Fight Night Round 4 (Xbox 360)
Sticks will indeed hurt you -- analog sticks, that is -- in EA Sports' latest.
6/30/2009 4:35 PM | 6 Comments | Page 3 of 3
What's Hot: Looks terrific; Revamped controls; Somewhat slower load times; Greater emphasis on counter-punching
What's Not: Slow pace (far too slow for the average gamer); Like all EA Sports games, there are some counterintuitive menus; Frustratingly difficult (even on the medium skill setting); Obscure training mini-games; Feels too random at times
Scott Jones
Status: Coffee makes me feel 4-percent sexier.
Legacy Mode is basically a more robust version of the original Career Mode. Create your unknown pugilist, then jab your way through the higher-ranked opponents. Pick your opponent, pick your fight date on the calendar, then schedule your training sessions. You're typically allowed one training session per month. If you want, or need, an extra session before your next fight, make sure the fight is at least two months off.
Overall, fights feel more exciting this year, mostly because the action constantly seesaws. Momentum is constantly shifting. The game has two gears: Either I'm getting hurt and I'm in trouble; or my opponent is getting hurt and he's in trouble. Usually both things happen multiple times each round.
You look terrific in teal. It really brings out your eyes.
This is exciting. But, unfortunately, it also feels terribly random. Sometimes I stun my opponent and have him reeling around the ring, and I won't understand why or how I accomplished what I did. Sometimes he stuns me, and I'll be reeling, and I won't understand why or how he did what he did.
It's that bit of gray area, that whiff of vagueness, that finally makes the action in
Fight Night Round 4 feel like you're watching a really great fight instead of fighting a really great fight. That occasional randomness takes me away from the game; it takes me out of the ring.
This pains me with a brand of hurt that all gamers are far too familiar with. I'm trying earnestly to participate and believe here; I'm working hard to be convinced by this fiction. And the fiction in
Fight Night Round 4, in small and large ways, winds up letting me down.
This review is based on a retail copy of the Xbox 360 game provided by the publisher.
