Interviews
Fight Night Round 4 Producer Delivers Knockout Details on New Game
March 16, 2009
SAN FRANCISCO, CA — EA Sports showed off its latest entry in the boxing genre, Fight Night Round 4, at a recent press event. They wisely chose to focus on a virtual bout between Iron Mike Tyson versus Muhammad Ali — both in their prime. Fight Night Round 4 Producer Mike Mahar talks about some of the improvements in this new game, which hits PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in June.
I think a lot of people are wondering, now that Mike Tyson is in the game, can you bite off your opponent’s ear off?
You cannot bite off people’s ears! We didn’t even think about putting that in!
Okay. How many fighters are in the game?
Over 45, including Mike Tyson, Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier, George Foreman, Roy Jones, Manny Pacquiao, Lennox Lewis, Sugar Ray Leonard, Winky Wright, and Ricky Hatton.
Since this is a new team in Vancouver after the Chicago office was closed. Did you start from scratch on the game engine?
Yea, it’s a brand new game engine. It’s a physics-based game engine that we began working on some time ago specifically for Fight Night 4. When we were trying to rectify some of the inadequacies some of the people were finding with Fight Night 3 — and we agree with most of the stuff we read on message boards and posts — the only way to do that was to basically tear it apart and start over. So that is exactly what we’ve done.
What do physics add to the gameplay?
One of the things we focused on with this new technology is that the strength of a punch is driven by a new physics system that measures the strength of the punch, itself. If someone puts up their hands to block my punches, I’m eventually going to break through.
How will a boxer’s size impact a fight?
The physics engine will allow us for the first time to replicate the size and power of each boxer. Ali is a good example of a fighter who is fast, tall and has great reach. You’ll be able to dance around and land long punches with him from the outside. Tyson is an inside fighter who’s going to go straight in and start pummeling his opponent.
What kind of career mode will Fight Night Round 4 have?
We’re calling our career mode the Legacy mode. You start off creating a boxer from the ground up in an amateur tournament, which you can now simulate. We’re letting players choose which boxers they fight against, including boxers they’ve created. Your boxer will start off as a prospect and slowly work his way up the ladder to contender, champ, hall of famer, superstar, and the ultimate goal - the greatest ever. Winning fights is important, but so is the way that you box in these fights.
It’s ironic that the best thing to happen to the sport of boxing over the past threeyears has been your Fight Night videogames, isn’t it?
Yeah, I don’t disagree. Unfortunately, all we can all hope is that Pacquiao vs. Hatton. is a good fight. That’s all we can hope for.
4 Responses to “Fight Night Round 4 Producer Delivers Knockout Details on New Game”
will floyd mayweather be in fight night round 4?
By michael on May 7, 2009
Best thing to happen to boxing?Maybe you have never seen a Miguel Cotto fight, Or a Pavlik fight, or a Pacquiao fight.Who ever did these questions is prolly just some UFC nuthugger that doesnt know anything about boxing
By john on May 22, 2009
i cant wait till it comes out
By cian on May 26, 2009
i cant wait until it comes out, the demo is really easy .. and career should let ya start a ledgends career over, and have the option to make your own fighter,,, ufc undisputed has a reputation level.. fnrd4 shouldnt have that feature…. it will be a great game
By tyler on May 27, 2009