Product Description

Fight Night Round 4 is truly the Return of the Champ. Building off Fight Night Round 3, Fight Night Round 4 promises to be equally as ground-breaking and revolutionary. With an all-new physics based fighting engine, new physics driven animations, truly unique and differentiated boxer styles, and the most impressive boxer roster ever including the return of the legendary Iron Mike Tyson, Fight Night Round 4 takes videogame boxing and fighting to an entirely new level.

• Physics Based Gameplay Engine: No fight will be the same with an all-new physics-based gameplay engine that recreates the full spectrum of true-to-life punch impacts, giving boxers a devastating arsenal of punches, blocks and ring movement. The new physics system allows for missed punches, glancing punches, knockout blows and for the first time ever, rough and tumble inside fighting.
• Realistic Boxer Styles: Fight Night Round 4 emulates the styles of history's greatest boxers like never before. Pressure your opponent with the brawling inside style of young Mike Tyson, bobbing and weaving to set up powerful hooks and uppercuts. Capitalise on Muhammad Ali's reach, hand speed and fleetness of foot to bewilder your opponent with lightning fast jabs and straights from the outside.
• Extensive Boxer Roster: The greatest of all time, fighting in their prime. Fight Night Round 4 lets you create fantasy matchups, such as Tyson versus Ali, and finally settle who is king of the ring. With a boxer roster spanning both history and modern times, the matchup possibilities are endless.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #401 in Computer & Video Games
• Brand: Electronic Arts
• Released on: 2009-06-26
• Platform: PLAYSTATION 3
• Format: Unknown format
• Dimensions: .26 pounds

Manufacturer's Description
The champ is here! EA SPORTS challenges you to step into the ring with Fight Night Round 4. This highly anticipated iteration of the critically acclaimed franchise has perfected every jab, slip, and punch in the sport of boxing to bring you the most realistic fighting experience to date. With an advanced physics system, stunning graphics, and deep gameplay and feature enhancements, Fight Night Round 4 is putting the science back in the sweet science.

Fight Night Round 4 has channeled the distinctive looks and movements of over 45 boxers into the virtual ring to capture the true strengths and weaknesses of true to life boxing styles. Every champion has a unique style that defines him as a boxer. Authentic Boxer Styles emulate every detail of the most notorious boxing legends, from their quick moves to their most devastating combinations. Gamers can choose the brute force of Tyson or the indefinable finesse of Ali and use their strengths to overcome opponents.

To become one of the greats, boxers work from the ground up to develop their skills and hone their talent. Fight Night Round 4 introduces the most advanced Legacy Mode for the aspiring fighter. Players learn the basics as an amateur, and then move through the ranks as a pro, building popularity and defeating the competition to finally reign as a champion and retire as one of the greatest of all time.

The award winning Fight Night franchise is making a comeback with renewed strength and style to deliver the most realistic fighting experience outside the ropes. Put on the gloves and feel the glory with EA SPORTS Fight Night Round 4.

Customer Reviews

Another tale of offline versus online...
Having had FNR4 since release, I've found it to be brilliantly enjoyable and completely frustrating, more the former, however the frustrations do strike hard. Offline, FNR4 is a treat to play, be it against a friend or the CPU. The new physics engine really is something, you can sense when you've made full contact or a partial hit, the way you can make a punch come out of nowhere depending on how you've ducked or weaved, it really is an immersive experience. The whole presentation is fantastic (though the commentary does get a little repetitive) and it really does look the part. While some of the lesser known boxers move in a rather generic fashion, the top boxers, your Ali's and your Calzaghe's, move in their distinctive styles, making the experience authentic and enjoyable.

Legacy Mode is the area where a lot of people will spend their time and for the most part it's very good, the difficulty gradually steps up and it's takes hard work and dedication to get to being the Greatest of All Time. Creating your own character with Game Face and the ability to import other created boxers adds a bit of spice to proceedings also, fighting a computer-version of one of your friends for a championship belt is rather fun! It does drag a little towards the end of your career, especially when you've fulfilled all the requirements to be the Greatest of All Time expect the number of fights, so you slog through the final fights just to get to the end. Also, having completed this once and gained a gold trophy, there's little scope for replayability.

A lovely touch is the instant replay system, where you can replay the last minute or so of your fight, trim it down, create multiple camera angles, slow/quicken the speed and even upload it to the EA servers, perfect for capturing that 1st round knockdown you scored against your mate.

A few niggles concerning the total punch control (which, personally, I prefer to button pressing as it created a feel that you're actually executing the punch yourself), sometimes response times can be a little delayed (especially online!), notably I find uppercuts are every so often delayed, and in boxing a split second is very important. Overall though, I feel the total punch control works very well and generally the punch I am trying to execute is the one I end up playing.

