New Fight Night 3 News That'll make you Drool..
Wed Aug 17, 2005 9:03 pm
Thu Aug 18, 2005 2:58 pm
I didnt like FIght night 2.. the matches were either too easy or too hard.. I pretty much stopped playin the game after I beat it..
Thu Aug 18, 2005 5:31 pm
he article 
Credit: Game Informer magazine)
Our time at the studio began with an in-depth examination of Fight Night. Obviously, the game has the next-gen look down, but there's far more to the visiuals than one might expect. The team's idea for the graphics is to make the player feel that he or she is actually in the ring, facing off with a live opponent. To meet this lofty goal, every element of the visuals has to look perfect. The human eye is adept at picking up details that don't look right, so seemingly minor aspects of a fight need to look just as good as the major ones. The gloves and shorts on the boxers and the ropes on the ring have to be every bit as impressive as the boxers themselves, and the studio has achieved this with extensive photo documentation of everything in the game.
Like the previous entries, real-life boxers will appear in the game, and the team hopes to fill the gaps in the roster to include nearly every fighter the public can name. Fighters like Mike Tyson and Oscar De La Hoya have yet to appear in the series, and you can be sure that EA Chicago is working to remedy this.
To create the amazingly lifelike digital pugilists, the athletes appearing in the game have had every contour of their bodies captured with a laser scan, and high-resolution photographs capture the smallest details of their skin. Their physiques are recreated with high-polygon models, and the digital photos are converted to textures and wrapped around the models. Additional details are added with normal maps, spectral maps, and other graphical processes that further enhance the realism. The result is some of the most detailed and believable digital characters ever. When throwing a punch, you can actually see the muscles moving underneath their skin, tendons flexing, shadows moving across their bodies in real time as they shift positions, and light glinting off of sweat as it rolls down their backs.
Everything in the game has been created with the same attention to detail. The venues, from a warehouse to Madison Square Garden and everything in between, have been recreated by consulting the blueprints for the actual buildings and then using digital photos as the textures for the environments. The artists then tweak certain aspects to enhance the emotional quality of the scene. For example, dust particles and intense beams of light float through the air in the warehouse to emphasize the gritty feeling of the location. Similarly, every item in the game, from the boxers' shoes and gear to the material of the ring has been recreated using photographs of the actual items as textures. The result is a game that looks stunning, but having great graphics is only part of the team's goal with Round 3. The higher concept is to have these graphics be a vital part of the actual gameplay.
Those who have played the previous two Fight Night games will notice that the familiar heads-up display is gone. In previous entries, the HUD indicated the player's health and stamina, and, in Round 2, the Haymaker gauge. Although the HUD will be included in Round 3 for those who feel they need it, the game is designed to be played with absolutely no onscreen icons or indicators. Instead, the fighters themselves will tell the story.
The high level of detail in the fighter's faces is only the start of what makes them so eerily realistic. What is even more impressive is the way their facial expressions change as they fight. A snarling lip may be a sign that you're throwing a particularly powerful punch. Getting slammed in the jaw will cause him to wince and clamp his eyes shut. When your fighter tires, you'll see the despair on his face. Every move you make will be reflected in your boxer's face, and the dynamic reactions of his expression are now the key to his condition. Just like in real boxing, Fight Night is now a game of reading your opponent, gauging his condition, looking for openings, and being aware of your own situation. Although it is deceptively simple on the surface, boxing is an incredibly sophisticated and strategic sport in reality, hence its nickname "the sweet science." Fight Night Round 3 is the first boxing game to capture the true complexity of the sport.
This deep system of gauging your opponent's status is now tied to the audio portion of the game as well. The grunts and groans he emits dictate how much punishment he's dishing out, as well as how much he's taking. Your boxer's breath will become more labored and ragged as he tires, and the disgusting crunchy, juicy noises that emanate from a stiff hook to the jaw are a great indication of how much damage you've taken.
This combination of visual and audio clues to your boxer's state is designed to make the combat feel as immersive as possible, to put you in the ring facing off against another fighter. By removing the HUD and focusing solely on the actions and reactions of the fighters, Tsunoda and the rest of the EA Chicago team hope to make Round 3 as emotionally involving as possible. Although the graphics are typically thought of as the biggest improvement in next-generation gaming, Tsunoda and the team see these more powerful machines as a chance to involve players in the action on a more emotional level, providing an intense gameplay experience that simply isn't possible on the current round of consoles. "It's not enough to just deliver with graphics," says Tsunoda. "If you're not delivering the innovative gameplay that matches the big step up in graphics, you're totally failing in the opportunity to make a true next-gen game. The graphics are the minimum bar. But you've got to be able to top the graphics with the innovation that you're bringing to the gameplay."
