| ‘Fight Night Round 4’ misses a punch in realism |
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| Written by Jason Boyd | ||||
| Thursday, 02 July 2009 04:34 PM | ||||
Fight Night Round 4For: Xbox 360, also on Playstation 3Rated: Teen Published: by EA Sports 4 out of 5 stars The game looks incredible in motion. Iron Mike Tyson looks like the evil little gremlin he is, with a head like a pendulum at 300 bpm bobbing back and forth, and Muhammad Ali moves smooth, nearly dancing like a butterfly around the ring. The punch system works using the analog sticks, which can be cumbersome without practice. Once getting it down, it’s a joy to be able to quickly direct punches without mashing buttons. But the fighting loses its shine when gamers get further into the mechanics. In the game, boxers can throw a million punches per round against a guarded opponent without getting tired. Real boxers tire themselves out this way and become molasses in later rounds. The new round reward system allows gamers to boost stamina and health based on round performance, but stamina doesn’t diminish realistically. This gameplay weakness shows most in online play, where button mashers rule. Trying to play the sweet science, waiting for counters, blocking and dodging, guarantees a loss every time. In single player mode, the stamina system is not as bad, although repetitious moves can win over mixing it up like real-world boxers. It isn’t horrible, because the AI can punish players for being too redundant, but I consistently threw 500 right hooks per match with my right-handed boxer and landed close to 60 percent. You’d think the opponent would keep his guard up after that. The single player experience leads to Legends mode, essentially a career mode. Players can create a new contender or start from the bottom with a real-life legend. Boxers start as a prospect and climb the ranks to greatest of all time through winning popularity, belts and fights. The mode works great with the new Gameface option, where players can craft a boxer from personal photos. My personal pugilist, Jason “The Canon” Boyd, resembles close enough to me, even when I get my face smashed in. But Legends mode suffers from realism problems. For one, players schedule their own fights, but get no tips for how to tackle the opponent. Real-life boxers get months of planning time to map out a successful bout. All gamers know is if their opponent’s left or right hand is stronger, and things like how fast they move on a scale from 0 to 100. You can look up their punch stats, but it’s not the same. Training is also a pain. You can upgrade stats after doing a select number of training sessions, which lengthens based on how far your fight is scheduled. But some don’t make sense. Pushing a heavy bag only trains the right hand, when you punch it with both. Sparring won’t increase hand strength, even though half of the point is hitting the other guy. Round 4 is a huge step in creating a viable experience, which I’m glad I bought, despite its flaws. But the developers need to turn their jabs into uppercuts. Views: 1506 | E-mail
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