Joystiq impressions: Fight Night Round 4
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Just seeing Fight Night Round 4 in action, it's a knockout. Yesterday we had the chance to watch Tyson vs. Ali coming to blows in the latest build of the game, which is due in final form this June. There's no saying how it plays, but we did take away some details on how it will differ from -- and improve on -- Round 3.
There's obviously been a dramatic visual improvement, which is made even more impressive when you consider the game is running on the same generation of hardware as its predecessor. EA has gone to great lengths to ensure "no punch looks exactly the same," using procedural techniques to send sweat (and blood) flying in the right directions -- the former tuning to mist and slowly dissipating in the air. Through slowed-down instant replays, we were able to watch as the boxers' musculature flexed under their skin, which itself ripples when hit thanks to a complex variant of cloth simulation.
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Beyond the extreme eye-candy, the series has undergone some fundamental gameplay changes. Gone are the parries of Round 3 -- and their resulting "windows of opportunity" -- replaced instead by a more realistic duck-and-weave mechanic where a well-timed evade will leave opponents open for a solid clocking. The screen now flashes for an instant to let you know you've landed a good hit.
Boxer's individual attributes are also being taken into greater consideration. For example, in the fight we saw, Tyson's shorter reach meant he had to get in close to Ali to do some real damage with quick hits, while Ali's greater reach afforded him some distance, but he was also slower overall. This system of tactical trade-offs will play out across eight weight classes and, as we were told, more than 45 boxers.
EA's promising that the create-a-boxer will "eclipse" that seen in Round 3 and that it has paid attention to player feedback on areas such as between-round breaks. There's now a more quickly accessible sub-menu for spending points earned during the previous round to regain stamina, etc.
What we saw looked very solid, both technically and in gameplay terms. A demo of the game is scheduled to hit prior to its release this summer, but we'll get our hands on the game -- and be back with some harder-hitting details -- well before that.
