Game

I really don't like bossy video game developers. There are a lot of things that would be easy to include in a new game, but for unknown reasons are left out. Sometimes they add stuff that should be kept out.

For example; my newest game is the UFC title from Electronic Arts. It drives me nuts.

An example is the sound. I could always turn it all the way off with my TV remote, but should I have to? Audio clues in the fighting are pretty important. Hard punches sound different than lesser ones. So best to leave the sound on.

The music drives me nuts. It is obnoxious and unpleasant, but even if it weren't I like to be able to shut it off. Shouldn't that be a little box to check someplace in the settings? It isn't. The closest thing to that is the ability to choose one of several “sound profiles”. These change the levels on the fight noise, the crown sounds, and all that. In one, they allow you to shut off the fight commentary. Nice touch, as I'm sure that's going to get annoying eventually.

None of the choices let you shut off the music. The nearest is one that turns it down 50%. Not good enough.

I then went into the playlist section. You'd think with playlists you'd at least be able to play your own music. Wrongo, but you can shut off individual songs. I went through and de-selected every single song. The music still plays. Bastards.

A good thing is that they've chosen to include the women's division in the game. This is great from a realism point of view, and from marketing. The women's division is about the most popular in the sport right now.

The game also allows you to create your own fighters, but only male ones, and has a fine campaign game, but you can only play as a male. Maybe female fighter is coming down the pipe later, but it's missing right now.

They also don't let you have fighters compete outside of the divisions they've actually fought in. There are a few who are present in more than one grouping, but not many. You can't have Georges St. Pierre fight Cain Velasquez just because one is a middleweight and the other a heavyweight. You also can't have St. Pierre fight Anderson Silva, and that was a fight that was inches from being signed. Why? Because they were a few pounds apart and never shared a division.

Perhaps they want to game to be taken seriously. I can get that, but if so what's with the presence of an single, extra-special super fighter. You can unlock Bruce Lee with game play, or buy him outright.

He died two decades before the launching of the UFC. Even worse, you are able to play him as a bantamweight, a featherweight, a lightweight, or even as a welterweight. The only game fighter close to this is BJ Penn. He is available in 3 divisions. The difference being he actually fought in them.

Not only does Bruce Lee have better overall stats than the Hall of Famer BJ Penn, his ground fighting skill is rated higher, at 94 to Penn's 92. Penn is a ground wizard and Lee never was a grappler at all.

So, bad music which cannot be shut off, no way to create female fighters, no way to fight out of weight divisions, and Bruce Lee the superman.

Other than that, it's a great game.