One of my favourite games on the current generation consoles has to be Fight Night Round 3.  I loved the game so much that after selling my Xbox 360 copy through necessity I picked it up a while later for my PS3.  Considering how much I loved that game this long awaited follow-up, Fight Night Round 4, offers a surprising number of improvements.  It’s only when you play Round 4 that you appreciate just how much Round 3 could be improved upon.

Outside of making lots of money in any way possible EA love nothing more than adding tiny bits and pieces to each new release of their ever popular sports games.  Photo Game Face is a nice addition to games under the EA Sports label and, despite being some way off perfecting actual photo realism, this is another step in the right direction.  I took a front and side photo using my webcam, uploaded them to my account on EA Sports World, and accessed them in the game to create the face of my boxer.  The outcome was a little off, my jaw was too thin, my eyes were brown instead of blue, and since I’m the palest person I know it was strange that my skin colour was black.  After a little bit of tinkering my boxer did resemble me and I was quite impressed with the outcome.

Something else which pleased me, as it’s always nice to hear your name spoken by the commentators, is that my surname Morrison was included and so was my nickname Tiger.  In another improvement from Round 3 you no longer have to choose a Hometown from a limited list and can instead type in your own.

One thing I will say is that it’s a shame for the longer haired gentleman such as myself to be forced  to choose in-game hair which is much shorter than in reality.  The hair I chose is described as “long” but is only neck length, please try again EA, my hair happens to reach my waist and I’d like a longer option even if it needs to be in a ponytail to ensure it doesn’t disturb the action.

The graphics in this game are stunning which won’t come as any kind of surprise given that this follows what is still one of the better looking games this generation.  I have to point out that I didn’t find any difference in quality when comparing the 360 and PS3 versions of the game.  There is a decent improvement in the appearance of each fighter and they look a little more like their real life counterparts.  For those who remember the girls from Round 3, who hold up the round number just before it begins, you may be pleased to know that they have also had a makeover and now come in a nice little PVC number.  The crowd have also had a makeover and not only look better but they also seem a little more animated especially during the newly added ring entrances which I tend to skip but are a nice touch.

There is a good selection of sound effects on offer from bone crunching uppercuts to groans after painful looking low-blows.  When you create a boxer you are asked to choose your ring entrance music and only in the Xbox 360 version do you have the option to pick a track from your hard-drive.  I don’t understand why this option isn’t available on both consoles but, while it may seem as though PS3 owners are being short changed, only a short intro to the track is played and you can hardly hear the music so it really isn’t worth bothering about.  The commentary is once again decent but I did find that after thirty minutes of play I had heard every statement and piece of wisdom so the game could have done with more of this to keep things fresh.

One change I didn’t expect is in the training sessions before fights as I thought they worked pretty well in Round 3.  The revised training sessions are “open sparring”, “stay on your feet”, “heavy bag combos”, “heavy bag push”, “double end bag”, and “maize bag”.  In my experience “open sparring” and “stay on your feet” are the easiest.  I was able to free-throw punches in the former and easily avoid my opponent in the latter.  I found both “heavy bag combos” and “double end bag” to be  slightly more difficult although I was pretty comfortable with overall.  My experiences with “maize bag” and “heavy bag push” were more painful, especially the latter which I seem incapable of doing properly, and find both very frustrating.

I’m not sure how much the new training sessions are to blame but I found the career mode more difficult overall when compared with Round 3.  Blame isn’t really the right word here because it’s certainly a good thing the game is more difficult.  As much as I enjoyed Round 3 I didn’t find it at all difficult, I won most of my fights within the first couple of rounds, and don’t remember going any more than three rounds and that includes fighting for the belt.  A first round win in Round 4 is a rare thing indeed, that is exactly how it should be, and unlike Round 3 you can’t just go blasting into your opponent and expect an easy victory.

I think the general consensus is that the main difference between a game released on both the 360 and PS3 is that Xbox Live is better when it comes to the multiplayer aspect.  I can’t say I noticed any difference in online matches on either console but if you’re interested in online multiplayer and have to decide then I’d always suggest the 360 version assuming you already have a subscription for Xbox Live.  There are some achievements linked to  online play which makes the game different from Round 3 which was entirely focussed on the career mode and you could easily get 100% of those in one day.  There are only three weight divisions, Light, Middle, and Heavy, in online mode which is a shame.

I have always been a fan of boxing games and Fight Night Round 4 is the best I have ever played.  We’re still some way off my dream of an online mode with individual boxing promotions of friends who are fighting at different weights and trying to bring championship glory to their team but I suppose Round 5 might take care of that.  I hope you’re paying attention, EA.  If you like the sport of Boxing you should rush out and buy this game.  There is one more welcome addition to this game.  Mike Tyson.  Enough said.

9/10

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