eat.sleep.geek.

EA has been pumping out sports games every year for as long as I can remember. My first experience with EA was back in ‘94 with a little game on the Genesis called NHL ‘94. Since then I have always loved EA sports games (especially the NHL series), and I have tried to play as many of them as I could. Over the years EA sports games been hit or miss on titles, sometimes with too much icing and very little cake. That is a lot of production value and little in terms of gameplay. I decided to bite the bullet and gave Fight Night Round 4 a shot; I loved the second game, why not this one? It could turn out like a bad movie that ends up being good, or it could end up like the rest of the EA sports titles.

Now there’s no other way in the beginning to play the game without going through the career. This career mode allows a player to create a customized character and take this character through the ranks, fighting low life boxers to reach to the rank among as the worlds best fighters. I have never competed in the amateur boxing circles or even boxed for that matter, so I can only assume that in the beginning, fighting in a boxing gym is pretty close to the real thing. Just before you feel you’re going to be trapped in this dingy boxing gym for the rest of the game, they release you, sending you out into the world to mold your future as the top boxing champ out there.

The look of the fighters in the game are amazing. I don’t know what I can say that could do justice, but they look frack’n awesome. Every movement is flawless; the skin does not break apart or stretch unnaturally at any point. Damage is fairly realistic and players will really love the expressions the fighters as they get knocked down; it’s priceless! The character’s sweat and blood are all parts that help create the most realistic-looking characters ever found in a boxing game. Even the create-a-boxers are rendered the exact same way as the detailed models of the real-life boxers. I have always found this to be a problem with games that allow you to create your own custom character, and it’s great to see that this was handled well with Fight Night 4.

Unlike games from the  WWE series, published by THQ, EA really scores big points on the announcers at ring side. Good commentary has always been an area where EA really shines. Everything from NHL, to FIFA, or even Madden (shudder) have always had really good individual scripting and having it flow in the the right way to make players believe that the pre-recorded  commentators are actually watching and commenting on the game you’re currently playing. This time around they’ve added second commentator, and helps to capture the feel of a live television production.

The biggest make it or break it part of the game is the collision detection. The problem really is executing it properly. In an FPS game, one could turn around and all of a sudden find themselves falling through the floor, getting stuck or even falling down into an abyss. Sometimes, in a fighting game like this, someone could throw a punch, without even touching you, and you take damage and possibly causing you to lose the game. With FNR4, EA really mastered collision detection, allowing you make a punch, and depending how it was thrown or where you hit, the glove can either hit dead-on, get caught up in someone’s arm, or you might even just graze them. Not only relying on collision detection, EA also threw in the best physics engine one could experience with a fighting game, allowing players to transport themselves from the average mundane world to enjoy a world that operates and feels just as real, but more fun.

Now for FNR4, these negative aspects of the game are so few, players will easily over look them and forget about them. One thing about the game that might be hit or miss is the music. The music seems very stereotypical, suggesting that boxers or people who love boxing only listen to Hip-Hop, Rap and Urban. This music is played throughout sections of the game, but the great thing is that they are strategically placed in the game well enoughl to not to be intrusive, allowing one to accept them or to a higher degree, even tone them out completely. The real big issue with the game is the poor loading times in the create-a-character. Each time something is selected, whether it’s hair or the type of gloves your fighter uses, it takes a fair while for whatever you selected to load up and allow you to view what it looks like on your fighter.

In the end, this game sucked up hours of my life. And just like real-life boxing, some of the matches take forever to go through. I have never played a game where I’m so stressed out about winning a match that I sweat profusely. EA, this is your best game that you’ve published that I have ever played. Keep up the good work.

10 out of 10