Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger is what the game is. Rock solid gameplay and very good multiplayer. Highly Recommended!
Compared to Fight Night Round 3, spamming and mashing punches is not effective anymore specially on the hardest difficulty. Slipped and evaded punches are now a window for deadly counter attacks. The unrealistic counter gurad from the previous game was now removed. Block timing was now incorporated and it works the same way. Stamina conservation is now more important than ever. Fights can now go as long as 12 rounds without anyone going down, and that is based on how well you saved your stamina. In between fights are now a better mini game where in you spend points to refresh one of the stats: damage, health, stamina. Points are acquired by fighting well and making the trainer 'happy', one way to acquire big points is to KO your opponent.
Fight Night Round 4 is very pleasing graphically. Arenas, and characters are rendered very very good. In replays, or even during fights, you can see the muscles twitch and turn according to your every action. Audio presentation is also well done. Commentators are live as well and they vary per fight. Although not that much. You can also see the emotions on the characters and audience.
Legacy mode replaced the career mode in FNR3. EA added depth to it. You are now in control of your opponents and every fight. Now, much of the critics criticized the training on legacy mode to be extremely hard. Well, its not very ironic but training is training, there is no other easy way than that. There is a learning curve on each training modes, except for the open sparring which is the easiest to max the stats with. It is really hard to get it going and max your stat out, but once you do, youll appreciate the game more. Once I get mad because it is really hard to do, but mid way through my career on legacy, I got better and I do every training manually with max results. My character is now rated 99. 48(45)-4-0, Champion on three weight divisions and the G.O.A.T.
Fight Night Round 4 is very good in every terms and aspect. However, it is not perfect. A little bit more on the presentation side will help better the game, like ringside action or after-fight events. Anyway, as I said, overall, Fight Night Round 4 is a very good boxing game, no doubt and I highly highly recommend it to all boxing fans, young or old.