UFC 4 Review – Another Worthy Title Defense

Publisher: EA Sports

Developer: EA Vancouver

Rating: Teen

Reviewed on: Xbox One

Also on: PlayStation 4

The sport of mixed-martial arts is a fickle and ever-evolving entity. Strategies and skillsets that got you a championship a few years ago could lead to a string of defeats today. UFC 4 takes the lessons of the athletes it portrays seriously, building upon the strong foundation of UFC 3 in some places, while going back to the drawing board and completely revamping its approach in others. The result is another outing worthy of wrapping the title belt around its waist.

The timeless concept of two fighters punching, kicking, and grappling their way to victory has never been more realistically represented than in UFC 4. With its improved control scheme, modifying strikes to be heavier or flashier is as simple as holding the face button for longer. Standing up and striking with your opponent continues to be an edge-of-your-seat experience, with progressive, localized damage throughout the bout, as well as the potential for flash knockouts with well-timed strikes; I jumped off my couch in shock as Conor McGregor ended my championship run with a counter left cross.

Click image thumbnails to view larger version

 

                                                                                                            

If you’d prefer to settle things on the ground, the grappling system is also improved. Clinching with your opponent and shooting for takedowns now feel like a natural extension of the stand-up experience, taking into account locomotion to determine success. Once you’re on the ground, the new grapple assist system lets you select the outcome you want and the game does the rest. While this option is handy for casual players, I quickly changed the controls back to the legacy scheme since I like controlling exactly which positions I take on the ground.

Perhaps the most welcome improvement is the addition of new submission minigames. The old system is replaced by two intuitive sequences where the attacker must cover the defender’s bar as the action plays out behind the overlaid user interface. With two different minigames to complete depending on if you’re in a joint-manipulation or a choke submission, the processes feel different, and do a great job of blending player skill, fighter attributes, and fatigue to determine the outcome.

The offline offerings include one-off fights in traditional MMA, Stand and Bang, and Knockout mode (with a new health-bar system that mirrors that of traditional fighting games), as well as custom events and tournaments. However, the destination for offline play is career mode. This year’s career starts off more cinematic, as you work closely with your head coach to learn how to fight, rack up some wins, and make the jump to the professional circuit. Once you’re finally in the big show, the primary goal is to win a championship en route to becoming the greatest of all time. Fighting up the ranks is more exciting than ever, as fighters more accurately mimic the behavior of their real-life counterparts, making each opponent feel unique; Khabib Nurmagomedov’s pressure fighting makes you feel like you’re suffocating, while Justin Gaethje brings his wild-swinging firefight approach into the Octagon.

Planning for these contrasting styles is important in the lead up, and UFC 4 overhauls its training camp system to give you more options. You can spend your time watching tape of your opponent to learn their moves and tendencies, promoting your fight through social media and public appearances, or putting in work at the gym. Training is now less menu-oriented, with sparring serving as the focus, which I vastly prefer over the repetitive system of last game. I love how your fighter’s moves evolve based on how much you use them, while you can round out the rest of your skills by inviting other athletes to train with you or manually improve your attributes through skill points you earn in the gym.

Click here to watch embedded media

A big part of getting your fighter’s name out there is through social-media interactions. Some of these involve answering questions from commentator Jon Anik, while others are fighters in your division calling you out. I like being able to respond to them in respectful or taunting manners to build relationships and rivalries, but I’m disappointed in how the system seems to fall off once you reach the top of your division; when you’re champion, you should have more athletes shooting their shot with you, not radio silence.

In the online suite, Blitz Battles sticks out as the star. This mode pits you in a rapid 64-player tournament with rulesets like a one-minute-long fight or a best-of-three Knockout mode match. I love how if I lose in these get-in-get-out tournaments, I can just jump right back into another in hopes of a better result.

Whether you want to challenge the best in the world online or simply claim your throne in career mode, this is a terrific next step for EA Sports’ MMA franchise. UFC 4 effectively evolves its gameplay and career mode, giving you more than enough reason to step back into the Octagon.

Score: 8.5

Summary: By carrying forward the best elements of past games while revamping and overhauling other parts of the package, UFC 4 delivers a strong new entry for the franchise.

