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Fight Night Round 4: The Perfect Career Mode

After my “Fight Night Round 4: Hopes and Concerns” article last week, a lot of people responded that they felt the career mode was what needed the most improvement. Admittedly, EA has struggled with their boxing career modes in the past, providing a relatively restricted experience which doesn’t vary much from time-to-time. While EA hasn’t suggested how much of an overhaul the career mode will receive in Round 4, here is what I imagine the OS community would consider to be the “perfect career mode.”

It all starts with the boxer. Obviously, extra create-a-boxer options are always a plus. I want to see a name database, so we don’t have to go by nicknames for every fighter, as well as more choices for nicknames. As far as attributes go, there should be more of them obviously. Varying punch power and speed for the left and right hands is something we’ve been expecting for a long time, as well as individual punch ratings for jabs, hooks, crosses, etc.

Also, created boxers shouldn’t be able to have maxed out stats in every category. The gamer should have to choose what kind of boxer they want to be, and focus on those attributes. Do you want to be a quick boxer, who scores a lot with jabs and crosses, or a KO artist with a face-crunching left hook? Now you should have to decide and train accordingly. Where your boxer is from should also affect the career mode experience. Perhaps you can choose from a list of gyms in different cities around the world that have training bonuses for certain attributes. So if you want to be a power boxer, and the Detroit gym is known for power, than you can choose to train there. If your fighter happens to be from the D, than it’s inherently easier for them to build power.

Another really important feature that’s been missing from EA’s boxing games is rankings. There is no excuse for not having a dynamic rankings system. By focusing on this, EA could open up the entire career mode experience immensely. Instead of offering us a few choices at a time, the game could allow us to schedule our own fights based on the rankings system. Obviously, at the beginning we shouldn’t be allowed to challenge for the belt, but we should be able to decide if we want to try to take a shot at a better fighter, or beat on some scrubs to improve our attributes. This would replicate real-life much more accurately as you could have boxers with great records who haven’t fought any real opponents, and guys who may have taken a few losses but have a rep for not being afraid to take on harder fights.

With rankings, of course, comes belts. There should be multiple belts and the opportunity to unify them. Earning a belt shouldn’t be a matter of playing the game long enough, but rather making the right decisions throughout your career to earn a shot at a belt-holder. Also, there should be the ability to create many more boxers than in previous games so we can fill the rankings with our own creations similar to the Knockout Kings-era.

Within the career mode itself, the experience needs to be a bit more diverse. Instead of picking one of three fights, playing one of three mini-games, and than fighting, the game should allow us to schedule a fight against whoever we can, and then plan out our entire schedule for the time in between signing the contract and stepping on the canvas. Obviously, they need to add more training games, but perhaps we could be allowed to choose three for each fight. If you want, you could do one exercise three times to really boost a particular attribute, or you could mix it up to just improve your fighter all-around.

You should also be able to control things like diet, and other exercise, to really diversify the experience. Do you want your fighter to bulk up, or do you want him to slim down? Adjust what you eat and how much you jog to affect those types of things. Perhaps we could even have a weigh-in where your boxer would be required to make weight. Mess around on the training end, and suffer the devastation of not making weight. While all these additions might slow down the pace of the career mode, they would also add significance to each fight, as you’d have to focus on how you want to tweak your fighter for each individual contest. Also, the more you have to do between fights, the more important it is to win so all that effort isn’t in vain.

All of these factors ultimately point towards the experience in the ring. The gameplay needs to reflect the changes that have been made in the career mode. One of the biggest changes that needs to be implemented in this respect is the pace of the fights. Whether they accelerate the clock, or shorten the length or number of rounds, EA needs to have some fights go the distance. In fact, if a player chooses to develop a quick boxer instead of a power puncher, they should expect to see a lot of their fights go to the cards. The aforementioned attributes should also come into play, as boxers work with one hand versus the other according to their style.

With all the early information suggesting massive gameplay tweaks, the likelihood that EA focuses much on the career mode is somewhat low. Nevertheless, with a few modifications it could be a lot more enjoyable than in the past. Give us dynamic rankings, belts, and the occasional fight going the distance, and that would probably be enough to keep the dogs at bay. Then again, with every subsequent release the gamer expects more and more. We still have a lot of time before Fight Night Round 4 comes out, let’s keep our fingers crossed that EA has a few more tricks up their sleeve.


