Though it might seem like it in recent weeks, EA hasn’t forgotten about its EA Access service. You want proof, you say? Well, EA will be bringing its divisive EA Sports UFC to the service next week, they announced today. The game will become the seventh game to enter the Vault on December 18, and the entire game will become playable to anyone who is subscribed to the service, including all multiplayer and online modes, like all other games in the Vault.

The other sic games offered in the EA Access Vault are Plants vs Zombies 2: Garden Warfare, Battlefield 4, FIFA 14, Madden 25, Need for Speed: Rivals, and Peggle 2.

EA Access is currently only available on Xbox Live on Xbox One for a very reasonable and cheap price; EA took the proposition for the service to Sony as well, but for unknown reasons, Sony rejected the idea, probably because they suspected it would compete with their own PS Now service.

The first game under the tag of UFC since the rights were sold not long back to EA, and so far it has more than just a little potential to be a solid franchise in the extant market. The game is only available on the new gen platforms from Sony and Microsoft and thus ensures fair grounds for comparison between the two, with nothing holding both the consoles back.

" Also, sports game tend to have a uncompromisingly solid pace to them and thus are played best with high frame rates. Being a sports game, it was very much expected to have the game run at 60 frames per second."

The developers of the game, EA Canada have gone with IGNITE game engine which was specifically built for sports game and has helped churn out games like FIFA 14, NBA Live 14 and Madden. EA Sports UFC follows along the same lines and delivers the same brilliance of graphical beauty as the aforementioned games. Interestingly, the developers have gone with a 900p/30fps configuration for this game which is in stark contrast to most games – especially on the PS4 – which run in full HD at 60fps.

The decision of having the game run at the said resolution is still unclear; probably to save on the resources and have the pixel shaders do more work on making the game’s visual quality better, but the current graphical performance isn’t upto snuff and doesn’t offset the decision to go with 900p.

Also, sports game tend to have a uncompromisingly solid pace to them and thus are played best with high frame rates. Being a sports game, it was very much expected to have the game run at 60 frames per second.  It most certainly IS a disappointment but the developer’s saving grace is that they haven’t tapped the full potential of both the consoles as of yet. But this won’t save them for long.

Being a sports title, the game has nice fluid animations that almost perfectly imitate the real world mixed martial arts fighting style. There’s’ much to be done, but there should be not many complaints anywho. The animations do happen to get a little odd when the fighters are entangled are groping each other to land a punch.

This is where the erstwhile fluid animations pave way for clunky, toddler like movements. The punches seem slow and awkward; it’s as if the players’ senses are numbed or they’re just jaded.

Bokeh depth of field and the crowd looks good and the motion blur is nice and refined. (PS4)

" The PS4 does employ bokeh depth of field while the X1 seems to be falling behind on that in comparison. The result being, that the PS4 makes far off distances seem as they should be, whilst adding to the overall charm of the game. "

The game utilises high resolution textures which both the consoles render effortlessly, the result of which is a very slick looking screen with nicely detailed polygons and set pieces. The crowd has been kept in the dark with the spotlight on the ring, but the developers haven’t ignored the crowd completely.

The spectators can be seen cheering and waving their arms about, turning their heads and shouting, each with their own set of (mostly) differing clothes. The actions of the crowd look natural enough. The PS4 does employ bokeh depth of field while the X1 seems to be falling behind on that in comparison.

The result being, that the PS4 makes far off distances seem as they should be, whilst adding to the overall charm of the game. The game has excellent reflections and there’s a nice use of ambient occlusion and ambient lighting, which together highlight and suppress the right areas of objects and characters with varying light and directional light sources.

These elements are most visible on fighters bodies. While elements like referees’ clothes ignore the appropriate reflections and AO, the fighters have the light being reflected off them perfectly.

Light can be seen glistening in sweat or being softly given off otherwise. Various contours across the body cast varying shadows that change with the movement of the fighters at every instant. Needless to say, you’ll be more than just appreciating the use of ambient occlusion and lighting in the game, even though it may not have been universally implemented.

Motion blur and depth of field are a bit off. (Xbox One)

" Motion blur is of the utmost quality, but if you pry about closely, you'll notice that the PS4 seems to have a smoother, more defined motion blur in effect, while the X1’s motion blur seems to be smudged out as if a painting gone bad. The X1’s blur is not bad, only that the PS4’s blur is better. "

Other post processing effects in the game are not excellent, but they’re definitely up to the mark. Shadows are apt and defined with the right amount of anti-aliasing. Soft shadows work wonders in accentuating the look of the game.

