Fight Night Round 4

What’s the Story?

If you think EA Sports' FIGHT NIGHT ROUND 4 looks good with these posted screen shots, wait until you lay your eyes on the real deal. Creating the best-looking and most realistic professional boxing game was EA Sports' ambitious goal for this sequel, and from what we've seen -- and played -- they're proven themselves as the reigning champs in this genre. The game features an all-new physics-based fighting engine that delivers a different boxing experience each time based on the power and direction of punches, blocks and ring movement (as well on body size and fighting style). For dramatic effect, knockout punches are replayed in slow motion with crunching sound effects, flexing muscles under the skin and rippling of the face.

Is It Any Good?

But great graphics doesn't necessarily mean a good video game. Oh sure, matching up the nearly 50 boxing greats -- such as Muhammad Ali versus Iron Mike Tyson in a fantasy bout -- is a blast to watch, but the game feels great, too. The controls are intuitive and responsive, so it's easy to pick up and perform jabs, uppercuts, hooks as well as a host of defensive maneuvers. Stockier brawlers, like Tyson, will attempt weave inside and deliver punishing hooks to an opponent's head and torso, while taller fighters, like Ali, will use their massive reach to jab while staying out of range of an opponent’s swings. The only thing more fun than sharpening your skills in the various single-player games, including a beefy career mode, is the multiplayer options pitting two boxers on the same TV or over the Internet.