EA Sports UFC 5 Review: A Paper Champion

gamepur.com:

Mixed Martial Arts video games have had a checkered past. The EA Sports UFC series goes back nearly a decade now to 2014, but enthusiasts will know that the bones of that game started in 2009 with the UFC Undisputed Series, which laid the groundwork for EA Sports UFC 5.

I’ve been playing it somewhat religiously since it came out. In 2009, I was 15, and MMA was in a boom period. It felt like a perfect storm.

EA Sports UFC has always been a challenging game to nail down; it’s selling itself as a part fighting game—copying the same base controls as Tekken where a face button controls a specific limb—but also tries to do the EA Sports brand proud and by being a sports sim. The reality is somewhere in the middle, and EA Sports UFC feels like reheated fast food instead of a new, fresh item.

Key Details

• Release Date: October 27, 2023
• Platform: Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5
• Price: $69.99
• Developer/Publisher: EA Vancouver/ Elctronic Arts

Blood, Sweat, and Salty Gamer Tears

When I examine an iterative game like EA Sports UFC 5, I look at what the game is putting the focus on. This time around, the focus is clearly on upping the presentation. With the Frostbite engine, which is a first for the EA Sports UFC franchise, you have an increased focus on facial tech, making fighters look more in line with the level of detail you expect with a 2K Sports title.

EA takes this extra fidelity and chooses to deform those lovely shiny faces by allowing a sometimes unsettling amount of blood and bruising to form around the face and body; cuts will turn into full-on gashes that will bleed profusely, and the referee will stop the fight if needed.

When you land a knockout blow, a slow cinematic camera, ala Fight Night, will allow you to savor