UFC 3 has arguably the best boxing ever seen in a game. Do you agree?

[EarvGotti]

As someone who loves pure boxing and boxing in MMA, i have this say, this game so far is a masterpiece when it comes to the sweet science. FNC was always the gold standard in terms of striking for me....but UFC 3 has reached that bar IMO.

You can finally truly outclass someone with pure boxing instead of having to throw 3-4 punch combos everytime. You can fight like Mayweather potshotting and have success, or you can pressure like the Diaz brothers throwing mixed combos and still have success.

I would even go as far to say that the counter system in UFC 3 is even BETTER than Fight Night Champion. Most of the effective counters in FNC came after you sidestepped a punch. It was very gimmicky and people would spam it. However in UFC 3, you can get realistic counters off of head movement and footwork and it doesn't feel cheap. Head movement is also not exploitable. If someone keeps slipping left or right....hit them with hooks. If they keep ducking....hit them with uppercuts. Everything so far has a counter and the game is very balanced.

I'm not the best UFC 3 player(yet)lol, but I'm having great success by boxing realistically and mixing up my strikes. The body work this year is AMAZING. There's nothing more satisfying than breaking down an uber aggressive opponent with body shots to later see his stamina nonexistent in round 2 or 3....or better yet.....getting a liver shot KO. Deep water fights will be excellent this year....you guys wait and see.



Amazing job by the dev team especially GPD for giving us this product. I hope not many changes happen with the striking throughout the game's cycle. A couple minor tweaks here and there and this will definitely seal the spot as the greatest simulation fighting game ever made.

If you love boxing or just technical striking in general....i'd say you will be thrilled with this game. For those who have played it already in EA Access....what are your thoughts?

[bigvinnylol]

I agree. Once you get the hang of the controls, It really is a fantastic improvement over ufc 2

[AydinDubstep]

No, I don't think it does but it certainly has things going for it.

The bad:
- 4 direction head movement (on/off) system.
- Lack of different blocking styles.
- Lack of variety in boxing punches.
- Punch animations that look wrong / off (jab body, cross body, overhand).
- Jab KOs off weak jabs.
- Hit reactions too over the top.
- Stunned states interrupt the flow of the punching exchanges & leave the fighter stuck too often.
- Right stick for punching FNC was useful. Of course, not sure it would fit in an MMA game control scheme.
- FNC had subtleties to the animations which made one guy's hook and another guy's hook different & added depth to it. Here we have mostly the same hooks etc.

The good:
- Footwork & head movement separate.
- Vulnerability system is a step in the right direction.
- Punching whilst moving is a step in the right direction.
- Combination system is an interesting addition.
- They're devising & adding new blocking & movement types which is fantastic.
- They're devising & adding new striking animations.
- Feints & strike cancels are a great addition.

It's pretty decent and perhaps if it were their only focus, then they could beat FNC, especially with the movement & head movement system but at the moment, it isn't the best boxing.

The flow needs work. FNC had great flow, albeit a bit unrealistic too. It needs more strike variety & tweaks but certainly is getting there.

I can't wait to get my hands on it next week & see what they're able to do with future patches!

[Trillz]

the boxing is much more enjoyable then 2. Its nice to throw in a kick surprisingly to catch the oppoennt off guard with a little but of seperation. You can have much more tactics to how you want to play and styles can make fights if you dont have a plan B.

[Serengeti1]

Quote: Originally Posted by EarvGotti

You can finally truly outclass someone with pure boxing instead of having to throw 3-4 punch combos everytime. You can fight like Mayweather potshotting and have success, or you can pressure like the Diaz brothers throwing mixed combos and still have success.

This is going to take a while to know for sure imo because people are still learning how to play. It's not like everyone was throwing straight + roundhouse kick immediately on UFC 2.

People will get better with controls and timing and everything too. It may turn out that you generally have to have a very high output to be successful at a high level. I'm hoping and don't think that will be the case but it's difficult to say.

[AydinDubstep]

Watching your video, the dude playing as Masvidal, with that high level of pressure, should be using head movement to stay safe up close but unfortunately, there's something about the head movement that makes it very dangerous to use in the way you might use it in FNC - especially for pressure fighting I think.

In FNC, if I were that close to a guy, I would be switching head slots and working my shots off that. Here it's more a case of standing upright & working shots off blocks.

Could be a case of getting really good with this different head movement system. Maybe it is possible. Will find out soon enough

Edit: What I do hate in this compared to FNC, is when fighters stand right infront of your face, less than half an arms length away, and start throwing down. The subtly, or perhaps my lack of skill, weren't there in the beta to make use of the head movement to beat them up in close. In FNC, if a guy standing upright was in my face and I didn't want to back off, I could cleverly use head movement, blocking and interesting punch combinations to really get to work & beat them up. Here, we can't block whilst moving off centre & tbh, in FNC, you would regularly have to deploy blocks even when moving your head.

In THQ UFC, you could just get busy grappling or push them back if they stuck to you like glue. I think if the clinch game is made more fun, could definitely see more people doing this. Pushing should be a thing in this game too.

[l The Spider l]

I haven’t had a chance to play this game watched plenty of footage and had the privilege of playing Round 4 and FNC plus EA MMA which used the same Total Strike Control which Fight Night used. I feel they nailed EA MMA when they introduced that layout for striking and I feel as though EA UFC needs that. Buttons were an option in FNC it had the same inputs on uppercuts but no one used them only people using buttons were the cross cheesers off of side and back steps with them cross blocks.

[l The Spider l]

Boxing looks great so far, any step forward is better than a step backwards. Footwork looks great, Vulnerability and Damage look awesome aside from the fact there’s seems to be a lot of rocked states and follow ups hardly disrupt the block. Give the block more wear and tear and that should be good, force people to use head movement and footwork when hurt not just cover up.

Would also like to see more a responsive block. In Fight Night you were able to reactively block each strike in a combo without holding it down so it made it about if you can time your blocks well but the input delay in UFC at the moment would negate that. Also add 360head movement so you can roll with strikes and give the ability to block whilst rolling. Even if they made it unique for guys like Lawler, Hunt, Green, Anderson just to test the waters.