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GAMING FEATURE

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sure to get grapplers grinning. We’re promised that new ‘Seamless Submissions’ will make the grappling feel more fluid and realistic than ever before. Several play options are set to keep players busy, including both local and online career modes. The local career boasts an all-new introduction that sees the return of Coach Davis to guide the player through their burgeoning UFC career. Features to get excited about include new cinematics, new locations, a refined focus on

onboarding, and an upgrade to training camps, which will let players simulate

Erm, Ouch!

It’s time to get back in the octagon for big-time MMA biff action, as EA Sports bring us UFC 5 . Here’s just a taste of what we can expect when it hits this month. Words Bec Summer A lot has happened in the franchise since 2020’s EA Sports UFC 4 , and fans are certainly in for a wild ride full of THERE WILL BE BLOOD!

EA Sports UFC 5 features a staggering 64,000 possible combinations of facial damage.

their training camp and sparring drills to reach peak fitness and get to the fights faster. Meanwhile, the online career is set to include skill-based matchmaking, division progression, and title chases across four divisions. Players will be able to compete with a different created fighter in each division, which will allow them to showcase multiple character customisations,

as well as vanity items.

In other great news, the Fight Now experience has been revamped to offer a suite of authentic MMA/UFC match types, including ‘Main Card’, ‘Main Event’, ‘Championship’, ‘Backyard’, and ‘Kumite’. Meanwhile, we’re promised new monthly Fight Week content, which will present various challenges, features, and extra content based around real-world UFC events. As is always the case with EA, UFC 5 is about rewarding its players. To this end, playing the game will earn a very desirable set of rewards, including in-game currency, player profile customisations, created fighter vanity items, and alter egos. If that isn’t enough, completing Profile Challenges will reward competitors with XP that levels up their punch card’s ability to earn. It’s all shaping up to be the at-home fight card that MMA fans have craved, with EA Sports truly striving to make UFC 5 as real as it gets.

people have taken aboard internal and external feedback and really upped the ante. There are numerous new strikes and hit reactions, with all-new animations for ground and pound elbows, spinning attacks, and several other punches, kicks, knees, and elbows. If that’s not enough, new striking animations emulate heavy hitters, professional kickboxers, and more.

improvements across the board. No more obvious are these improvements than in the next-level graphics of EA Sports UFC 5 . Now powered by EA’s awesome Frostbite Engine, we’re in for such treats on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S as dynamic lighting and vastly improved looks. Marvel at the realistic clothing animations, watch replays of your finishing blows in super slow motion with cinematic camera angles and lighting, and be stunned by the impact of authentic looking – and bloody and bruising – fight ending shots. Yes, Frostbite allows the effects of impacting blows to be all the more real. The improved fidelity means that when fighters take strikes, the results show on their face and body in authentic, flinch inducing fashion. On top of this, all new fluid physics and particle systems make blood and sweat drip and spray just like in the real octagon. All of this brutality isn’t just a cosmetic thing, though. As your fighter – or your opponent – takes more of a beating, the game’s all-new Real Impact System kicks in, meaning those cuts and strikes can affect mobility, defence, stamina, and other variables. If too much damage is taken, the doctor could step in and pause, or even stop, the fight. As for that fighting, the EA Sports

The existing grappling systems have also been revamped, bringing faster animations while offering a smoother, more authentic ground game that’s

• EA Sports UFC 5 is out Oct 27

The Greatest!

Get in quick and pre-order EA Sports UFC 5 and amongst bonuses such as XP boosts and vanity

items, you’ll score a magnificent Muhammad Ali playable fighter.

12 OCTOBER 2023

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