Motion blur is of the utmost quality, but if you pry about closely, you’ll notice that the PS4 seems to have a smoother, more defined motion blur in effect, while the X1’s motion blur seems to be smudged out as if a painting gone bad. The X1’s blur is not bad, only that the PS4’s blur is better. That may be because of higher sampling for the same, on the PS4.

There’s also the use of bloom in the game but it’s not recklessly implemented everywhere. The AA techniques is where there’s a difference between the two consoles. Both the consoles have well defined objects and characters with hardly any smudged edges.

This means that FXAA is not in place. Multisample screen anti-aliasing (MSAA) seems to be the technique that has been utilised since that is what would go best with the high-res textures. Now the X1 at times shows unrefined edges, which are mostly apparent when observing curved surfaces like the heads of the fighters/referee, or their calves and shoulders.

This may very well be the difference in the number of samples taken per pixel, with the PS4 visibly taking more samples for the anti-aliasing technique.

Good AA and SSAO do a nice job of concealing the 900p downside of the game. (PS4)

" The PS4 seems to contend with the X1 on grounds other than AA and motion blur. The game is nigh on identical on both the consoles otherwise, but the X1 pushes the competition further with slightly better performance. "

The shadows in the PS4 version of the game are neatly defined. A bit too defined actually, which makes it seem almost unnatural. The shadows of objects and characters falling on other polygons are very neat and precise with little to no blur. The X1 here scores over the PS4 by having smeared shadows which present a more realistic outlook.

The PS4 seems to contend with the X1 on grounds other than AA and motion blur. The game is nigh on identical on both the consoles otherwise, but the X1 pushes the competition further with slightly better performance. The frame rates are more consistent on the X1 while the PS4 is afflicted with occasional screen tearing. The screen tearing is not game breaking, but it’s enough to make you have second thoughts. The ground of contention ends here itself and it comes down to how the game is otherwise.

As I’d mentioned earlier, players grappling each other can have odd animations with the players switching between fast and slow animations in a jiffy. The main focus of the game is on the ring and it has been nicely done. The set pieces and paltry few characters in and around the ring are all good, but the fighters are the ones who stand in the limelight.

Their clothing reacts to movement; players’ shorts can be seen flailing this way and that and tights develop different folds as the player moves. Character designs are excellent; fighters’ bodies are well crafted, muscle and sinew all moving, contracting, expanding, wobbling or dissipating the force of a punch are a sight to behold and admire the work of the devs.

A few well placed punches would make the players bleed and the gore looks excellent with all its bright reflections. The model design coupled with the lighting effects lend the game a touch of reality.

The AA isn’t as good on the X1. Notice the left legs of the players.

" Even though the fighters may have been well crafted and animated, other characters like the referee, the announcer and the team members seem to be lacking the appropriate detail and have sketchy designs. "

The players have varying expressions but they lack unique skills and attacks. Even though the fighters may have been well crafted and animated, other characters like the referee, the announcer and the team members seem to be lacking the appropriate detail and have sketchy designs.

All of the said characters have stoic expressions which seem like animated puppets at times, their clothes and bodies (except faces) do not react to the lighting system as they should. Granted that the main focus of the game is the ring, it;’s almost unforgivable to ignore things like these so blatantly.

The game is super fun for fans of fighting games as well as other sports; it promises a gritty experience. And though you may have a few gripes with it, it’s not all that bad. While the PS4 seems to have better effects and visual quality, I’d still prefer to have the better performance of the X1 to go with the game, no matter how marginal it may be. Other than that, it’s just a matter of personal choice. And there’s Bruce Lee in the game too.

EA Sports UFC may not necessarily have been the best game possible at launch, but at least EA Sports is demonstrating a commitment to supporting the game post launch and trying to realize their original vision. Today, they rolled out a brand new update- on the content side, the game adds three new fighters (Dillashaw, Takeya Mizugaki & Tyron Woodley), but more importantly, there is a massive list of fixes the game adds as well.

