Fight Night Champion (X360, PS3 etc)

[merf]

fired this up last night, I was a massive fan of FN3 which was very early in this gen and had the most amazing graphics and control system, I thought FN4 was an abomination of a game and from the demo I didn't think this undid all the damage but was going in the right direction.

I've only tried out the mode it drops you straight into, which is the single player 'champion' story mode, its actually quite original and you get a nice tutorial delivered whilst you take part in a prison bareknuckle fight, then you get a flashback to a few years early and have an amateur bout then you proceed to fill in the gaps to how you ended up behind bars (I'm guessing I got stitched up along the line somewhere). Its not going to win any Oscars but at least mixes it up a bit.

Control wise this is far more fluid than FN4 where all the fighters felt like arthritic robots after FN3, but I still preferred the older games method of quarter and half turns for picking punches, it flowed so well. You can use buttons or the left stick, but all punches now correspond to a single directional flick.

After my hour or so I'm cautiously hopeful this will be a pretty solid, if not spectacular, boxing game.

[vanpeebles]

I tried the demo and felt the controls were not as tight as FN3. As you say FN3 had it spot on. I'll go for it when it's cheap but EA stuff rarely is. The bareknuckle bit sounds cool though!

[112]

I tried the demo and felt the controls were not as tight as FN3. As you say FN3 had it spot on. I'll go for it when it's cheap but EA stuff rarely is. The bareknuckle bit sounds cool though!

No Now Peebles, Mass Effect 2 and Dead Space 2 have both dropped in price within weeks of its release... Odds are this will follow suit at some point...

Have Faith my friend... (If I knew how to do thumbs up smileys Id input it here as a nodto the inbetweeners )

Lookin' forward to more impressions of the game!

112

[mikewl]

Picked this up earlier, finished Champion mode in 2 hours 30 minutes and 39 seconds.

I quite liked the Championship mode but its very short lived and its very arcade like, forcing certain situations like fighting one handed, protecting a cut eye and stuff. The final fight was a bit tedious, took me a few goes.

I'm going to see what else is in it, i'm hoping there is more realism to the rest of the game.

[nonny]

They fixed issues with FN3 but introduced another set of problems they just fail to acknowledge...

What they've done is simplified the punching input on the analog stick & made it more responsive at the same time. Physics are more improved and you can now punch back from a block etc... It's all more fluid.

What they've broken for me is the art of blocking and counter punching. FN3 wasn't realistic by any means but you had to predict your opponents punch direction from four possible directions to successfully open a counter opportunity.

To me that system was great. It wasn't boxing but it made the video game representation of the sport more playable. In FN4 and the demo of this one you can now only time the press of the block button to get a counter. It's way too simple and lacks some skill for me. I think the speed of the punches now just makes it a massive game of trial and error which is annoying as I'm a huge counter punching style boxer.

Im going to pick this up as I love the series and I like the clan based gym mode for this one online. It could be a major mode this year that I'll play tonnes with friends. I do miss the FN3 mechanics though... I've re-bought it whilst still owning FN4 for when mates come round because it's more of a crowd pleaser

[moonwhistle]

There doesn't seem to a better thread on this game. I picked up this last week for some multiplayer action and we've found it to be a useless game. We really enjoyed Fight Night Round 3 but this version is trash. The main reason is that blocking is far too effective and largely impenetrable. You can literally walk around backwards indefinately and block everything that your oponent throws at you. Your boxer is only open when punching. Boredom is the only thing that will get you knocked down. The hay makers are uselss too unlike in round 3.

The only stat that has any importance is stamina. We have had several 12 round fights were there were no knock downs and by about round 8 we both had full health and almost no stamina. When it gets that low you can no longer throw damaging punches and it becomes it ludicrous stalemate.

There's also precious little distinctiveness in the different boxers. Besides some speed and power variations, they all punch in a very similar fashion.

I'm gonna pick up round 4 instead. Hopefully it will be fun like round 3.

[analog dog]

Don't bother with 4 man it's nowhere near as good as 3 which is still the best by a longshot. Was gutted when they nuked the servers on that, me and my bro used to love the odd fight online.