If felt like an eternity since the last installment of EA's Fight Night series. Fight Night Round 3 back in 2006 re-energized the series making fights seem almost realistic along with amazing physics. How cool was it when you delivered the big haymaker and punched your opponents lights out and see the reaction of the hit with their face smashed in. That my friends is classic. Sure the game was great, but at times it still felt just a tad arcade-like with the different haymakers. Also, what was up with the Burger King in the game? It just goes to show that there was still plenty of room for improvement. Now Fight Night Round 4 is here, and it looks and plays even better than before.

Fight Night Round 4 features some of the greatest fighter's in the history of the sport allowing you to the opportunity to create classic matchups never before seen. This game features boxing's all-time greats including Muhammed Ali, George Foreman, Evander Holyfield, Lennox Lewis, Sugar Ray Leonard, Oscar De La Hoya, and so many more. Not only do you get the greats of the sport, but you also get current greats as well as young up and coming talent who are still making a name for themselves. The biggest addition to the game has to be Mike Tyson. It's been a long time since Mike Tyson's Punch Out back on the original NES when we last saw Iron Mike. Now he's finally here and best of all, just like all the other fighters in the game, their shown in their prime so you know you fighting as them when they were at their best.

After Fight Night Round 3, the crew at EA decided to scrap everything they've done and make a completely brand new experience. Fight Night Round 4 features a completely redone fighting physics engine that makes the hits feel even harder than ever before. Not only will you feel like you've been hit by a mack truck, but you'll also see the hit in it's full impacting glory while all your friends laugh at you for getting knocked the heck out. One thing to keep in mind is that each punch you throw will be completely different then the next. This has to do with a fighter's strength and stamina that will steadily decline as the fight wears on. So for all you people out there who only want to throw haymaker bombs over and over again, each punch will be weaker and weaker because your wearing your fighter out. They've also changed the recovery feature to get back into the fight after getting knocked to the canvas. Once knocked down you must use the left analog stick to move the meter to the center and then use the right analog stick to get up. While this may sound easy to do, just remember that if your getting knocked down alot the recovery process becomes much harder to accomplish.

One of Fight Night Round 4's newest features is the new and improved Total Fight Control. Now I'm guilty of using the face buttons and trigger buttons (haymakers) to punch in Fight Night Round 3. Now all of your punches are controlled on the right analog stick with upper movements on the stick controlling jabs, lower movements led to body shots, and quarter and half circle movements dealing devastating uppercuts. Haymakers are also back, but they're not like the types in Round 3 that felt a little too over the top. The new haymaker feature is modified by using the left bumper. Blocking is controlled by using the right trigger and moving the right analog stick up for a high block and down for a low block. There's also the illegal hit which you can use by pressing the B button. Personally I feel that this is really unecessary since you can lose points for using it, but then again it's EA Sports and "it's in the game."

Also new to the game is the option to fix up for fighter of choice between rounds. After each round you'll be given points based upon your performance (punches, blocks, not taking alot of damage, etc). You can use these points to repair your fighter's health, stamina, and damage. You can use your points to repair a specific area of need or you can just use an auto repair feature to balance out all the areas. If your a smart fighter, you can bank the points if you've had a good round or your not taking alot of damage so that you can have plenty of points to spend on key areas like stamina especially if you get into the later rounds of the fight which could help you score that big knockout instead of relying on the judges scorecard for a decision.

Fight Night Round 4 has plenty of new features including a new career mode called Legacy Mode. Here you can create your own fighter and raise him up through the ranks to become the next champion. This mode is greatly improved with a new ranking system (although it's not perfect), awards, and a new training mode, although you can still auto-train if your the lazy type. Online mode will be the biggest challenge. You can use any of the game's fighters, or better yet create your own fighter, and fight your way to the world championship title. By the way, the way there is only one championship title belt in the game so good luck trying to obtain it. As for the game's presentation, Fight Night Round 4 doesn't dissapoint. The presentation is straight out of ESPN's Friday Night Fights. You'll get ring entrances and introductions (sorry, no Michael Buffer), and full commentary from Joe Tessitore and Teddy Atlas. Also, each of the game's fighters now react just like their real life counterparts in their fighting styles and punching. This gives the game it's authentic look and feel.

Fight Night Round 4 is a great improvememt over the last game. It's great to see that we have a collection of some of the greatest fighters in the history of the sport. If it was just a collection of today's fighters, this game would not be so great. Let's face facts everyone, boxing has lost alot of popularity since it's haydays. There are way too many boxing titles so it's hard to say who's really the champion, there's not alot of big names to hang your hat on anymore, the heavyweight division that was the one true staple of the sport absolutely sucks, and the fans have moved on to Mixed Martial Arts (mainly the UFC). Don't get me worng, I am a boxing fan.  Besides the one thing that boxing still has over MMA is the fact that the boxing still truly showcases the artform of the punch. Each fight is almost like a masterpiece being created and Fight Night Round 4 showcases this perfectly. No matter if you like boxing or MMA, Fight Night Round 4 should definitely be in your collection.