I have never before seen a game so unfairly reviewed by major pro reviewers like IGN and Gamespot. It seems that some very realistic games are outgrowing those sites in that when they require real skill the reviewer is lost and takes it out on the game with an undeserved poor review. This game is amazing. True 1:1 control and so much of a learning curve that you really feel like you are in full control and rewarded for improvement. Totally ignore the pathetic reviews of sites and listen to the real reviews here and by other users. The Fight: Lights Out
Got a chance to play it quite a bit and have to say the hype doesn't do the game justice. So at first I felt it was kind of slow and that I was seeing the impact that I felt I was dishing out. You have stats for your fighter and while you might be amazing in real life your character needs to improve. It's not that he won't move with you perfectly, because he will, it's the fact that his hits won't be measured as a perfect punch. So you have to boost Strength, Speed, Stamina, and Technique to get him up to your level and beyond. That's just the beginning however. You also have Chin which allows you to take more hits and Heart which helps you get back up if you have been mowed over. Only bad part is you really can't move your feet as you will be told during the tutorial. The rest of you is fine, but they have you rooted to that spot and probably to stop people from getting out of the cameras view. Custom soundtrack is supported so you can abuse people to your favorite fight songs.
Finally you have career mode and training facilities to improve your fighter. Career mode is like the one person stand alone to get you used to the ups and downs while earning yourself a little bit of cash along the way. The money is used on clothing, healing (since broken bones make for a weak fighter), and training facilities. Training includes things like the tutorial which gets updates from time to time, a spar which is just for practice and doesn't give you anything, the large punching bag, the small up high punching bag, an accuracy test, and an endurance match. The last four I mentioned give you upgrade points that you can spend on boosts which I named earlier. I tend to use either the large punching bag and/or the accuracy test since I'm better at those, but in all fairness did not try the endurance match.
Almost forgot some really important things. There is a gauge that measures how good or evil you are in a sense. Fighting using straight up boxing techniques makes you a good guy and shows you as being respectful. Fighting using the dirty moves and/or cheating (i.e. buying the download content to improve your fighter) lowers your respect. Not sure what respect does yet, but my guess is increases the price of items such as shoes, jewelry, tattoos, and other clothing while also warning other players online this guy might have paid money to improve his stats. Improved stats does not equal ability since you still have to be able to move and punch with precision. No stat is going to make up for really horrible skills.
I also recommend a well lit room for the camera as you will not be able to use the head sync if the room is kind of dark. Trust me it's a lot better to be able to bob than holding the X button which makes fighting a pain.
As far as multi-player is concerned I have not yet tried it and not sure if I can even do so online yet. I can tell you the features include spectator, tournaments and betting. Betting also gives a percentage to the winner. If the person you bet on has won a lot of fights and therefore those who had bet on him previously won a lot of money, you get a percentage boost for that. You also get a percentage boost for betting on winners multiple times.
Now this brings me to the trophies. You want them and badly. Trophies offer stat boosts and unique abilities that cannot be gained by any other means. These include stamina speed rate up, easy dizzy and/or stun/stagger break, easier to stun/stagger or dizzy the opponent and many other skills that will greatly improve your character in later battles and I'm sure for online fights as well.
The disappointing side is the lack of options in character customization. I did not see any long hair styles and on top of that for females who play you cannot be a woman. I'm surprised since there are definitely some woman out there who are pretty beast and you wouldn't want to mess with them. I guess they don't want guys beating up on woman since it could create all sorts of unwanted issues, but for women who play the game it's going to feel a little off I'm sure.
All in all this is an amazing game and at less than average dollar value. It offers more than pretty much any boxing title out, but in fairness they only paid for one big representative versus a huge cast of sportsman faces that would sue daily if they didn't make a certain amount of money for the use of their likeness. As far as the Playstation Move controls are concerned those are really good as well. It matches everything you do. For those of you who know eastern martial arts the turning punch motion won't increase the damage in the game, but is still useful. Boxers can easily show off as well. Great buy, a lot of fun, and a push to keep you at it with the stat system. All the fury of a real fight with the lack of a real hospital bill.
I review a lot of games that can be used for fitness and exercise. Very rarely has a game provided such an intense workout that just after a few minutes of playing with it, I'm covered with perspiration and my muscles feel tighter. It happened with this one.
It takes a while for you to get started with this game. When you pop the disc into your PS3, you need to wait a few minutes while the game data installs. You're instantly introduced to "Duke", your virtual trainer who looks like he's been in a couple fights himself in his day (the graphics are so detailed it's hard to tell if he's a real person or a computer-generated image).
You start out by entering your weight, height, and age. Your BMI is calculated for you.
You can then choose a look for your fighter. You select from a variety of faces, beards, hair colors, and hair styles. Chances are you can get someone approximating your look.
In the next step, you divide 60 "ability points" into various categories: strength, speed, stamina, chin (your charater's ability to take a punch), heart (your character's resolve in staying up despite taking a beating), and technique. In the course of the game, you can win more "ability points" to further strengthen your character.
In the next step, you calibrate your Move controllers (you need two of them). The process is a bit more involved than usual. You need to center yourself in the camera, stretch your arms straight out, and then move your remotes back and forth. You can also take a picture of the background without you in it to enable head tracking, which will supposedly track your head movements just like a Kinect (I couldn't get it to work on mine, possibly because I had objects in the background).
Duke will go on to tell you how to play the game. You'll need to keep your feet in place when boxing. You press the Move button and flick the controller to dodge and jump.
You'll also learn how to read the various elements in the game which represent your character's well-being. There's a health meter and a stamina meter, neither of which you want to run out. There's also a rage meter, which goes up each time you get hit and adds fuel for "dirty moves". A diagram of a skeleton will tell you if any part of your fighter is injured and needs to be patched up.
Once you finished the tutorial, you'll see four menu options:
Events: Takes you through different fights of increasing difficulty. With each fight, you'll earn money, reputation points, and new moves.
Training: Will let you re-do the tutorial or take new tutorials on sparring, heavy bag, speed bag, target practice, and endurance sparring.
Fitness: Shows you how many calories you burn while playing.
Fighter: Lets you adjust your character's appearance, assign new "ability points" you earn, heal from injuries, and apply "boosters" which you earn during your fights. You can also download cheats online (which, of course, come at an extra price).
As for the actual fighting, it is by far the best fight experience I've had in a video game. Your onscreen character reflect your motions almost perfectly--and even mimics hooks, jabs, and uppercuts pretty well. It does take a little while to get used to fighting on a two-dimensional screen--it's hard to gauge depth and so often you may be swinging and missing at your opponent (the game does work with 3D, so I suppose with a 3D television this issue would be solved). You can also switch camera angles, which helps. Other than that, it's a remarkable simulation of actual fighting.
After each fight, you can view the calories you burned as well as statistics (punches thrown, punches connected, "dirty moves", and punch accuracy). You can even view a video replay of your fight.
Like I said, after about 5 rounds I was breathing hard and felt my muscles tight. What's great is that I didn't want to stop--I just wanted to keep pounding the tar out of my opponents. I have a feeling that of all the games I have to get in shape, this is going to be the one I go back to most often. This is motion gaming to the extreme, and a great title which showcases the capabilities of the Move. - Playstation Eye - Boxing - Move - Ps3 Games'
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