Fight Night Round 4 Hands-On Preview/Impressions (Money99 Blog)

[Money99]

Check out my Fight Night Round 4 hands-on preview blog.

Quote:

"Let’s get this out of the way. There will be no button mashing this year because the buttons will not be used for standard punches. I know that half of you are rejoicing while the other half are seething in anger. Trust me when I say that a good number of Community Members voiced their displeasure for the removal of buttons. EA is going in a very analog-centric direction and Fight Night Round 4 is no exception. The game isn't completely independent of buttons as they are still employed for haymakers, clinching, pushing, head-butts and of course to pull off an Andrew Golota 'speed bag' routine (if you know what I mean)."

[JayBee74]

Great writeup! Now I'm really pumped for this game!

[TheCreep]

Looking forward to it. Did you guys mention the square block bodies and if they would be tweaked. I'm still concerned about the player models?

[Motown]

Quote: Originally Posted by Money99

http://www.operationsports.com/Money...ds-on-preview/

Very well written Money...I can't wait

[SteelerSpartan]

Nice Write up

But I want to ask you about the controls and whether you share any of beliefs of this guy:



Strictly the analog sticks now (which I actually like better). Sorry guys, but anyone can be a method button-masher. It takes a lot more skill to do the same thing with just the analog sticks (and the A button signature move).

Exactly how you use those analog sticks can determine the final effect of your fighting. Solid hits, clipping, breaking blocks and combos have become much more difficult and detailed. Admittedly, I wasn’t very skilled at Round 3 to begin with, but I learned by watching the other attendees play. With Round 4, I had difficulties with getting some of the punches to work using the analog sticks and sometimes wound up doing a completely wrong punch for the situation. That was very frustrating for me (the hardest punch for me was the uppercut) but is just something that requires me to become more skilled at using the sticks.

But because of these exact difficulties, it required us as players to show if we have true skill or not. We tested and learned which fighters we excelled at using. I cannot for the life of me use inside fighters. Just CANNOT. Give me an outside fighter or a brawler and I do relatively fine. (I would also like to note that I absolutely fail with Mike Tyson.) The inside fighters require much more skill in landing solid punches to the body and use of punches like the uppercut, while outside fighters can throw jabs and combos from a distance and still get in good clips and hits.


To continue with difficulties, I also had the same problem in aiming punches as I did in creating the punch I desired. This in itself does not reflect badly on the system they use to generate the actions, but rather on my ability to create an outcome. I’ll have to spend many hours to improve my fighting skills on this game as I learn the intricacies of the fighters and improve my ability to choose, execute and aim punches.

The previously mentioned is the detail that most impresses me about this game. A lot of people will bitch and complain about the changes: the difficulties and the lack of a button config. I feel that the devs are staying much truer to the sport and its athletes by forcing gamers to feel some of the frustration that comes with learning and perfecting the sport (as we all had the chance to experience for a few measly hours during the Community Day). Shortcuts like using a button config don’t exist in the real world, so they shouldn’t exist in the game. This will bring out a greater competition and ultimately prove who really is better at the game when it relies on more uncertain factors than just buttons.

http://www.gamertagradio.com/vbporta...ad.php?p=68250

He laid out exactly the problems that I thought would come with going all sticks. No I don't feel we should have to "feel" the frustrations of the sport by making it harder to perform basic stuff that all Pros can execute.

By reading that guys impressions I once again get the feeling that they went all sticks because they couldn't develop a sim enough fighting system with buttons through appropriate stats/ animations that punish users for mashing.

So it feels like we're paying for their failures in this regard.

But maybe Im jumping the gun...thats why I wanted to get your take on this guys impressions.

And also what do you think the chances are of them not having some sort of bug/problem with the stick responsiveness???

Not one game thats featured the analog stick has been free of responsiveness issue...even as good as NHL 09 is it has had its hiccups.....but Boxing is just a whole different animal...the timing and precision have to be spot on

[SteelerSpartan]

Are those types of sustained combos possible now with the sticks???

Just about every vid Ive seen of FN 4 it looks like theres these slight delays in the middle of combinations that keep it from looking as fast and impactfull as the real thing.....IMO its because the lack of responsiveness in the right stick

[Steve_OS]

Great write up!

[SHAKYR]

You know I was one of the loudest to say people were going to complain about the buttons being gone.
What really bugs me and it's sort of ignorant, I hate that it takes skills to use the sticks?!?...skills to throw punches with a stick? A remark like this sounds more like a fighting game fan instead of an actual boxing or boxing game fan. You should be able to throw what ever punch you want without going through a motion to pull it off.