The full list is:

New & Updated Content

• Addition of 3 new fighters. 2 in Bantamweight: TJ Dillashaw, Takeya Mizugaki and 1 at Welterweight: Tyron Woodley.
• Updates to fighter records
• Update TJ Dillashaw to be Bantamweight Champion in Career and default fighter in Fight Now
• Updated Alexander Gustafsson’s tattoo
• Gameplay – Added Finish the Fight. Allowing users to land extra shots as a fighter gets knocked out
• Gameplay – Added sprawls when defending power takedowns
• Gameplay – Added the ability to touch gloves at the start of every round

Gameplay

• Added animation to submissive fighter when attempting full guard sweep to a postured opponent in full guard.
• Added the ability to break out of cage clinch by pressing L3 button
• Fixed an exploit where dominant fighter in full mount could sneak in punches from posturing up.
• Fix for arm alignment issue for certain fighters in full mount
• Removed power takedowns and side control sweeps from fighters that should not have them.
• Stamina and damage changes are now relative to accelerated clock.
• Stamina no longer regenerates if user holds block.
• User takes a larger stamina penalty when hit while weak blocking.
• Dominant fighter in full guard has larger window to reverse the full guard sweep to mount. Animation sweep takes longer.
• Fixed rare submission issue where gates could be skipped.
• Fixed issues with framerate during gameplay.
• Fixed rare issue with loss of takedown functionality after denying cage clinch.
• Fixed issues with referee standup during TKOs and submissions.
• Fixed various physics issues.
• Fixed various animation issues

Audio

• Update to Renan Barao Bruce Buffer commentary

Online

• Opened Red Belt division in Championships
• Opened Grand Prix Invitational tournament in Championships
• Fix to online leaderboard stats displaying incorrectly in comparison to FighterNet profile
• Fix to online disconnects in tournaments resetting user’s fighter
• Fix to online disconnects  not reporting the game and no DNF given
• Fixed issue with uploading highlight reels when game is suspended

Miscellaneous

• Added a EULA tile in the Extras menu
• Update to filtering of tutorial videos based on Language settings
• Fix to Origin flow in unsupported language displaying unsupported text
• Decreased difficulty of initial fighter after tutorials. User is unable to get knocked down during standup.
• Fixed Create-a-Fighter icons for hates and tattoos
• Fixed rare issue with incorrect Post fight NIS playing
• Fixed rare crash that occurred during replays
• Fixed issue with Game Face fighters having a seam around neck

So EA should be commended for updating the fighter in response to the criticism and the feedback… but then again, if they had just launched a not-broken game to begin with, maybe they wouldn’t have had to issue such a massive fix to begin with. With games like Battlefield 4, FIFA 14, SimCity, and now UFC, this seems to slowly be becoming a trend for EA, and I can’t say I like it.

In a rather humorous TSN segment, UFC President Dana White weighed on what other guest characters he would have in the next UFC game. This comes off of the inclusion of Bruce Lee in EA Sports UFC, which White had a very strong role in bringing to the game despite the fact that Lee never fought in the Octagon. Then again, Lee is the so-called “father of MMA” so it made sense.

That’s why White would also be okay with including Chuck Norris, who is also a significant figure in the world of martial arts (though his life may have been better defined by a bunch of useless jokes). What is White not okay with? Take your pick because Trinity from the Matrix, Kareem Abdul Jabbar (a basketball player) and Genghis Khan are out.

However, White is okay with Hercules played by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and judo artist Mitsuyo Maeda. This shouldn’t be a confirmation for either appearing in the next EA Sports UFC title but if White has his way, you never know.

Sporting a flame-red Mohican and a long goatee, he stands 5’10” tall, weighs 170lbs and boasts a mixed martial arts (MMA) fighting style that leaves allcomers in his wake. Besides the various tattoos that adorn his right arm, a picture of a screaming banshee is inscribed upon his chest, just above his six pack. Boris “Ghost Dog” Nelson is already a name that sends shivers down the spine of the likes of Josh Koscheck, Thiago Alves, Georges St-Pierre and even the legendary Bruce Lee (DLC)! Remember the name.

EA Sports UFC makes it all possible. Like me you’ll soon no doubt have a similar tale of an underdog coming good, creating your very own “Boris” to rise up the ranks and take the world by storm.

"There are various options available from the outset. You can opt for the Fight Now mode and dive straight into the action, choosing from 95 pugilists – including female fighters - across nine weight divisions, or get online for a few bouts."

This is the latest game to make use of the much vaunted Ignite Engine and it looks fantastic, oozing realism and perfectly capturing the essence of the sport.