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Member Comments
# 21 SHAKYR @ 05/31/08 01:10 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by fistofrage
While I agree with this statement, I still have to argue that the more options the better. Noone I know plays Madden on 15 minute quarters because it throws stats out of whack. Give me the option to make 2 minute rounds in career mode and I'll be happy. Give you the option to keep it at 3 minutes and you'll be happy. FN 04 had the accelerated clock and it worked out great.
I totally agree with you the more options the better.

Here are some more career ideas I would like to see.
1.Have a stable of fighters to manage
2.News Articles
3.PLAYER DATA-(Show information about number of wins/lost/ko's/draws/and a few more things)
4.WATCH MODE-being able to watch other bouts
5.FIGHT CARDS MODE-being able to create a show with different boxers
6.Put all the weight classes-If you can't sign certain fighters, give the option to add them to the empty weight class slots
 
# 22 Complex @ 05/31/08 01:23 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by SHAKYR
Stamina makes for real stats not a accelerated clock.
Depends how it is applied.
 
# 23 Sausage @ 06/06/08 10:35 AM
A few things I would love to see is the return of double time rounds. The round still starts at 3 minutes, but gets to 0 minutes in half the time.

A stamina system that takes into account the number of punches thrown, received, movement, and stamina points you received during training.

No more energy bars (see Victorious Boxers 1). A weak jab should not be able to knockdown an opponent or even knockout, I am talking to you fight night.

One thing for career modes have the commentators and ring announcer say the name of your opponent. I am tired of having multiple "Kid Dynamites, Wonder Kid, etc." as my opponents.
 
# 24 babyfat9 @ 06/07/08 04:20 AM
Bout time a game like this came out...i've been waiting to get legend boxers like Tyson and bunch others....can't wait !!!!!
 
# 25 thppanthers1 @ 06/11/08 04:45 PM
Very well thought out. Nice Article
 
# 26 Dahal @ 06/22/08 02:26 PM
Could we have the option of having legends in our career mode or not?Its pretty unrealistic when you are having a title fight against Ali.Id rather I had just current boxers to fight.Also,a classic mode would be good with selectable eras like days from Rocky,Ali,Sugar,Benn. think thats askin a bit too much tho and would mean a massive data base of boxers.

And I remember a time in FN3 where I fought Del La Hoya in some old hanger with a few people gathered around to watch.TOTALLY UNREALISTIC!and I found it hard taking the game serious after this.PLEASE DONT MAKE THINGS LIKE THIS HAPPEN IN THE NEW VERSION!!little things like that can really ruin a game for some people..

Would also be good to add your own real life boxers and select where you feel they should be ranked so you dont get them early on in your own career,i.e.If Calzaghe wasnt in the game and I wanted to add him I could set his stats accordingly and rank him where I feel he deserves to be ranked.
 
# 27 theblasian @ 07/08/08 08:13 AM
Something I think that'd be a pretty cool is if they actually utilized game systems ability to connect to the internet and update and create boxers and stats. all they'd have to do is get connected with ESPN or something and have new guys created as they appear on Wed and Friday Night Fights, or whatever major fights happen throughout the year.
 
# 28 Enef @ 07/21/08 09:01 AM
I think every single thing you said in this article was spot on, i especially like the idea of more varied training and including diets and weigh ins, it would feel more realistic if they included these things and made them all count towards the actual fight.

So you are a veteran heavy hitting champion and a young upstart with speed just challenged you? You not only have to work on keeping your weight level correct but you have to be able to keep up with this young guns speed and be able to block and dodge his punches, you also have to think about wether you can last the full match against a younger, faster opponent.

You would have to decide what jogging/dashes to do, how often to do them, wether you should concentrate on mitt hitting or sandbag practice, you would have to scout speedy sparring partners etc etc.

I'm looking forward to the game but i hope to high heaven that they add a lot more detail and realism into the story mode.
 
