Fight Night Round 4 - An honest and OCD Review - offline and online modes (long) - acts238shaun's Blog

acts238shaun's Blog

Fight Night Round 4 - An honest and OCD Review - offline and online modes (long)

Posted on July 24, 2009 at 03:10 PM.

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Before I start with the review, I want to give you a little background on the writer of this blog. The glasses with which my viewpoint stems from may help you understand my statements and opinions.

I am not a hardcore or uneducated boxing fan. Since I fall in-between I guess you could say I fit into casual realm of boxing aficionados. For me it started as a pre-teen when I received Mike Tyson's Punch-Out for my birthday. About two weeks later I saw Mike Tyson demolished a very good boxer in Michael Spinks, cementing in my young mind the reason he was dubbed "The Baddest Man on the Planet." I remember to this day the side view of Spinks on the mat, sitting in a punch induced daze with his mouthpiece sticking slightly out of his mouth and fear in his eyes.

Later on, still not knowing much about boxing, I watched Tyson dismiss Frank Bruno by KO. What caught my attention was how much taller Bruno was than Tyson. I didn't realize how short Tyson was, jackhammer arms and all. Long story made short, between the Bruno and Douglas fight I began to read about boxing in any of the books and magazines I could find. I learned about Ali, Frazier, Foreman, Ray Leonard and Ray Robinson, Hagler, Hearns, Duran and a few other fighters. I read about each of their unique talents and styles.

With what I learned I wasn't as surprised as many others when Tyson was beaten. Being the nerd I am, I remarked to to others in the room about the glove of water placed over Tyson's swollen eye. After being told to shut up by the grown-ups in the room (who were letting up past bedtime), I remarked "Well, if Tyson doesn't knock him out soon, Douglas wins." Next round, BAM - Tyson catches Douglas with a shot and Douglas was on his butt. If you are reading this, chances are you know how the rest of the fight went.

Later on it was Julio Chavez, Pernell Whitaker, Evander Holyfield, Roy Jones, Jr., and Winky Wright who caught my attention. Now I like to follow Floyd Mayweather and Jermaine Taylor (a fellow Arkansan). The big thing I have learned is styles make fights. I know that has been bandied about like a sad SNL catchphrase by many, but it is true. Ali's trouble with Frazier's style, Foreman's difficulty with Ali's and Frazier's own problems with Foreman's setup are three great examples.

In Fight Night Round 4 it is more of the same. To be successful you have to fight according to the style that best suits your fighter while deciphering the style of your opponent. If you have a taller fighter or a fighter with a longer reach reach it is to your advantage to stay out of the phone booth and extend your arms with jabs and crosses. If you are a shorter fighter it is advantageous to keep it inside and avoid punches while throwing your own. With many different styles for CPU boxers in the game, it is true that no two fights are the same, especially on the higher difficulty levels.

Infighter, Outfighter, Slugger, Brawler, Boxer and Counterpuncher are just a few of the styles listed in the game and each boxer plays to their particular personality. Infighters constantly press you, outfighters stay away, counterpunchers sit back and pick their spots, waiting for an opening. In the ring the CPU fighters present deepest boxing game I have seen. As one who spends about half my time offline, it is worth the $60 for me to get this game, especially with the revamped Legacy Mode.

Legacy Mode is this years career mode and it is much improved from the Burger King-filled debacle that was on Fight Night Round 3. You can create a boxer or use an existing one and start your career at the amateur tourney. You schedule your fights as soon or late as you want, allowing for one training session per two months between fights with a max of three sessions. The training games are better than FNR3, which isn't saying much, but they aren't that bad. The newly done Total Punch Control (more on that below) makes for some difficulty in a couple of the drills, but overall the entire package of legacy and drills works well together. No doubt with a two year cycle the developers can come up with some fresh ideas for Round 5.

One of the biggest ongoing debates in FNR3 was about the method of throwing punches: sticks vs. buttons. Many complained that buttons were too precise and less sim and that buttons allowed for a greater advantage online. I don't really know, as I will admit I was preferential to buttons simply because my hands get tired after a fight or two using the right analog stick. With the new dev team, the decision was made to revamp the TPC and get rid of button punching all together. While some have converted to stick punching, as I have, others are adamant about having the buttons to punch, going so far as to return the game or not buy it at all until buttons are allowed. Truth be told, while it is easier to defend with, the TPC is still rather imprecise and oftentimes when you have an opening that require a certain punch you can throw a body hook instead of a cross or an uppercut upstairs. Were it still more precise, many would prefer buttons anyway due to buttons being second nature for many gamers, especially those who fight with Ali and Ray Leonard and prefer a jab to a body hook, which would be more fittingly thrown by a Hagler or Tyson.

Speaking of Ali and Tyson, who headline the game and its theme of styles, they are two of the biggest collection of licensed boxers in the series. While there are a few notable omissions (I would have liked to have seen Liston, the Klitschko brothers, Chris Byrd, BHop and Floyd Mayweather to name a few), it is really deep and varied, especially in the heavy, middle and welterweight divisions. When fighting online, the most common fighters are either created boxers, or Ali and Tyson's virtual doppelgangers.

