EA Sports UFC is the newest upcoming mixed martial arts title developed by Electronic Arts for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Based on the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), is will be the first UFC game since THQ sold the license to Electronic Arts.
The game is said to feature advanced artificial intelligence that helps in changes related to player strategies in order to make the overall experience more realistic. The game also simulates "full body deformation" to connect players with their virtual player-characters.
Recently, Gamingbolt interviewed Creative Director Brian Hayes, who described how the in-game animations and mechanics were simplified. How the next generation of console gaming will assist in the game’s already realistic experience was also discussed.
On asked about the title heading straight to the next generation Xbox One and PlayStation 4, Hayes stated: “Unlike all the other fabulous EA SPORTS titles, we didn’t have an existing UFC game on the current generation. Making a cross-generational title would essentially entail making both products from scratch.”
“That requires a tremendous amount of development effort, whereas other games with existing current generation games can build upon of their existing current generation games (and that’s still a big effort for them every year). We wanted to put all our resources towards making the best game we possibly can for the next generation of consoles, as opposed to splitting our focus and possibly seeing both products suffer as a result.”
The gameplay for the title is also under some consideration since this is the first UFC game ever made and also boasts advanced player intelligence compared to UFC Undisputed 3.
Hayes stated that as example, the submission in this game is going to be different although the company is maintaining all that detail for the future. He said that the team involved is still implementing “some features and have lots of tuning and tweaking to do on others, so it would be premature to discuss precisely how the core gameplay is going to work.”
“Obviously, you will be able to fight an opponent inside the octagon using a variety of MMA techniques. Similarly, on the modes and features side, we’re not ready to discuss specifics, but you can obviously expect there to be a single-player UFC career experience, a variety of online modes of play, customization options and some new things all together,” he added.
Concentrating more on the advanced player intelligence involved with the game, Hayes confirmed how well the AI will function to make fights more realistic and allow for changing strategies: “Similar to a real UFC fighter, most of them anyway, we are creating AI that allows for each fighter to start a match with a game plan. Fighters work for weeks in training camp to prepare for their next opponent based on their understanding of their comparative strengths and weaknesses.”
“However, as a noted pugilist once said, ‘everybody’s got a plan until they get hit in the face.' It’s not possible to know how effective a game plan will be until the actual fight is taking place. How strong are your strengths? How weak are your weaknesses? The AI regularly evaluates the effectiveness of their game plan and will switch things up when things aren’t going the way they expected,” he added.
“Of course, depending on the fighter and their abilities, there may or may not be a more effective back-up plan. Which is why being a capable practitioner in all elements of MMA is such an important thing in the current day UFC.”
EA Sports UFC is currently scheduled for a May 5 release next year on Xbox One and PS4.