Fight Night Round 4 (Platinum)

Introduction

Fight night round 4 (FNR4) is the next installment to a great series by EA sports. I purchased my copy right here on Mighty Ape. This review is mainly for the PS3 version. The Xbox 360 is almost the same, but has some slight differences. FNR4 is rated T for Teen, there is mild blood, lyrics, some suggestive themes (the ring girls and some songs) and of course violence. The online is not rated, just remember some people are just flat out rude and tend to swear a lot.

Game play/Controls 8/10

If you played FNR3 using the Total Punch Control then FNR4's controls wont bother you. If you used the face buttons your going to hate it. The face buttons are gone, its just the analog now. That's a good thing though, it allows for more accurate punches and better fights. Once you get used to it the TPC is easy and fun. Sometimes there is a delay or you could put in the wrong command and throw the wrong punch, causing you to get countered, other wise its smooth. You can still clinch, but now you can also push your opponent away giving you room. There is a set button for haymakers, and leaning and even a special punch. The special punch is more of a signature move and not something to rely on for cheap easy wins. The super power one hit KO punches are gone as well, but now a good hit to the temple or lucky shot to the jaw can KO your opponent or you. The reason I give this an 8 is due to the delay problem and the fact that some people prefer the face buttons, so the lack of customization. Its not a game breaker but can sometimes be annoying.

Graphics 10/10

I have two words: SIMPLY AMAZING! The programmers put time and effort into FNR4, the blood, sweat, muscle flexing and facial expressions prove it. When you throw a punch or take one, you can see the muscles flex, the sweat spray and the strain its having on your boxer. The face damage has been improved as well. Instead of a line of blood and discolored skin, you get full bruises, cuts and blood splatter and spray. With normal settings it takes a lot to do this but you can tweak the settings for more power. When you're bleeding and hit the mat the blood stays, for a little while, you can bounce off the ropes and your boxer even has legs! In FNR3 their legs stopped at the shorts making it look cheap, in 4 they used full character sprites and detail, all the way up to the curly chest hairs. The physics engine replicates hits like a real life hit. With the game face feature you can literally put your self in the game. Just follow the instructions, with a good face picture of your self and the game will apply your face to your custom boxer. You can adjust as needed, by doing this I made a life like version of my self only younger. The referee is has a lot of detail as well, but still stay behind camera unless he's counting down or calling you on a foul shot. The crowds are even detailed, they are not the paper cut outs of previous games and even have some variety. The judges and corner crew have detail and expressions as well and you can view it all with the free roam replay camera. The lighting and the ring walks make for an awesome show and will bring back fond memories of boxing's grea­test days.

Sound/Music 9/10

First off I will mention the one thing that bothers me. When your boxer gets into the ring you can not hear the announcer introducing you very well, if at all. You can hear him fine in the ring walk and you can hear the commentators and the trainers. Just not the introduction, in this corner we have who? What? Speak up! Other wise with the rest of the sound effects and music, you cant complain about the programmers being lazy. There is a huge selection of songs and you can pick what ones will play, even choose the song for your ring walks. I hear the 360 can upload custom tracks, but the PS3 does not have this feature. They might add it later, even with out this option though its still a great selection. The ring side bell is still in the game but only in certain gyms. The lower class gyms use a loud annoying tone. You get used to it though, you can also turn down the volume of it in the settings. Now as for the boxers, when you connect with a punch you can tell hard it was by the sound. When you miss its obvious and when you get stunned get used to the ringing. When playing I can tell the programmers put 100's of hours into creating the perfect sound and music selection. A little tweaking would be nice but other wise its great.

Story/Online 10/10

I'm putting these together since they all revolve around boxing. The single player A.K.A story line is called “Legacy mode”, there is a training mode, fight now mode, create boxer and Online. You have a special section called “My corner” for game settings, replay videos, music and a few other things. Lets start with the training since its simple. Back in the day of FNR3 there was three training games that tended to grind the analog sticks. In FNR4 there are six training games that are easier on the controllers and a lot more fun. First there is open sparing, this lets you learn the basics. Stay on your feet teaches you how to block, dodge and get away from aggressive opponents. The heavy bag combos and heavy bag push get you used to the TPC and the basic combos. The last two training games are called Double end bag and Maize bag, they teach you how to weave, dodge and move around the ring.

