While it has it's flaws, Fight Night Round 4 is a game that has plenty to offer.
Fight Night Round 4 has been developed by a completely new team at EA Canada, at first glance, it looks like a completely new game, new engine, new visuals combine to make a game that just plays better than it's predecessor. One change that EA Canada has made is the mini-game in between rounds to heal your fighter.
In FNR3, you mash your right stick like a lunatic to heal your fighter. Nor did it imply anything strategically; it didn't half cause your thumb to hurt. This system has been chucked out the window for Round 4- depending on how well your perform in the last round you gain points. These points can be spent on improving three things: Health, Stamina and Damage. For example, to improve your health you can buy a Small Bottle of water for 10pts, a medium bottle for 20pts and a large bottle for 40pts. This new system really opens up some new strategical options. You may want to save your points to for a late flurry of punches in the later rounds or you may want to spend them all in an attempt of an early knockout.
While the game is not a complete simulation of boxing, it comes pretty close. Knockouts are very rare on the higher difficulty levels, giving you a sense of pride if you do achieve one. Just like boxing, the jab is vital to opening up chances to get in the heavier punches.
Just like all its predecessors, Fight Night Round 4 has a wide range of boxers, old and new from a wide range of weight classes. These include legends like Muhammad Ali, Sugar Ray Leonard and new boys like Ricky Hatton and Manny Pacquiao. Also included in the roster, for the first time in a game, 'Iron Man' Mike Tyson.
However, if your favourite boxer is not in the roster, it's no problem thanks to the Boxer Share system. This feature allows you to create your own boxer and share it with other Round 4 players. This allows you to download really impeccable recreations of real boxers like Floyd Mayweather and Amir Khan and also if you fancy a bit of a laugh you can download Michael Jackson, Borat and Barack Obama, ready to step into the ring.
So as you would have gathered that the 'Create-A-Boxer' feature is there but the amount of depth will amaze you. The usual suspects are there: you can shape their head, skin tone, hair colour all them things. You can mould their boxing style: orthodox or southpaw, outside fighter or inside fighter. But for me, there are two things that stand out. The first one is EA Sports' Game Face feature. Take a picture of your self face on and to the side and upload that to EA's site. You then download them pictures on Fight Night and the game will create a shockingly close replica of your face in game. It's one of them features that you hear about, think 'That will never work' and it does and it amazes you; same with the next feature. Round 4 allows you to have music on your hard drive as your entrance music. To have your boxer, looking exactly like yourself thanks to the Game Face, then to have him walking in to your favourite song is a experience only Fight Night can do.
Of course, if you just want to jump into the ring, there is the Fight Now mode, however, if you want some depth, you will want to play Legacy Mode. Sadly, this is where the problems start to creep up. EA Canada have definitely addressed the issue of depth. You now organise your fights through a calendar, allowing you to see other fights happening on any day. You can now view what rank you are in your Weight Class and your Pound for Pound rank. It is now a lot clearer when you will get title shots and also gives you the option to move up a weight class. However, with a little more common sense, Legacy Mode could have been a lot better.
Just like Round 3, you need to train to improve your boxer, shame is the training is ridiculously hard and takes a good long while of getting used to. In your first 10 fights, you probably won't notice it, but as you move up the rankings and start mixing it with the big boys and find yourself getting outclassed because your aren't progressing quickly enough. Also, you can only train once or twice before a fight. Because of this you find yourself simulating away months and months when, thanks to the new calendar system, you could be pencilling extra training sessions.
While the game has had a massive improvement, it definitely finds it self suffering new problems which could have been fixed easily. However, Fight Night Round 4 is a must for any boxing fan.