Next week a big DLC pack s coming entitled the ‘Heavyweight Legends Pack’ for Fight Night Champion.  The pack will include boxers Rocky Marciano, Jack Johnson, Jack Dempsey, Joe Louis and Floyd Patterson. This DLC will also include the ‘Bare Knuckles Pack’ which lets Fight Night Champion’s roster fight bare-knuckled (excluding Muhammed Ali, Mike Tyson, Oscar De La Hoya, Geroge Foreman, Joe Frazier, Evander Holyfield, Ray Leonard, Roberto Duran, Vitali and Wladimir Klitschko) and adds online ranked and unranked bare knuckle fights. The pack even adds a bare knuckle online World Championship. The ‘Heavyweight Legends Pack’ includes the ‘Bare Knuckles Pack’ for 800 Microsoft Points or $10. Alternatively you can buy the ‘Bare Knuckles Pack’ separately for 320 Microsoft Points.

It doesn’t end the as there will also be the ‘Alternate Weight Class Pack’, including 8 new boxers from different weight classes, including Featherweight Manny Pacquiao, Lightweight Manny Pacquiao, Welterweight Roberto Duran, Middleweight Thomas Hearns, Oscar De La Hoya in Lightweight Class, Middleweight Roy Jones Jr, Middleweight Bernard Hopkins and Welterweight Pernell Whitaker which will only run you 80 Microsoft Points or around 2 bucks.

Each fighter can be bought for 160 points each, while you have three main Packs to choose from the ‘Heavyweight Legends Pack’ (includes Bareknucles pack), ‘The Bare Knuckles Pack’, and the ‘Alternate Weight Class Pack’.  That’s a lot of add-on content to choose from.  All the DLC will be released on March 29th worldwide on Xbox 360 while Playstation 3 users will get it in US ans Japan on March 29th as well with Europe seeing a March 30th release.  You can see all the details on the DLC on the Official Site here.

Here are the new Achievement/Trophies for the DLC:

The Gloves Come Off
Complete a Ranked Match in Bareknuckles Mode

Unforgiven
Defeat Jack Johnson in Fight Now on default settings

Maul the Manassa Mauler
Defeat Jack Dempsey in Fight Now on default settings

Rock the Brockton Blockbuster
Defeat Rocky Marciano in Fight Now on default settings

A Gentleman’s Victory
Defeat Floyd Patterson in Fight Now on default settings

Take Out the Brown Bomber
Defeat Joe Louis in Fight Now on default settings

Put Out the Filipino Flame
Defeat Lightweight Manny Pacquiao in Fight Now on default settings

Execute the Mexicutioner
Defeat Featherweight Manny Pacquiao in Fight Now on default settings

Take Junior to School
Defeat Middleweight Roy Jones Jr in Fight Now on default settings

Now we know the title update is on its way and what is will do, as well as DLC for Fight Night Champion.  The DLC details will be announced officially later today but here is what will come with the title update and most likely the DLC.  You can stay updated on the official site here.

Title Update will add:

Punch Accuracy Reduction: Overall accuracy will be reduced and accuracy tracking a moving target will be reduced. Users will notice lower connect percentages and a better ability to use head movement defensively.
Hit Reactions Intensity Increased: Bigger hit reactions across the board and increased punch offsetting – i.e. punches thrown off target when a boxer is hit in the act of punching.
Combination Punching Adjustments: Bigger difference in combination speed between boxers with low and high Combination Skill rating.
Improved Weave Input Detection: Reduced the instance of weaves happening unintentionally.
Health Loss Adjustment: Regular punches do more damage and combination punching is more effective.
Stamina Recovery Adjustment: Less stamina recovered between rounds.
Perfect Block Counter Window Disabled: Pending simultaneous release of Tuner Set.
Opponent Counter Freeze: Fixed a bug where the a Perfect Block would sometimes freeze the opponent’s inputs.
Late Guard: Fixed a bug where the guard went back up late if you threw more than one punch out of the block.

