GPD's official response to Finish the Fight discussion

[Reinfarcements]

In a now closed thread GPD said this in regards to Finish the Fight after a standing KO:

"As for the KO's from standing, we got a lot of feedback on UFC 2 from consumers, critics (JRE) and the UFC themselves that beating on an unconscious opponent didn't represent the sport well.

So there was a deliberate decision to not allow the ability to dive on the opponent if it was a full on KO, if we didn't have ref interactions. We don't have ref interactions, because we didn't have to resources to put that in given the rest of the work we needed to do, so that was the decision that was made."

I'm here to open discussion on this matter further, rather than letting it die after that statement.

I can understand his reasoning. They received feedback that it wasn't a "good way to represent the sport". Here is the thing though, its the reality of the sport. Its a very real part of the sport. To me this is like taking out cuts and blood from the game. Those things may be brutal or not pretty to look at, yet they are still in the game.

If you are truly concerned about the feature being "too brutal", then tweak it, don't remove it. Reduce the amount of strikes allowed, change the animations, ect. Because if we are being honest, the finishes of fights in EA UFC games have always been lacking in presentation. You discuss lack of ref interaction, so you decide to remove this feature as well, but if you ask me that is going to make it worse. Its the same thing if Madden decided to get rid of the Holding Penalty because they didn't animate Linemen actually holding. I get where you are coming from but at the end of the day it is still stripping features away from an area of the game that needs all the help it can get.

I'm just hoping this decision gets a REALLY hard look before it becomes absolutely final. I don't want to spend the next 2 years watching hundreds of walk-off KOs in-game, while also watching UFC fight cards in real life that very often have zero walk-off KOs.

[LittleEvil]

I don't see the problem, and i'm not surprised at all by the decision. You'd score a KO and land 5-6 additional strikes. Why would the UFC want that as a representation for the sport?

[Dave_S]

I'll allow it. But for the love of all that's holy can we get some of the ufc 1 post fight animations back then?

Pretty please with maple syrup on top? Throwing a "suck it" after a fight was so satisfying on occasion. Can't those old animations get upconverted or something?

[Reinfarcements]

Quote: Originally Posted by LittleEvil

I don't see the problem, and i'm not surprised at all by the decision. You'd score a KO and land 5-6 additional strikes. Why would the UFC want that as a representation for the sport?

Let me ask you a question. Is one of the things you are looking for in the EA UFC series of games, a realistic representation of MMA? To have the gameplay accurately depict what you see on UFC fight cards?

[iceberg3445]

Walk off KOs are relatively rare in real life, and therefore should not be the default KO animation. It’s arcadey and a step in the wrong direction.

It greatly reduces the game’s realism and will take away from player immersion.

This decision by EA is disappointing. Corporate politics shouldn’t take priority over realistic gameplay, but I guess that’s the era we live in.

On the bright side, at least the walk off KO issue compounds pressure on game devs to implement ref stoppages.


Sent from my iPhone using Operation Sports

[LittleEvil]

Quote: Originally Posted by Reinfarcements

Let me ask you a question. Is one of the things you are looking for in the EA UFC series of games, a realistic representation of MMA? To have the gameplay accurately depict what you see on UFC fight cards?

Yes.

But lets not pretend the animation of landing additional blows to a dead opponent was realistic.

When they have the resources to add ref interaction, i'm sure they'll find a way to bring this back in an appropriate way. Until then, I don't see the problem and was expecting this at some point with how often my friends and I comment you're basically murdering a guy in some of these fights with the additional blows you land.

[TheVirus]

I understand why it was done, but it doesn't make a lot of sense overall.

It'd be like removing collisions from a racing game just because racing isn't about colliding with other racers.

The WHOLE reason people complained about the finish the fight sequences and not being able to push an already downed fighter was because it's super rare for walk off KO's to happen, so in the end is it really misrepresenting the UFC if that's what happens anyway?

[godway]

I don't LIKE it....but this is one of those areas you have to conform to for video game purposes. For instance, Fight Night had you knocking guys down multiple times until you eventually knocked them out. This doesn't happen often in boxing. Refs would typically stop the fight if one fighter is getting pummeled too badly. But in the confines of a video game it ends up making sense.