EA Sports UFC and the Bruce Lee DLC is one of the most hyped things in the world of sports games and the hype isn't slowing down as Creative Director Brian Hayes teased gamers the character rating of the Father of MMA, Bruce Lee!
The EA Sports UFC Bruce Lee dlc is something fight fans have been waiting for, now they can play the most accurate representation of the master but what representation are we talking about here?
It is no secret that in the movies Bruce Lee is an indomitable force that beats his enemies with ease. But this doesn't mean he's going to be a 100-rated character in EA Sports UFC, creative director Brian Hayes told Gamespot.
"We're evaluating Bruce Lee as he was known, from the people who trained with him, as opposed to 'Let's put him in the game as the unstoppable force that was depicted in cinema.' People that had the experience of training with Bruce Lee will, without fail, speak about his tremendous athleticism, his speed, his strength relative to his size, his commitment to exploring innovative training techniques," Hayes said. "We're taking the approach that he's a tremendous athlete that is trained, primarily, in striking disciplines, but expanded that as he grew as a martial artist to include an appreciation for how important fighting on the ground was as well. With our recreation of him in the game, he is the lightning-fast, lethal striker that you expect from what he was in reality. But perhaps only a capable grappler on the ground, as opposed to just being the guy that's rated 100 in everything.
To make sure everything about Bruce Lee is in perfect representation, EA partnered with Bruce Lee's daughter Shannon Lee to make sure Bruce Lee's appearance in the game is something he would have liked and approved:
"I was super-excited. But as with everything, you always have to take a beat and really check in with yourself and see how you feel about it," Shannon Lee recalled to Gamespot. "And honestly, when I checked in with myself, I was really excited about it. I know that there are purists out there who will say 'oh, Bruce Lee didn't compete in real life!" This is a video game and it's meant to be fun."
"And I think there are a lot of people out there who don't really know that my father was the caliber of martial artist that he was," she added. "They see him in movies and so they think he was primarily an actor, but that couldn't be further from the truth."
Shannon Lee also had something to say to the people who has negative things to say about Bruce Lee's inclusion to the game:
"I think that people who have negative comments [about Bruce Lee's inclusion in EA Sports UFC] are misguided for the most part," Shannon Lee told GameSpot this week. "Some people don't realize that my father was more than just an actor, that he was truly a real martial artist. In a lot of ways more so than a lot of the fighters today because he lived and breathed martial arts. He often said everything he learned in his life he learned from the practice of martial arts. So I think there's some misunderstanding in that regard.
"I think some of the purists out there [will say] 'Oh, Bruce Lee never would have competed in real life...' And my answer to that is this isn't real life; this is fun, Bruce Lee liked to have fun. This is an opportunity to live out a fighting fantasy," she added. "And I think we should all be grateful that the technology exists to have some fun in this way. And there are just some people who are haters [laughs]. And there's not a whole lot I can do for those people than just to tell them that they might enjoy their lives a lot more if they stopped worrying about everybody else so much."
