1) Stamina
I know this is a video game, but stamina has to be more of a factor in the stand up. I fought a match against Kimbo recently, He threw nothing but power shots, haymakers, big hooks, etc, the entire first round most of these shots he missed. But his stamina in the 2nd round was about 95%!!!! Now this is a fighter known to gas after the 1st round. Threw and missed lots of big power shots, and he's at 95%...this is insane. A fighter with his conditioning should be sucking wind hard throwing and missing on that many big punches.
Also the effect of low stamina needs to be magnified, as this is one of the most important factors of MMA. No matter how skilled, strong, or fast you are if you run out of gas and the other fighter still has something left, you're at a GREAT disadvantage. Speed of punches and kicks need to be affected by this more as well. And the thing where your guy starts breathing heavy with his hands down for a few seconds is not what i'm talking about. For the remainder of the fight, if a players stamina is noticeably low, all punches should be weakened and noticeably slower, same for kicks, and takedown attempts. You should be able to see haymakers and head kicks from a winded fighter a mile away. On the other side of it, when you are gassed your hands should be much lower, and the reaction time as far as leaning, swaying, and blocking should suffer as well so it's an even trade off. For the people that don't want this level of realism simply have an arcade mode where stamina is like it is now and you can throw tons of punches per round.
Also head kicks should cost way more in stamina than what they currently do.
2) Finishing Fights(KO/TKO)
Everybody talks about the KO rate in this game being way too high. I hope THQ really focuses on the aspect of "finishing" a fight. This is perhaps one of the most intense and exciting aspects of ALL sports! Please get it right in 2011. We want to see standing TKO's where the ref just has to pull you off of a fighter taking too many unanswered blows(especially against the cage, see chuck vs tito). We want to see more variety of a fighter in the "rocked" state. 9 times out of 10 fights are stopped due to TKO, I.E. a fighter landing a shot big enough to send his opponent to the ground in a daze, then while the grounded fighter is still in a daze, the other fighter jumps on him and starts landing big blows causing the ref to have to pull him off of the downed fighter. The way this happens in 2009 and 2010 is soooo pathetic and lame. Give the rocked fighter a bit more of a chance...don't have him laying in the fetal position lifeless. This is just the worst. At least have him trying to put his legs up into guard or trying to pull the dominant fighter in to his chest or something. There should be 10-15 animations/positions for finishing a fight due to TKO. I don't even feel the need to post a clip, heck just look at actual fights ending and replicate that into the game.
Also the ref needs to show more of a sense of urgency to pull a fighter off a beaten opponent. Now he just casually walks over and taps you on the shoulder!! That is crap. if I'm beating the snot out of someone in full mount, and knock him out and keep punching the ref should tackle me or drag me off of him. Again, we'd like to see variety here to. No one wants the same 2 tko animations every single time. It gets really old really fast. So does the current KO system where as soon as the punch lands the winner automatically throws his hands up before the loser even hits the ground. That is sooooooo dumb, at least make the fighter rapidly approach the guy on the way down to deliver another blow, but have the ref step in and stop him (See Franklins KO vs Quarry as an example).
And like I stated earlier, the flash KO rate is just way too high. I feel 1 out of every 10 fights that don't end in a sub or decision should be a clean KO. While the other 9 should be REALISTIC looking TKO's. And while on this subject, let KO's or big knockdowns occur on power punches. I don't want to see any more Jab knock outs or knock downs unless someone runs into one. Working on implementing a much more realistic and exciting system of finishing fights should be a top priority in 2011, which leads me to my next point.
3) Submissions/BJJ
I've been saying since last year, subs are freakin AWFUL in this game..the whole concept of it just stinks IMO. Playing with a BJJ fighter is NO FUN as you are reduced to strike to wear your opponent down.
I can understand having lower stamina will increase the chances you get caught with something be it a KO punch or a sub, but for subs stamina is wayyyyyyyyyyy to much of a factor. I'm sure neither Tamdan McCrory or Josh Burkman were "gassed" when Dustin Hazelett submitted them within minutes of the first round. Did he even land a punch on either of them??? What about Maia vs Sonnen??? I'm sure Chael wasn't gassed either when he got subbed. Sub Skill should be king in submissions...they also need to figure a way to maybe use jiu jitsu to get in position for a submission, rather than just being on top and clicking the stick and bam. Maybe the lower level BJJ fighters would need to have someones stamina down before they can submit but for the top of the food chain BJJ practioners it really shouldn't matter as most of the time if they get you in a bad spot(mount or back) it's usually over no matter how tired you are or aren't. As the game is now I can understand why it's not that way b/c it would be too easy for some fighters but this is where they need to implement actual BJJ moves on the ground so that your fighter has to get his body/arms/or legs into position before a sub can be initiated. It would also serve to make takedowns harder. Alot of the top level BJJ fighters utilize trips to get the fight to the ground not just wrestling type takedowns. It's too easy to time a punch and just get a takedown instantly no matter how low your takedown skills are and how high the other guys takedown defense is. Guys with very low takedown stats should even have a different animation, not using the same perfect form that a high level wrester would use. Plus their shot should be way slower and clunky looking. But anyways BJJ would actually matter if these things were implemented...as it is it's just wrestling and GnP on the ground.
