8 Things EA's UFC 4 Must Do Better Than UFC 3

It’s no secret that the weak link of UFC 3’s gameplay was when it hit the mat.

When all is said and done, it boils down to who has more stamina and who has higher grappling stats to determine the winner. If you're a striker that finds themselves against a high caliber grappler, you can pretty much kiss the fight goodbye the second you're double legged to the canvas and don't ace your takedown defense.

Going back to the undisputed era of UFC games, you could find a plethora of tactics to give everyone a chance of finding routes to gain the advantage. Swaying your body to avoid strikes, twisting your frame to escape a bad position through various controller inputs and a multitude of ways to reverse a position were all present.

EA's UFC has players hold a stick in one direction and pray the opponent doesn't notice in time that you have. It makes the player on the bottom feel totally helpless as they are peppered with strikes while the opponent on top simply waits for them to choose which way they are going, and block them in an evil game of rock-paper-scissors.

In UFC 4 a style of grappling game-play that matches the brilliant stand-up is what gamers need. One where skill is what wins the fight more than simply who’s got the better stats.