Concept: Refresh career mode and revamp gameplay to deliver another strong outing for fight fans

Graphics: The fighter likenesses are vast improvements over those of UFC 3, and the grappling animations are more fluid this time around

Sound: Every strike sounds crisp as it connects, and despite some misfired calls, Jon Anik and Daniel Cormier are a well-matched commentary team

Playability: Overhauled striking controls make throwing down easier than before, while the all-new submission minigames make grappling a much more approachable affair

Entertainment: With a retooled career mode, strong upgrades to gameplay, and the fun Blitz Battles online mode, UFC 4 delivers a complete package

Replay: Moderately high

Click to Purchase

Read More

Fast & Furious Crossroads Review – Going Nowhere Fast

Publisher: Bandai Namco

Developer: Slightly Mad Studios

Rating: Teen

Reviewed on: Xbox One

Also on: PlayStation 4, PC

With Fast 9’s theatrical release delayed until 2021 due to the Coronavirus pandemic, Fast & Furious Crossroads could have given fans a jolt of vehicular mayhem to tide them over. Even with the star power of Vin Diesel, Michelle Rodriguez, and Tyrese Gibson reprising their roles as Dom, Letty, and Roman, respectively, this combat-racing experience sputters along like a clunker on its last mile, gasping for someone to hit the brakes and take it to the junkyard.

The campaign, which clocks in at roughly five hours, has its heart in the right place. It has massive amounts of chaos, incoherent plot twists (as fans have come to expect), a little bit of humor courtesy of Roman, and huge setpiece moments, like cars being used in superhuman ways to dismantle a speeding train. We are also introduced to two excellent new characters to the Fast world: Vienna (voiced by Sonequa Martin-Green of Star Trek: Discovery fame) and Cam (voiced by Asia Kate Dillon, who is currently on Billions). Their personalities blend nicely with the existing crew, and give the game that ensemble vibe that is always present in the film series.

Click image thumbnails to view larger version

 

                                                                                                            

Their character models and animations are rough, however, and some of their dialogue is stilted, but I enjoyed the goofy, save-the-world mission they were on – which sees them trying to stop madman Ormstrid (voiced by Peter Stormare) from crippling the world’s defenses. It’s all nonsensical stuff, but the ideas are fun, yet come up short in executive and polish.

Ormstrid has plenty of firepower to call upon, but the real threat the good guys face occurs whenever they get behind the wheel. Developer Slightly Mad Studios is well-versed in racing with successes ranging from Project Cars to Need for Speed: Shift. The studio’s expertise in racing excitement and precise driving controls are nowhere to be found here. What we experience instead are cars that resemble out-of-control pinballs, used to smash into everything haphazardly with a frustrating lack of visibility on the player’s part. Crossroads only offers one camera view, and it’s zoomed in too close to the vehicle, meaning you can’t really check what’s on your periphery. The one viewpoint is a puzzling design decision that makes the game nearly unplayable at times. The questionable vehicle physics and turning radius only complicate matters. I always felt like I was out of control when drifting.

Smashing into rival cars with forceful sideswipes is enjoyable in the same way the Burnout series was, but the goofy physics steal away the excitement of the moment, especially when the rival car glitches out and spins like a top or drifts away like a balloon. In the game’s 30-plus missions, hundreds of vehicles are turned into smoldering steel, and while Slightly Mad Studios has some fun with the setups and locations, the vision never solidifies in a meaningful way and instead becomes a parade of functionality issues and bugs galore. You can’t even trust the casual-driving A.I., which sometimes collides into one another in comedic ways.

Click here to watch embedded media

The best missions embrace the idea of teamwork, pushing the player to switch between four different characters to accomplish various tasks. Each of the four characters’ cars are equipped with different gadgets, such as Letty having a grappling hook she can use to rip off a piece of armor, which exposes a weak spot Dom can attack with a rocket barrage. Moments like these happen periodically, and provide the flavor of the Fast movies, but just not the intensity or excitement. In most missions, even the ones that require teamwork, the goal is to simply ram a vehicle to death.

Crossroads also offers a unique nine-player multiplayer experience that sees three teams of three trying to accomplish different tasks for a specific mission. For the mission Tank Takedown, the hero team is pushed to destroy the tank before it escapes. The villain team needs to provide protection for the tank. The third team is the cops, and they just need to stop and arrest both sides. The idea is sound, but all of the matches I partook in descended into unmanageable chaos, with cars flying every which way. I like how each team is equipped with different gear to try and thwart the others, but most of my takedowns came from the chaos and not carefully executed maneuvers.

Many of us lived through the era of video games that was overflowing with bad movie-to-game adaptations, and Crossroads is a pointed reminder of those days, showing just how far games have come since then. It’s a mess of a game that hones in on why the Fast movies are great, but will make you want to put the controller down to watch one of those movies instead.

Score: 5

Summary: Slightly Mad Studios' combat racer shows potential, but lacks polish and ends up being a frustrating play.