From UFC owner Dana White and announcer Bruce Buffer, to Joe Rogan and Mike Goldberg bringing their usual enthusiasm to the commentary, the scantily-clad Arianny and Brittany bearing the round numbers, as well as an absolutely huge lineup of the fighters themselves, this is the perfect package for any fan of the Octagon. For those new to the sport, it may prove a little harder to get to grips with.

There are various options available from the outset. You can opt for the Fight Now mode and dive straight into the action, choosing from 95 pugilists – including female fighters – across nine weight divisions, or get online for a few bouts. A series of challenges and tutorials can also help get you up to speed with the complex control system, or you can embark on the extensive career mode and work your way into the UFC Hall of Fame.

The latter starts you off in the Ultimate Fighter competition, and success soon sees you pitting your wits against similarly optimistic nobodies right through to the more competent fighters in the roster.

Creating a fighter like “Ghost Dog” is a simple but comprehensive affair, with loads of customisation options available. Choose a name and then select everything from eye colour and amount of chest hair to your protégé’s trademark theme song and their celebration pose after a win. Most importantly, there are 10 fighting styles available too: boxer, freestyle wrestler, Greco-roman, MMA fighter, Jiu Jitsu, Judo, Karate, Kickboxer, Muay Thai and Tae Kwon Do – each obviously having completely different characteristics.

"Presentation-wise, it’s top notch and well ahead of other fighting games. EA Sports UFC bears more than a little resemblance to the Fight Night series – crammed full of gloss and authenticity and clearly created by a team dedicated to replicating the thriving sport as closely as possible."

Should you fancy a starring role yourself then you can even import your own likeness into the game using EA’s trademark Game Face mechanic, and enter your creation into the lengthy career mode.

Get through the competition, earn fans, rank up, learn new abilities and get a place on the Undercard, working your way up the rankings until you start to make your name. Keep getting the wins and you’re on for a title shot. Fame and fortune – albeit with cauliflower ears – awaits. It’s quite a spectacle – and when you see the crowd cheering, and the arena filled with lights and music for your fight, it all becomes quite exciting.

Presentation-wise, it’s top notch and well ahead of other fighting games. EA Sports UFC bears more than a little resemblance to the Fight Night series – crammed full of gloss and authenticity and clearly created by a team dedicated to replicating the thriving sport as closely as possible. Body damage is quite impressive with the bruising and redness that appears making you feel like you’re really giving someone a good pounding – or are on the receiving end of one!

Visually, the game is spot on. You can almost feel every strike to the gut, kick to the thigh and smack in the face. Over exert yourself and your stamina bar will fall, making you fighter visibly slower and susceptible to a well-timed strike. All too soon, sweat sprays off your fighter and the arena becomes splattered in blood. Good stuff.

Each figher has been meticulously scanned, and their every scar and tattoo has been lovingly recreated. Their facial expressions are accurate, their build and stance is realistic. The fighters’ movements and physics are fantastic, although you do occasionally get a few screwy animations. Nevertheless, it bodes well for future games that make use of the Ignite Engine – a recent FIFA trailer has already shown how much it’s advanced visually from last year’s effort.

"Unlike other fighting games, button-mashing won’t help you much as you’ll quickly see your stamina bar deplete, which will probably lead to your untimely defeat."

But looks aside, we all know it comes down to accessibility… and UFC is not the easiest game to pick up and play. No matter which of the five difficulty levels you select from Beginner to Pro, you could argue it mimics its real-world counterpart a little too closely; a complex blend of stand-up fighting, ground-based brawling, clinches and submissions where novices will quickly face defeat.

To truly master each element of the game requires a degree of dedication and a fair understanding of the sport. Certainly the long list of moves is a little daunting but EA has done its best to make everything as easy to grasp as possible. Still, I’d advise starting out on beginner or easy mode to get accustomed to everything.

First up, it’s all about learning the basics. Standup and grappling skills are first on the agenda, with a series of kicks, punches and takedowns explained through various mini games. Before long the coaches will have put you through your paces on all the fundamental moves required to put up a good fight.

Unlike other fighting games, button-mashing won’t help you much as you’ll quickly see your stamina bar deplete, which will probably lead to your untimely defeat. Instead, a more strategic approach is required and well-timed button presses and stick gestures will reap rewards. Carefully timed counter attacks are invaluable.

