what happened to combat sports games?

what happened to combat sports games? 10-15 years ago Fight Night was a great series, then the THQ UFC games came out and were decent, then EA decided to consume all of them and only produce dogshit MMA games for the last like 7 years.
i miss these simulation physics based combat systems. been enjoying FN 2004 on ps2, any other classics I should return to?

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  1. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    Fun fact: this game actually runs well on RPCS3

    I broke the game by investing all my stats into body hooks

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      really? got any tips? The career mode freezes during the first bare knuckle fight after the intro and legacy mode starts crashing after about 3 fights

      • 2 years ago
        Anonymous

        I can't get to my PC to show the specs but there are some vids on how to get it running well on YouTube.

        There are occasional crashes but I've dumped about 30 hours into this

        • 2 years ago
          Anonymous

          damn i spent like a whole day trying to get it stable. not sure why legacy saves start breaking after too much time for me. guess im going down that same depressing rabbit hole again

  2. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    The men in black suits called incestors came in and ruined fun videogames.

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      Just like Top Spin, sports games just fricking died for no reason and indie game devs want to be the next surprise hit with their shit pixel art games.

      yeah idk why they let arabs into the gaming industry

  3. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    Boxing doesn't have that many big names in the sport anymore. UFC is cringe homoshit and no one wants to play that shit.

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      EA got the UFC license and presumably paid a chunk for it, perhaps it was just for the one game? And they haven't tried to do another boxing one because the execs think MMA is the new big thing and the projected return on investment for a boxing one isn't worth it
      ESBC is looking alright although it's clearly AA and they've spunked a ton of cash on licenses and mocap which I distrust
      When EA got into MMA games I imagined they would combine the Fight Night and UFC licenses into one game with both boxing and MMA mechanics, and the story mode would be similar to FNC, following you as a young boxer having a decent career, then getting a recurring hand injury or some shit and transitioning to MMA. Having both sports in the same game would surely boost the total sales since you'd capture fans of both sports, but it never happened.

      You would think it would be the perfect time for a new one with all the youtube meme fights
      Real boxing fans would hate it but they'll buy it anyway

      • 2 years ago
        Anonymous

        >youtube meme fights
        >Real boxing fans would hate it but they'll buy it anyway
        god you're right, its a great time to attempt a fight night reboot. you can bring in a younger audience with the youtube names, and older boxing fans are just so starved for a game they will buy it too. i wonder if its harder to get licenses for some classic fighters these days. wasnt muhammad ali even missing from one of the earlier FN games? and they did that crossover in UFC3 with bishop and whatever the other story character's name is
        your combined game idea could totally work too. EA will always be legendarily out of touch

  4. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    I have a friend who still plays Round 3 on Xbox Live, the community is still pretty active.

    Really surprising me that EA is not capitalizing on this, maybe they lost the skill to make an actual good game again

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      The last Fight night I played is Round 3 (last week) but it lacks the fun frustrating shit I like in sports franchise modes.
      You can't get career ending injuries, for instance. I can't really think of any UFC, MMA, or Boxing game that actually has that as a feature.

      of the first 3 FN games, Round 3 is my lest favorite. it feels like they were still transitioning to a new generation of hardware and werent taking advantage of it yet. 3 feels like a broken 2, and 2 is already fricking broken with haymaker spam.
      im legitimately amazed how good FNC still looks over a decade later.

      I'm pretty sure there is still a decently sized online community around this game.

      no console from that gen currently so i've been emulating them where i can. thinking about getting a 360 just for FNC, UFC Undisputed, and Backbreaker

      • 2 years ago
        Anonymous

        >Backbreaker
        How do you walk straight with that fricking log dangling between your legs?

  5. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    The last Fight night I played is Round 3 (last week) but it lacks the fun frustrating shit I like in sports franchise modes.
    You can't get career ending injuries, for instance. I can't really think of any UFC, MMA, or Boxing game that actually has that as a feature.

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      You can actually get career-ending brain damage in Champion. You get an evaluation after every fight and can pass or fail the exam depending on your facial damage during the fight. After every failed exam the game will tell you that your brain is turning to mush. Fail enough times and you get forced into retirement.

      The thing about it is that, like I said, the exam is based on facial damage for some reason as opposed to something more reasonable like your health, and your resistance to cuts and swelling are maxed out to start with, so you have to be super unlucky to get cut at all. On the other hand, the damage snowballs, so it's annoying if you're trying not to die and get cut early in your career.

