Fight Night 2004 (PS2/Xbox)

By JON MINIFIE

(Herald rating: * * * *)

With many of the same old sports titles being released every year offering only the odd extra feature here and there, it is a breath of fresh air when you find something that is truly groundbreaking. EA's new boxing title shows us what we have been missing all these years and, with any luck, the new control scheme featured in Fight Night 2004 will change the way we play boxing games.

"Total Punch Control" takes the action away from the four main buttons and shifts the focus to the right analogue stick. If you want to crack a solid left hook on the jaw of your opponent, for example, you just move the stick in a half circle.

Moving the stick forward in a sharp, snapping motion will deliver a killer jab. I'm not talking about a couple of hits here and there either. Pretty much every available move has been made accessible using this method, which makes practising your moves a highly legitimate use of your weekends.

What comes from so much freedom is a real development of individual styles. Get a few mates together who have been playing a while and you'll see some amazing slugfests. It is with multiplayer matches that Fight Night truly excels.

The game modes, while not as rich and varied as other EA sports' titles, offer reasonable value for money. In career mode you create a player and customise him until the cows come home with tattoos, haircuts and progressively cooler shorts.

Along the way you will touch gloves with Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier and David Tua, and earn loads of cash. Practice bouts throughout the campaign will give you ample time to hone your skills.

Graphically Fight Night is superb. Well-created models and facial recreations add to the realism, along with a wicked feature in which your opponent gets more exhausted as the fight goes on. There are plenty of blood noses and puffy eyes to satiate even the most punch-drunk of players.

Overall, an extremely tasty offering that should force other developers to sit up and take note that EA Sports are not content merely to keep reproducing the same old stuff.

Price: $99.95

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