The cutman is indispensable to combat sports. A good one adds a veneer of civility to a brutal affair by reducing swells and stopping blood. He can extend a fight for an extra round or more, armed with nothing but vaseline, a cold piece of metal called an enswell, and a chemically soaked Q-Tip.
Going from the person most co-workers know as a man to one they will know as a woman is a challenge most people won't ever have to face. Doing it in the sports division of a video game company probably adds a ridiculous degree of difficulty.
Sports video games must license everything. League symbols, player likenesses, individual events, even certain stadiums. Then they must provide a soundtrack every year and, yep, those songs must be licensed, too. It is a neverending headache unique to the sports genre.
Further complicating the job, nearly all…
As tipped off yesterday, Fight Night Champion is being offered a la carte over PlayStation Network beginning today—gamers can buy the boxing title's "Champion Mode," the cinematic narrative of fictious boxer Andre Bishop, for $5. If they enjoy that, they can add other game modes on a piecemeal basis.
Fight Night Champion notably included bare-knuckle fighting during the prison chapters of its narrative mode, but the fighters in the main roster didn't participate in such bouts. Now some will. The game's first DLC extension, due out next Tuesday, adds bare-knuckle "Old School Rules" to online and offline play.
Two weeks ago, a video leaked out legit-looking screenshots claiming to be an alpha build of Fight Night Champion's first downloadable content. EA Sports is announcing what's in the first pack tomorrow, but if this video is real, it's five all-time great fighters, plus Cowboys Stadium as a venue.
I've taken head butts and held on through jaw-cracking, brain-rattling missiles; I've fought against runners and cowards and cheats and made them all pay. Never have I fought in a place this unfair, with these terms dictated to me.
It's an appropriate opening for a song placed in a game that begins in prison. "You know you fucked up, right?" begins "The Loser Wins," by Atmosphere. In another sports game, this would have to be blanked out, or just not used.
Fight Night: Champion's demo arrives Tuesday, but apparently some in the UK have gotten their hands on it. Notably, the demo will include online multiplayer. This series of four videos gives you a look at what to expect from it.
"Women weaken legs," said the famous trainer Mickey Goldmill. So does a sledgehammer to the kisser. Fight Night Champion's going to bring a more sophisticated stamina system that you'll need to know to keep from being a two-punch chump.
From what I can tell in this video, here's how Andre Bishop's fight career ended up in the crapper: Someone told him to take a dive and he didn't. When the muscle showed up, someone got shot. (NSFW language.)
Anyone old enough to remember Marv Albert on NBC calling a James Scott bout live from Rahway State Prison will want to pay attention to this, the bareknuckle jailhouse fight within the "Champion Mode" of Fight Night Champion.
After watching the latest trailer Fight Night Champion's new narrative mode, Champion, four times, I'm still shaky on what's going on here. Andre Bishop, the protagonist, I recognize. His brother, I know, ends up in the ring. Who's scorpion guy?
In a cutscene, but if Fight Night Champion's gonna get an M-rating, it won't be sending Andre Bishop to the slammer for stealing cable TV. This sequence looks like something out of Mafia II, almost. With better brawling, one hopes.
Arturo Gatti couldn't make Fight Night Champion. It's not because he's dead - so's Sugar Ray Robinson, and he's in the game. It's just that negotiating likeness agreements with boxers is head-bangingly more frustrating than in any other sports game.
Yesterday we saw Eric Esch - aka Butterbean - getting his flab knocked around in Fight Night Champion. He's one of 13 new boxers on a roster of 54 licensed personalities appearing in the game when it releases next year.
In case it wasn't clear, "Champion Mode," which is the role-playing career of fictional fighter Andre Bishop, is a wholly separate mode in Fight Night Champion. Legacy, the old career, will still return, with improvements.
This Official Xbox Magazine preview of Fight Night Champion offers a look at the boxing franchise's gameplay. More importantly, they're fooling with the analog controls again. Sounds like hooks and uppercuts won't need the winding motions to execute anymore.
Pre-order bonuses are circulating for Fight Night Champion, due March 1. Get it through Amazon and you'll be given a code that unlocks young George Foreman, back when he had a bigger afro and smaller moobs. He also fights better.
Though the star of its cover, and of the darker, rawer story told through its singleplayer mode, is fictitious boxer Andre Bishop, Fight Night Champion will still deliver real-life boxing legends in their prime, as fans expect of the series.
