![]() As I twist the stick to try and outfox my foes I often feel like I’m clumsily trying to solve a door-cracking puzzle with a broken lockpick. Whether your fighter is being attacked or attempting to unleash a deadly assault, the three-way choice between trying to submit your opponent, getting up, or plumping for a potentially bout-deciding ground and pound never feels authentic. Sadly, this latest installment taps out before it can deliver the goods. Under EA, UFC titles have been stumbling around in the dark trying to solve the problem of making ground-based duels entertaining. Once takedowns commence and the action hits the floor, fights quickly frustrate, and worse, actually bore. UFC 4’s ground game feels as confused and annoyingly vague as its predecessors, though. But personally, I’d rather clinch and toss than try to hug a fellow fighter to the canvas like two drunks cuddling their problems away over a Friday night falafel. Yes, you can still spear dudes and dudettes to the mat with the UFC 4’s somewhat clumsy takedowns. Not only does this look cool – if hip-crackingly cruel – it means you now have a slicker way of taking the fight to the ground. While locked in a clinch, you can also sling your opponent with a hip toss. Sold through a blend of unflinching animations and effective rumble feedback, UFC 4 delivers some of the most satisfying ligament-snapping action since golden era Fight Night. Clock an opponent with flyweight killer Valentina Shevchenko in just the right fight-ending sweet spot, and you spend the next 45 seconds apologising to your TV for unleashing such dead-eyed ferocity. Unleashing a 360 tornado kick with currently MIA (supposedly retired) smack-talking superstar Conor McGregor is so impactful, you can almost feel your bones shake. That game’s satisfyingly squelchy blend of stand-up kicks and punches is thankfully once again present and correct. It was only with UFC 3 that the studio finally managed to translate the sport’s crunching, ultra bloody conflicts into a truly believable video game. Looking back at the developer’s first two UFC titles, clocking an opponent often felt about as impactful as smashing someone’s skull in with a soggy stick of celery. ![]() Since taking the face-smashing reins of the series back in 2014, EA Vancouver has often struggled to replicate the screen-shaking flash knockdowns of THQ’s Undisputed games. This sequel might be slightly tardy, but welcome improvements to career mode and a never-better cinch game ensure this hard-hitting scrapper is hard to ignore. UFC is a compromised but worthy successor to its 2018 predecessor.
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