Starting today, I’m happy to report that EA Sports is bundling four of its hit PS3 sports titles with tons of bonus downloadable content on PSN! If you’ve been meaning to pick up Madden NFL 13, NCAA Football 13, FIFA Soccer 13, or Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 13, this is the perfect opportunity — and yes, this deal is only on PSN. You’ll be able to download the full game and extra content bundle all month long.

To download any of these deals, turn on your PS3 and head to PlayStation Store after today’s update goes live, then click on Games -> Hot on PS3 -> Weekly Deals. Click on the “Sales and Specials” section on the left and you’ll see the four different EA Sports bundles as you scroll to your right. Click on any bundle and then click “Purchase” to download the complete game and bonus content.

Read on for a quick look at this year’s EA Sports lineup and exactly what you’ll get in the PSN bundle promotion. If you have any questions or comments regarding these bundles, please leave them in the comments!

Madden NFL 13 Bonus Edition

$49.99 — Madden NFL 13, Madden Ultimate Team content ($20 value)

Madden NFL 13 revolutionizes the way sports video game career modes are played with Connected Careers, a new and fully connected universe defined by deep gameplay, unique storylines and social features. Powered by the all-new Infinity Engine, authentic player impacts and momentum transfer ensure that no two plays ever look or feel the same. Also included is Madden NFL 13 Ultimate Team, a free-to-play game mode that integrates Madden NFL Football, fantasy football, and player trading cards. You’ll earn, buy, auction, and trade players to build an ultimate team of NFL legends past and present, then compete in single-player challenges or battle online head-to-head.

Our PSN bundle gives you $20 of Draft Duels Packs for use in Madden NFL’s new competitive drafting experience. In Draft Duels, you’ll go head-to-head picking players against an opponent, then battle on the gridiron to win exclusive rewards.

NCAA Football 13 Bonus Edition

$49.99 — NCAA Football 13, Heisman Bundle ($20 value)

Lead your team to glory with NCAA Football 13, the latest edition of EA Sports’ popular college football franchise. With one of 10 former Heisman winners on your roster, you’ll attempt to utilize his legendary skill set to capture the Heisman Trophy—this time for your school. The all-new passing game sees players tracking and fighting for the ball, while ESPN Studio Updates bring the game to life in a more dynamic, immersive way.

With our PSN Heisman Bundle, you’ll receive six Heisman Trophy Winning Legends, plus all the tools you need to win in the new Heisman Challenge: Tim Brown, Archie Griffin, Jim Plunkett, Tim Tebow, Mark Ingram and Matt Leinart.

FIFA Soccer 13 Bonus Edition

$49.99 — FIFA Soccer 13, 2200 FIFA Points for FIFA Ultimate Team ($20 value)

FIFA Soccer 13 delivers the largest and deepest feature set in the history of the franchise, delivering more player freedom and heightened emotional intensity. Other standout additions include refined fundamentals, improved attacking intelligence, tactical free kicks, and more expressive player impacts, plus more than 500 officially licensed clubs and more than 15,000 players.

With FIFA Ultimate Team you’re a few simple steps away from building, managing and playing with your top squad. You can play for free or purchase FUT packs using Coins or EA Sports FIFA Points. You’ll choose from more than 8,000 players, then pick your style of play, preferred formation, kits, and much more. 2200 FIFA points will help you unveil some of the best FUT items and give you an opportunity to get the world’s star players on your team.

Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 13 Bonus Edition

$59.99 — Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 13, Five Course Pack ($25 value)

The world’s number-one selling golf game is back and ready for another season of PGA TOUR golf. Players will once again be able to experience the authentic golf swing created by the PlayStation Move, allowing golfers to emulate their swing style. You’ll experience revamped swing control, tackle Tiger Woods’ legacy and compete against the world’s best players at The Masters.

The 5 Course Pack includes the following gorgeous, bonus downloadable courses: Spyglass Hill Golf Course, TPC San Antonio, Liberty National, Banff Springs and Greek Isles (a Fantasy course).

Attention PlayStation Nation: we’re back with the biggest gaming tournament of the year – the $1 Million EA Sports Challenge Series powered by Virgin Gaming! Last year, we blew the doors off of the sports gaming scene and now we’re giving you another chance to take home huge cash prizes for playing FIFA 13, Madden NFL 13 and NHL 13.

To get a taste of what last year’s experience was like, check out this video recap from the 2012 tournament finals in New York. Last year in NYC, we made legends out of Adam Winster (FIFA 12 Challenge Champion), Tyler Glen (Madden NFL 12 Challenge Champion) and John Grasso (NHL 12 Challenge Champion). These gamers took home life-changing prizes and will be defending their titles in 2013. Bring your best game and you could be crowned this year’s champ.

So How Does it Work?

This year’s tournament structure has been simplified, so even if you’ve never played in a video game tournament before it won’t take you long to get into the action. In fact, it only takes six wins to secure your spot at the live tournament finals taking place in Las Vegas!