Now the DLC will most likely but not officially include the following with a leaked video to add to it.  If correct we will see fighters Joe Lewis, Rocky Marciano, Jack Dempsey, Jack Johnson, and Floyd Patterson. Cowboys Stadium will also be apart of the addition if the leak is correct.  Here is the video leak, that is if it’s a real leak at all.

Right away there is ‘Champion Mode’ which sets this game apart from any other Boxing/MMA game out now right away.  Champion Mode is pretty much a story mode and a quite compelling one at that.  I mean it almost felt like the kind of emotion you would get from a modern day Rocky film at certain points.  Without giving too much away you are at a time in prison, fighting in prison and your goal is to make it to the top.  Spoiling the story won’t make you enjoy it any more so let’s just say it is a good story with twists and turns while you box your way through it.  The only disappointing part of it is that it was short.  I mean, I played on a lower difficulty but playing on a higher one might make it last longer but strictly because of difficulty.  Although short I look at the compelling mode as an introduction to the rest of the game, because that is where it really begins.

First off the controls have changed drastically making it much easier for anyone to get into the game while still leaving veterans of the franchise the tools of the trade.  One major change is blocking, which can be a good thing for you but a bad thing when an opponent is blocking, because it is just one button.  While holding block it automatically blocks where ever the opponent is aiming for.  You can now use the face buttons for punching high and while holding left trigger you punch low.  There is even a Power Punch that leaves more open for a counter and takes a lot of stamina.  Left trigger is also used to dip and dodge around your opponents punches while holding it down, along with moving the left stick.  Now if face button punching is not your thing or you are willing to try something new, there is the dynamic control system called ‘Full Spectrum Punch Control” where you use the right stick to punch.  It can be as simple as pushing the stick in a certain direction on doing a half circle or other combinations to put together some mean punches.  To add to that all the controls are fully customizable to your liking, so the controls should be far from a problem for anyone.  However there is at times a slow down in response time especially when you decide you want to block.  That block button is not always guaranteed  to come right up, depending on what you were throwing.

Now of course there is the ‘Fight Now’ feature where you can play with up to two players or just go against the AI.  You can choose between the ultimate roster of fighters ever.  From current favorites to all the classic fighters like Ali, Tyson, De La Hoya and Holyfield.  After that we have the ‘Legacy Mode’ which is a giant tournament where you start off by either creating a boxer or using known legend of the ring.  As you move up the ladder you will get your chance at the title.  While doing this you can see how popular you are becoming check your rank, stats and messages from your trainer.  During your Legacy career you will also want to train but not too hard especially before a big fight.  All fights can be seen on your fight calendar, past, present and future.  Ranking and ratings work just like they do in real life determining who you will fight depending on who your beat or lose to.  You can even fight outside the ring to add to your reputation, so check your messages from your trainer often.  Adding to the realism, but halting your gameplay are mandatory recovery periods where you cannot train or fight in Legacy mode, but you can take the fight to the other modes or even online when this happens.  When and if you get that belt you will then have a choice to try to continue fighting and hang on to it or retire your fighter at any time.  The Legacy is the meat and bones of the game.  Through out the game no matter what mode I was playing, the game seemed to freeze up for a couple of second on occasion, but it was nothing game breaking.

Now of course there is online multiplayer, but like you have never seen before.  Your going to want to create a fighter and as you fight you will gain XP, the more you win, the longer you last, the more XP you get.  This XP is used to put points into your fighters attributes from head jabbing to speed, to blocking strength, there is a long list to work with.  There is the almighty ‘Online World Championship’ which is an online mode that is not for the weak or inexperienced as this will prove who is the best ‘Fight Night Champion’ there is in the world.  To take it down a notch you can also participate in ‘Prize Fighting’ where winning tournaments will earn you prizes and of course it won’t go unrecognized.  Now the best and most innovative section of the online features has to be the Online Gyms where you can create your own gym or join one that suits your needs.  While in the gym you can spar with other members of the gym with up to 32 players to a gym.  Just like in real life you can learn from other fighters or teach them the tricks of the trade to bring your gym to the top.  This is where Boxing becomes a team sport where you can challenge or be challenged by other rival gyms and win trophies or essentially make your way up the leaderboards recruiting fighters across the globe for a team goal to make it to the top.  You can obviously have different weight classes in your gym or depending on who is made the gym leader make it a one weight class gym.  It doesn’t get much more real and in depth than this.

