Fight Night Round 4 – PS3 Review

I’ve always had an interest in fighting games and boxing so when you combine the both great things should happen and that’s no exception when it comes to Fight Night Round 4 on the Playstation 3, in this review I will go into great detail of the Game Modes, the Gameplay, the Controls, the Graphics, the Computer AI and the Venues.

The Graphics:

Firstly let’s start at looking at the graphics of this game mainly against it’s predecessors, on first glance you can already notice the difference compared to previous Fight Night games. The attention of detail EA Sports have gone into to bring you realism is staggering, no matter if you choose from persona favourites such as “The Greatest” Muhammad Ali or Sugar Ray Robinson to a wide variety of other fighters at your disposal, you can easily notice how each fighter you select looks like and moves like that fighter should. Even things you’d look pass such as a boxers shorts or the sweat on their faces to even the detail of the ring canvas, this game never disappoints on the graphics front, each venue is recognizable by the detail that has gone into bringing you a more realistic boxing game than ever before. 9/10.

Game Modes:

Obviously you have your standard game modes such as ‘Fight Now’ which just incorporates you fighting against a computer which comes to the AI that I’ll cover later, to my favourite the Legacy Mode. In Legacy Mode you get to customize your fighter in ways that would please even girls because you can really change anything you want, but if you’re a fussy and precise person then you could be there for some time as it includes changing your features, nose, eyes, hair, facial hair, size of your body, what trunks you may want to wear whether it be Everlast or Lonsdale to even Grant, they pretty much have every make you can think of to choose from, even to the colour and material. Once you’ve finalized your fighter and have given him a name that is worthy of a world champion then you proceed into a few amateur fights to kick start your career. From here you can select who you next want to face and the venue in which you’ll face your opponent and begin to work your way up the ranks, especially so when you turn Professoinal. Here you’ll start at the bottom of the pile ‘Bum’ and will eventually work your way up to hopefully becoming a “G.O.A.T” – The Greatest of All Time, but it’s not easy and will take a lot of time and persistence to achieve this title. Personally you will not get bored of Legacy Mode and even once you do complete it and retire your fighter as one of the greatest of all time then you can simply pitch your skills against other hardcore gamers on the internet, where you’ll get to unlock a lot of trophies and titles along the way. 8.5/10

Gameplay & Controls:

EA have really got it down with the movement and control in this game, at first it’s hard to adapt to using both analog sticks to control both the movement and your punches instead of pressing the usual buttons on the Playstation pad, but incorporating this you get full control over what punches you want to throw and how you’re going to throw them, if you’re fast enough and good enough you can potentially spot holes in your opponents defense and put a shot there, whilst using the other analog stick to slip punches in the process. With the gameplay it’s equally as fun and enjoyable as it is professional, don’t expect to come into this game and knock everyone out it’s a bit more realistic and harder than it’s predecessors, so prepare yourself to go the distance a few times or so. But once you do get a knockout then it’s rewarded in a slow-motion fashion that is pleasing to watch, as well as great commentary from Teddy Atlas which is not always so predictable as other commentary in other games, and of which is more accurate also. Throwing punches in bunches is also achievable with the use of the analog stick and are not so predictable when you have full control of the angles, unlike when it use to be just on buttons in previous games. 9.5/10

Computer AI:

Fighting versus the computer in any mode will be challenging and you can even select a higher game settings to challenge yourself as much as you want. The computer AI will always try to put up a reasonable challenge no matter what setting you have your difficulty on, you can probably estimate that the AI will throw out a reasonable amount of punches each round, between 30-60 or so, where as you can counter this by throwing twice or three times as much without tiring so much and the movement and combination of punches by the AI aren’t so predictable. But as previously stated if you want the AI to be even more realistic and tougher then a difficulty setting is there to be increased. 8/10

Venues:

Last but not least the venues or the arena’s in which your conquest to become the Greatest of All Time is achieved, most recognizable is the MGM Grand, Las Vegas well apart from Caesar’s Palace but that’s is unfortunately not in this game, so with that being said the MGM Grand is the number one venue to have your fights at, as it is in real life also for professional boxers. But also you’ve got The Thomas & Mack Center, Las Vegas; The Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City; Royal London Theatre, and Metro Manilla. Each venue is designed to stand out on it’s own and be recognizable to the hardcore boxing fans that will get a buzz and sense of satisfaction from having fights take place at such prestigious venues. 7.5/10

Overall:

I would recommend this to any fighting or boxing fan, I just think that EA get so many things right in the previous Fight Nights and then seem to leave them out in newer versions, like for example in Fight Night Round 3 you could earn millions from big fights and use that money to purchase things, or personalize your ring walks and entrances and so on and so forth, little things like that are missing from Fight Night Round 4, yet even without these little things that I’m nit-picking at about the game, it still stands as the best boxing game this year and no matter what platform you choose to play this game on you won’t be disappointed with your purchase, so I give Fight Night Round 4 a 9/10.

Also here is a video of Mike Mahar one of the producers of Fight Night Round 4 where he sits down in front of a camera and goes through Legacy Mode giving you great detail and information of the mode and the game itself, it’s worth a watch.