While a single tap of X, Y, A or B prompts a simple punch and kick, holding one of the shoulder buttons transforms it into a more powerful strike. You can vary this again by pushing the left stick. You’ll soon realise that a good memory and dextrous fingers are imperative when playing.

"Meanwhile, EA Sports UFC tweaks the mechanic once again, and requires numerous carefully-timed button presses and lightening quick reactions for success."

Having played all the MMA games from recent years, submissions have without doubt been the most frustrating element. Infuriating and often un-necessarily complex, they’ve always jarred a little from other parts of a fight. Mastering the ground game and positioning yourself is one thing but the mini game that starts when you want to pull off the perfect Kimura, armbar or choke is key to victory. This latest offering seems to have made good progress, however.

EA Sports MMA from a few years ago (2010) really seemed to pull it off, with an intuitive way of achieving the submissions (using the thumbsticks to move round a circular indicator in search of a sweet spot for a choke, or using X-ray images to show tension on bones and joints). It worked really well and was easy to grasp. I thought the UFC Undisputed series proved slightly trickier in practice and I really didn’t take to it.

Meanwhile, EA Sports UFC tweaks the mechanic once again, and requires numerous carefully-timed button presses and lightening quick reactions for success. It’s definitely an improvement on the THQ offerings but again, it can be quite difficult to pull off for a newbie – many of whom will probably dispense with the submission battles altogether and try to stay on their feet, relying on a flurry of punches and kicks.

Pound for pound, EA Sports UFC is in many ways – and quite literally – the ultimate fighting game. From your favourite fighters to the strikes, takedowns, submissions and ground passes – it’s all there. It looks the business; you can almost sniff the sweat and soak up the atmosphere around the arena.

It boasts great graphics and presentation, combined with loads of blood, brawling and battery… but there are issues. It’s certainly a contender for one of the best of the genre on the next gen consoles but until the developers get a real stranglehold on the submission system, provide more game modes and variety, and make the game more accessible for those new to the sport, MMA titles may struggle to fight their way to the top of the sales charts.

THQ handled such things with a large amount of grace, opting for control schemes that were accessible to regular human beings while maintaining the requisite depth that comes with making a game about MMA. Alas, all good things must come to an end, and with THQ’s death, the license has moved on over to EA. Unfortunately, the same level of quality has not carried over with it. That’s not to say that EA Sports UFC is a bad game; it’s not, but it does have a number of major problems that drag the whole experience down significantly.

On the surface, this is the ultimate UFC game. There are over 90 fighters here over every possible weight class, just waiting to punch, kick, throw, and submit the living crap out of each other for your pleasure at the drop of a hat. There’s also a career mode in which you can create a fighter, guide him (no ladies in this mode, sorry) through The Ultimate Fighter reality show, onto a title in your chosen weight class, and ultimately, into the UFC Hall of Fame.

"When you first get started, though, you’ll play through an eighteen step tutorial that tries to walk you through everything from striking to the clinch, takedowns, and submissions. I emphasize the word tries because ultimately, this tutorial teaches you almost nothing about the game."

When you first get started, though, you’ll play through an eighteen step tutorial that tries to walk you through everything from striking to the clinch, takedowns, and submissions. I emphasize the word tries because ultimately, this tutorial teaches you almost nothing about the game. Part of this is due to the fact that EA Sports UFC contains one of the worst, if not the worst, control schemes I have ever seen in a video game, but part of this is due to the fact that the game does an incredibly poor job of explaining what the controls actually do.

Even little things are complicated. You want to do a roundhouse kick to the head? You need to press the appropriate kick button on the controller (each face button is assigned to an arm or leg), and back on the control stick. Want to make that kick to the body? That requires holding down one of the shoulder buttons. Want to make that a special kick instead of a roundhouse? That’s another button. And that’s just for striking, which is the part of the controls that works well.

The clinch, the part of a fight where two fighters grapple each other while standing, and the ground game are positively infuriating. Doing any sort of clinch or takedown requires the use of the right analog stick. This is fine when it’s just a flick in a direction, such as the input that gets you into the clinch, but after that, things get a lot more complicated. Once you’re wrapped up with an opponent, further action requires you to input quarter circles, but the game never explains what each one does, so you’re left to guess, and often times the game will simply refuse to recognize your inputs, and I say this as an avid fighting game player with years of experience in quarter circle fu.

