Say what you will about EA, but I was pretty excited when they picked up the UFC license and released the original EA Sports UFC a few years ago. With a sport as complex and fluid as MMA, I thought they had the best chance to get it right. After a solid first attempt with the original, I was even more excited for EA UFC 2 to come out to see where they were headed with the franchise. TheSay what you will about EA, but I was pretty excited when they picked up the UFC license and released the original EA Sports UFC a few years ago. With a sport as complex and fluid as MMA, I thought they had the best chance to get it right. After a solid first attempt with the original, I was even more excited for EA UFC 2 to come out to see where they were headed with the franchise. The roster feels like it has a lot more depth right out of the box, with several lesser-known international fighters in the mix with big name stars. I'm indifferent towards the Mike Tyson, etc. DLC fighters, but for people that like that sort of stuff it gives the opportunity to create some fun fantasy matchups. The rendering of each fighter in the game is fantastic - probably the best representation of a real-life athlete in a video game. Fortunately, they also applied a similar level of detail to the refs, ring girls, and even ole' Uncle Dana White However, my excitement started to fade once I started actually getting in the cage in the custom game, career, and online modes. The stand-up game is still largely the same as the last installation, but improved collision detection and an increased focus on parrying/countering keep things fresh and dissuade people from just button mashing. Once the fight hits the ground, though, everything goes out the window. I found the new grappling system to be really annoying, with each encounter feeling like more of a frustrating guessing game than a tense jiu-jitsu battle. Of course you could avoid the whole thing altogether with the new knockout mode, but at that point you might as well dust off an old copy of Fight Night. Ranked/unranked online connections were consistently pretty pitiful, with lag throughout and more than just a few mid-match disconnections occurring right in the heat of battle. Career mode is a little more streamlined in this iteration, partially due to UFC's Reebok sponsorship eliminating individual sponsors from advertising all over your walkout or fight gear, so all there is really left for you to do is train/fight/repeat. I'd really like to see EA fix career mode in the future because in its current state it isn't terribly realistic. Whether you're riding an 8 fight win streak and still fighting unranked scrubs on the undercard, or you're being forced to retire in your mid 20's, there's not a whole lot that makes sense here. If the devs want to extend the length of the career mode, it would make a lot more sense to have some sort of fictitious minor-league promotion to get the basics down before moving on to TUF and then onto the UFC. Lose too much in the UFC? Go back to the minors and perform to get resigned. The absence of having the opportunity to join different fight camps, do press, etc. also adds to the monotony of the train/fight grind. The challenge curve in career mode can also be pretty brutal, with actual fighters progressing their skills as time goes on as well - it's a little jarring to go up against a guy who is a lower to mid tier fighter in real life, but is suddenly 99 OVR in-game. Seems like that sort of thing should be relegated to ultimate team. All in all, UFC 2 isn't a bad game, but certainly isn't a great one. The overall blandness of the career mode, online connectivity issues, and sharp learning curve burned me out well before it probably should have and left me with a strong case of buyer's remorse.… Expand
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