Online vs Offline realism vs. equality? I saw your posts in another thread and this is right up my alley. When I play these games I only do single player, so you want Rousey vs. Someone to be realistic (ie. Ronda's not easy to beat), whereas the online guys want it to be more even with skills....

This is the ongoing friendly battle I have with some of the other gamechangers. I think 85% of the time we all agree on changes suggested by one of the GCers. The other 15% is when we get into the balance vs. realism debate. Its just a different mindset.

My goal when I'm playing the game is to simulate a UFC event the best that I can. I fight realistically and suited toward the fighter's style I'm using. I'll use things like house rules to avoid exploiting issues with the AI. I want the AI to fight as realistically as possible. I dont really care if I win or lose as long as I'm having fun and the reason I won or lost is realistic.

Online the goal is to win. Now there are many guys there who avoid exploits and fight realistically and others who use exploits but the goal alone is to win. So if the goal is to win, you want to be put in a situation where your skills are more important than the fighter that you are using.

One example, is I want a much greater range in ratings. I think there should be a big difference between an Anderson Silva and a Francis Carmont. In UFC 1, Silva is a 94 and Carmont is an 85. Now, I would like the difference to be much bigger because Carmont shouldnt be in the same stratosphere as Silva. I would love to see a bunch of fighters in the 70s, 80s and 90s.

The online guys would hate that because it would make the lower rated guys unusable and would pretty much limit the roster for them. Why? Because no one online is going to use a guy in the 70s or 80s. Everyone is picking the best guys because they want to be put in the best situation to win.

Thats the difference in a nutshell. With that said, while we've had disagreements Its been great hearing a different perspective.

[aholbert32]

Quote: Originally Posted by Gotmadskillzson

Yeah I want to know if AI controlled fighters fight like their real life counter part ? That lessened the fun of the last game because for the most part, every fighter no matter their back ground just wanted to stand and bang. If I play against a submission guy I would like to see them to try to take it to the ground and go for an above average amount of submission attempts. If I play a wrestler I want to see him take the fight to the ground and do ground & pound. On the flip side, if I fight against a striker and I take him down, I want to see him try to get back up as fast as possible. Speaking of take downs, are there more and different type of take downs specific to the fighter's back ground ? This was another area of the last game that was very weak. Everybody had the same kind of take downs. I would like to see wrestlers with single legs, double legs, driving take downs, scope slams. Then with judo fighters, I would like to see judo throws and judo trips. BJJ fighters I would like to see various forms of trips. And I would like to see the take downs specific to the fighter's discipline. Also I hope they made butter fly guard and rubber guard more useful.

See my AI post earlier for an answer to your AI question.

There are more takedown animations and a few changes that are currently being discussed.

[jeremym480]

Quote: Originally Posted by aholbert32

Regarding Universe Mode, I'll tell you a story. One of the first things we did at the event was something called Dev 101. The devs asked us to each come up with a mode that we would like to see in the game. I along with one of the other GCers was assigned the hardcore mode. I pitched Universe Mode along with a feature that my partner came up with. So I pitched a number of devs on the mode and they had questions. Then they asked me to predict the number of people it would take to create this mode. The number I said was WAY OFF. I didnt realize how much work and manpower goes into creating a new mode from UI to Art to Audio to AI to Online (if possible). So my expectation or hope that this team on its second version of the game would give us Universe mode was a bit off. Now, that doesnt mean I dont want Universe mode and dont think its a great idea. Keep in mind though that THQ was in its 11th year of making WWE games before they implemented Universe mode. Regarding your questions, I can answer two of those right now. Regarding the roster, its big. I have a copy of the current roster right now (It could change because the team is still working on it) because I was helping them with a side project. Being the fight nerd that I am, I started inputting the new fighters in my chart and started to look for fighters that were missing and would need to be created by CAF.....I struggled to find significant fighters that werent in the game. Right now I dont think there are fights between weight classes in play now but there are in event mode. The one issue is I cant remember how they are organized. Its somewhat similar to how UFC 1's online is structured (FW/BW/FEW, LW/WW, MW/LHW and HW) but I feel like Event mode was more open than that. I could be wrong and I'll need to check that once I go back in December.

I certainly don't think that creating a Universe Mode would be an easy undertaking, but to me it's the next logical step in make a deep/innovative UFC game. I mean, at one point in the 90's Madden didn't have a franchise mode and I'm sure adding that required a lot of manhours and resources. However, they did it and it became on of the most popular modes in any sports game to date. Plus, once they start that would give them a foundation to build on going forward and I could see it being big if they came up with a good way to implement it for online use.

That's great news about the roster size. I don't use Legends or any Bruce Lee type fighters so that are wasted on me. I also know that a lot of online guys don't care very much to use fighters like Nik Lentz or Kelvin Gastelum or most of the guys not rated in the Top 10, but us offline guys want them badly.... and I know you know that. Hearing that you were having a tough time finding significant fighters that weren't in the game has me feeling really optimistic.

[aholbert32]

Quote: Originally Posted by jeremym480

I certainly don't think that creating a Universe Mode would be an easy undertaking, but to me it's the next logical step in make a deep/innovative UFC game. I mean, at one point in the 90's Madden didn't have a franchise mode and I'm sure adding that required a lot of manhours and resources. However, they did it and it became on of the most popular modes in any sports game to date. Plus, once they start that would give them a foundation to build on going forward and I could see it being big if they came up with a good way to implement it for online use. That's great news about the roster size. I don't use Legends or any Bruce Lee type fighters so that are wasted on me. I also know that a lot of online guys don't care very much to use fighters like Nik Lentz or Kelvin Gastelum or most of the guys not rated in the Top 10, but us offline guys want them badly.... and I know you know that. Hearing that you were having a tough time finding significant fighters that weren't in the game has me feeling really optimistic.

I completely agree. They gave us Event Mode this time and I kind of see this as a first step toward a Universe Mode. I just recognize that this is only the second version of the game so my expectations were a bit too high.

You should be optimistic Jeremy. Unless something really changes, the roster is going to be great.

[SwedishTouch76]

I'm the same way Jeremy. I don't play online a tonne and when I do I like using lesser known or rated fighters. That being said I think Tony Ferguson will be my go to guy. Hope they really nail fighters individual movement styles as he is very unique and elusive. If a guy like Elias Theodoru is in the game I'd assume the roster is deep. I at least hope missing top 10 guys are in

[SwedishTouch76]

@aholbert32. How did the striking feel? Bit more weight to heavy strikes? Guys could eat 4-5 head kicks like candy in UFC 1. Do some of these techniques feel a bit heavier or damaging if you know what I mean?

[pdandy]

Thanks aholbert32.
Even though it is 1 specific AI sample, your observations give offline players a lot of hope. One thing that THQ UFC Undisputed 3 had over EA UFC 1 was the AI behavior was more in-line with their real life counterparts.

GSP was going to hit you with a few combos and then put you on your back for most of the match. GSP, Jon Fitch, and Jake Shields AI could pretty much keep me on the mat for 90% of the match if you screw up and I loved that. Maia and Nog went for countless submissions. And I'm always worried when I land in Nate Diaz's guard. Anderson went for many MT clinch grabs and so on.

I also hope EA improves the ground game AI. I think the standup is solid after they toned down the AI's Matrix level of parrying. However when I'm losing the standup and decide to take it the ground, the AI is just too predictable... Not fun at all.

[BDKiiing]

Quote: Originally Posted by aholbert32

The strawweight division is in the game.

And that answers the only question I had.