# 29 Pappy Knuckles @ 07/26/08 07:25 AM
Please get rid of the cartoon fighters. I don't care if they're not real, they don't have to have crazy hair and look rediculous.
 
# 30 SHAKYR @ 07/26/08 07:30 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Buddy Knox
Please get rid of the cartoon fighters. I don't care if they're not real, they don't have to have crazy hair and look rediculous.
You are absolutely right. They need more realistic hairstyles and color shades.
 
# 31 Vegas415 @ 08/01/08 05:15 AM
plz..plz..do not make it where when i knocked down a guy about 10 times in a fight and they dont stop the fight yet...i mean come on thats a lot of knock downs, usally i knock a guy down 2 times a round and by the 11th then i can knock him down 3 times in a round, i know the 3 knock down rule is in effect but in a real fight they would stop it by the 4th knock down even if its not in the same round.
 
# 32 ThaPeeplz @ 08/02/08 08:52 AM
Damn man thats alot of knockdowns. As Im playing I really dont even start seeing knockdowns until the 4th or 5th round. I've never seen 10 knockdowns accumulate over the course of a fight.
 
# 33 Divrie17 @ 08/06/08 07:56 AM
How about during training the ability to watch clips from your next opponents previous fights allowing you to find out their strengths and weakness's.
Also for realism they should have the Press Conference and as mentioned in the article followed by Weigh in before the fights.

It will add to the length of time it takes between fights but its about having the real life experience without physically stepping into the ring
 
# 34 yaz2008 @ 08/20/08 11:20 AM
in fairness the biggest change they need to make is adding realism in the game - proper ring/fight intros and fighter record announcements before fights.. consider bringing Michael Buffer into the game for announcements.. that would be great. of course that can be skipped if some gamers dont prefer it by pressing start button.. that would be good. also the create-a-champ needs to more realistic and cannot offer a facial look that makes every boxer look too similar, (hint: laziness from EA!!), the training games seems pointless - maybe look at the training styles adapted in KI2. also look into proper AI 'boxing' behaviour for each fighter, and response should be synchronised so that a fighter does not just get up and everythings hunky dory - implement dependancy programming into it!!
 
# 35 Fresh Tendrils @ 08/22/08 05:55 PM
I just want the AI opponents to be able to adapt to my fighting style and for the opponents to have a lot of different techniques apart from the way they block. The training stuff is worthless, IMO. You can't really build up anything since you can only do one before a fight. I think there should be some type of calendar system where you can do some type of routine before the fight, etc. FN3 just felt bare-bones.
 
# 36 Al_Youdell_08 @ 12/19/08 08:18 AM
yeah all those changes would be amazing, having to make the weight and having a proper weigh in would be great, and also having a pound 4 pound ranking would be cool. also agree about being able to pick your own fights due to the ranking system and not having to fight created boxers all the time.
it would be so cool if you could go up and down in weights to be champion at different weight classes like floyd mayweather jr.
hope EA Sports gets it right coz its got the potential to be brilliant if they do a bit more work on the career mode because ive seen some lists of fighters on the game and they have basically everyone which is great compared to round 3 which i thought the amountof fighters were pretty poor.
 
# 37 Mackaveli @ 12/19/08 07:35 PM
I agree, i also think that when playing online, along with the rankings and stuff for everyones personal fighters, that you should be able to challenge any other fighter and maybe have 2 days to prepare for the fight.....to train etc, then 2 days later you and the challenged fighter battle it out ! this would also make your fights more important and worth something. I would love to see this as it would also make you feel more like a real fighter with set fight dates and stuff.
 
# 38 Jebus @ 12/28/08 05:12 AM
Great article!

Loved Fight Night 3, and the main thing I want in No. 4 is that they give more of an RPG leveling system like you said. Gaining points from the training sessions and then you choose from a wider amount of skills/attributes to put thous points towards.

Also more customisation and not just one training session between each bout... It should change depending on how far away the fight is and you be able to schedual your own training sessions at your own risk of a. being under prepared or b. being worn out before the fight.

I have hundreds of ideas for the new title

P.S Whens it due out the game?
 

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