Although the dynamic reactions of the fighters are the key to pulling the player into the game, they aren't the only additions the team has planned to involve them in the world of professional boxing. Just as Round 2 added Haymakers and Cutmen (both of which will return with improvements) into the mix, Round 3 has a host of new features that add to the atmosphere and realism, flesh out the career mode, and otherwise improve on the solid foundation of the franchise. The camera has been pulled in closer to highlight the action and capture the details, and there will now be a greater variety of minigames between rounds. But perhaps the most major addition is the new focus on rivalries.
In real boxing, the advertisements for the matches emphasize the animosity between the combatants, playing up any history between the two contestants. Rivalries between fighters are common, and it's not unusual for one fighter to show up at his opponent's press conference to talk a little smack and get under his skin. Boxers will routinely make disparaging remarks about their future opponents to the press, and otherwise antagonize them into making a mistake.
Round 3 will make rivalries a major component of the career mode, adding much-needed drama to what has been, up until now, a rather shallow experience. By taking advantage of EA's recent partnership with ESPN, fights will now begin with a video montage that explains the history between the two fighters and end with a familiar segment that breaks down the fight and replays the highlights - the game will actually record the entire fight and play back the best moments. During matches, commentators will continue to discuss the competition between the two contestants, and will even appear in a picture-in-picture window onscreen, emulating the look of a televised match. Sometimes, one of your scheduled opponents will show up at one of your fights to comment on it, talk a little smack, and distract you from the fight at hand.
Between your scheduled bouts, rivalries and ESPN's video footage continue to come into play. In Round 2, you could choose from a small selecting of training exercises to bulk up your fighter, and you'll still be able to do so. But there are now far more targeted exercises that you can choose instead. For example, you can actually watch tapes of an upcoming opponent to learn how he fights. Doing so will grant your boxer bonuses in the upcoming match, which will help you to counter his style. Although every boxer in the previous games fought in pretty much the same style, the pugilists in Round 3 will behave far more like their real-life counterparts. Even though he was known for his fast feet and quick hands, Round 2's Muhammad Ali simply fought like any other fighter. The goal with Round 3 is to capture the styles of each boxer so exactly that they are all identifiable simply by the way they move and fight.
Every boxer in the game will now have an individual fighting style, with unique strengths and weaknesses. By studying their tapes and working with experts in different aspects of boxing, you can learn to better cope with their advantages. For example, the highlight reel of a boxer may reveal that he throws a lot of power punches. You can then go and work with a trainer who is a master of taking big shots to learn how to minimize the damage your opponent inflicts. You'll then head into the fight with a bonus to your attributes.
The gear you choose will also play into the individual strengths of your fighter. Whereas equipment in the last game would give the same bonus to any fighter, you'll now have to choose gear based on what is best for your character. For example, if your fighter has long forearms, wearing longer gloves will give you a natural advantage when blocking. The unique characteristics of each fighter even extends to how you bleed and bruise. If you've taken a lot of shots to one side, that side will be more prone to cuts and bruises.
As with the last Fight Night title, your boxer's face will dynamically bruise, swell and bleed based on where and how hard he's punched. One new feature in the game, lovingly referred to as "the super-punch" has been designed specifically, it seems, to highlight this aspect. Whenever a boxer is knocked down, the blow that deals the damage is replayed several times in slow motion. Inspired by a special effect seen in the third Matrix movie, members of the special effects team that created the effect actually worked on the effect for the game. In these brutal close-ups, you can actually see the glove and face mold around each other, and the force of the blow sends actual ripples through the victim's face. The programmers at EA Chicago created an elaborate physics model that dictates how different parts of a boxer's body react to heavy impacts. Thanks to this model, your boxer's flesh deforms realistically to each punch, and the superpunch replays perfectly highlight the reaction. A strong blow to the lower face will cause shockwaves to travel through a boxer's cheeks, but a blow to the forehead will result in little movement. A punch to the stomach will make the protective layer of fat on the midriff ripple, and you can see these reactions with each and every blow in a fight. However, the superpunch mode highlights these moments in staggering detail.
With the superpunch, individualized fighting styles, ESPN presentation, HUD-less gameplay, and focus on rivalries, it's obvious that the Fight Night team at EA Chicago is aiming to make a game that's far more than a prettier version of the earlier titles. Their enthusiasm for the project is obvious, reflected everywhere in the countless boxing posters that line the office. They are dedicated to improving the franchise on every level, which should make Round 3 one of the hottest 360 titles when it launches in the early part of next year. Of course, since the video played such a key role in the success of Sony's E3 press conference, it will no doubt be greeted just as enthusiastically on PS3.