FNR4 has four difficulty settings; Amateur, Pro, Champion and GOAT. Amateur is basically a boxing dummy who will toss a few random punches. Pro is your basic normal setting and champion is for those who want a good fight. Now G.O.A.T, that stands for greatest of all time, is like fighting the boxers truly in their prime. They fight with their known style and will bring the pain, its a true test of your skills. Ali will stick and move stay on the out side and pepper you with Jabs, Tyson will bum rush you and pound away at you until you hit the floor, you get the idea. The AI learns from your fighting style with the simulations so as you play it gets better and you have to change your styles to win. If you want a good fight try a 12 round fight with the three knock down rule, 3 minutes, saved by the bell off on G.O.A.T difficulty. If you can beat Ali or Tyson this way you deserve the gold trophies they award you with.

Online has a few options; Quick match, custom match, create a session and the online World championship. Quick match just tosses you into a fight, custom and create a session allow you to choose the rules. Online world championship lets you go for the belt in one of three divisions. If your good enough you can get the Belt and one of the three trophies (more on this further in the review). The people online have varied styles and can sometimes be rude. The majority of them though are decent people and great to play against. If you find one you don't like put him on your ignore list, if you find some one you like add him to your buddies list. Either way have fun and try to fight clean and fair.

Playtime/Repla­y/Trophies 10/10

If your a fan of boxing or just like a good beat down, even if you play just for trophies, you will get easily 100+ hours out of FNR4. The legacy mode, depending on the difficulty, could take 20–40 hours for just one boxer. If your going for the online belts it could possibly take you months depending on your skill level. If your lucky you could possibly get a belt in a week of hardcore playing. Either way you will get your moneys worth. Now for trophies, since the beginning of 2009 all PS3 games that come out have trophies, 360 has achievements (always have). FNR4 is not different, there are 21 total trophies; 4 bronze, 9 silver, 7 gold and of course the platinum. Now trophies should not determine if you get a game or not, but if it does FNR4's are pretty straight forward. Three of them are pretty hard to get but the rest can be gained by practice or if your cheap, changing the settings. You will find them pretty easily gained since they don't have insane challenges, its a decent list. I wont go into detail on it but you can get one or more each sitting if you try hard enough. Well all but the 3 online championship ones.

Overall 9/10

I would say FNR4 is definitely worth the money. If your still unsure try the demo or just rent it. The programmers seemed to have listened to the gamers demands and met them like a Tyson punch to the head. Play for a while, get used to the controls and don't fret the small stuff. This will quickly become one of your favorites.

a wicked game to play with your mates. you can play it and clock it 10 times and still never get bored of it. so much better than the last three fight nights, never really found any cons to the game and thats coming from a hardcore gamer. 10 out of 10 in my books.

EA have delivered near perfection in this installment in their Fight Night series.

The demo has been released on Xbox Live and the PS networks – for those who didn't pre-order through gamespot – and is well worth the download.

The intro to the demo shows the user what lies ahead in the full version, and it looks more like a complete package, compared to Round 3. Although – like the UFC demo – we only have two fighters to choose from, it'll keep you entertained for hours until July 3rd.

The main feature that you'll noticed in the demo, are the new controls. EA have simplified throwing body shots without the excessive need of using a modifier-button. The use of face buttons for throwing punches is gone, and they are no longer part of Fight Nights punch-control scheme. This might not fit well with some gamers, but the controls – in my opinion – become easier the more you play and are more responsive and fluid than Round 3.

The slip and counter is something new added by EA, where a quick quarter rotation of the left analog stick will see your boxer bob and weave opening a small window for a counter and if done right, will have your opponent dazed and confused. Although countering works well, it works too effectively and may well become the ‘parry’ of FNR4. Leaning is back, but unlike previous versions of the series, these need to be timed well otherwise the punches will find your face leaving a permanent mark.
The instant replay makes a return with a huge upgrade. You can now save and upload replays to the EA network for gamers to view, or for bragging rights when friends join in on the pugilistic fun

I could go on and on, but all this talking makes me want to play the demo. So if you haven't already, download it, practice and prepare for an online onslaught come release day.

First of all, the game developer of Fight Night Round 4 are EA Canada. The Fight Night Round 3's developer are EA Chicago. So there should be notable difference in both games. Apparently if you have seen some of the IGN and YouTube videos of Fight Night Round 4, you could see the improvement straight away. The graphics have been ironed out and the best of all, the game physics. The sweat of the boxer will go depending on which direction you punch the boxer. And many more improvement.

The good thing about Fight Night Round series is that they don't release a new game each year. In this said, developers would have more time to really improve the game mechanics unlike other sports games, and it will save you money too.

I'm saving up my dollars to buy this game. Thanks for reading!

Not being a huge fighting game fan I was skeptical to play this game for the first time. But after trying it out and experiencing the total fight control with the analog sticks I just had to buy it strait away.

Also the replay animation's on knock down punches really shows facial animation and the player can just about feel the pain! Overall I recommend this game to anyone, not just fighting game fans.