Monday, October 17, 2005

Fight Night Round 2

EA gets a lot of shit from everyone these days, but I like to think that two original properties still managed to come out of them. The Burnout franchise and the new kid on the block, Fight Night which has demolished every boxing game made up to now and has set the bar. What Madden did in the days of yore for football...

Anyhow, ever since I first saw it a year ago to when I got my PS2 recently, this was the game that I was looking forward to playing most, even more than Metal Gear Solid 3, mainly because of the innovative Total Punch Control system. It successfully puts you in the place of throwing the punches yourself and even more importantly, has you thinking about where your hands are and where the opponents are. I have not been as hooked on any kind of one on one fighting game this bad since the original Street Fighter 2. No longer are boxing games glorified button mashing affairs.

I was up till 4 AM beating the crap out of other boxers on this thing, where during round 3 of a bout with Sonny Liston, his high guard had just opened up wide enoguh for me to pop in a straight, I get a knock on the door. I've completely forgotten to turn the volume down (at least that's what I thought it was going to be about), and I thought it was midnight and not 4 AM. A neighbour in the complex had locked himself out and mine was the only light on. When I first opened the door I asked if it was the noise, he replied "don't worry, I'm a gamer myself so I understand. I play City of Heroes". I'm thinking, what the FUCK is City of Heroes? FIGHT NIGHT!!!

Anyway he needs to use the phone to call his girlfriend to let him in, he tells me the number and I manage to dial the wrong number anyway TWICE. My hands are shaking and my mind is still purely on the Sonny Liston match, what combinations I'll be throwing after that straight, what if he does this etc etc that whole chess game. BOTH my thumbs are completely swollen. In just ONE night. I have never ever gotten this so called "Nintendo thumb" that everyone else seemed to have in my life, yet in the space of one night... FUCKING FANTASTIC!!

The next morning, I get up in 4 hours and go to fencing lessons, and since my thumb is swollen I can barely work pistol grip... and I demolish 5 guys in a row. The 5th guy doesn't even try, he just let's me take my points and leaves. After playing Fight Night and looking for openings and so on all night, it seems that everything else was moving in slow motion and I read everyone like a book. Or maybe they suck *Shrug*

This was almost a month ago now, and sadly ultimately Fight Night was still a boxing game and there's only so much to master in it, say compared to Street Fighter, but for that one night. I was 14 again. Nothing else has come close since then, until now. Great fucking job EA Chicago, well done :)

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