Well, this was an unexpected expected announcement. We all knew that EA Sports UFC 2 was going to be a thing, and we had a fair idea that it would be a 2016 release. What was unexpected was that the game’s first official gameplay trailer would reveal a surprisingly close release date of March 17th (March 15th in the United States).
The gameplay trailer invites players to “finish the fight”, highlighting its all-new Knockout Physics System, whilst featuring the good and the great of the world’s leading MMA promotion including featherweight champion, Conor McGregor, and the sport’s biggest mainstream star, Ronda Rousey. In addition to its biggest current stars, the trailer confirms that pre-ordering the game will snag you day one access to former greats, Bas Rutten and Kazushi Sakuraba, and a third as-yet-unnamed mystery fighter – it’ll have to go some to be better than Bruce Lee in the first game, mind you.
In addition to the trailer, EA Sports have announced that the game will be headlined by five brand new game modes including KO Mode and UFC Ultimate Team, a revamped Career Mode that lets fans create female fighters for the first time ever in an official UFC game, and Grapple Assist, an integrated visual tool to help players learn and perfect takedowns, ground game transitions, and submissions.
If it can sort the first game’s issues around online play and control complexity, then EA Sports may finally have an MMA game that stands up next to its marquee franchises.
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