Happy New Year PlayStation fans! As one of the Community Managers at EA SPORTS, I’m lucky enough to work with some of the most talented development teams in all of sports video games. Currently taking up a lot of my time these days is getting the word out about the next installment to our boxing franchise, Fight Night Champion.
In addition to a revamped and improved Legacy Mode, Champion Mode takes you through the life of Andre Bishop and his path to becoming a Champion. We’re stoked about this first opportunity for an EA Sports title to have a dramatic game mode with mature themes. I think our boxing fans will feel connected with our hero and really want to get to that next chapter to see how the story all plays out.
The big question from PlayStation Fight Night fans will most definitely be about gameplay. The biggest improvement that the team made was implanting a new control scheme dubbed Full Spectrum Punch Control. I asked Producer Brian Hayes what the inspiration behind the new controls came from.
“We went back to the drawing board, literally, with Full Spectrum Punch control,” Hayes replied. “Based on a lot of user feedback and telemetry, we were finding that the previous implementations of TPC had fundamental ergonomic challenges. Basically, it was a lot easier to extend the thumb outwards and throw left handed punches, than it was to cram the thumb inwards and throw right handed punches. It’s just not a good thing to have that kind of obstacle in a boxing game.” Unless you have ultra gamer thumbs like I do ;) Kidding…
“So the first thing we decided to do was remove the need for all the quarter-circle or half circle gestures on the analog stick,” continues Hayes, “Now it’s a lot easier to throw punches. It’s also gentler on your thumbs and nicer on your controller. A lot of people tell us all the time about how many controllers they have worn out, hopefully that will be a thing of the past too.”
Anyways, I promised the PSN blog folks that I’d keep this concise as I tend to ramble on. Read my Fight Night blogs on the Producer’s Corner and make sure you’re following the Fight Night Facebook page for all the latest news, discussion, and videos including the 5-part Champion Mode reveal series. Look out for the demo to drop on the PlayStation Network in February and look up my PSN ID EA_sk88z if you need a lesson or two in the school of hard knocks once Fight Night Champion drops March 1st!
Let me know in the comments below who you’ll be challenging me with and whether you’ll be jumping in fist first into Champion Mode or creating your own path to glory in Legacy Mode!
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