What did UFC 3 get right?
UFC 3's issues are pretty well-acknowledged. The offline modes are lacking, Ultimate Team seems to have been downgraded according to social media and the grappling has been maligned as boring and unintuitive.
Since I'm a shill, I figured we could be wholesome for a change discuss the successes of UFC 3. Here's a few from me.
The striking, despite being quite difficult to grasp initially, is pretty unanimously an upgrade over UFC 2. Since it's a game there's always going to be the most optimal strikes and combos but what really impressed me about UFC 3's striking is that people were learning new tricks and counters to different tactics over time. For example, players now have a better understanding of how to land leg kicks so it would have been interesting to see how something like the early forward sway meta would have been affected by our increased knowledge of leg kicks.
Obviously forward sways were nerfed so we don't actually know, but the post-launch balance changes and introduced mechanics were another thing that stood out about UFC 3. You could argue that it's becoming the norm for online games, but UFC 3 still deserves some praise for it, as many other titles would have saved those features for the next full-priced release. Other fighting games, such as Smash or Street Fighter have considerably less frequent patch notes. I still think they missed the mark on not updating fighter stats/moves until UFC 4 because it seems like a relatively cheap way to keep things fresh, especially when the playerbase is arguably bigger than ever before now, but oh well.
Thirdly, I think UFC 3 had much better stat balancing. There's always going to be the debate about whether the stats should be given with authenticity or competitive integrity in mind, but I think the game improved on both fronts. In previous games the best fighters were usually invincible but UFC 3 did a much better job at keeping characters in line. GSP, for example, has historically been godlike in MMA games. While he's still probably the best fighter in one if not two weight classes, he actually has relatively mediocre health stats to discourage players from brawling with him. Fighters outside the top 5-10 didn't get as much love, as their stamina and health stats were considerably worse than the best fighters' stats but as I understood it was because the GCers in charge had to give those stats without knowing how they would function in-game. Regardless, it's still a step in the right direction from UFC 2.
Since I'm a shill, I figured we could be wholesome for a change discuss the successes of UFC 3. Here's a few from me.
The striking, despite being quite difficult to grasp initially, is pretty unanimously an upgrade over UFC 2. Since it's a game there's always going to be the most optimal strikes and combos but what really impressed me about UFC 3's striking is that people were learning new tricks and counters to different tactics over time. For example, players now have a better understanding of how to land leg kicks so it would have been interesting to see how something like the early forward sway meta would have been affected by our increased knowledge of leg kicks.
Obviously forward sways were nerfed so we don't actually know, but the post-launch balance changes and introduced mechanics were another thing that stood out about UFC 3. You could argue that it's becoming the norm for online games, but UFC 3 still deserves some praise for it, as many other titles would have saved those features for the next full-priced release. Other fighting games, such as Smash or Street Fighter have considerably less frequent patch notes. I still think they missed the mark on not updating fighter stats/moves until UFC 4 because it seems like a relatively cheap way to keep things fresh, especially when the playerbase is arguably bigger than ever before now, but oh well.
Thirdly, I think UFC 3 had much better stat balancing. There's always going to be the debate about whether the stats should be given with authenticity or competitive integrity in mind, but I think the game improved on both fronts. In previous games the best fighters were usually invincible but UFC 3 did a much better job at keeping characters in line. GSP, for example, has historically been godlike in MMA games. While he's still probably the best fighter in one if not two weight classes, he actually has relatively mediocre health stats to discourage players from brawling with him. Fighters outside the top 5-10 didn't get as much love, as their stamina and health stats were considerably worse than the best fighters' stats but as I understood it was because the GCers in charge had to give those stats without knowing how they would function in-game. Regardless, it's still a step in the right direction from UFC 2.
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