Things can get brutal.

I’m afraid it doesn’t end there as you can record matches, create highlight reels and edit replays of knockouts from whatever camera angle or speed you want.  You can then upload it to you space on the website.  In the media section you can view all the cinematics from Champion Mode, listen to all the music tracks in the game (which can all be customized as entrance themes for fighters) and more.  You can right off the bat just create your own fighter customizing him to the T, or download Mr. T as I saw someone had created and uploaded.  Entrance music, flashes, spark blasts during entrance to the ring and face type, eye color, hair style, tattoos, clothing color are all things you have at your disposable when creating a fighter.  The list is endless though, with no fighter looking a like and you can use them or choose to upload them for other people to use or both.  You can even download a picture of yourself or someone else for that matter as well as being able to super impose your face on the your fighter.  There is not a limit to fighters you can create and you can take them online or use them in Legacy Mode.

The game includes a ‘My Corner’ menu selection where you can view your Highlight Reel if your are deserving of one as well as giving you the option to view any ESPN Classic Fights you have fought.  This area also includes the in game manual, credits, file management, media and settings.  You can save your settings down to the specifics.  There is even a store where you can buy XP for your fighter among other things, but in the end it won’t make you a better fighter.  If that isn’t enough, while connected to Xbox Live there is a marquee scrolling at the bottom of the screen much like ones seen on ESPN.  This brings the scores from every sport and the wins/losses as well as EA Sports Gaming news making this another small but great addition to Fight Night Champion.  You really couldn’t ask for more in a Boxing game when this is more a an experience as close to the real thing as you can get without actually being a boxer.  What’s next?  Adding Rocky to the roster.. hmm.. wait no, let’s not go there.

This game was reviewed on the Xbox 360.

Here is one of the newer videos for Fight Night Champion, with this one explaining how the online gym works.  You will be able to take your gym online against another gym almost like teams.  You can customize yourself in many ways and go online to fight in a season or tournament.  The video explains it much better and more in depth, so check it out below.

What’s the most important thing about boxing?  Well punching the opponent in the face of course according Fight Night Champion producer Brian Hayes.  He gives us a brief tutorial on offensive and defensive skills to use in Fight Night Champion.  The game has some intense graphics and currently has a demo available for download.  Fight Night Champion will be out March 1st, 2011 for the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 as well as an iPhone version possible in the works.  Fight Night fans will be fairly familiar with the controls but things have changed slightly with added features.

Offensive Tutorial

Defensive Tutorial

Now available for download now is the Fight Night Champion game on the Xbox Live online marketplace here.  Below is a trailer of what to expect from the game and to promote the demo.  The demo will feature two fights which are Mike Tyson vs Muhammad Ali and Manny Pacquiao vs Miguel Cotto.  The trial will last two weeks and you can change the control scheme to your liking which is nice.  It is a hefty 1.5Gb so clear out your hard drive.  Fight Night Champion will be out later this year for the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3.

The recent MMA games have not phased out boxing just yet as the fourth trailer EA Sports has released for Fight Night Champion entitled ‘Authentic Brutality’, focuses on the visual effects of just how detailed the game is which is seen below.  Above is the trailer which is the reason this will be the first EA Sports title with an M rating.  The trailer is called ‘Losing Everything’ and it brings a story to the game where you fight in prison with no gloves, bring the brutality.  Fight Night Champion will be out on March 1st, 2011 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

GB: How will Fight Night Champions differentiate itself from previous games in the franchise?

Brian: Interesting question. In many ways, we want to be recognized for the same things as previous iterations, such as exciting game-play and outstanding visuals. Those are hallmarks of the series that we try to surpass and improve upon every time around. Fight Night Champion is the first EA Sports game to deliver a Mature experience and the addition of Champion Mode is another first for EA Sports also. The pillars of the franchise remain the same.

GB: Will Fight Night Champion be a more story-oriented games than its predecessors?

