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After Reeds excellent review of the game yesterday and Mikedb1984 in depth feedback thread I decided to fork over my hard earned government cheese...err I mean, um..my own money to get zeee game.
As a public service for the rest of my fanatico's del boxeo, I will now post my impressions of the game after a solid 8 hours of play.
Graphics
You guys have pretty much all seen them. I think they're good. The fighters look like a bafoonish version of themselves but for me its close enough. The in ring animations like the crowd and effects are better than FN3 imo too. But you guys already know that and me? I don't give a **** about graphics that much anyway. I could care less if the tattoo Ricky Hatton's got on his ass is in the exact same spot that its in in real life, just make me a good game EA. Pleeeease.
Controls
Here we go. Let me say, I know I'll be in the minority here but I cant stand total punch control. I think its EA's way of being their usual gimmicky, superficial, all flash no substance selves. Its a way for them to tout a new feature in their games to distract from the fact that their games are always poorly coded, clunky pieces of **** and to pretend that they're somehow reinventing gaming, the smug pricks. Don't reinvent the wheel, it already rolls, just make a good game. *******s. Furthermore I think it shows the dangers of one company having a monopoly on a sport that they could give their target market the finger by not giving them any control options and flaunting it in their face.
That being said, the total punch control system is far improved from the 3rd game. Its more responsive and a bit faster. Still not very accurate though. Which brings me to the "no button mashing" bull****.
Here's why buttons are cool. Precision. Mashing implies that you're just ramming down on all buttons at once like a kid on his last batch of Ritalin hoping you'll crack open your controller like pinata for your next fix.
With skilled gamers thats not the case. Buttons allow you to throw precision, sequential combos that total punch control doesn't. Sometimes when using the right stick the hook doesn't always come out, instead you get a jab. With a button, you always get the hook.
And to be honest, buttons take more skills. Its the stick that comes off amateurish. Look ma, I can throw every single punch in the book with one button.
Lame. And even lamer that EA didn't at least give an option. They pretty much rammed their red and blue **** straight down our throats on this one.
With the exception of the total punch control being slightly more responsive, the controls are the same as rd. 3.
Gameplay
Since the controls are such a big part of the game for me. The gameplay suffers because of it. Combo's are kinda clunky. Bobbing and weaving motions are hard to get down and the counterpunching is ok but a little repetitive. Another gimmick from EA.
The much touted inside fighting is pretty cool, but here's where it all goes to ****.
EA said this was going to be "the most realistic boxing experience evaar"...If thats the case EA, then how come I can throw 500 punches a round and not get tired. Seriously, you wanna talk about button mashing? Then let players throw and unlimited amount of punches and see what kind of matches you get.
This is more arcade button masher than boxing sim.
You can literally stand there and trade for almost 3 minutes of the round without your punches slowing down. Also, don't bother giving your boxer any heart points. Cuz' you can pretty much only get up once. After that, you're gonna wobble back and forth like the like a stripper on acid and fall back down.
Again, **** you EA.
The music is the usual, insult you're intelligence type EA ****. Its clear that EA doesn't know **** about music from this sad selection. They pretty much stick to the lowest common musical denominator and take a **** straight into your ear. I'd rather watch TRL, which should tell you everything you need to know.
The fighters footwork is also kinda clunky. Ali moves around the ring waaaay too fast. And Carlos Monzon's feet feel like their stuck in cement. I get what they were TRYING to do, but as usual, EA hires monkeys to program, so whaddya expect.
The create a boxer mode is lame. You can't even create a boxer. You basically pick from a pre designed template and add a name and a weight class. I wanted to make JMM (an egregious omission from the EA crack team...literally a crack team) and instead of giving me a feature where I can manipulate facial features, they give me a pre set gallery of faces to pick from. So instead of coming up with closest version of JMM possible, my FN4 JMM looks like some random Mexican.
Again, **** you EA.
Why would you REDUCE, the number of features from a previous game. It'd be like if I was a car designer and put out a car with everything one year, then the next year, I'd add cruise control, but take away AC and power windows. Thats what EA has done w/ Rd4.
If there were budget issues I understand, but don't insult my intelligence by saying this is a new game, when you actually subtracted features from it.
All in all, another piece of **** from EA. I told myself this was the last time I'd succumb to their ****. Unfortunately, as I previously mentioned they have a monopoly on the boxing game market so we're forced to be their guinea pigs. I saw it as a necessary evil to get my boxing fix, but now I just feel used. No more EA, this is the last time. I'll never believe you again.
On the plus side they really cut down on the shameless corporate in game logos and advertising. Thank god.
The gold standard of boxing games has already been set with VB2 fighting spirit. That game was as near to boxing video game perfection as it gets. No amount of EA's gimmicky bull**** has been able to surpass it and never will.
Hopefully Empire Interactive comes out w/ a xbox or ps3 version and just puts EA out of its misery. Anyone with a halfway decent boxing game can take EA down. Like Teddy Atlas said about Cotto, they're ripe for the taking.
Thats another thing. They made it out like Atlas and Lapdog Joe really killed it in the commentary. Its ok, but still repetitive. UFC2009 is far better.
Conclusion
Save your money boys. Rent it if you must. But know this. EA knows **** about games and even less about boxing.
The fact that they rely on a has been Tyson and Ali who is no longer relevant to sell the game, shows how much they know about the sport. They know only token stats.
I mean come on, they left out Rafa, Izzy and JMM. Three guys who have given boxing so much over the last 10 years and EA leaves them out.
And who do we get? Robert Guerrero, Vivian Harris and Eddy Chambers?