Credit: Game Informer magazine)
Our time at the studio began with an in-depth examination of Fight Night. Obviously, the game has the next-gen look down, but there's far more to the visiuals than one might expect. The team's idea for the graphics is to make the player feel that he or she is actually in the ring, facing off with a live opponent. To meet this lofty goal, every element of the visuals has to look perfect. The human eye is adept at picking up details that don't look right, so seemingly minor aspects of a fight need to look just as good as the major ones. The gloves and shorts on the boxers and the ropes on the ring have to be every bit as impressive as the boxers themselves, and the studio has achieved this with extensive photo documentation of everything in the game.
Like the previous entries, real-life boxers will appear in the game, and the team hopes to fill the gaps in the roster to include nearly every fighter the public can name. Fighters like Mike Tyson and Oscar De La Hoya have yet to appear in the series, and you can be sure that EA Chicago is working to remedy this.
To create the amazingly lifelike digital pugilists, the athletes appearing in the game have had every contour of their bodies captured with a laser scan, and high-resolution photographs capture the smallest details of their skin. Their physiques are recreated with high-polygon models, and the digital photos are converted to textures and wrapped around the models. Additional details are added with normal maps, spectral maps, and other graphical processes that further enhance the realism. The result is some of the most detailed and believable digital characters ever. When throwing a punch, you can actually see the muscles moving underneath their skin, tendons flexing, shadows moving across their bodies in real time as they shift positions, and light glinting off of sweat as it rolls down their backs.
Everything in the game has been created with the same attention to detail. The venues, from a warehouse to Madison Square Garden and everything in between, have been recreated by consulting the blueprints for the actual buildings and then using digital photos as the textures for the environments. The artists then tweak certain aspects to enhance the emotional quality of the scene. For example, dust particles and intense beams of light float through the air in the warehouse to emphasize the gritty feeling of the location. Similarly, every item in the game, from the boxers' shoes and gear to the material of the ring has been recreated using photographs of the actual items as textures. The result is a game that looks stunning, but having great graphics is only part of the team's goal with Round 3. The higher concept is to have these graphics be a vital part of the actual gameplay.
Those who have played the previous two Fight Night games will notice that the familiar heads-up display is gone. In previous entries, the HUD indicated the player's health and stamina, and, in Round 2, the Haymaker gauge. Although the HUD will be included in Round 3 for those who feel they need it, the game is designed to be played with absolutely no onscreen icons or indicators. Instead, the fighters themselves will tell the story.
The high level of detail in the fighter's faces is only the start of what makes them so eerily realistic. What is even more impressive is the way their facial expressions change as they fight. A snarling lip may be a sign that you're throwing a particularly powerful punch. Getting slammed in the jaw will cause him to wince and clamp his eyes shut. When your fighter tires, you'll see the despair on his face. Every move you make will be reflected in your boxer's face, and the dynamic reactions of his expression are now the key to his condition. Just like in real boxing, Fight Night is now a game of reading your opponent, gauging his condition, looking for openings, and being aware of your own situation. Although it is deceptively simple on the surface, boxing is an incredibly sophisticated and strategic sport in reality, hence its nickname "the sweet science." Fight Night Round 3 is the first boxing game to capture the true complexity of the sport.
This deep system of gauging your opponent's status is now tied to the audio portion of the game as well. The grunts and groans he emits dictate how much punishment he's dishing out, as well as how much he's taking. Your boxer's breath will become more labored and ragged as he tires, and the disgusting crunchy, juicy noises that emanate from a stiff hook to the jaw are a great indication of how much damage you've taken.
This combination of visual and audio clues to your boxer's state is designed to make the combat feel as immersive as possible, to put you in the ring facing off against another fighter. By removing the HUD and focusing solely on the actions and reactions of the fighters, Tsunoda and the rest of the EA Chicago team hope to make Round 3 as emotionally involving as possible. Although the graphics are typically thought of as the biggest improvement in next-generation gaming, Tsunoda and the team see these more powerful machines as a chance to involve players in the action on a more emotional level, providing an intense gameplay experience that simply isn't possible on the current round of consoles. "It's not enough to just deliver with graphics," says Tsunoda. "If you're not delivering the innovative gameplay that matches the big step up in graphics, you're totally failing in the opportunity to make a true next-gen game. The graphics are the minimum bar. But you've got to be able to top the graphics with the innovation that you're bringing to the gameplay."