Brian: The aforementioned Champion Mode is essentially a story-based, sports-simulation campaign mode. From beginning to end you follow the hero, Andre Bishop on his journey through the worlds of amateur, unlicensed and professional boxing. But the rest of the game that includes Fight Now, Legacy Mode, Online Gyms and World Championships is all still there too, with several additions and improvements.

GB: It has been said that Fight Night Champion will have a “darker” and “grittier” theme. How is that?

Brian: Again, this centers primarily around the story in Champion Mode which includes a good deal of darker, grittier and more mature themes than you’re accustomed to in an EA Sports game. As ancillary benefit, this has allowed us to beef up the level of physical damage we show in regular gameplay also. So while Champion Mode carries the load of the darker, grittier undertones, the overall game has become a bit more, let’s say, brutal. That’s not to say that we have purposely over-exaggerated it, but in the past we were somewhat hand-cuffed as far as what we could do when it came to showing the damage that professional prizefighting can really cause.

GB: What’s the new physics based animation system that Fight Night Champion will be supporting?

Brian: It’s fundamentally the same as the physics engine we introduced in Fight Night Round 4, with 18 more months under its belt. It was a revolutionary approach for Round 4 and we simply tried to build on that strong foundation.

GB: Is this game supposed to be the ultimate boxing experience? Will it totally recreate the sport?

Brian: It is definitely a great boxing experience and I think the fact that Fight Night is still in the ring throwing punches, when the sport itself is struggling somewhat, speaks volumes about the game’s quality. Delivering the ultimate boxing experience is our ultimate goal, but I really can’t be so presumptuous as to say it “totally” recreates the sport, any moreso than a game like Battlefield totally recreates warfare.

GB: Should we be expecting any new game modes, or perhaps an overhauled multiplayer mode?

Brian: Do I need to mention that Champion Mode is new at this point? One other addition we’ve made to Online play is the Online Gyms feature. More on that in the new year

GB: How does the new “Full Spectrum Punch Control” scheme work?

Brian: Very easily! We really went back to the drawing board with FSPC. The previous incarnation of analog punching, Total Punch Control, was a really solid design (and I’m proud to say that I was the first person to actually draw it up on paper back on Fight Night 2004). But ultimately, it worked better on paper and sound bites than it worked in your hands. It’s responsible for a lot of calloused thumbs and a lot of controllers worn down to the bare plastic sticks. Furthermore, the physiology of the human thumb and the layout of the modern controller meant that it was fundamentally harder to throw punches with your right hand than it was with your left.

We decided to remove the need for complex manipulation of the analog stick to throw punches. Every punch is thrown by simply flicking the stick to the left or right at different angles. As you move from 12 to 6 o’clock on the stick, you move through a variety of punch types. There are twice as many punches available with FPSC compared to TPC. It’s easier on your thumbs, its kinder to your controller and there are a lot more punches you can throw. However, if you just don’t like using the sticks, button controls are in the game too.

GB: Are you guys considering any support for the PlayStation MOVE, Microsoft’s Kinect and 3D?

Brian: It has been discussed, but the motion control technology is not something that you can just simply port existing games into and expect them to magically work. I think that’s something a lot of developers learned when the Wii first launched. Fight Night fans are accustomed to being able to fight for several rounds in a single sitting, boxing for 2-3 minutes at a time and immediately skipping the break between rounds. I don’t think its reasonable to think that you could just slap motion control in there and “ta-da!” have Fight Night for Move and Kinect. There are opportunities there for interactive boxing experiences, but they need to be designed from the ground up to work with motion control.

GB: Is there anything else you want to tell us about Fight Night Champion?

Brian: Most importantly, Fight Night Champion will be available for the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 on March 1, 2011.

We thank the team at EA and especially Brian Hayes for giving their valuable time to us.

Check out the newest trailer of EA’s upcoming boxing game, Fight Night Champion. It shows some cool action inside the ring, and let me tell you, the visuals are really good.

Fight Night Champion releases March next year for the Xbox 360 and PS3.

Jazz Brousseau, Assistant Producer of Fight Night Champion, tells us some interesting stuff about his game in the video given above. Check it out and enjoy.

Fight Night Champion releases march 1st, 2011 on the Xbox 360 and PS3.