EA MMA Career Mode Preview and Thoughts

This is by no means a traditional video game preview, as much as I'd like it to be, but there's a great deal of information available online regarding EA MMA's career mode, and for those out there who aren't going to be playing online, career mode is critical to the game.  Before I get into it, let me say immediately, it's looking pretty good on paper.  Many of my concerns like "must play mini-games to increase stats", deteriorating stats, and dull regional promotions are all answered, and I am pleased.  So let's get down to business, shall we?

Create-a-Fighter, 200 nicknames, 500 recorded names.

Wow.  EA knew they were shot in the foot not having the UFC license, but it appears that they're making up for that loss in many ways, this being one of them.  500 recorded names means unless your parents were so cruel that they gave you a common name with say...a K instead of a C...(I'm looking at you, mom and dad) your name is likely recorded and in the game.  Top that off with 200 nicknames...TWO HUNDRED, your fighter will certainly be molded to your liking when it comes to being introduced, or talked about by the commentators.  Also note, your nick name can be placed at the beginning of your name, not just between first and last names.  Expect to see a lot of familiar names that might not be in the game.

After the jump we get to training, regional promotions, and the overall impression of career mode.

Bas is boss, but you're free to roam.

When you begin your career, you'll be introduced to Bas Rutten, who will be your head coach in EA MMA.  You must begin your career in the USA, which sucks if you wanted to simply be a Japanese fighter in Japanese promotions forever, but it's not too long before you can pick whatever promotion you please, and can travel the globe to different countries.  Bas will be your manager, more or less, and when you're out cross training at authentic MMA gyms, he'll be leaving you voice messages all the while, keeping in touch.  Trainers include Randy Couture, Rickson Gracie, and Pat Miletich, but thats just to name a few.  When you're with Randy, you're in Xtreme Couture, and it looks like Xtreme Couture, which is awesome for those who have seen the gym, and recognize it as authentic.

So, you know who you're training with...but what are you training?

Between fights, you get 8 weeks to train whatever you please.  You can travel to a gym, and train in various principles.  Your options from there are "Special Moves", Stand Up, Clinch, Ground, Scouting, and Free Training.

You get a total of 16 "special moves", which can vary from major passes, to spinning heel kicks.  These 16 moves won't be your regular moves, but are saved for making your fighter unique, and molding him to your playing style.  Each gym will have different moves you can learn while training there.

From there, you'll use the rest of the options to improve your stats.  Do note, that whatever style fighter you've chosen, will determine the stat caps for your different stats.  A boxer can only have so much submission skills, but his punches are world class.  This is done to prevent super create-a-fighter's, and reflect the "styles make fights" attitude.  Also, your stats won't degenerate...so, no, you won't lose it if you don't use it.  EA's philosophy here appears to be that the game is supposed to be about having fun, and smashing faces, not managing your training while constantly worrying about losing points for trying to mold your fighter how you want to.  

Training the various branches of MMA will require you to do a sort of sparring match against a training partner, where you have a goal.  This can be anything from landing certain punches X amount of times, or reaching full mount, not getting submitted...you get the idea.  This would become tedious after a while though, and EA recognized this.  When you finish a training session, you get graded.  Whatever grade you make, you can now simulate that training, and get the same results you did with your highest score, making sure you're not spending more time in the gym, than you are in the cage.

Promotions and you, the global MMA experience.

Each promotion has it's unique venue, and cage/ring style.  The referee will be unique to the promotion, but the commentators will always be Frank Shamrock and Mauro Ranallo, which, depending on your opinion of the two, could be really awesome, or really, really shitty.  Take heart friends, they were recorded, multiple takes = less blunders...but I do wonder if Frank will hate on Jake Shields as he fights.  I really do.

The end goal, is to be fighting in one of the two major promotions, which is Strikeforce, or Mystic (read as: Dream).  I'm saddened that Japan lacks the REALLY over the top entrances, and blue gloves, but it's a good start.  The rule sets will vary, with head stomps and soccer kicks allowed in Japan, for example.  There are also Vale Tudo rules in Brazil, that feature one, twenty minute round.  Hello CAF Wanderlei Silva, meet the rest of your life.  I'm really impressed with the individuality of each promotion, as it makes it far more likely that I'll play through again and again, taking different paths to the top with my fighter.

Overall, EA MMA's Career Mode Delivers.

As it would seem, and in my opinion, EA MMA brings a stable, fun career mode that will be worthy of multiple play throughs.  Each career lasts 40 fights, which doesn't bug me in the least, as I'm here for a good time, not a long time.  I hope that the create-a-fighter is deep enough to recreate many MMA greats that didn't make it into the game, along with current UFC fighters, but either way, I'll be running my CAF through career mode before going online, enjoying every minute of it.

Before we leave, what else does EA MMA's career mode do well?  The tutorial.  You start off in a stand up only situation, where you learn the controls, then have an amateur, stand up only fight.  Then stand up + clinch, followed by a full on MMA fight.  This sounds far, far, far better than MMA 101, which I was displeased with in the demo.  

EA MMA comes out October 19th, in just 13 days, and the demo is out now!  Give it a try, if anything, EA was late to the sport, but have given a true effort  towards making a quality fighting game here.  And a successful competitor to THQ's UFC Undisputed series means both parties will be picking up the slack and making major improvements, which would certainly be welcome.

(It should be noted that I have not played the game, but have gone about collecting as much open information on it as possible to put my opinion to.  There will be a full review where any altered opinions will be highlighted, although I don't expect much to change unless the pacing is terrible.)