Fight Night Champion (PS3)

For Fight Night Champion to represent a quantum leap over Round 4 is a major achievement in itself: Round 4 stunned everyone with its astonishing level of graphical realism. Champion builds on that to such an extent it will surely be hailed as the most realistic-looking sports sim ever, adding a dynamic blood system (which could leave the ring awash after a particularly brutal bout), plus even more accurate bruising and body-deformation systems.

Champion Mode

One huge all-new feature is Champion Mode: a full story mode, in which you take control of raw but talented middleweight Andre Bishop and guide him through a career, which even encompasses prison-brawling and bare-knuckle fighting, alongside Bishop’s progression through the boxing ranks. Champion Mode was inspired by classic boxing movies, and adds a whole new cinematic angle to the Fight night blueprint.

Full-Spectrum Punch Control

Fight Night Champion also boasts a completely revamped control system, which developer EA Canada has dubbed, rather grandiosely, Full Spectrum Punch Control. Fiendishly clever, it has been designed both to make the game more accessible for novices and to let more experienced gamers exercise incredibly fine control over their punching. Basically, Full Spectrum Punch Control maps punching to the right analogue stick (with boxer movement mapped to the left stick). So, if you move the right stick to the right, your boxer will unleash a right-handed punch, and if you move it to the left, he will punch with his left. The angle you choose determines the type of punch: flicking upwards will launch a straight punch, to the side a hooking punch and downwards an uppercut – with a full spectrum of intermediate punches in between, hence the name.

If you don’t fancy the sound of that, you’ll still be able to use the face buttons to punch: you can choose from a number of controller maps. Also, this time around, Fight Night Champion makes use of a heavy-punch-modifier, and lets you perform stepping punches, where you move in towards your opponent (which adds power, but are easier to block). The game has a completely new reflexive blocking system, and it will be important to master subtle techniques such as weaving, stepping and ducking. Fight Night Champion takes account of fatigue much more realistically than its predecessors: punches thrown when fatigued even have different animations.

Legacy Mode and Online Gyms

Legacy Mode, in time-honoured Fight Night fashion, lets you generate a boxer, take on champion boxers of yore and work him up through the ranks, both offline and online. Another cool feature is Online Gyms which, as the name suggests, lets you create an online gym in which you can slug it out with your mates to decide who is top dog. And if you reckon you can handle it, you can take on other people’s Online Gyms via so-called Rivalry Challenges. One of the joys of your Online Gym is that you can make the rules – so you’ll be able to fight 15-round bouts or change the round length if you feel that way inclined.

There’s not even a shadow of doubt that Fight Night Champion will come closer to capturing the experience of being a boxer than any game before it. Indeed, it may well prove to be the most realistic sports game ever, bar none. If you’re a true lover of the pugilistic arts, then it’s the game you’ve been waiting for all your life.

More than just a change to the franchise name, Fight Night Champion takes the boxing experience one giant step forward by delivering an experience never before seen in an EA SPORTS video game. History will be made with this revolutionary iteration that builds upon the best-in-class gameplay and physics engine of Fight Night Round 4, while immersing you in a world of brutality, uncertainty, betrayal, and redemption. Survive the brutal road to redemption with Fight Night Champion.

• Full Spectrum Punch Control—Control your boxer’s punches with precision and accuracy like never before with a new synergy of gameplay controls. From overhand punches to strategic counter jabs and one-punch knockouts, overwhelm your opponents with your refined skill set
• Physics-Based Gameplay—Move around the ring and time your attacks with precision. Building off the best-in-class gameplay engine featured in Fight Night Round 4, you now have an even wider range of abilities when it comes to counterattacks, setting up combos, and attacking your opponent
• Legacy Mode—Create your alter ego and put him in the ring against past champions. Work your way up the ranks through training and scheduled bouts, and establish your name as the fighter to beat. Take your boxer online and see how you size up against the best in the world competing for local or worldwide belts in the all-new Fight Night Nation
• Online Gyms—Create an online gym with your friends and battle it out to see who’s the ultimate champion, or turn boxing into a team sport and challenge other gyms in Rival Matches to unlock items, win trophies, and more
• Authentic Content—Fight Night Champion showcases the truest graphical representation of the sport, lifestyle, and culture of boxing with authentic and dynamic blood, realistic body damage and deformation, and mature content throughout. Experience the violence and b