"Because of this, I almost never used the grapples, clinch, takedowns, or even the admittedly (and refreshingly) simple and fun submission system. Instead, I just focused on kicking people in the head."

Because of this, success basically requires having the game manual open in front of you and a ton of practice. “No problem,” you might say. “I’ll just go into the game settings menu and open up the icon that says ‘game manual.’” Were it so easy. You see, that option doesn’t actually open up the game menu. Instead, it tells you to go to EA’s website to view the manual. Because putting one in the game is too much work. As is, apparently, putting in a decent tutorial.

And just wait until you try to prevent someone from leaving the clinch or from making a transition on the ground. That requires more right stick action in combination with a button press. Sure, there’s a challenge mode (that should probably have been the game’s tutorial) that will walk you through almost everything, but it throws so much at you and never actually teaches you why or how you should do certain things. It just shows you that you can do them and calls it a day.

Because of this, I almost never used the grapples, clinch, takedowns, or even the admittedly (and refreshingly) simple and fun submission system. Instead, I just focused on kicking people in the head. It’s what I did in the standard play mode, as well as the game’s career mode. Admittedly, the career mode does a significantly better job of teaching you than either the challenge mode or the tutorial, and I improved quite a bit as I played. That said, I almost never used many of the so-called “advanced” techniques.

"You see, I was so frustrated with the game’s controls, and EA Canada’s obstinate refusal to explain how anything worked that I named my custom fighter Will “Boom Boom” Baker, and had him kick people in the face until they passed out."

You see, I was so frustrated with the game’s controls, and EA Canada’s obstinate refusal to explain how anything worked that I named my custom fighter Will “Boom Boom” Baker, and had him kick people in the face until they passed out. Any stats I got went into my leg power, and any supplementary abilities focused on damaging kicks to the same part of the body. So far, this has gotten me through The Ultimate Fighter and an undefeated 16-0 record (15 knockouts, 1 decision) in the UFC, as well as the Light Heavyweight Championship.

The career mode is nice, and it’s fun to do the various training exercises and compete in fights, but it’s dragged down by a lot of repetition and a number of videos in which major UFC talents contact you after a fight and proceed to offer a lot of “Atta boys” and “Good job, kids.” This wouldn’t be an issue if the acting weren’t so painfully bad, but it is. I understand that these guys aren’t professional actors, but most of them aren’t even trying.

Some do admirable jobs, but most of the videos are done by fighters who are rewriting the definition of phoning it in. It’s downright painful, and actively detracts from the experience. I’m also fairly sure that the guy I just beat for the Light Heavyweight title wouldn’t contact me afterwards, congratulate me on my title win, and then proceed to give me tips on how to keep it. Just a hunch, though. These things – repetition, the awful “acting” – don’t do a lot to detract from the game’s career mode, but it certainly doesn’t help.

"The other major problem is the game’s use of Bruce Lee. The character was featured heavily at E3 and his inclusion is a major selling point, but unlike literally every other fighter in the game, you have to unlock him. "

The real problem is that, outside of the career mode, there just isn’t a whole lot to do. You can jump into a fight with a human or computer opponent at will, but beyond that, the only other option is online play. That’s means things get repetitive very quickly, no matter what mode you play, and there’s just not a lot on offer for those who don’t want to learn every aspect of the game so they won’t get destroyed online.

The other major problem is the game’s use of Bruce Lee. The character was featured heavily at E3 and his inclusion is a major selling point, but unlike literally every other fighter in the game (with one exception), you have to unlock him. Sure, you can do this by completing the game’s career mode (and winning a championship) on the second hardest difficulty, but the game never actually tells you this.

Instead, it directs you to the in-game store, where you can purchase the four different versions of Bruce Lee for $1.99 each, or for $5.99 collectively. Or, alternatively, you could have pre-ordered. Everyone else? You’d better pony up that cash or get really good and put in the time. It’s a slap in the face considering a large chunk of the game’s marketing revolves around the slogan “Everyone can be Bruce Lee,” (it’s on the game’s official website. Go look it up, I’ll wait) but it’s made all the more infuriating because the game goes out of its way to place some of Lee’s more famous quotes onto the loading screens.

"The character models are legitimately excellent, and the detail is incredible. Skins ripples when characters take a hit, they’ll stagger under heavy impacts, and their movements will change depending on which parts of the body take damage and how much stamina they have left."

