UFC 4 Gets "Emergency" Update; See The Patch Notes Here

EA Sports has released an "emergency patch" for UFC 4 to address a major bug and other parts of the gameplay in the MMA game. You can get the full rundown on the update in the patch notes below--while the bulk of this is to deal with bug fixes, including one in particular, there are some new gameplay features.

The big bug addressed by this update is the "purple screen bug." For weeks prior to the patch--which is called 2.03--players reported that their screens turned purple and the game essentially became unplayable without rebooting their console.

The new patch addresses the bug, but some players might still encounter it.

"It has been challenging to pinpoint the exact cause," EA said in a blog post. "The fix we implemented in this patch should eliminate or greatly reduce the frequency of occurrence for the bug, but we will continue to monitor its status and make changes if necessary."

In terms of the gameplay fixes, this new update clears out issues related to blocking and striking, while some tuning changes have been made to stamina. In short, stamina recovery rate for ground and pound moves has been nerfed. Additionally, balancing changes for choking submissions have been made. You can see the full patch notes below.

EA also responded to the fan feedback around adding more fighters to the game. The developer said this is "one of the more time-intensive processes," and EA is trying to prioritize this now. The first new post-release fighters for the game will be released "in the coming weeks," but that's all the studio had to share on the matter.

In other news about UFC 4, the developer recently added in-game ads for Amazon's The Boys, but they quickly removed them due to backlash. The full-screen ads were displayed during replays and were met with a negative response, leading EA to issue a statement saying, "It is abundantly clear from your feedback that integrating ads into the replay and overlay experience is not welcome."

UFC 4 Patch 2.03 Notes:

• Fixed stability issues related to the purple screen bug.
• Removed haptic feedback from online modes.
• Fixed a bug where headlock stamina drain was excessive:
  • For these special clinch positions, there is an intended stamina drain that was unnecessarily continuing during the animation of their follow-up move. In the case of the headlock, the stamina drain incorrectly continued during any guillotine entry animation. For backpack, the drain continued during the rear naked choke, back sitting takedown, and back drop animations. The stamina drain during these animations will no longer occur and this should make the headlock and backpack much more balanced.
• Fixed various issues with ground and pound defense against flurries:
  • Fixed an issue where defenders were unable to block immediately after posting in ground and pound.
  • Fixed an issue where players were unable to successfully post strikes after successful blocks in ground and pound.
• Fixed an issue with blocking after being hit during ground and pound:
  • Fixed a bug where after a clean hit, follow-up punches that varied by type, side, or target would bypass the block and deal full damage despite the blocking animation looking successful.
• Fixed an issue with damage received after posting strikes in ground and pound
  • This fix might not yet cover all instances of attacks bypassing posting. We are continuing to monitor and investigate such issues.
• Reduced rate of stamina recovery during ground and pound
  • Stamina recovery during ground and pound used to be much faster than in the ground game (tight positions). This made it harder for the defender to capitalize on a stamina advantage they gained during ground and pound because the attacker could easily recover stamina by idling for just a short time. We’ve tuned the ground and pound stamina recovery rate so that is similar to that of the ground game. This mostly benefits the defender by making ground and pound reversals and the special transitions out of ground and pound more viable.
• Tuned stamina and damage on the back drop takedown:
  • The stamina drain from the backpack no longer applies during the back drop animation.
  • Reduced the stamina cost of performing the back drop.
  • Opponents will now take body damage and incur some stamina drain from the slam.
• Fixed an issue where escaping choke submissions drained too much stamina:
  • Escaping a deep choke - when the attacker has a lot of progress it is supposed to drain a considerable amount of temporary stamina and only a small amount of permanent stamina. A bug has been fixed where some choke escapes could result in a large amount of permanent stamina being drained from the defender.
• Added ability for the sub fighter to trigger an immediate escape after denying the backpack transition:
  • Prior to this fix, the backpack could be attempted several times in a row, despite being denied and while the opponent would be trying to escape. This was unfair, as each of these denials would provide the dominant fighter one more chance to perform a mix-up. This situation also encouraged the submissive fighters to attempt to cease this relentless attack by trying to transition to cage single under, which is not the proper counter to the backpack - as the backpack tends to win the race if the moves are attempted at the same time. After the fix, one denial of the backpack is enough to grant the submissive fighter an immediate escape from the cage back clinch.
• Fixed an issue with the stamina drain on headlock denials:
  • Previously, headlock attempts drained the defender more than the attacker, even when denied early. This issue allowed headlock to be an overpowered tactic. Now, an early denial will significantly drain the attacker and will not drain the defender at all.
• Added stamina tax to the attacker for low single takedown denial:
  • This takedown was missing the stamina drain to the attacker when a denial happens. It had the drain from attempting but not from being denied. Now it has the correct stamina drain from the denial.
• Fixed an issue causing takedown feints to count in stats:
  • Takedown feints were counting towards total takedown attempts in post-fight stats causing confusion, especially for AI matches.