EA Sports UFC Gets Second Free Update With New Fighters

Electronic Arts has released a new update for EA Sports UFC, the octagon fighting title that released over the course of the summer for the Xbox One and PS4. The update is completely and totally free and carries with it three brand new fighters that players will be able to get their hands on at no extra charge.

It's kind of weird writing about updates, DLC and free content while including Electronic Arts in the same sentence, mostly because any time we talk about micro-content it's usually involving a price, pre-order deals, misleading ads or games like Real Racing 3 or Dungeon Keeper, where some organization or board is stepping in to investigate. Oh yeah, and there's also the whole gray-market thing that's now popping up in titles like FIFA 15 thanks to the microtransactions.

Anyway, EA Sports UFC has three new fighters added to the roster, including two new welterweights, Matt “The Immortal” Brown and Mike “Quicksand” Pyle. The third pugilist added to the roster is the heavyweight fighter, Stipe Milocic. I have to be honest, I haven't heard of any of these guys, but that's because I'm not really into the new UFC as much as I was into the old UFC... the REAL Ultimate Fighting Championship where REAL martial artists did battle in the octagon.

Anyway, a couple of interesting new features have been added to the actual gameplay in the update, too. One of the more requested features for the game from the community was having the ability to taunt – something that wasn't there when it first launched. Well, EA has heard your pleas and have added in the ability to taunt.

During the middle of a match either player can taunt their opponent by using the left or right directional buttons on the digital pad to taunt an opponent. It doesn't specify if players will be able to pick their taunts during the creation process or if they're pre-selected.

Another much-requested feature was enabling the option to catch kicks. It sometimes happens in the UFC where you'll see someone catch a kick and enact a takedown or sweep. Well, EA has added the option to catch kicks during well-timed parries, only if the opponent has leg-damage or has low stamina. Additionally, you can transition from a catch into a full takedown by holding down the parry button during the kick-catch. The funny thing about it is that this sort of thing was already available and quite diverse way back in the day on AKI's WWF games. It's funny to finally see these kind of implementations finally make a return to form during the eighth generation of gaming.

Additionally, single-leg takedowns have been adjusted to enable fighters to end up in the half-guard. I didn't think that the previous setup was all that bad, but maybe it's for balance reasons.

The update also notes that stamina loss on the strikes that land on an opponent has been adjusted. However, the press note doesn't exactly say what has been adjusted or how. I guess for those of you playing the game you'll get to see first hand what's-what when it comes to striking an opponent and whether the stamina best reflects the appropriate change.

You can learn more about the update by paying a visit to the official EA Sports UFC website.