GameSpot has posted their "On the Spot" Demo video of Don King Presents: Prizefighter.
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Re: Don King Presents: Prizefighter On the Spot Demo Video: GameSpot
im not really impressed -
I just hope there are more camera views than the one shown in the final minute of that interview. They do have a lot of venues and the game does look cool and I will buy it, however I am not sold on the mechanic. The punches between Pavlik and Calzaghe did look rather slow and collision detection looked dull when compared when compared to like Victorious Boxers for example. Blocking seemed nonexistant from that one minute clip. The game does intrigue me and I am sure it will be fun, but we will have to see the level of customization it really has. I guess an in-game referee with clinches are still too much to ask of "next-gen" developers these days. I wonder how the Wii version will turn out when that comes out in September.Comment
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Re: Don King Presents: Prizefighter On the Spot Demo Video: GameSpot
This has been out for a few days now and there is a HUGE outrage going on about it. Seems the guy up there was pretty much clueless to what he was doing, so the 2K admin's who have played the game say. I say cut the guy some slack though. Here he is trying to do an interview and has just been told you got about 5 seconds to show us some gameplay so it just looks like he was just swinging away with no real purpose. One thing I did like was the fatigue meter. At least it seems that will keep this from being a button mash fest. Should slow the game down to a realistic boxing rate.Comment
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Agreed that the fatigue meter is tight. However the mere existence of the meter doesn't mean that the game accurately accounts for fatigue, stamina, and endurance. In Hajime No Ippo 2 : VIctorious Road for PS2, for example, there is no meter but stamina is accurately portrayed for the most part throughout the game and it is varied depending on how you train your fighter.
I suspect that Prizefighter will have some cool things that Fight Night Round 4 may not have, but at the same time, I suspect it will still be lacking some simulation aspects of boxing. Lets give 2K credit though. The arenas and ring entrances do appear top notch. There are a lot of arenas and there are a lot of great boxers. The gameplay does look like it could be cool. We as gamers just need to see more of it. The fact that there is still debug code in the build tells us that the interface has not bee streamlined and the devs are still verifying things pulling through back and forth from interface and gameplay.
One thing I want to see is whether fighters have different hand and foot speed, if they vary realistically on the type of fighter. I hope I can really outbox with appropriate boxers. I hope that, for example, I can outbox effectively with Larry Holmes, throwing that jab from a safe position. A Prime Larry Holmes relied on his lateral movement to fire that jab to keep his opponents off.
In terms of that interview, it seemed like the guy in the interview was clueless. At least for All Pro 2K8, they had Jeff Nelson in there talking about the game seeing as he was the actual project manager of the game. It also seemed like this guy for Prizefighter thought that the interview was much longer than it actually was (11 minutes), even though the host said that the interview was actually LONGER than usual. Gamespot's gotta get that communication down. And honestly, what is more important fight now than this game in terms of new sports games this summer? Why not let the interview go 20 minutes? Why not? Out of 11 minutes of an interview, we get less than 1 minute of actual gameplay. About 5 minutes of it was just showing the two talking, and the other 5 minutes was spent in videos, loading, videos, loading, skipping through areas. Why not just show an That will generate the most excitement from the game. He even had to button through the intros just to get to the boxing! Gamespot's gotta manage their time better than that.