Finally they need to rid the game of that stupid stick spinning nonsense...I'd much rather see a mini-game or something like EA is doing, anything other than button smashing or stick spinning. Hell i'd rather it just be button smashing b/c it's easier for everyone to do rather than spinning the stupid stick..I have big hands, and the ps3 controller is pretty small, so my spinning is horrible lol. This aspect of the game should be based on timing and percision, not just pure button mashing/stick spinning skills. Think something like in Batman AA where you have to hack a computer, where if you're fighters sub skills are high, he'd have a much larger window of hitting the "sweet spot."
So i'll say this in closing, give BJJ fighters a real purpose in next years game and i'll be happy. As of now it's just a wrestling game on the ground. And I agree with everyone else, the CPU's submission skills are off the charts.
I understand that this is only the 2nd year of the game, and Standup is easier to get right than ground combat. The game is still fun when played with friends. Really really tough against the cpu though. Not sure if i'll even bother starting a career as i've heard alot of people having issues with it. Plus I wanted to create a BJJ fighter
I'm sure the developers did not want the game to get too complex, but in order to remain true to the sport, I hope they use these or some other suggestions to even the game out for the BJJ guys.
4) More realistic Takedowns/Sprawls
As mentioned earlier, there are too easy to get. I can pick Dustin Hazelett and take GSP down whenever I please. All I have to do is time when he punches and BAM..double leg into guard for Dustin
Way too easy if you ask me. Guys with high wrestling and takedown stats should have different animations from guys with weak skills in these departments. Their shots should also be noticeably faster, smoother, and with way better form. They should also have more range on their shots.
Guys with weak stats in this area should have totally different looking shots. They shouldn't be as smooth, fast, and they should also be telegraphed a bit which all leads to lesser chance of the takedown. Timing shouldn't be as much a factor either, and there should be very very few AUTOMATIC takedowns.
We need new sprawl animations, perhaps have the "hopping on 1 leg" animation, just take a look at what happens most of the time when someone tries to takedown BJ with a single. He hops back to fence on 1 leg and if they hold on they usually take some stiff shots to the side of the head while his back is against the fence. Would be great to see this type of sprawl in game.
5) Improved striking Realism (Accuracy, Speed, Damage)
I like the swaying and leaning aspect introduced this year, but we need to see more improvements in the basics of the striking game. We mainly need to see differentiation between fighters. I like what they did by adding new stances but we'd like to see even more next year. How about Anderson Silva when he fights with his hands by his waist and throws power shots with pin point accuracy, or Rashads getting extremly low(like he did against Jackson) and his footwork and head movement.
One thing in particular that needs to be addressed is punch/kick accuracy. This can easily be reflected by stats. THQ needs to take a page from fight nights book and implement accuracy. Lower tier fighters shouldn't have the same accuracy and crispness of elite K1 strikers. Kimbo throwing a punch looks different than say a guy like Cain. Cain uses very crisp boxing, Kimbo more or less throws big shots that rarely land. The next game needs to include grazing blows. THis would couple well with the swaying and leaning.
Another thing is hand speed. We need to see varying and more distinct levels of hand speed. I want to immediately tell the difference in throwing punches with Vitor Belfort compared to Marcus Jones. I'll use Kimbo against b/c he's the most recent person i've fought against. He shouldn't be throwing combos like a championship level boxer, but he does in the game. THQ, please next year show us varried levels of hand speed with the fighters. Also kicks as well. Guys with low kicking stats should throw much slower, much more telegraphed kicks that can easily be blocked, grabbed, or dodged. This would make things realistic as well as when playing with these fighters you wouldn't really want to use techniques that the acutal fighter doesn't as they would be rather useless or could leave you vulnerable to a counter.
Also they should tweek the damage of weaker punches like jabs. Jabs do very little damage as it stands now. In real life a pretty stiff jab can do some decent damage. I'm not talking about making them as powerfull as hooks, but they need to be tweaked definately. Also in the game now if one guy goes to throw a haymaker, and gets hit with a jab, he'll still land the haymaker!!! This is ridiculous. If a guy leaning back or in the process of throwing a big shot and gets jabbed in the middle of it, if it doesn't stop him from throwing the punch, the punch should veer off to either side making it inaccurate and even if it does land it should be with far less effect. I think the way they have it now is that it may register as a counter and even have more of a devestating effect!! The really need to work on this, so that the jab can be a more effective tool.
