Changing difficulty in career mode

[Wet Bandit]

There's been some confusion about this, and understandably so once you see the menu. But you can change the difficulty of career mode.

When you're looking at your calendar (the main interface of career mode), hit B. That'll back you up to a menu containing 'Calendar', 'Trophy Case', and 'Rankings' among other things. In the corner, you'll see it says to his Start to bring up the pause menu.

Hit Start. That brings up the pause menu.

In that menu, you'll see options like 'Save', 'Quit', 'Retirement', etc. Select 'Options'. Then select the gameplay options and you can change the difficulty. It defaults to beginner.

One thing to keep in mind, beginner isn't as easy as it is in exhibition. When you're fighting top 10 fighters without a rating above 50, it evens the odds a bit. I'd say if you're really confident with your game, set it to experienced or maybe even advanced if you want a real tough road to the championship. But there's no shame in leaving it on beginner in the career mode initially as you learn the game and learn your fighter.

[sctvorp]

I agree the game in career mode can be pretty difficult sometimes. I've got about 7 or 8 fights. Initially i played in advanced, but it was simply impossible to beat even the scrubs because they all had better stats and skills, sparring was also pretty useless because your partner would kick your ***. On experienced it got a bit easier, but as i got to the better fighters (like anthony johnson on 170), it really starts to become very difficult to win. First of all, it seems like all real ufc fighters retain their final stats and levels. So here i gotta fight anthony johnson with level 3 striking and level 3 wrestling or whatever, and i only have level 2 striking and level 1 grapple. He can do the lunging superman punches and you cant. There is also a huge ratings difference of a guy who is overall 80 something against you who is after 7 or 8 fights maybe a 50 max in any one stat.

-as for anthony johnson, i fought him twice, and he beat me twice, but both were hotly contested 3 round fights before he knocks me out cold haha. Its exciting, but very unfair in favor of the computer.

Sometimes i just take the losses and move on..it is MMA and its common to lose a few fights. I just think the game's career mode throws you to the wolves too soon before your character is really developed enough to compete in terms of attributes and skills. There are only 25 ranked fighters in your division, and you quickly move up to the middle of the list and start taking on 80+ rated fighters after about 6 or 7 fights.

[Wet Bandit]

Yeah, that's why I think even if someone really wants a tough challenge, they should stay on beginner or experiences for a while. It can really become a vicious cycle, because so much of your cred depends on winning fights and performing well, and that's hard to do on higher difficulties with the extreme difference in stats. And if you lose a bunch of fights, you start falling behind on cred, which means you don't get the upgraded equipment as soon, which makes it harder to close the gap.

I think the ideal way would probably be to start on beginner until you get some stats around 50. Then move on to experienced until you get some stats around 60. Then advanced and expert around 70, 75, 80.

[allBthere]

I just finished a great career on advanced went 28-7. But I also chose early opponents wisely and tried to fight wrestlers, especially boxer/wrestlers. I specialized early in a way, and rounded my guy off more towards the end. I recommend doing the whole thing on advanced - or do it first w/ a character you care less about, and the next time around it won't be so hard.

[Wet Bandit]

What type of fighter did you have?

[sctvorp]

Maybe you're really good at the game or something, but i dont think you should be recommending everyone play on advanced to begin with.

[DTX3]

Just a heads up, if you change the difficulty in career mode, you also change it for the other modes.

[allBthere]

Quote: Originally Posted by sctvorp

Maybe you're really good at the game or something, but i dont think you should be recommending everyone play on advanced to begin with.

to the guy above it was muay thai/judo

for your comment, you're probably right for someone unfamiliar w/ the game. But if you've played the crap out of the demo and could win consistently on advanced or expert, your results should mirror mine (depending on your style and how you train etc). If you couldn't win a lot on the demo at that level, yeah, experienced is the way to go.

But noone should play on beginner for career because the fighters don't really have much AI, ...go through the tutorial and play some exhibition, then start a career. Ground fighters on beginner don't even shoot for takedowns or anything, you can just walk up ot them and bomb them in the face at will.