Nuff said.
I feel ****d.
I feel angrier than Bill.
As a public service for the rest of my fanatico's del boxeo, I will now post my impressions of the game after a solid 8 hours of play.
Graphics
You guys have pretty much all seen them. I think they're good. The fighters look like a bafoonish version of themselves but for me its close enough. The in ring animations like the crowd and effects are better than FN3 imo too. But you guys already know that and me? I don't give a **** about graphics that much anyway. I could care less if the tattoo Ricky Hatton's got on his ass is in the exact same spot that its in in real life, just make me a good game EA. Pleeeease.
Controls
Here we go. Let me say, I know I'll be in the minority here but I cant stand total punch control. I think its EA's way of being their usual gimmicky, superficial, all flash no substance selves. Its a way for them to tout a new feature in their games to distract from the fact that their games are always poorly coded, clunky pieces of **** and to pretend that they're somehow reinventing gaming, the smug pricks. Don't reinvent the wheel, it already rolls, just make a good game. *******s. Furthermore I think it shows the dangers of one company having a monopoly on a sport that they could give their target market the finger by not giving them any control options and flaunting it in their face.
That being said, the total punch control system is far improved from the 3rd game. Its more responsive and a bit faster. Still not very accurate though. Which brings me to the "no button mashing" bull****.
Here's why buttons are cool. Precision. Mashing implies that you're just ramming down on all buttons at once like a kid on his last batch of Ritalin hoping you'll crack open your controller like pinata for your next fix.
With skilled gamers thats not the case. Buttons allow you to throw precision, sequential combos that total punch control doesn't. Sometimes when using the right stick the hook doesn't always come out, instead you get a jab. With a button, you always get the hook.
And to be honest, buttons take more skills. Its the stick that comes off amateurish. Look ma, I can throw every single punch in the book with one button.
Lame. And even lamer that EA didn't at least give an option. They pretty much rammed their red and blue **** straight down our throats on this one.
With the exception of the total punch control being slightly more responsive, the controls are the same as rd. 3.
Gameplay
Since the controls are such a big part of the game for me. The gameplay suffers because of it. Combo's are kinda clunky. Bobbing and weaving motions are hard to get down and the counterpunching is ok but a little repetitive. Another gimmick from EA.
The much touted inside fighting is pretty cool, but here's where it all goes to ****.
EA said this was going to be "the most realistic boxing experience evaar"...If thats the case EA, then how come I can throw 500 punches a round and not get tired. Seriously, you wanna talk about button mashing? Then let players throw and unlimited amount of punches and see what kind of matches you get.
This is more arcade button masher than boxing sim.
You can literally stand there and trade for almost 3 minutes of the round without your punches slowing down. Also, don't bother giving your boxer any heart points. Cuz' you can pretty much only get up once. After that, you're gonna wobble back and forth like the like a stripper on acid and fall back down.
Again, **** you EA.
The music is the usual, insult you're intelligence type EA ****. Its clear that EA doesn't know **** about music from this sad selection. They pretty much stick to the lowest common musical denominator and take a **** straight into your ear. I'd rather watch TRL, which should tell you everything you need to know.
The fighters footwork is also kinda clunky. Ali moves around the ring waaaay too fast. And Carlos Monzon's feet feel like their stuck in cement. I get what they were TRYING to do, but as usual, EA hires monkeys to program, so whaddya expect.
The create a boxer mode is lame. You can't even create a boxer. You basically pick from a pre designed template and add a name and a weight class. I wanted to make JMM (an egregious omission from the EA crack team...literally a crack team) and instead of giving me a feature where I can manipulate facial features, they give me a pre set gallery of faces to pick from. So instead of coming up with closest version of JMM possible, my FN4 JMM looks like some random Mexican.
Again, **** you EA.
Why would you REDUCE, the number of features from a previous game. It'd be like if I was a car designer and put out a car with everything one year, then the next year, I'd add cruise control, but take away AC and power windows. Thats what EA has done w/ Rd4.
If there were budget issues I understand, but don't insult my intelligence by saying this is a new game, when you actually subtracted features from it.
All in all, another piece of **** from EA. I told myself this was the last time I'd succumb to their ****. Unfortunately, as I previously mentioned they have a monopoly on the boxing game market so we're forced to be their guinea pigs. I saw it as a necessary evil to get my boxing fix, but now I just feel used. No more EA, this is the last time. I'll never believe you again.
On the plus side they really cut down on the shameless corporate in game logos and advertising. Thank god.
The gold standard of boxing games has already been set with VB2 fighting spirit. That game was as near to boxing video game perfection as it gets. No amount of EA's gimmicky bull**** has been able to surpass it and never will.
Hopefully Empire Interactive comes out w/ a xbox or ps3 version and just puts EA out of its misery. Anyone with a halfway decent boxing game can take EA down. Like Teddy Atlas said about Cotto, they're ripe for the taking.
Thats another thing. They made it out like Atlas and Lapdog Joe really killed it in the commentary. Its ok, but still repetitive. UFC2009 is far better.
Conclusion
Save your money boys. Rent it if you must. But know this. EA knows **** about games and even less about boxing.
The fact that they rely on a has been Tyson and Ali who is no longer relevant to sell the game, shows how much they know about the sport. They know only token stats.
I mean come on, they left out Rafa, Izzy and JMM. Three guys who have given boxing so much over the last 10 years and EA leaves them out.
And who do we get? Robert Guerrero, Vivian Harris and Eddy Chambers?
Nuff said.
I feel ****d.
I feel angrier than Bill.
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