BoxRec

just been looking at EA sports website. Fight night round 2 looks fornicating amazing, they've really put some effort into it, the Arenas look much better, and they've made some important changes too. fights actually get stopped on cuts now, and you can score one punch KO's with haymakers. You can also punch and block whilst on the move.

I hope they bring back clinching too, and it would be good if they sorted the movement out so you can cover distances more quickly.

I'm most excited that Hatton will be on the game and hopefully they'll have the blue moon music for his entrance. Also, the cutman addition for between rounds looks good too.

Some good info on the game at this website.
http://www.gamespot.com/ps2/sports/figh ... ht+night+2

I've tried the current one.

Quite enjoyable but career mode is a washout for me as I can never get the heavy bag moving to earn any power or speed points. Any tips or is it just me?

don't call it a comeback wrote:I've tried the current one.

Quite enjoyable but career mode is a washout for me as I can never get the heavy bag moving to earn any power or speed points. Any tips or is it just me?

its like sex start off slow and its all about rythmm from there on in!

use hooks to best effect and the odd uppercut works too, dont jab and dont use the cross, once you get the bag moving a little its just timing,when its swinging you need to throw the punch just before the bag gets back to the middle.

keep practicing cos once it clicks its easy.

It's bloody hard. That and the focus pads are nearly impossible to score big on. Left and right hooks to the body get the bag moving, but you have to time it almost perfectly to get it swinging, one bad timed punch, and it stops the bag dead.

Career mode is generally good though, I'm really looking forward

One thing I don't like in ALL these games though, is the way you can train your chin, cuts and heart up. These should be things you are ascribed at the beginning.

It's also dumb the way working on say the focus pads trains your heart score, or the dummy trains your cuts. The training modes could definetly be improved.

You should be able to work on specific areas for certain fights, rather than being forced into doing a particular type of training. It would be better if the training was a bit more involved for fights.

I think the cutman stuff is a nice addition, but surely it shouldn't be under the player's control. I would have though the cutman should be hired by the player. The same should also be true with training, players should choose a gym and then later in the career be able to hire trainers who excell in specific areas.

I also hope that there are more distance fights in this version. In all the previous versions I've played, distance fights are a rarity, especially when you have two people fighting. That's mainly because the movement around the ring is such that you invariably end up both planted in one spot mullering the shit out of one another.

J wrote:

don't call it a comeback wrote:I've tried the current one.

Quite enjoyable but career mode is a washout for me as I can never get the heavy bag moving to earn any power or speed points. Any tips or is it just me?

its like sex start off slow and its all about rythmm from there on in!

use hooks to best effect and the odd uppercut works too, dont jab and dont use the cross, once you get the bag moving a little its just timing,when its swinging you need to throw the punch just before the bag gets back to the middle.

keep practicing cos once it clicks its easy.

Lol - thanks for the tip: if it is like sex then currently I am doing a lot of ineffectual slaps and not enough proper swinging....

one question: if you throw the punch just before the bag gets back to the middle are you throwing it in the direction the bag is going or against the direction it is going?

the direction the bag is going so you help it on its way, you dont aim to hit it b4 then though thats when you swing the punch so it should connect just past the middle, as james says body shots are best to get it swinging.
oince you do you get somink called a swing bonus so your score will rattle up.
its not hard to get 35 k plus once you get the hang of it.

If you want to cheat on the heavy bag, change the button configuration so that hooks are controlled by the "circle" and "square" buttons. It's a hell of alot easier than trying to use the analogue sticks, then just change it back before the fight.

Christ, wish I'd known that.

The reason fights never go the distance has been addressed, Ithink.

I think it was because you couldn't move and throw punches, its one or ther other. Which inevitably meant you couldn't box on the retreat, you dad to stand and trade.

Inevitably, this means multi-knockdowns and ko;s.

I'm weird though, I often try and fight FOR a tight points decision.

Masochistic me.

Yes, hopefully the fact you can move and punch or block at the same time will change that.

I used to do the same, especially with the 2001 version, I used to try and box to a decision win with Larry Holmes

I think they should also use the analogue stick better, so that you can alter the speed at which you move, and change directions better.

One other flaw of the game, is the fact that you cannot really outmanouver your opponent from up close, mainly because changes of direction are way too slow. This is something which was done better in the older versions where you could hold a trigger down when moving to surge forward or backward.

I had a design for a boxing game when I worked as a designer, tried to convince my company to let me lead a team and develop it, but sadly they said there was no market for a boxing game. Gutted.

no market u kidding me this was one of the biggest of last year and the new one will be this year.

I hear Hatton is in it - have they got a load of mid 30s blown up lightweights/superfeathers you can fight against when playing as Hatton?

Games companies are invariably run by incompetent pudenda who think they know everything. Most of them treat their development staff, and especially designers, who generate the actual original concepts, as if they are an unneccesary evil.

The marketing departments are treated like gods, because the people who run the companies wrongly believe that the marketing of the product is more important than the product being innovative.

Innovation is frowned upon as companies prefer to go with tried and tested products which are clones of previous titles, and tend to milk the fornicate out of a particular genre. That's why there were 5 tomb raider titles.

I had what I can confidently say was the best design ever for a boxing game, and on paper it still shits all over anything EA have done. Making it happen would have been another thing entirely, as developing a product is a long hard slog, but the company just weren't interested in a boxing game (this was 2000), as they saw it as a beat 'em up with a small market, rather than what it really was, which was a major sports title with quite a broad appeal if done right.