Fight Night Round 4 Hands-on Preview

Of all the games EA had on display at its showcase event last month, Fight Night Round 4 impressed me the most. For a good ten minutes I stood watching the demo pod as an EA Sports rep took the gathered journalists through a slow-motion replay of a brutal beating he’d inflicted on a journalist just minutes earlier. At the time of Round 3’s reveal we really couldn’t believe what we were seeing, yet somehow Round 4 makes it look positively archaic in comparison.

There’s clearly far more to the game than its incredible visuals, but the way it looks is what will get most people’s attention. Whereas in Round 3 character models looked impressive, here they’ve been taken to the next level, with more detail than we’ve ever seen in a video game. This runs through to the animation too, with the sometimes jerky movement from before now seemingly completely overcome. With a new physics system in place players trade blows in a way that looks, at times, wincingly brutal, and now gloves will glance off the head and body if you don’t connect properly.

This level of visual splendour will only go so far though, with the fighting system being key to any real success EA hopes to achieve. With a controller in my hand and Lennox Lewis under my control I took on Neon, fighting with the shorter, faster Mike Tyson – whose inclusion is a big deal for EA and no doubt for boxing fans who want to see how he’d have shaped up against stars from years gone by. The fight between Editor and Previews Editor was on, although we warned onlookers not to expect much of a spectacle.

To begin with we were hesitant, but this gave us time to learn the control system. While some tweaks have been made, if you’re a fan of Round 3 it won’t take long to get back into the swing of things. Once again the trigger buttons activate block and dodge, with each being controlled using the right stick. This means you can block high or low and sway back, forward, left and right in order to evade punches. After a few flicks on the right analogue stick to throw some air punches (the way you move it will once again determine the punch type), we edged closer and started laying into each other.

Of note straight away was the huge difference in boxing styles. Lewis is a massive guy, and towered over Tyson. His reach is also far greater than the ear-biter’s so I was able to keep Tyson at bay by throwing in a steady stream of left jabs, before following in with a strong right hook while I still had some stamina. Tyson is all about speed so Neon had to get in close and get at me before I could respond – something that proved harder than it sounded due to the previously mentioned jabs.

In Round 4 you’ll be able to get ‘inside’ if you’re one of the smaller, faster fighters, but against Lewis’ jab it just wasn’t going to happen. In Round 3 fighters had similar proportions so any real-life advantages weren’t carried over to the game – Round 4 definitely gives the fighters their real attributes and it makes a huge difference to the feel of a fight. It wasn’t just Neon’s lack of gaming skill either, as when we swapped characters Lewis once again came out on top. We’d seen an EA rep destroy Lewis as Tyson earlier, so there’s no doubt the match-up isn’t as unfair as we made it seem.

Our time with the game was all too brief, but we saw enough to be mightily impressed. The new physics system really needs to be seen to be believed, with punches now able to penetrate through gloves and strong blows to the head causing faces to ripple in a way we thought only possible in tech demos. At one point, only spotted thanks to the slow motion replay accessible from the pause menu, Lewis got so carried away in trying to floor Tyson that he followed up a knock-out punch with a cheeky, somewhat illegal blow to the back of the head. We’re not condoning such blatant disregard for the rules, but seeing it all play out was a real highlight of the whole showcase event.

All this will run at a silky smooth 60fps too, something that will no doubt win Fight Night Round 4 a place on hardcore gamers’ shelves eager to show off the next big thing. There are areas we’re still completely clueless about – the career mode is a mystery at the moment and we’re far from clear on how the new knock-down recovery mechanic works. This didn’t do us any favours as one knock-down proved to be enough to end the fight on both occasions, despite our frenzied flicking of analogue sticks.

Despite having to leave the demo pod sooner than we’d have liked, what we’ve seen is enough to get us very excited. After the disappointing Don King’s Prizefighter from 2K Sports we were in need of something to replace the now rather dated Round 3. We probably should have expected EA would be the ones to deliver the knock-out blow.

Fight Night Round 4 is due for release on Xbox 360 and PS3 on June 26.