EA Sports UFC 2: 10 Essential Fixes That Must Be Made

2. Severe Injuries And Doctor Stoppages

To borrow (and then bend) a quote from Snatch's Turkish, "this isn't a tickling contest, these lads are out to hurt each other". Statham's character was talking about unlicensed boxing, but the same rings true for mixed martial arts. Yes, there are rules in the big leagues of the UFC, but this is a ferociously violent sport - blood is spilled, bones break, people slump lifelessly to the mat. EA Sport UFC brings this brutality to life in vivid streaks of crimson and sweat. But there are aspects of the damage model which should be taken further in the quest for realism. To be fair, the cuts and bruises which form on the fighters during a bout are a massive improvement over what has come before. Only after continued play does it start to become repetitive, slowly revealing that these battle wounds are not being generated as procedurally as first thought. From a gameplay perspective, the biggest omission is that there don't seem to be any broken bones anywhere to be seen, or medical stoppages either. You could spam your opponent with roundhouse head kicks until the blood is pouring from his face like the Niagara Falls, and still no one steps in to check that his brain isn't leaking out of his skull. Doctor stoppages don't happen a lot in reality, but they happen. Similarly, if you saw Uriah Hall's toe bone sticking out in all kinds of bad ways at UFC 175 you would know that proper injuries can change the course of a fight - and a fighters career - and this should be taken into account for EA Canada's next effort.