I know this is a video game, but stamina has to be more of a factor in the stand up. I fought a match against Kimbo recently, He threw nothing but power shots, haymakers, big hooks, etc, the entire first round most of these shots he missed. But his stamina in the 2nd round was about 95%!!!! Now this is a fighter known to gas after the 1st round. Threw and missed lots of big power shots, and he's at 95%...this is insane. A fighter with his conditioning should be sucking wind hard throwing and missing on that many big punches.
Also the effect of low stamina needs to be magnified, as this is one of the most important factors of MMA. No matter how skilled, strong, or fast you are if you run out of gas and the other fighter still has something left, you're at a GREAT disadvantage. Speed of punches and kicks need to be affected by this more as well. And the thing where your guy starts breathing heavy with his hands down for a few seconds is not what i'm talking about. For the remainder of the fight, if a players stamina is noticeably low, all punches should be weakened and noticeably slower, same for kicks, and takedown attempts. You should be able to see haymakers and head kicks from a winded fighter a mile away. On the other side of it, when you are gassed your hands should be much lower, and the reaction time as far as leaning, swaying, and blocking should suffer as well so it's an even trade off. For the people that don't want this level of realism simply have an arcade mode where stamina is like it is now and you can throw tons of punches per round.
Also head kicks should cost way more in stamina than what they currently do.
2) Finishing Fights(KO/TKO)
Everybody talks about the KO rate in this game being way too high. I hope THQ really focuses on the aspect of "finishing" a fight. This is perhaps one of the most intense and exciting aspects of ALL sports! Please get it right in 2011. We want to see standing TKO's where the ref just has to pull you off of a fighter taking too many unanswered blows(especially against the cage, see chuck vs tito). We want to see more variety of a fighter in the "rocked" state. 9 times out of 10 fights are stopped due to TKO, I.E. a fighter landing a shot big enough to send his opponent to the ground in a daze, then while the grounded fighter is still in a daze, the other fighter jumps on him and starts landing big blows causing the ref to have to pull him off of the downed fighter. The way this happens in 2009 and 2010 is soooo pathetic and lame. Give the rocked fighter a bit more of a chance...don't have him laying in the fetal position lifeless. This is just the worst. At least have him trying to put his legs up into guard or trying to pull the dominant fighter in to his chest or something. There should be 10-15 animations/positions for finishing a fight due to TKO. I don't even feel the need to post a clip, heck just look at actual fights ending and replicate that into the game.
Also the ref needs to show more of a sense of urgency to pull a fighter off a beaten opponent. Now he just casually walks over and taps you on the shoulder!! That is crap. if I'm beating the snot out of someone in full mount, and knock him out and keep punching the ref should tackle me or drag me off of him. Again, we'd like to see variety here to. No one wants the same 2 tko animations every single time. It gets really old really fast. So does the current KO system where as soon as the punch lands the winner automatically throws his hands up before the loser even hits the ground. That is sooooooo dumb, at least make the fighter rapidly approach the guy on the way down to deliver another blow, but have the ref step in and stop him (See Franklins KO vs Quarry as an example).
And like I stated earlier, the flash KO rate is just way too high. I feel 1 out of every 10 fights that don't end in a sub or decision should be a clean KO. While the other 9 should be REALISTIC looking TKO's. And while on this subject, let KO's or big knockdowns occur on power punches. I don't want to see any more Jab knock outs or knock downs unless someone runs into one. Working on implementing a much more realistic and exciting system of finishing fights should be a top priority in 2011, which leads me to my next point.
3) Submissions/BJJ
I've been saying since last year, subs are freakin AWFUL in this game..the whole concept of it just stinks IMO. Playing with a BJJ fighter is NO FUN as you are reduced to strike to wear your opponent down.
I can understand having lower stamina will increase the chances you get caught with something be it a KO punch or a sub, but for subs stamina is wayyyyyyyyyyy to much of a factor. I'm sure neither Tamdan McCrory or Josh Burkman were "gassed" when Dustin Hazelett submitted them within minutes of the first round. Did he even land a punch on either of them??? What about Maia vs Sonnen??? I'm sure Chael wasn't gassed either when he got subbed. Sub Skill should be king in submissions...they also need to figure a way to maybe use jiu jitsu to get in position for a submission, rather than just being on top and clicking the stick and bam. Maybe the lower level BJJ fighters would need to have someones stamina down before they can submit but for the top of the food chain BJJ practioners it really shouldn't matter as most of the time if they get you in a bad spot(mount or back) it's usually over no matter how tired you are or aren't. As the game is now I can understand why it's not that way b/c it would be too easy for some fighters but this is where they need to implement actual BJJ moves on the ground so that your fighter has to get his body/arms/or legs into position before a sub can be initiated. It would also serve to make takedowns harder. Alot of the top level BJJ fighters utilize trips to get the fight to the ground not just wrestling type takedowns. It's too easy to time a punch and just get a takedown instantly no matter how low your takedown skills are and how high the other guys takedown defense is. Guys with very low takedown stats should even have a different animation, not using the same perfect form that a high level wrester would use. Plus their shot should be way slower and clunky looking. But anyways BJJ would actually matter if these things were implemented...as it is it's just wrestling and GnP on the ground.
