UFC 4 Is Out Today for EA Access Members

Later today, players who are members of EA Sports’ subscription service, EA Access, will be able to get their hands on UFC 4 a week before its worldwide release date. EA has been releasing tons of info about UFC 4 this week including revealing the game’s soundtrack, a deep dive on new gameplay features, and the game’s top 10 ranked fighters.

In the wee hours of Thursday night, EA released notes for two upcoming UFC 4 patches: one to accompany today’s early access drop with another set for the August 14 release date.  The changes are based on feedback from UFC 4’s closed beta.

EA Sports put up registration for UFC 4’s closed beta back in June. Codes for the closed beta were distributed until the beta was taken down abruptly in early July. EA stated in today’s blog post that the technical beta was to gather and implement feedback leading up to release. It seems like they want to deliver on that promise, with a comprehensive list of UFC 4 patch notes split between the two days.

UFC 4 Closed Beta Community Feedback

Today’s UFC 4 patch notes highlight two major areas of improvement. First, EA Sports recognizes that UFC 4 needs more and better ways to educate players on systems. Second, they acknowledge that the fighter models (especially muscles) could use an upgrade.

In today’s Play First Trial patch, UFC 4 will receive new and improved tutorial systems. This includes a new onboarding system for the amateur phase of career mode and a training manual feature. The training manual will teach the controls behind submissions, striking, ground & pound, and the clinch.

The two patches will also bring improvements to the UFC fighters themselves. Today’s patch will include improvements to the fighters’ muscle definition. The August 14 patch will bring further improvements to fighter likenesses, such as updated hairstyles and facial features.

You can find full patch notes below.

UFC 4 Patch Notes

General

• Added training manual feature. Learn the controls and the meta behind submissions, striking, ground and pound, and the clinch. The training manual can be found under offline modes in main menu and game help in the pause menu
• At launch UFC community tutorial videos will be added as well, these will cover deeper gameplay meta/strategy including ground game and submissions
• Added skip functionality to pre-fight and post-fight emotes
• Fixed an issue with lack of blood/damage when playing consecutive matches
• Fixed issue causing notable ear deformation
• Fixed facial animation issue affecting fighter likeness on fighter select screen and in fighter portraits
• Tuned muscle definition on all fighter models
• Fixed an issue with glove touch functionality

Miscellaneous updates to some UFC fighter appearances/likenesses (Not all of these will be available for the EA Access Play First Trial, some may not show until worldwide launch on August 14th). Notable changes:

• Donald Cerrone – hairstyle and facial hair (beard)
• Paul Felder – body proportions and facial hair (increased width/volume of upper torso)
• Paulo Costa – body proportions (increased width/volume of Costa’s torso and shoulders)
• Stephen Thompson – body proportions (reduced size of head)
• Cody Garbrandt – updated body likeness and facial hair
• Sean O’Malley – hair color
• TJ Dillashaw – updated body likeness

Striking

• Fixed animation issue with jab into jumping spinning body kick combo
• Fixed an issue where jab feints were affecting takedowns
• Improved responsiveness of combo inputs
• Fixed issues with strikes not triggering if the input could also be used for a cage strike. For instance, fighters who had the cage superman punch could not perform the regular superman punch.
• Fixed animation issues with spinning elbow
• Fixed sprinting knee inputs

Grappling

• Added player indicators to the submission HUD to identify who’s attacking and defending
• Takedown denial now taxes attacker’s stamina
• Depleting health in side control now leads to knee on belly
• Fixed an issue where grapple assist sometimes lead to additional inputs
• Fixed dead frames on the transition to knee on belly

Ground and Pound

• Added HUD during ground and pound to highlight available transitions and submissions
• Added ground and pound transition from half guard up to full guard for the sub fighter
• Increased stamina penalty for missed strikes during ground and pound
• Tuning: lowered temporary damage for most positions
• Tuning: reduced vulnerability when posting to straights
• Tuning: increased permanent damage

Submissions

• Improved visibility of submission HUD options
• Submissions have been tuned:
  • Decreased movement penalty for the defender.
  • Decreased the effect of small stamina advantages.
  • Decreased submission strength for most submissions – the Back Flat Rear Naked Choke was the only exception. This was done in a way that increases the contrast between the stronger and the weaker submissions.

Clinch

• Sub fighter’s strikes no longer interrupt cage power takedowns
• Added single leg drive from knee catch position
• High block no longer interrupts clinch cage takedowns
• Cleaned up animations for knees in the catch teep kick position
• Removed blocking of dominant fighter’s body knees from single under cage. These are supposed to be countered with the wizer escape, pressing the left stick towards the opponent’s underhook, the opposite direction to the one used for the regular escape.

AI

• AI can now defend cage single under body punches
• Decreased the speed of harder AI response to submission prompts
• AI submission skills have been tuned on various difficulties
• Increased the AI’s ability to defend strikes in cage single under when hurt
• Fixed an issue where the AI was unable to defend back pack position
• Fixed an issue where the AI idles in cage back clinch
• Added 30+ new custom AIs for roster fighters
• Updated AI movement and cage awareness logic
• Increased the effect of the opponent’s stats on AI gameplan

Camera

• Camera adjusted during Imanari Roll

If you aren’t an EA Access subscriber, you’ll be able to play UFC 4 for the PlayStation 4 or Xbox One when it launches worldwide on August 14. Check out more UFC 4 info, like details on the new career mode and how ratings will work, right here on Sports Gamers Online.