However, where FNR4 ultimately falls down for me is online - and partially through no fault of it's own. Firstly, it generally doesn't lag and games are relatively smooth, though there are sometimes issues with punch timing - a handful of times I've seen a haymaker coming towards me, tried to block or move and the slight delay in responsiveness has meant I've been hit anyway. As I said though, mainly online bouts are smooth and lag-free. My main issues with online are with other players. Step into the ring in an online match and any strategy goes out of the window - it's a case of whoever can throw the fastest punches wins. I've played online since release day and only once was I treated to a match where my opponent seemed to want to block, sidestep, weave and counter punch, resulting in an enjoyable bout. Every other game has resulted in a series of wild attacks for about 7 rounds, until whoever gets that vital last knockdown goes on to claim a victory. One cause of this is the fact that, no matter how many punches you throw, your stamina won't get as low as your opponent if you spam them with body shots from the off - if a fighter is faster and starts targeting the body quickly, your stamina drains and then they can pick you off with head shots. Having been beaten and used this tactic myself, it can make the game a little laborious and predictable. With the upcoming introduction of button controls I fear this will only get worse, where people figure out the perfect height to weight ratio for a boxer and spam their way to a victory. And who can blame them? Unfortunately if there is an option of getting the win in one fashion over another, a large majority of people will take this route. However, I feel playing online takes most of the enjoyment out of the game - boxing should be strategic and if played as such FNR4 can be immensely rewarding, unfortunatly in the quest for a few gold trophies in World Championship mode, the vast majority of games turn into something more akin to a playground brawl.

FNR4 is a great game, there's no two ways about it, and online can be enjoyable, but for me it's a similar story to many games - you just can't beat playing a mate on 2 player in your own home. Perhaps it's because if the two of you are there, neither of you wants to be 'that guy' who just spams, whereas online it's more anonymous and the win is more important than the enjoyment. Who knows, maybe I'm just rubbish (but as I've completed legacy on GOAT mode, I don't feel this is the case)! All in all, a worthy investment.

Full game review. Best boxing game..... EVER
Everybody loved fight night round 3, the graphics, the control system and the complete fun of it all. Well.... it just got a whole lot better!

First things first, there is a good list of boxers to play with including calzaghe, hatton, pacquiao, tyson, ali, foremen etc and most of the greats. And they all look superb from head to toe, all fighting with their trademark styles of fighting.

The game plays and feels so much better than round 3, as it is so much faster and smoother and takes alot more skill and precision (you can also adjust the speed settings to your preference if you feel it is too fast or slow). You have to time your punches rather than just slugging and they all flow very smoothley. The blocking system is way better too, you have to time your blocks so the punches slip off you to give you the chance of a good counter attack. Everything about the game is fantastic (except the music, not my cup of tea at all, but i can quite easily live with it!) and to top it all off the create a boxer really makes this game personal. You can upload a front and side head shot of yourself or idol etc and then import it to the game which it then analyzes and basically creates you! then you tweak it to give it the final touches and wham, you're (E.A sports its) "in the game" see what i did there? clever.... or not..... anywayyyyy, if you're a big fan of boxing and have enjoyed the previous fight night games then this one you will love as it is by far the best one out and is a complete blast to play. Some good online features, challenging trophies and a nice big career mode, what more can you ask for? get the game, you will love it.

Also as a little bonus you can upload your created boxers for the rest of the world to download.
There are a few mayweather Jr's floating around to download which look pretty cool and i also saw a good rocky balboa, borat, and mr bean if you wished to download them to you system and have some comical looking fights.


Happy Gaming.

Sublime strategic fighting? Yes please.
REVIEW UPDATE
Bought the retail version on Friday and have spent the weekend playing it. Its as good as I hoped and tonnes of fun. Haven't devoted much time to the single player career mode yet but playing online against other people is an absolute blast.

ORIGINAL REVIEW
Got the PSN demo of this and watched the 1up game night on it and I can say I'll definately be getting this on day 1.

The controls are absolutely sublime with the analogue punching, counter mechanics and dodging/blocking combining to make for a far more realistic boxing game than I've ever seen anywhere before.

The graphics are absolutely gorgeous and EA have used some neat tricks to tell you when punches land hard like little flashes, subtle camera shakes and a "ringing in your ears" noise and these add to the atmosphere making for a fantastic absorbing experience.

Some people have complained about the between round section where you get to spend points earned in previous rounds but I think they're also really smart and a great improvement on previous versions. It really adds a strategic element that can win or lose you a fight. Do you want to spend your points after a good round and keep your stamina up or bank them and wait until you have more to spend later when you might REALLY need them just to stay on your feet?

Definately not for everyone but if you're like me and want a fighting game that is deep and as much about control and as it is about reflexes this is for you.

See you online.