Finally they need to rid the game of that stupid stick spinning nonsense...I'd much rather see a mini-game or something like EA is doing, anything other than button smashing or stick spinning. Hell i'd rather it just be button smashing b/c it's easier for everyone to do rather than spinning the stupid stick..I have big hands, and the ps3 controller is pretty small, so my spinning is horrible lol. This aspect of the game should be based on timing and percision, not just pure button mashing/stick spinning skills. Think something like in Batman AA where you have to hack a computer, where if you're fighters sub skills are high, he'd have a much larger window of hitting the "sweet spot."
So i'll say this in closing, give BJJ fighters a real purpose in next years game and i'll be happy. As of now it's just a wrestling game on the ground. And I agree with everyone else, the CPU's submission skills are off the charts.
I understand that this is only the 2nd year of the game, and Standup is easier to get right than ground combat. The game is still fun when played with friends. Really really tough against the cpu though. Not sure if i'll even bother starting a career as i've heard alot of people having issues with it. Plus I wanted to create a BJJ fighter
I'm sure the developers did not want the game to get too complex, but in order to remain true to the sport, I hope they use these or some other suggestions to even the game out for the BJJ guys.
4) More realistic Takedowns/Sprawls
As mentioned earlier, there are too easy to get. I can pick Dustin Hazelett and take GSP down whenever I please. All I have to do is time when he punches and BAM..double leg into guard for Dustin
Way too easy if you ask me. Guys with high wrestling and takedown stats should have different animations from guys with weak skills in these departments. Their shots should also be noticeably faster, smoother, and with way better form. They should also have more range on their shots. Guys with weak stats in this area should have totally different looking shots. They shouldn't be as smooth, fast, and they should also be telegraphed a bit which all leads to lesser chance of the takedown. Timing shouldn't be as much a factor either, and there should be very very few AUTOMATIC takedowns.
We need new sprawl animations, perhaps have the "hopping on 1 leg" animation, just take a look at what happens most of the time when someone tries to takedown BJ with a single. He hops back to fence on 1 leg and if they hold on they usually take some stiff shots to the side of the head while his back is against the fence. Would be great to see this type of sprawl in game.
5) Improved striking Realism (Accuracy, Speed, Damage)
I like the swaying and leaning aspect introduced this year, but we need to see more improvements in the basics of the striking game. We mainly need to see differentiation between fighters. I like what they did by adding new stances but we'd like to see even more next year. How about Anderson Silva when he fights with his hands by his waist and throws power shots with pin point accuracy, or Rashads getting extremly low(like he did against Jackson) and his footwork and head movement.
One thing in particular that needs to be addressed is punch/kick accuracy. This can easily be reflected by stats. THQ needs to take a page from fight nights book and implement accuracy. Lower tier fighters shouldn't have the same accuracy and crispness of elite K1 strikers. Kimbo throwing a punch looks different than say a guy like Cain. Cain uses very crisp boxing, Kimbo more or less throws big shots that rarely land. The next game needs to include grazing blows. THis would couple well with the swaying and leaning.
Another thing is hand speed. We need to see varying and more distinct levels of hand speed. I want to immediately tell the difference in throwing punches with Vitor Belfort compared to Marcus Jones. I'll use Kimbo against b/c he's the most recent person i've fought against. He shouldn't be throwing combos like a championship level boxer, but he does in the game. THQ, please next year show us varried levels of hand speed with the fighters. Also kicks as well. Guys with low kicking stats should throw much slower, much more telegraphed kicks that can easily be blocked, grabbed, or dodged. This would make things realistic as well as when playing with these fighters you wouldn't really want to use techniques that the acutal fighter doesn't as they would be rather useless or could leave you vulnerable to a counter.
Also they should tweek the damage of weaker punches like jabs. Jabs do very little damage as it stands now. In real life a pretty stiff jab can do some decent damage. I'm not talking about making them as powerfull as hooks, but they need to be tweaked definately. Also in the game now if one guy goes to throw a haymaker, and gets hit with a jab, he'll still land the haymaker!!! This is ridiculous. If a guy leaning back or in the process of throwing a big shot and gets jabbed in the middle of it, if it doesn't stop him from throwing the punch, the punch should veer off to either side making it inaccurate and even if it does land it should be with far less effect. I think the way they have it now is that it may register as a counter and even have more of a devestating effect!! The really need to work on this, so that the jab can be a more effective tool.
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