Fight Night Round 4 Physics Gameplay
April 10, 2009 by Amrit Maharaj
Filed under All
The entire engine has been redone from the bottom up with this latest iteration of the Fight Night series to bring to the player the most realistic interpretation of the sweet science ever seen on a console.
The major improvement has been the addition of physics based gameplay in place of the canned animations and limited use of physics in the previous games, allowing the player to get up close and personal with a true inside fighting mechanic. Similar to how Skate changed the way we think of skateboarding games, Fight Night Round 4 is going to literally change the game by introducing physics in the punching system, meaning that there will be glancing punches that will do less damage than a cleanly landed, well timed punch just like trying to land that perfect frontside 360 bs off a ledge.
But the physics don’t only help in the gameplay department as increased attention has been paid to the collision detection and knockout animations are done in real time and are different depending on how the fighter gets hit.
Check out the video below to get a truly eye opening example of how great this game is going to be.
Mm I thought I posted my comment here already, but I must have been out of my mind.
I was really curious to see how EA would evolve the Fight Night series from Round 3. I guess, physics are the future, as the GTAs and Skates of the gaming world are all about the big P.
This game looks beautiful, and I can’t wait to play as Tyson. I wonder if there’ll be a special ear-bite/grapple move…
I which physics engine they’re using, if any. I’d had to think some poor schmuck had to do that from scratch!
I just hope developers don’t pull the ol’ “Look at our physics!!” while they hide horrible gameplay, as we have seen in the past with flashy graphics.
If you want to talk awesome boxing games, I think it’s only fair you guys mention Punch Out for the Wii…
Not only does it look awesome, but it looks really awesome.
I just noticed my first post has horrible english.
lol
They haven’t specified, but physics-wise, it seems to be an updated version of the engine EA was using in Round 3. However, you’re right – not too many developers tout their own physics engine. But if any developer could, it would be EA without a doubt.
To address your point about physics masking gameplay, I think in many cases nowadays, a solid physics engine is the foundation of gameplay. Emergent gameplay, as overused as the term is, is brought on in many ways, the calculated chaos of physics being one of them.
But again, I’ve got to agree with you: if the game controls like Jell-O on a skateboard (wtf?), I’ll be sorely disappointed.
I agree that physics can be a large part of gameplay (BoomBlox comes to mind), but in this case it could be used as a curtain to hide the fact that it’s pretty much still the same game… Except now you can get close for intimate hugs. They dress it up with spit and rippled face skin, but if there is no new significant features then I might wait for Fight Night Round 5 before shelling out another 60 dollars.
Although, I am impressed and would love to play it at one of your houses.