Also, one final question. Why were the rounds only 2:00 long in the Exhibition match? Why were the training rounds only 1:00 long? Shouldn't 3:00 rounds be standard throughout the game for a boxing game?Comment
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Re: Don King Presents: Prizefighter On the Spot Demo Video: GameSpot
I am glad they have the option of using 2 minute rounds. 3 minutes is just too long for a video game. I don't want to play Madden with only 15 minute quarters and I don't want to play a boxing game with 3 real minute rounds. It throws the stats out of whack.Chalepa Ta Kala.....Comment
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Not if the game is accurately paced and depicted. How would it throw stats out of whack? You probably say that because without clinches, you only get about 2 minutes of action in some boxing matches where there is a lot of holding. For some fights, rounds go by and the ref never even has to clinch. For those matches, they are boxing for 3:00. It should be the same by default in a game. Since it's a game, the user should be able to, of course, set the number of rounds and the length of time of the rounds. (or the speed at which the clock ticks if it's faster than standard seconds) If you want to play it on 2:00 rounds then set the interface to that. But by default, it should mimic how it exists in real life, lasting 3 minutes long. This also is key in scoring because it provides more time for judges to separate fighters. If a round is close after 2:00, if you set it to 2:00 then you should have mostly 10-10 rounds. If it's close, a strong rally in the final 3rd minute of the round could be what the judges determine warrants a 10-9 round. It also is vital to determining accurate stamina and how long fighters are on their feet at a time. It would be more arbitrary and undeserving to be exchanging 10-9 scores with 2:00 rounds.
It's not to say that games that run in double-time by default with no option to change the time the rounds last, and result usually in 1:30 rounds are inferior.
Most games (like Madden) aren't good enough to play a full time 60:00 game. But for games like NCAA Football 06 on Xbox1 (and multiplayer on NCAA Football 07 and 08), I can go 15 minutes quarters and not be bored at all, on Heisman gameplay at least. It is fun since it's a battle of attrition. It just depends on how much patience you have and how much time you have to devote to "a game". Sports games these days just aren't well rounded enough for users to play full time games. But there should always be an option for a user to do that. And there really should be a difficulty level to match what would likely happen in a real life full time game. Like realistic scoring and stats. Like in Fifa and Winning Eleven, there is no option to play a full 90:00 match. (except on Fifa World Cup 06 I think had 90:00 matches) Most of the time I'd want to play like a 30 minute match, but I'd still like to have the option to play a full 90:00 match if I really wanted to test the gameplay. Maybe one day games will be so immersive and realistic (and without bugs) that gamers would want to play full time matches. maybe multiplayer gaming wouldn't have to worry about lag and would actually have incentive to play long matches. Maybe it could save after every quarter in case there was a multiplayer disconnect. But timing is very different in football (like playing a 5:00 quarter game versus a 15:00 quarter game) than a 2:00 round to a 3:00 round is in boxing. In boxing, historically the time a round lasts is vital to how boxing is scored. That is the time that the judges have before they mark down a proper score.
Women's boxing has 2:00 long rounds. This is not a women's boxing game. If I take on Kenny Norton with Larry Holmes, I want 3:00 minutes to be flickin that jab off Kenny Norton's face impressing those judges. I am also hoping that you can go 15 rounds in Exhibition Mode. You had that option in Fight Night Round 3. (and previous Fight Night games)
It'd also be nice to go through the story mode with championship bouts being 15 rounds. They should have an option for that to be 12 or 15 rounds.
It will be interesting to see whether or not 2K has even had time to think about "little" things like this. These are things that may or may not be in there, but should be in any boxing game.
You gotta remember devs are always trying to make money, and cutting their own work time as well wherever possible. So they sometimes forget stuff and then it's too late to go back into embedded code. That's where good QA departments come in and make sure they have all the issues laid out to the devs with plenty of time for the devs to fix them, or even add stuff in some scenarios. Lets just hope that they give the user the level of customization that gamers expect with a "next-gen" title sports title like this.
There's no question that the game will look great and bring the bright lights of championship boxing to sports fans of all ages. The question is will there be enough depth to the interface and to the control mechanics to keep us coming back for more? I hope there is no need for patches. I hope there are no glaring issues. I hope the devs had ample time to refine this engine and everything in debug code is matching up. I wonder how different the Wii version will be from the 360 version. We will soon find out.Comment
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Re: Don King Presents: Prizefighter On the Spot Demo Video: GameSpot
^^Just give me the option to play rounds however long I want to play them. Just like I said, I don't play football games with 15 minute quarters so I don't want to play a boxing game with 3 minute rounds. In real boxing there can often be 15 or 20 second lulls without a punch thrown, multiple clinches, ref taking his time separatring fighters, etc. In a video game, 3 minute rounds will most likely result in 100+ punches per round and consequently too many KO's.