      • 2 years ago
        Anonymous

        Frick, that's the one Fight Night I never actually played.
        I should pick it up.

        • 2 years ago
          Anonymous

          The game definitely looks good, like a Mike Tyson hook actually looks like it should literally kill you. The gameplay is more RNG than previous games, I still say Round 3 is the best in the series. Career Mode is busted though, the randomly generated fighters are unviable and the real-life fighters age into irrelevance almost immediately.

          The last Fight night I played is Round 3 (last week) but it lacks the fun frustrating shit I like in sports franchise modes.
          You can't get career ending injuries, for instance. I can't really think of any UFC, MMA, or Boxing game that actually has that as a feature.

          Side note, if you're looking for fighter drama and don't mind shitty mobile sims, try Bit By Bit Games's MMA Manager. It features stuff like injuries, PEDs and media scandals, but like I said it's a shitty mobile sim. Also it's no longer in any store so you'll have to go looking for an APK. Good news is there won't be any ads.

          • 2 years ago
            Anonymous

            dropping counters was a mistake for champion. most people say thet round 4 is where the series peaked in terms of gameplay but thats the only one i never tried.
            and to comment on your "fighter drama" suggestion, that MDickie wrestling empire game has the funniest career simulation i have ever seen even though its connected to what is basically an N64 wrestling game.
            my very first career ended 2 fights in when someone broke my spine

            • 2 years ago
              Anonymous

              Technically Champion still has counters, just not the parries that Round 3 had. They replaced it in 4 with the block meter and in Champion with an omniblock that just randomly lets punches through. Flickering your guard works for the most part, so maybe it's just an invisible block meter. Either way, body punches are more reliable for penetrating defenses.

  6. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    I'm pretty sure there is still a decently sized online community around this game.

  7. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    FNC is still active on Xbox and even ps3, there's also a new boxing game coming out soon, but not from EA

  8. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    >love fight night round 4
    >years after buying it I decide to pop it in and play
    >disc rot
    lol

  9. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    Hellish Quart if you like fencing and eurojank.
    No online tho, physics and online are not a good match

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      if hellish quart had some kind of single player beyond random fights i would have picked it up

      • 2 years ago
        Anonymous

        Its still in its earliest stage and the dev team is just one guy that likes HEMA too much.
        Im surprised there's no big studio copying that idea, because the matches are just great

  10. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    I never played this game. I remember seeing footage of it, this was one of the first games that I thought was photorealistic.

  11. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    Champions is not worth much for the single player, the AI is dumb and rely too much on body punches and power punches. The online is also unbalanced if your opponent pick Tyson, Frost, or Rocky

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      I mean. I'd feel like the fight was pretty unbalanced as well if I had to fight Mike Fricking Tyson.
      Last thing I hear is "I'm gunna puwnch yo snowt Bowx" before he just launches my entire skull out the back of my head like a Loony Tunes skit.

      • 2 years ago
        Anonymous

        "im gonna eat your kids, praise Allah"

      • 2 years ago
        Anonymous

        Lol, Holyfield made him his b***h in their fights, same for Lewis. The game has good gameplay, but not much variety. Tyson's should not have more power than Foreman

        • 2 years ago
          Anonymous

          all the appearing fighters would be in their prime so tyson probably should hit hardest. man was fricking scary when he was young

          • 2 years ago
            Anonymous

            Sure, but this would add more variety. Foreman literally made good fighters quit when facing him, Holyfield who fought both said he was the hardest hitter he ever fought

  12. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    Fight Night were the only fighting games where I enjoyed both winning and losing.
    It just felt good playing those games, no matter if I got steamrolled.

    I still remember someone on PS3 messaging me after beating my ass and telling me how tough that fight was.

  13. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    the latest UFC game isn't that bad, its career mode is kinda charming

    we have to accept that MMA is more popular than boxing, UFC gets tons of PPV viewers every few matches meanwhile people only remember boxing when Canelo or a few other recognized boxers get matches

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      Must be because mexicains are the only boxing audience now

  14. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    How to git gud at this game?
    i get my ass handed to me and i dont know if my build is wrong or im just moronic

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      champion specifically? block more since its rng anyway and try to learn counter timings and spacing. a single counter is worth more than most combos

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      In all seriousness, energy management. Light body work, stiff defense, make your opponent waste their energy. Incoming damage goes up like crazy specifically at minimum energy.

      Unless you mean vs other players then I don't fricking know

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