Not everything is available at first, as some of the cosmetics need to be unlocked by either paying real money, or earning in-game currency to purchase them. Dozens of different tattoo designs, hairstyles, stances, taunts, and even jewelry are here to choose from. Just about everything can be tweaked in many ways to really get the look you want. This ultimately leads to a frustrating experience that hopefully gets some improvements in the future patches.ĮA recognizes how important individuality is in MMA, and it shows in the create-a-fighter customization. There’s simply not enough time between transitions to accurately assess your next move. Even with the arrows, transitions can still be unresponsive and inaccurate, but without them the whole system turns into a mess. Offline play offers directional arrows that give you an opportunity to counter or block an opponent transitions as well as setup your own, but online play removes this option completely. Transitioning on the ground is still very inconsistent, especially when playing online. The ground game has taken small steps in the right direction, but there is still plenty of work that needs to be done to make it as serviceable as striking. A good number of times I was put into a submission in situations that would have surely spelled doom for me in the past, but I’ve been able to break out of them with total ease even on harder difficulties.
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Submissions have also been tweaked slightly as joint submissions and choke submissions are meant to be more distinct from each other, but the included minigames for each feel very similar and the AI doesn’t seem to understand how to finish a submission. While this is a good way to help players who may not be familiar with all the ground positions, I like having the specific positions shown to me instead of just three basic options, so I opted for legacy grappling controls which fall more in the line with previous titles. You’ll have to choose to either attempt some ground and pound, a submission, or try to get back up to your feet. Instead there are only three options to choose from, no matter what position you are in. It removes the options to transition to specific positions, like rubber guard, full/half guard and north/south. The ground game has also been reworked to be more accessible to newcomers with the addition of the grapple assist. This and the striking improvements all come together to make a fast, accurate system that feels more natural than it's ever been. Breaking a clinch is as simple as moving away from your opponent. Attempting to knee an opponent in the head would automatically make my fighter transition to a muay thai clinch without having to manually do this myself. Your character will automatically make a transition based on the type of strike you attempt in the clinch. The unreliable joystick battles of the past are replaced by a more fluid system that thankfully feels more in the line with the improved striking. In addition to the striking changes, the clinch game has also received a face-lift. There are also a few new moves and techniques that have been added to make things feels fresh as well as some improved animations that make movements and transitions appear more realistic. Throwing quick jabs or straights and following them up with a spinning elbow or backfist is much easier to pull off than before. This not only leads to smoother, faster sequences, but also made me feel like I had more control over exactly what I wanted my fighter to do. Instead of pressing a combination of four to five buttons to unleash a vicious head kick like in UFC 3, you can simply hold a combination of two buttons to use the same move. EA introduces a new “dynamic striking” system that allows you to hold button combinations on the controller in order to pull off some of the more complex moves. Gone are long button combinations that sometimes would get messy in the midst of a fight. Striking has always been my favorite part of the series, and UFC 4 continues that with a completely overhauled system.