I am not going to debate with you about playing NCAA football on 15 minute quarters, but if I did that I would roll over the 100 point mark in most games I played with ridiculous stats because I get a realistic amount of plays with 7 minute quarters.
Too each his own, just give me options unlike FN which was 3 minute round only in career mode.Chalepa Ta Kala.....Comment
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Re: Don King Presents: Prizefighter On the Spot Demo Video: GameSpot
the game should force you to play sim to win...i you can get away with playing like the producer and still win, I probably won't be interested.
I don't want to have to be 'responsible' for making the game seem like a sim.Liquor in the front, poker in the rear.Comment
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I agree. The mere existence of this debate proves that programming and design is not where it should be. I set the bar high for devs, but I expect an in-ring referee, clinches, holding in close with subtle movement with the analog sticks (I want to walk that fine line between holding a little and seeing if the ref breaks us up), variation between referees (some referees let holding go, some come in and separate the fighters). I am tired of devs using the umbrella of a next-gen game to market a product that isn't even as "next-gen" as some games on PS2 and Xbox1 were. Case in point. The chain gang and on-field referees were in NCAA Football 2002 on PS2 spotting the ball and throwing the ball to each other on hurry up offense first downs, but was not in last years next-gen game NCAA Football 08. They are so focused on the big stadiums and the high quality models, they don't have time to actually make the game a game with all the bells and whistles. Some say these are small things not needed, but they prove that devs are cutting corners in places just to make their money and get the game out in-season. We as the consumer need to balance out the playing field so we don't feel robbed when we buy games nowadays. I will probably buy this game, but I expect there to be flaws. It shouldn't be this way, but it is.Comment
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Re: Don King Presents: Prizefighter On the Spot Demo Video: GameSpot
There has never been a sports game where I havent had to make up house rules to avoid programming flaws. I had to do it with NFL 2k5, NBA2k8, Madden, NCAA and Fight Night and every sports game I've played. The fact is they are games and will never be perfect. There will always be flaws and game exploits.Comment
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Re: Don King Presents: Prizefighter On the Spot Demo Video: GameSpot
Personally I thought that footage was god awful. Regardless of the fact that the guy playing was clueless it doesn't change the fact that there are obviously significant collision detection issues, slow and awkward animations, terrible CPU AI, and graghics on par with a late generation original Xbox game. And this was pretty much the final build of the game, it hits shelves in a month. And that 2K mod stated there will be no further footage released before the release date. I'm definitely holding out for the reviews and BB response. If it's anything like what i'm seeing over at teh 2K boards i'll be passing on this one.Comment
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I agree that there are probably collision detection issues, and the animations of Calzaghe and Pavlik did look awkward and slow, but we don't know how the CPU A.I. was because we don't know what difficulty the game was being played at. I do have to disagree with you in terms of graphics. The game does look good. The ring entrances do look nice. And the models of the ringside judges commentators and guests look pretty darn sharp. The match control animations did look a bit sluggish between Calzaghe and Pavlik, but the guy playing was really just button mashing. Hopefully the outboxers of the game move at a faster pace and use footwork better than we saw in that brief video.
I am still optimistic that this game will surprise me in some ways and will provide a challenge. This game was not developed by a 2K Sports studio. It was developed by Venom games in Europe, then tested further and published through 2K. The one thing I do like is that the game does appear to have controls that allow you to take advantage of positioning in the ring. The one thing I did agree with the guy playing the game was when he said that some boxing games sometimes feel like a 2-D linear game. Hopefully there is a lot of variability tied to the analog sticks in terms of sidestepping and lateral movement. It would be cool if you were able to create your own angles through manual footwork. It would be also be nice if there were realistic physics and momentum, too. But i do hope that there are lots of camera angles and / or options, but I'm not holding my breath on that.Comment
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