new FN4 info on career & online mode

[ИATAS]

Posted on the EA forums. Pretty cool details, sounds like both are much deeper than FN3....




I just got home and my newest edition of game informer arrivred with a small preview of the game and it says this about legacy mode, i`ll type it word for word...

Your player starts his career path on the amateur circuit, participating in a tournament that can net him some unlockable gear and a ratings boost should he win. After this tourney you turn pro. The revamped career mode features specific challenges that you must overcome to reach the rung on the ladder of your weight class ( there are 8 in all with three belts per class). These include criteria such as getting a pay per view event, being on ESPN, and a certain win/loss ratio. Similarly , the game presents you with occasional suprise events, such as being called out to fight by a rival, a rematch, as well as a rare rocky fight where the champ invites a lowly ranked nobody for a shot at the title. Fight night round 4 invites you to craft your own career arc and write your oen legacy, including jumping weight classes. Your success in your former weight class determines your initial rank in the new one.

Crafting your reputation online is a little different. You can fight head to head with created or real boxers, but to compete for the online world championship you can only use your created boxer. The online boxing federation has three weight divisions ( lightweight, middleweight, and heavyweight) and one belt per class. Apart from gunning for the online title fight, EA plans to support tournaments and give other awards you can earn.

[D0WNG0ESFRAZIER]

thanks for postin this!!!

[ИATAS]

In addition to this, for career mode there are rankings in each division and also a Pound 4 Pound ranking system. CPU fighters will move up & down in weight just like boxers do in real life as their career goes forward.

[JmtRyan]

I can't believe i bought ufc instead of this. Thank **** i got my refund!

[CiganoBoxer]

Wow it sound awesome

[F l i c k e r]

Hell yeah. I plan on capturing that Online lightweight crown.

[CiganoBoxer]

Hell yeah. I plan on capturing that Online lightweight crown.

we will see

[FIGHTING_FLIP]

it better not be hella easy to beat. i dont wanna knock out my rival 5 times in a row and have him still be called my rival.

[Curry Storm]

Thanks for the info; it already sounds better than most boxing career modes. I just hope they have "Headlines" like they do in the NCAA Football games that update you on what's happening around the world. Something like "Joe Bob is defending his lightweight title against Pete Post on March 15" or whatever. I'd also like to be able to watch other fights.

It just seems like all boxing game career modes leave me with the feeling that I'm the only one doing any fighting and the rest of the world is just there for me to beat instead of fighting their own fights (as if the rest of the world is just not "alive"). I just never understand how the football games can have so much depth to its career mode, while boxing games really lack in this department.

[ИATAS]

Sliders in the game. Screenshots were posted, but i'm to lazy right now.

Good to hear Sliders are finally in the game. Good info here, taken from ea forum

there's are a TON of sliders in this game. most importantly, there are GLOBAL sliders that effect the overall gameplay. so if you want to increase the speed of the game, it's in there as a slider. if you want the ref to be more sensitive to damage or illegal blows, it's in there as a global slider. if you want more power to the punches overall, it's in there as a slider. if you want damage to happen less, it's in there as a slider. also, there are sliders for increasing the AI's offensive and defensive awareness which should make for some challenging sparring offline. there's even a slider for the CPU's punch output.

after tweaking the speed, power, and damage sliders this game is teh FU**ING *!! being able to fight as heavyweight with speed was AWESOME! Tyson in his prime was a superb inside fighter and had speed with uppercuts/body shots, and by tweaking the sliders to the max speed I really feld this game did a fantastic job of representing that. I believe EA set the Pac-man vs. Hatton demo to the default (50% speed) to satisfy the masses, but for those of you that have been playing for a while, being able to tweak the speed settings will make for a really authentic experience. To, re-answer Countryboy's question, when the speed is turned up, you really feel a better sense of the jabs and crosses hitting with force. i really hope you are able to adjust sliders for online play (there was no online option available on the version i was playing, so I couldn't test it).

In create-a-boxer you have waaaay more options than in the previous versions of the game. When you begin, you have 78 different "heads" to choose between. you also have a TON of customization features for gloves, trunks, shoes, robes, ring entrance (dry ice/smoke, lasers, style of entrance - confident, serious, etc..). You can choose custom colors for gear too which was really nice.

Brizzo also said that they may be adding MORE sliders between now and when the game is released. Which ones, I don't know. But yeah, take a look at the pics on my flickr page to get an idea of what you can tweak. The create a boxer mode is quite impressive. there is so much more to tweak that i can seriously see the re-creation of pretty much anyone in this game with enough work.

as for fights, big george foreman is a monster in this game. he is really heavy handed and it shows. my james toney was no match for him today.

however, when I fought as james toney I got to see some new animations with a really short inside left hook followed by an overhand straight that had some nice power behind it and snapped his head back. again i was playing with the speed set to max and I was having a freaking ball.

almost forgot, CAMERA's. there are 4 to choose from. the default is "High" which is the one we've all seen in the demo. the other settings are "Close" which looks like FNR3, "Wide" which kind of looks like ESPN / HBO's side view angle, getting most of the ring in view, and "Referee" which is the ref cam from round 3. there is no "swing" camera this year, and I do not know how online will be for choosing sides.


Other items to note:

there is a 'download boxers' option in the main menu that I am assuming will allow you to download other people's boxers.

there are no unlockables in the game (at least no unlockables that they would tell me about)

unfortunately, fights that go to decision will be similar to the demo, with reactions by the fighters and the announcement of the winner only versus the announcer reading of the judges scorecards one by one.

again, i did not see a single ring entrance

totally forgot to fight as hatton or pac-man to compare the demo, but again the speed slider is great if you're worried about the proper snap on your jab

Lastly, i talked to a guy from the team and it sounds like there will be an official tournament this year (kind of like the madden challenge). not sure exactly how it will work (offline or online) but he told me that there would be a tournament of some sort by EA or Sony for fight night this year.