Although the dynamic reactions of the fighters are the key to pulling the player into the game, they aren't the only additions the team has planned to involve them in the world of professional boxing. Just as Round 2 added Haymakers and Cutmen (both of which will return with improvements) into the mix, Round 3 has a host of new features that add to the atmosphere and realism, flesh out the career mode, and otherwise improve on the solid foundation of the franchise. The camera has been pulled in closer to highlight the action and capture the details, and there will now be a greater variety of minigames between rounds. But perhaps the most major addition is the new focus on rivalries.
In real boxing, the advertisements for the matches emphasize the animosity between the combatants, playing up any history between the two contestants. Rivalries between fighters are common, and it's not unusual for one fighter to show up at his opponent's press conference to talk a little smack and get under his skin. Boxers will routinely make disparaging remarks about their future opponents to the press, and otherwise antagonize them into making a mistake.
Round 3 will make rivalries a major component of the career mode, adding much-needed drama to what has been, up until now, a rather shallow experience. By taking advantage of EA's recent partnership with ESPN, fights will now begin with a video montage that explains the history between the two fighters and end with a familiar segment that breaks down the fight and replays the highlights - the game will actually record the entire fight and play back the best moments. During matches, commentators will continue to discuss the competition between the two contestants, and will even appear in a picture-in-picture window onscreen, emulating the look of a televised match. Sometimes, one of your scheduled opponents will show up at one of your fights to comment on it, talk a little smack, and distract you from the fight at hand.
Between your scheduled bouts, rivalries and ESPN's video footage continue to come into play. In Round 2, you could choose from a small selecting of training exercises to bulk up your fighter, and you'll still be able to do so. But there are now far more targeted exercises that you can choose instead. For example, you can actually watch tapes of an upcoming opponent to learn how he fights. Doing so will grant your boxer bonuses in the upcoming match, which will help you to counter his style. Although every boxer in the previous games fought in pretty much the same style, the pugilists in Round 3 will behave far more like their real-life counterparts. Even though he was known for his fast feet and quick hands, Round 2's Muhammad Ali simply fought like any other fighter. The goal with Round 3 is to capture the styles of each boxer so exactly that they are all identifiable simply by the way they move and fight.
Every boxer in the game will now have an individual fighting style, with unique strengths and weaknesses. By studying their tapes and working with experts in different aspects of boxing, you can learn to better cope with their advantages. For example, the highlight reel of a boxer may reveal that he throws a lot of power punches. You can then go and work with a trainer who is a master of taking big shots to learn how to minimize the damage your opponent inflicts. You'll then head into the fight with a bonus to your attributes.
The gear you choose will also play into the individual strengths of your fighter. Whereas equipment in the last game would give the same bonus to any fighter, you'll now have to choose gear based on what is best for your character. For example, if your fighter has long forearms, wearing longer gloves will give you a natural advantage when blocking. The unique characteristics of each fighter even extends to how you bleed and bruise. If you've taken a lot of shots to one side, that side will be more prone to cuts and bruises.
As with the last Fight Night title, your boxer's face will dynamically bruise, swell and bleed based on where and how hard he's punched. One new feature in the game, lovingly referred to as "the super-punch" has been designed specifically, it seems, to highlight this aspect. Whenever a boxer is knocked down, the blow that deals the damage is replayed several times in slow motion. Inspired by a special effect seen in the third Matrix movie, members of the special effects team that created the effect actually worked on the effect for the game. In these brutal close-ups, you can actually see the glove and face mold around each other, and the force of the blow sends actual ripples through the victim's face. The programmers at EA Chicago created an elaborate physics model that dictates how different parts of a boxer's body react to heavy impacts. Thanks to this model, your boxer's flesh deforms realistically to each punch, and the superpunch replays perfectly highlight the reaction. A strong blow to the lower face will cause shockwaves to travel through a boxer's cheeks, but a blow to the forehead will result in little movement. A punch to the stomach will make the protective layer of fat on the midriff ripple, and you can see these reactions with each and every blow in a fight. However, the superpunch mode highlights these moments in staggering detail.
With the superpunch, individualized fighting styles, ESPN presentation, HUD-less gameplay, and focus on rivalries, it's obvious that the Fight Night team at EA Chicago is aiming to make a game that's far more than a prettier version of the earlier titles. Their enthusiasm for the project is obvious, reflected everywhere in the countless boxing posters that line the office. They are dedicated to improving the franchise on every level, which should make Round 3 one of the hottest 360 titles when it launches in the early part of next year. Of course, since the video played such a key role in the success of Sony's E3 press conference, it will no doubt be greeted just as enthusiastically on PS3.
Thu Aug 18, 2005 5:39 pm
LoL I think a link would've been better next time 