Following up Microsoft after they had the pleasure of doing the first big press conference of E3, EA brought some great new announcements at their event, including some new info related to their return to the MMA world with EA Sports UFC.
Implementing the brand new EA Sports Ignite engine, head of EA Sports Andrew Wilson explained that human intelligence, true player motion, and living worlds would help immerse gamers into a more realistic and deeper sports gaming experience.
Towards the end of the sports segment, Bruce Buffer walked on stage as a microphone dropped from the ceiling and he announced UFC Light-heavyweight champ Jon Jones, lightweight champ Benson Henderson and President Dana white to address the crowd.
“I think fighting was the first sport ever before a guy hit a ball on a stick,” White said, “Two men were put on this earth, and whoever threw a punch stood over and watched.” Wilson discussed some of the new innovations of the game along with the fighters giving their opinions on the tech, such as Jones discussing his strategy against Chael Sonnen at UFC 159 and how it related to the game.
MMAi system, which lets fighters organically alter their strategies throughout the fight. EA also innovated the full-body deformation system, which gives the most realistic feeling of being hit and put in a submission that has ever been put into a combat sports game. “I’ve been waiting for this game for a long time,” White added, “And if you are a fight fan, this will be the best fight game ever.
A short trailer was shown with pre-rendered footage of a few fighters in action, including the two men on stage, as well as Bendo now ducking the Pettis kick that previously landed in the first trailer.
News from other sports games includes advanced dribbling and ball-handling abilities in NBA Live 14 through their “bounce-tech” technology, a true-step locomotion system in Madden NFL 25 to add more precise and smoother footwork to your football game, and pro-instincts to allow players to make more calculations during gameplay in FIFA 14 for the most authentic virtual soccer experience to date.
These, and all of their sports games, will be released on all new next-gen consoles, including the Xbox One and PS4. The UFC game will be released in Spring 2014.
Also shown at the EA press conference was Popcap’s multi-player first-person action title Plants VS Zombies: Garden Warfare, BIoware’s fantasy epic Dragon Age: Inquisition, more new footage from Respawn’s first-person mech/ soldier shooter Titanfall, Battlefield 4 being generally awesome, and a new Star Wars: Battlefront game, which I have been waiting years for.
An interesting side note, I was watching this through the Spike stream, and was not too surprised when an ad for Bellator MMA popped up on the stream telecast.