I'm up to my 5th career fight and really not impressed at all. Very poor quality game.
-Graphics are awful considering the power of the 360.
-Animations very, very bad, would expect them to be on current gen, next gen should be so much better, game should have fully motion captured animations with smooth transitions and perfect hit detection.
-Punch contact is very badly done, so far I've managed to knock a guy down with a punch that completely missed his head and hit him as I was pulling my arm back and another that hit him on the shoulder. I'd say at least 1/3 of my punches don't make real contact yet it acts as if they do.
-Staggering about all over the place when hitting with a hook, awful, looks arcade.
-Far too many knockdowns in fights, in my 3rd fight I knocked my opponent down 9 times over 5 rounds, finally the fight was called off, (I'm playing on Amateur to get used to the game following reports from people of how steep the learning curve is, but even so, 9 knockdowns before it's over? Even in Fight Night I never had that many).
-No way to change camera angles, one camera only? That's ridiculous.
-Where's the custom music option for the ringwalk? Why can't I choose my own music for the ringwalk? Weren't we told that was possible? All I can do is choose a few crappy tracks from a menu.....
-Licensed fighters may as well not be licensed at all, appearances are rudimentary, styles are non existent and the stats appear to be complete random, certainly bear no relation at all to their real life counterparts.
-Forced arcade elements such as adrenaline and rage punches, why force that on us? What happened to user choice? Why can't we disable the HUD?
-Ring is waaaaaay too small.
Best thing about the game? CAB design.
Worst thing about the game? Aesthetics and gameplay.
Ratings:
Audio: 5/10 Adequate, no more, no less.
Visual: 4/10 This does not look like a 2008 next gen game, shame they apparently spent more money on licenses than artists in the team. Graphics/textures very poor, animations are awful.
Longevity: 4/10 Once the story mode is completed there's little left to do, online will be full of glitchers as usual.
Overall I'd say the game is about a 4/10, not impressed. Clearly this is behind Fight Night in terms of a visual experience, enjoyment wise I've played a lot of boxing games I enjoyed more, HBO Boxing on the PS1, 4D Boxing on the Amiga, TV Sports Boxing (aka ABC wide world of sports boxing) on the PC/Amiga, Knockout Kings, Fight Night, the list goes on. People always told me that if 2k did a boxing game it would be an amazing game, would be a real simulation of the sport that impressed in all areas, sadly that prediction was off the mark in every area.