EA Sports UFC 2: Ronda Rousey Graces the Cover
Earlier this week, EA Sports finally revealed that EA Sports UFC 2 is being developed for a 2016 release. Today, EA Sports confirmed that UFC superstar, MMA icon and trailblazer, women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey, will grace the cover for the new game. This marks the first time a woman will be featured on the cover of a UFC game. You can also check out an announcement trailer featuring some “work in progress” footage of Rousey’s digital avatar for the game below.
Speaking on the announcement, Rousey stated, “EA Sports is a cultural barometer to know what’s going on in sports at the moment. As a gamer myself, it’s pretty surreal to be on the cover of the game and to have a woman on the cover of a UFC game shows a lot of progress. I’m really happy to be involved with it.”
Creative Director Brian Hayes added: “Like any champion fighter going into their next fight, we listened to our corner – in our case, the fans – and took a detailed look at everything we can do to take the fight game to a whole new level. We’re doing that by introducing innovative gameplay features, delivering a game mode for every fighter regardless of their style of play, and adding helpful tools so fans can master MMA, all while producing the jaw-dropping visuals that fans expect.”
In addition, EA Sports also revealed the new game modes and features for EA Sports UFC 2. The game is promising to have the “biggest roster ever.” The launch version of EA Sports UFC had a smaller fighter roster than the launch version of UFC Undisputed 3, which was released by THQ in 2012. Granted, EA Sports did release a good number of more fighters via free DLC later on. So hopefully, they will improve on that with EA Sports UFC 2 at launch. In addition, EA Sports is promising a new knockout physics system, in which “every knockout is now unique.”
New gameplay modes include the Training Camp System to help players’ virtual fighters preparing for each fight, which will be a balancing act of developing your fighter’s abilities or possibly risking an injury. Other gameplay modes include: UFC Ultimate Team, where you can create your team of up to five fighters using UFC 2’s customization options; KO mode, where the fight does not end until someone gets knocked out; Custom Event Creator, which allows fight fans to create their own virtual fight cards; an Online Championship mode; Practice Mode; Skill Challenges; Create A Fighter; and finally a Live Events Mode. This allows players to bring in real-life match-ups into the game to win in-game rewards.
EA Sports UFC 2 is scheduled for a Spring 2016 release for Xbox One and PlayStation 4. Besides the trailer, you can check out the cover artwork for the game featuring Ronda Rousey below.