Concept: An official new story in the Fast lore that shows Dom and company on their worst mission yet

Graphics: Some of the vistas look great, but the vehicle damage, effects, and character animations are all rough and in the spotlight too often

Sound: The soundtrack pumps out excitement, but it’s not enough to bury the stilted dialogue

Playability: Car physics are too loose, and the only camera angle is too close and makes mission completion difficult

Entertainment: Seeing the crew behind the wheel again is good, but they deserve so much better than this

Replay: Moderate

Click to Purchase

Read More

Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout Review – Ridiculous Revelry

Publisher: Devolver Digital

Developer: Mediatonic

Reviewed on: PC

Also on: PlayStation 4

With the finish line in sight, a hamburger makes a leap of faith through the slowly spinning windmill. Unfortunately, a milkshake waits behind the scenes and hurls the hapless hamburger out into the void, sending him back to an earlier checkpoint. Somewhere across the obstacle course, a gaggle of beans tilts a see-saw platform the wrong way, sending a dozen players off into the sky. Elsewhere, a unicorn in a tutu cheers. Embracing the ridiculous and the fun, Fall Guys is a party-game battle royale, and it’s something special. Clearly inspired by shows like MXC, Ninja Warrior, and WipeOut, Fall Guys leans into its high-impact insanity and inspires laughter every step of the way.

You and 59 other players take on a wide variety of mini-games to cut the field down to one lucky winner. Despite the winner-take-all endgame, you can form a team with up to four players, which allows you to group up with your buddies during team events, which is cool. Rounds are fast, and it’s no big deal if you lose. You can watch your friends play it out or head back to the lobby to join another game instantly. Many rounds are obstacle-laden races that have you tilting on seesaws, smashing into doors with your face, and outrunning slime. Team games like mini-soccer and ball-racing combine with other strange fare like breakaway walkways to mix up the experiences further. All stages are not created equal, and some of the games end up being filler (the memory game!) or frustrating, especially the team experiences. 

Click here to watch embedded media

The core gameplay of Fall Guys is an absolute blast. Slamming into a wall as a babbling little bean wearing a duck costume is as fun and as stupid as it sounds, and appreciating the wacky physics as you are pushed, prodded, and flung across the stages is highly enjoyable. Being the last one holding the flag (tail) or making it up the mountain to the crown for a victory is exhilarating and intense without being too stressful. Belting the soccer ball into the goal with a perfect dive feels wonderful, as does being the last bean standing when the collapsing hex platform drops. 

Even when you’re eliminated early, you don’t really lose; you’re sent back to the lobby with some currency to buy cosmetics. You can use this money to become a pineapple. Or a dinosaur. Chase your dreams, little bean. Watching the hours melt away is easy as you master each course and soak in the dumb fun. After you’ve memorized the position and behavior of every wrecking ball and spinning hazard, you can engage with another layer of gameplay by messing with other players, grabbing them and trying to get them stuck on walls, bump them off edges, or hold them in place. 

Click image thumbnails to view larger version

 

                                                                                                            

Just learning how to jump on a balance beam or dive to break your fall are rewarding lessons, with each course having a generous amount of “advanced” play available after you figure out the best ways to tackle the standard goal. Of course, some of the best laughs are had when the perfect plans end up going horribly wrong as other beans interfere, intentionally or just by happenstance. It’s all in the name of feeling good at the end of the day, and witnessing the pileups of assorted beans when everyone tries to squeeze through the same door is downright hilarious.

A lack of variety is the greatest weakness in this otherwise excellent game. After a few hours of play, you will probably have seen it all, and maps start to feel stale despite the many emergent player-initiated hijinks. A few games, especially some of the three-team games like the egg-hoarding one, reward beating up on the losing team, which is an unpleasant (though surefire) way to win. While some degree of randomness is essential to the party-game experience, many of the team games can feel like you have no agency or impact on winning or losing at all, which doesn’t feel good.

Fall Guys doesn’t take itself too seriously, and it’s hard not to grin after a few rounds of delightful diversion. Whether by yourself or with friends, this refreshing and ridiculous game makes every triumph and failure into a celebration.

Score: 8.75

Summary: Little beans bring big amounts of fun.

Concept: Participate in a variety of obstacle courses and events as a goofy bean

Graphics: Stylish and a bit bizarre, the art style sells the experience

Sound: Playful emotes and the incessant chirping of other beans accompany the peppy soundtrack

Playability: Incredibly easy to pick up and play, but with plenty of room to master the tricks for each course

Entertainment: Fall Guys is a masterful mix of party and prowess, held back only by lack of variety and a few lackluster games.

Replay: Moderate

Click to Purchase

Read More