When comparing EA Sports UFC 3 vs Dark Souls III, the Slant community recommends Dark Souls III for most people. In the question“What are the best online multiplayer Xbox One games?” Dark Souls III is ranked 12th while EA Sports UFC 3 is ranked 40th. The most important reason people chose Dark Souls III is:
There's tons of lore everywhere for you to discover, but it isn't necessarily told through a conventional story. Weapons, armor, spells, and items you acquire have descriptions on them that tell you where in the game world they came from, any prominent characters they're associated with, and a bunch of other relevant and interesting information. So when you find examples of the lore scattered around the game, like bosses wearing a style of armor you read about, or an obscure NPC mentioned in a sword's description, you know the history behind the design and their purpose without that boss or character needing to explain anything to you. Even though the actual story in Dark Souls III is very thin, there's a lot to find under the surface if you're willing to look for it.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Career mode goes way deeper than just fighting
Career mode offers a new way to play that resembles a simulation game. In this mode, your goal is to become the best fighter possible, starting from the World Fighting Alliance and working your way up to be recruited and fighting in the ranks of the UFC.
During this mode, you will have to manage not only your fighter in the ring as you punch and kick your way to the top, but everything that goes into the spectacle itself such as promoting your fights, building hype, and making fans. You are free to join and represent different gyms, with each one focusing on a particular fighting style.
Every week you get points to spend on upgrading your character, learning new moves, promoting fights, and conducting research about your opponent's strengths and weaknesses. It's not possible to do everything at once, so it's up to you how you choose to spend your points. This mode will really appeal to players who want some more depth to their beat-em-up and gives a nice glimpse into what goes on behind the scenes in the UFC.
Pro Reworked striking system leads to more strategic fighting
The striking system for UFC 3 has been reworked from the system appearing in 1 and 2. Using the control stick on the right, you can now bob and sway to dodge and avoid incoming punches and kicks. This new striking system allows you to set up counterattacks by dodging and striking back-to-back allowing for more strategic counterplay. It encourages a delicate balance between offense and defense, as one smart move can lead to knocking out your opponent, whereas one wrong move can send you crumbling to the floor.
Pro Fights look and feel polished
When your fists or feet connect with an opponent, you can see the pain in their face as they stagger backwards. Hits and kicks feel heavy and powerful, with a real impact, and the animations are incredibly smooth. Fighters are molded after their real life counterparts in extreme detail down to tattoos and facial expressions. Everything about the fights just looks and feels fluid and polished from the lighting in the ring to the punching, kicking, and grappling itself.
Pro You can step into the ring as your favorite fighter
All major UFC fighters are playable in game, with the in-game models doing a great job of representing their real life counterparts. It's a great chance to step into the shoes of your favorite fighter as you punch, kick, and grapple your way to victory. In the event you want to create your own fighter, you can even do that as well.
Pro Stamina meter promotes intelligent play over wild swinging
Whenever you take an action during a fight, your stamina meter will slowly deplete. Jumping into the ring and wildly throwing punches and kicks will get you nowhere and exhaust your fighter. The game requires you to play smart to win. You will have to manage your stamina so that you can punch, kick, and execute combos when the time is right, conserving your energy for the best takedown moments. This stamina system adds a nice layer of strategic play, as well as a manageable resource, to a genre that is mostly filled with button mashing.
Pro Extensive lore that's presented in unconventional ways
There's tons of lore everywhere for you to discover, but it isn't necessarily told through a conventional story.
Weapons, armor, spells, and items you acquire have descriptions on them that tell you where in the game world they came from, any prominent characters they're associated with, and a bunch of other relevant and interesting information. So when you find examples of the lore scattered around the game, like bosses wearing a style of armor you read about, or an obscure NPC mentioned in a sword's description, you know the history behind the design and their purpose without that boss or character needing to explain anything to you.
Even though the actual story in Dark Souls III is very thin, there's a lot to find under the surface if you're willing to look for it.
Pro Stunning environments
The world of Dark Souls 3 looks amazing, so you may often feel the need to stop and take in the beautiful sights. This can be the sheer size of structures, mountains, or caves. It can also be the decorations, inscriptions, or details in a room. There's always so much to look at, allowing you to truly immerse yourself in its world.
Pro Can give a great feeling of accomplishment
The Dark Souls series is known for its difficulty and Dark Souls 3 is no exception. It's filled with difficult enemies and tough boss battles, able to cause you grief on more than one occasion. However, every time you progress to the next safe spot or defeat a boss you'll often be filled with a mix of joy and relief. Beating this game will almost certainly feel like an achievement.
Pro Unpredictable boss battles
The boss battles in Dark Souls 3 consist of several phases, changing up how the bosses fight over the course of the battle. They will gain new abilities, become more aggressive, or reveal various nasty surprises. This creates an enjoyable experience that is different from most modern games where bosses are just glorified pincushions.
Pro A great variety of equipment for almost any playstyle
You'll be finding new pieces of equipment quite often, giving you many options to choose from. Each one has its strengths and weaknesses, allowing you to pick the equipment that best suits your playstyle.
For example, heavy armor will make you move slower, but you'll be better protected. Greatswords have a wide reach, but you swing them really slow. Conversely a dagger is very fast but it has a horrible reach.
Pro Solid controls
This game feels and plays really well. Your character responds to button inputs immediately and it almost never feels like you're losing control over it. The control scheme can also be customized, giving you the option of a more personalized experience.
Pro Great combat system
Dark Souls 3 is a very fast-paced game but it's not just about having quick reflexes. A lot of the combat comes down to exploiting your enemies. To do that, you have to learn their patterns and attack the moment they pause or perform a telegraphed attack. This creates a combat system, which rewards awareness and patience, and is satisfying to master, even if you don't have extraordinary reflexes.
Cons
Con Poor submission and grappling system
Unlike the strategic fighting, the submission and grappling system is handled through a timed minigame in which you press buttons in a certain order or move the control stick in a certain direction. This can feel disjointed from the rest of the fight.
Con Ultimate Team mode has microtransactions
The only way to add fighters or moves to your team in Ultimate Mode is through an item shop.
Con Fight commentary gets repetitive
While there's nothing wrong with it at first, the same bland pre-recorded lines are used over and over, resulting in commentary that feels very repetitive over time.
Con Poor support for mouse+keyboard control
The default DS3 key/button bindings actually prevent full use of certain weapons by requiring the shift key to be pressed and not-pressed simultaneously. Rebinding is possible, but limited by issues like the left mouse button overriding all others and certain bindings not actually working in game (e.g. Shift+MiddleClick).
Con It's hard
You should try avoiding the trap of great review scores since most of them fail to mention the difficulty. It's simply put - hard. A lot of the combat requires quick reflexes, good mechanics, and the mental fortitude to carry on after failing for hours. If you're new to the Souls-like genre or simply want to enjoy a relaxing evening playing a video game, you most likely won't enjoy Dark Souls III.
Con Poorly tuned dynamic visiblity
You may notice some texture pop in while sharply turning the camera. It can be somewhat distracting if you notice it, but most of the time you won't because it happens in the distance.
Con Occasional performance issues
There are portions of the game that will have noticeable framerate drops, which can negatively affect the gameplay. Most of the fault lies with the game engine, so getting better hardware won't help that much.