Unfortunately, online is where the games glaring shortcomings began to be seen. For all of its realistic boxer renderings and fairly deep create-a-boxer feature, the three online modes tend to play more like Facebreaker than any boxing match I have ever seen, especially in the new World Champion mode. Okay, Facebreaker minus the beat down on the mat.

In their attempt to make body punching matter more (and it didn't matter at all in FNR3), EA made a connected body punch take a little more stamina off of the meter. Teddy Atlas often calls it putting money in the bank, because in boxing wearing down a fighter can be a key to victory (Ali-Foreman), especially faster fighters (Ali-Frazier). While EA nailed this offline in Legacy Mode and Fight Now, punching online is reverse of what is should be. Not only is working the body an important strategy online, often times it's the only strategy employed by your human opponent, who we will call Mr. Cheese. Cheese proceeds to run up to you and throw countless indiscriminant body hooks (because they are easy to throw with the new TPC, not requiring a trigger to press). Whether they hit leather or not, because your blocking meter (a needed new addition as well, also overdone as it wears down to quickly) runs down faster than their stamina. Your only choices are to start throwing punches and take the shots full on, push them, run while they land a few shots or throw a dirty blow (more on that below). You would think hailing down hooks and uppercuts at someone's face while you take a few in the gut would be a good strategy, but on FNR4 online (not offline) it isn't. Because your stamina wears down taking a gut shot, your power, dependent on your stamina (and rightfully so, but not to where you are helpless), is at zero and your punches are slower than granny at Christmas after her 7th 'egg nog'. If tossing hooks and uppercuts into someone's grill isn't a deterrent to body spamming, then neither is the jab or cross, which has been greatly depowered in this years edition. It needed to be toned down some, but not to this point. Online the jab is a useless weapon, a bazooka with no oomph behind it, so spammers wade in amidst the hail of jabs and crosses and wail away. In te end your choice it to block and run for a few rounds until they tire or try to counter them off of timed blocks, which replaces the parry from FNR3. Blocking alone is fairly ineffective, as many punches that are blocked are registered as connects and not only does not wear down stamina but also does nothing to deter the spammer. Because of that you are left with timing constantly and hoping for a counter, also known as turbo blocking. If you do counter a spammer enough, old faithful from round 2 and 3, the haymaker becomes their friend and they throw two or three hundred of these while arriving at round ten with the lead on the scorecards and at least half their stamina.

The countering system is actually fairly well done, except the window to counter online is about about 1/3rd to large. I know there is a patch coming giving those with internet access three new sliders (stamina, counter window and punch accuracy) for offline play, but nothing has been said about online as far as the counter window.

EA has said with the above mentioned DLC the stamina will be greatly toned down, which will deter spammers from throwing constant body blows and haymakers. It's also been said they will raise referee awareness when it comes to dirty blows online, which have become as big an issue as body spamming.

My online fights of late have followed this pattern: block til the meters runs to halfway, push, dodge a haymaker while backing away, counter the haymaker with a body uppercut (because they guard the face to prevent a flash KO/stun) and start it all over again. After doing this two or three times they get frustrated and back away for two or three rounds rushing in with haymakers while I stay away because blocking haymakers cause damage like a punch at times. They get tired around round six or seven (finally) and I start picking them apart and stun them, knocking them back. As I close in to finish them off, BAM, they headbutt me twice and there is a cut scene where the ref steps in and warns them or docks a point and my opponent has recovered. Well, rinse and repeat this two or three more times and at the end of the round that I won I see I have a huge red line of damage I have to use my points on instead of stamina or health. I go back out for the next round and though a little slower and showing a nice cut over my eye I start wearing them down again, only for them to so the exact same thing. Now I have a dilemma, do I lower myself to their stupidity and use it to KO them or try to ride the fight out I am losing on cards? It's a hard choice, because the last fight they hit me with 10 lowblows/headbutts before I retaliated with one, but when I did I was DQ'd. Oh, well, they have hit me with 13 this fight, so maybe the ref isn't looking. Especially since there is no defense to the above tactics.

I realize that's long and drawn out, but anyone who has ventured online can relate. I am sure the above will not be an issue after the patch and there will be new tactics Mr. Cheese will throw out at that point, but these are glaring issues that should have been looked at. Many who use such tactics will say that you have bad skills and the like, but I bought a boxing game, not an MMA or arcade game. There is no skill in throwing 14 dirty shots or body spamming.

Other issues which I have encountered are freezing at load screens (RROD) but that's about it. Others have had freezing due to playlists of music for FNR4 or even other games (NCAA 09-10) and freezing due to custom boxers, but I haven't seen this personally. It has been acknowledged by the EA dev's and they are working on it.

Personally, I love this game and have already gotten my $$$ worth, RROD'ing my 360 for the first time, and I am looking forward to online post patch, so I will give this an 8/10 for now, a 9.5 if the patch fixes the above mentioned problems, as I would like to have my own playlists on the HDD again.

Highlights:
Deeper C-A-B feature
Deep legacy mode (with a few drawbacks)

Lowlights:
Freezing
Online