It’s absolutely disrespectful to the man who is perhaps the greatest martial artist of all time, but it’s even more disrespectful to the fans because the entire system is blatantly designed to part them with their money. “Want to play as the greatest martial artist of all time? Well, you could struggle with our poorly designed game systems that do nothing to teach you how to play, and eventually work your way up to the second highest difficulty, and win a championship on top of that, or you could pay the low, low price of $5.99. Act now. All your friends are doing it.”

If you can get past all of those problems, the game does look pretty good. The character models are legitimately excellent, and the detail is incredible. Skin ripples when characters take a hit, they’ll stagger under heavy impacts, and their movements will change depending on which parts of the body take damage and how much stamina they have left. You can even see the veins and tendons when they yell in triumph after a match, and the cuts and bruises form right in front of your eyes.

It’s really impressive, but ultimately, it’s too little, too late. When the game works, it’s incredible: the striking feels good, the graphics are stellar, and the career mode is a lot of fun. But the lack of game modes, the poor tutorials and controls, and EA’s ongoing problems with DLC drag the game down significantly. If you’re a dedicated UFC fan, you will probably want to check it out, but everyone else should probably steer clear unless all you want to do is kick people in the head. 16-0, baby.

This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 4.

After the short deluge of big name games, the market has slowed down a bit until the September/October flood. This means that consumers will need to make do with what’s available. According to the latest UKIE game charts, courtesy of Gfk Chart-Track, that’s more or less what happened when Sniper Elite 3 released. It immediately debuted at first place, toppling EA Sports UFC.

GRID: Autosport also debuted this week but with considerably less enthusiasm at seventh place. It still cracked the top 10 though, which consists of Watch Dogs, EA Sports UFC, Titanfall, Wolfenstein: The New Order and FIFA 14 lording above it.

Call of Duty: Ghosts maintains its popularity in the charts at eight place while Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition and Minecraft: PS3 Edition occupy ninth and tenth place respectively. We’d wonder what became of Transformers: Rise of the Dark Spark but after the abysmal movie, we could care less. Stay tuned for more information on releases in the coming weeks.

Ubisoft’s commercially successfully yet horribly developed Watch Dogs had its UK run ended by the debut of EA Sports UFC, which released for the PS4 and Xbox One. This is according to the latest UKIE game charts courtesy of Gfk Chart-Track.

Watch Dogs is still doing fairly well at the number 2 position while Respawn Entertainment’s Titanfall is currently in third place. Wolfenstein: The New Order is at fourth place while FIFA 14 and 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil, despite the on-going World Cup, are only in fifth and sixth place respectively.

Mario Kart 8 is still going well at seventh place while Call of Duty: Ghosts is at eight. Minecraft: PS3 Edition and Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition occupied the remaining two spots in the top ten.

There aren’t any major releases this week aside from Transformers: Rise of the Dark Spark. How will EA Sports UFC fare in the exchange? We’ll find out later this week.

Electronic Arts have announced that a demo for their upcoming mixed martial arts fighting video game is now available for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Interested players can download it from PlayStation Network and Xbox Live.

The demo gives the player access to 2013’s Fight of the Year and enter the Octagon. You can either take up the role of light heavyweight champion Jon ‘Bones’ Jones or  Alexander ‘The Mauler’ Gustafsson. This single fight will take across three rounds. The demo will also include the game’s entire tutorial so if you do plan to buy the game later on, you can dive right in without any issues.

EA Sports UFC releases this month but only on the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Sorry PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 owners! For more on the game you can check out our full wiki here.

Let us know whether you plan to give the demo a shot in the comments section below. Stay tuned for more coverage on EA Sports UFC including our review soon.

EA showcased some new gameplay footage for EA Sports UFC, particularly showing us how special character Bruce Lee will fight. Yes, in an actual fight, albeit within the confines of the game.

Bruce Lee’s strengths not only come from his powerful strikes but with a strong ground game that can easily overcome submissions. Of course, with his power, you can easily knock out an opponent with a well-placed head-kick. EA’s Ignite engine shows details like never before, including bruises that form on the fighters in combat.

EA Sports UFC will be releasing on June 17th for Xbox One and PS4. It will feature key fighters including Jon Jones and embody female MMA fighters like Ronda Rousey and Miesha Tate for the first time. What are your thoughts on seeing Bruce Lee in action? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below along with your thoughts on EA’s show thus far.