Hey ABub, Your Free Love Ethos invades Fight Night

[Jim Preston]

Well, Andrew. You got your wish. Clinching is coming to Fight Night Round 2.


GS: If it's in the game, that doesn't necessarily mean it's in the game, as was proven by the lack of clinching in Fight Night 2004. Will we see the addition of clinching this year, even if its default setting is off?

KT: Clinching was one of the elements definitely missing from Fight Night 2004, and I am glad to say that this has been fixed for Fight Night Round 2. You are able to clinch via a simple control mechanism anytime during the fight. Clinching will give extra energy and health to the boxer who clinched. While you can clinch anytime, if you try to just walk up to the other boxer and clinch him, you will get hit. It is best to try to avoid or block a punch and then clinch. Clinching is extremely fun and gives defensive-minded fighters an extra tactic to master, so it will default to "on."

http://www.gamespot.com/ps2/sports/fightnight2005/preview_6114568.html

Funny, I've been playing an Alpha version of FN Round 2 for about a week now, and I haven't clinched at all. The game is much improved thanks to the ability to block and move, so you can cover up and get inside on someone, rather than trying to dart in between blocking. And being able to move while punching makes it impossible for someone to dance away from you. It really does seem like a lot more of your power comes from your legs, too. I loved FN and am really digging the new one, although there are some things I don't care for -- like the decreased speed and range on the upper cut makes the game a lot more jab-heavy. I suppose that's more realistic, but I always kept my uppercut as my finishing punch in the first one. Working out the swelling between rounds is physically painful to look at. You're moving the analog stick trying to rub the swelling away from a guy's eye and it's a little, well, yeessh. Working the Q-tip into a cut is a little uncomfortable as well. But overall, I'm really digging it.

I know you're not the biggest EA Sports fan right now, but I thought you'd be a little happy at this news.

[Bub, Andrew]

First of all, you won't find any anti-Madden fervor from Mr. A Bub in that other thread. I'm mad at the NFL and EA Sports for this - because I always feel a lack of choice is bad (I feel $19.99 is the ideal price for an annual sports game) and I consider myself a consumer advocate more than I do a fanboy - but I haven't said or thought "I'm never buying another EA game again!" Basically I look at the EA deal the same way I look at the NFL/Direct TV deal. It sucks for a lot of consumers - therefore I'm against it.

But I love Madden too. You know that Jim! (This year it was a matter of not loving it $30 more.)

That said, I'm also really happy that my half-naked boxers can feel the love in the ring! Yay griping! Yay clinching! Take that Jim Preston. If we ever play, I'll never stop hugging you in the ring! So, clinching and Xbox Live this year? Yay Fight Night!

(Seriously, you get to be the cut-man? In gamey terms? That just sounds... weird... but it's another gameplay element so I guess that's good.)

[Jim Preston]

Yeah, I agree with you that as a consumer, less choice is bad. Take Two's aggressive efforts resulted in two great products and a price war, which everyone likes -- except EA and the NFL, I suppose. As someone who played a boatload of ESPN and even hosted that less-than-successful Qt3 online league, I feel really bad for the VC guys who work every bit as hard as anyone in this industry and now get screwed. The rich just get richer in this world.

I know most people will call 'bullshit', but I don't think less licensed competition means the games will necessarily suffer. NCAA literally has no competition in the football space, yet I think it is a very good game. We also have the exclusive NASCAR license and the result was this year's game is the single highest rated NASCAR game ever on Gamerankings. And I think we both agree Fight Night is a pretty good game despite any real competition in the boxing sim genre.

So will Madden suck next year? I don't think so, and certainly the famously overworked EA employees aren't putting in the hours to make a roster update. Wait until you see Madden NextGen and I think you'll be happy. Maybe not as happy with more NFL football sims in the market, but I think you'll definitely like it.

Oh, and yes, Fight Night has this between rounds mechanic where you can choose to address the swelling or the bleeding. You manually control that thingamajig the guys use to push away swellling by doing a sort of circular motion to move it away. Obviously you have limited time between rounds so it's a sort of mini-game. The thing is, my fighter's vision doesn't really matter -- only mine does. I'm not sure why I should bother to close a cut over my fighter's eye when my two eyes see just fine. I'm going to spend more time with it this week to figure out some of the nuances.

[Bub, Andrew]

I have no problem with EA dominating or being the only choice because they're the best or most popular. This situation seems like it's only a good thing for the EA beancounters and shareholders, even the Madden -game- will (likely) suffer from a lack of competition. ESPN helped push you guys because it was a good game. Not having that stimulus ... well, why innovate? Fans are stuck with you. That said, if EA does innovate each year, well, yay! I mean, I'll buy Madden next year, no problem. I'm not into retail vengeance over something like this.

With Boxing you better innovate! That's an arena that an upstart can break in on you. How many licensing commissions are there in boxing? Sure, you can lock up the fighters, but the characters aren't as important there (I think). And I like this minigame idea. Let me guess, not clearing a swelled eye might make your punches less accurate? You can see, but whatever "damage determining" math the game uses, might be affected?

[Old Man Gravy]

rub the swelling

Liesure Suit Larry: Fight Night!


Okay, sorry. Of all the things to add as gameplay elements, "cut guy" seems like one of the oddest choices (perhaps next to "spit bucket guy"). Interesting addition.

I hadn't played a boxing game since that old movie-clip-based one for the Sega CD many years ago, until I tried Fight Night on a friend's PS2 a few months back. I was pretty amazed at how far things had come from Mike Tyson's Punch Out.
He kicked my ass, though, and I was Ali and he was Sugar Ray Leonard. :oops:

[Bub, Andrew]

Is it though? If this works like I think it does then the "cut-man" minigame is a way for skilled players to DO SOMETHING when they've been saved by the bell. Boxing is a war of attrition (most fight end in punch counts not KOs) and anything you can do to bounce back from a bad round sounds like just a bit more gameplay depth to me. It's a good idea (even if it sounds gross).