EA Sports UFC Director Explains In-Game Damage, Exertion of Individual Fighters

In EA Sports UFC, you won’t look at a life bar to see just how much juice your fighter of choice has left. Instead, the development team decided to represent how much damage has been sustained through the in-game models.

“If someone’s laying into your legs, you’ll be able to see the really painful looking contusions on your fighter’s legs. Same with the body – you’ll see a lot of bruising there. And of course on the face we have a variety of cuts and swelling. It’s all there and it looks better than it ever has before,” said creative director Brian Hayes on the EA Sports website. “The blood is also physics-based, so if a fighter gets cut on the bottom of some ground and pound, you don’t just see random blood appear on the ground – it actually flies out of a fighter’s cut, lands on the mat and you can watch it the whole way.”

Cuts, bumps, and bruises will represent how many strikes your fighter has taken, but the amount of gas left in the tank after a whirlwind round will depend on which athlete you choose. Cardio is something every UFC fighter needs to keep in mind, and now players will have to consider this aspect, too.

“Aside from being a lot more intuitive, we’ve also made it specific to fighters,” Hayes continued. “At the end of a five-round fight that had an incredible pace, you’ll still see veins bulging out on Frankie Edgar, but you won’t see him sucking wind. Hector Lombard on the other hand might have to take some time off here and there otherwise he’ll be pretty tired by the end.”

EA Sports UFC will hit the PS4 and Xbox One later this spring.