1. Online Qualifiers (October 9Tth 2012 – January 1st 2013)
First, with your purchase of FIFA 13, Madden NFL 13 and/or NHL 13 at GameStop, you will receive free entry into the tournament. Next, sign up for an account at VirginGaming.com. Once you have an account and log in, you’ll find a place to put in your code for the game specific challenge that you are interested in. Then you find a match on VirginGaming.com and challenge your opponent in the EA Sports Arena on your PS3. These qualifiers run 24/7 and you only have to win four matches in a row to secure your spot in the semi-finals. But hurry—there are a limited number of seats to be won in the semis.

2. Online Semi-Finals (January 7th and 8th, 2013)
The first 1,024 players to qualify (512 for NHL 13) will compete in scheduled, bracketed tournament play for a spot in the finals. It only takes TWO wins at this stage to move on.

3. Live Finals in Las Vegas (February 9th, 2013)
The top 256 players from the semi-finals (128 for NHL 13) will meet in Las Vegas to compete for cash and enjoy a day of gaming, music and entertainment in this legendary party town.

What You Can Win

Make it to the live tournament finals and you’ll compete for cash prizes up to $140,000. Everyone at the finals will walk away a winner, with a guaranteed minimum cash prize of $500. Here’s a complete rundown of what’s up for grabs:

If you want to learn more, head over to ChallengeSeries.com for full rules and details, plus the latest tournament news, special strategy content to help you improve your game and more.

Ready for a piece of the big prize pool? Then grab your controller, fire up your PS3, and compete to join us in Vegas for the sports gaming party of the year.

With Euro 2012 getting underway and the latest version of the beautiful game on PlayStation 3 mesmerising crowds at E3 2012, it was the perfect time to catch up with EA SPORTS FIFA 13 producer David Rutter. Here, he explains how this year’s online offering is second to none.

Simon: How has FIFA Street impacted on FIFA 13?

David Rutter: The Precision Dribbling 2.0 – that’s the glamorous name for it – did owe something to that game, yes. We were looking at improved dribbling overall as a big holistic feature, we wanted the ability to move in 360 degrees, we wanted fidelity of distance and we also wanted face angle. That was a big thing for us, the ability to have the player’s face pointing in the right direction no matter which way they’re going.

After that was achieved it became obvious that another cool part of it would be the ability to take defenders on using skill moves. We’ve had some skill moves in FIFA before, but the key lesson we learned from the FIFA Street guys was that level of immediate control on the ball. It was really fun, something we thought would fit in nicely with what we were trying to achieve. They’re our sister team so we brought their code into our game, messed around with it a bit and we now have an equivalent feature in our game.

Simon: Is it a conscious decision to make each iteration more attacking or defensive in scope?

David Rutter: Not at all. What happens is we have a long list of things we want to do, like adding a defender to the defensive wall – that’s been on the list for a few years – but the idea that we’re consciously walking this five-year roadmap of “this year is dribbling, this year is defending” and so on, it doesn’t exist.

What ends up happening is, to give you last year’s example, we realised we need to work on, say, homing missile defenders. We felt that particular feature ended up not meaning anything. So what could we do? Well, we came up with a system that changes defending completely. And then we spoke to the fans and the community and we watched people play, and it dawned on us that the attacking play in the final third of the pitch was a bit lame. We had to enliven the action there.

Simon: How do you react to things like online players finding early exploits?

David Rutter: We get the most feedback from our demo. That has near final gameplay going into it, it goes from the development team to the testers and from many hundreds of our guys playing it, millions of people then get in on it. At that point you take a big gulp and see videos popping up of things like player impact engine bugs and then it’s a scramble to fix things. There was an issue a few years back where there you could score a goal every time from the halfway line, for instance.

So the game we release is solid, but things crop up. This year we have significantly more post-launch support than ever before. EA SPORTS Football Club has been releasing weekly, sometimes twice weekly scenarios for the game and that’s a big drive towards what we’re trying to achieve.

Simon: Last year in FIFA 12 there was a flurry of people adopting the tactic of overloading the front of their team and pumping the ball down to the wings. Is there a temptation to redress the balance in favour of certain styles of play?

David Rutter: One of the worst exploits last year, which we immediately fixed because it was really annoying, was being able to switch to the goalkeeper at any time in play. I mean, why wouldn’t you want that? It’s a great idea. But when some players lost possession they’d switch to the goalkeeper and let the AI control their defence for them – the AI was better than some people. And you’re like, d’oh! A quick update later and we had to take that out, which spoilt a really nice feature.

The second part of this is that people tinker with their line-ups and formations. We could limit the number of formations to counter the tactic you mentioned. One of the reasons there are all those squad update checks and spinning wheels is because we’re making sure you haven’t hacked your squad files before playing online. All of that kind of stuff we spend an inordinate amount of time each year trying to plug. Yet the simple fact is the humans that play our game are amazing. I’m confident that this year’s game will go out, and it will be brilliant.

Given that this was our first venture into the tennis genre on next gen, we really wanted to focus on developing a well-rounded title, with fun and innovative controls, high quality detailed graphics and presentation for all of the players and courts, and enough feature depth to keep you coming back for more, whether it be single player, multi-player, or online.

I have to say that developing our All-New Total Racquet Control system was the most challenging, but also ended up being the most rewarding. We are really proud of this new innovative control scheme, and although it will take a little bit of practice to get used to it, we think that you will really enjoy the amount of fidelity that you have in the controls and how precise you can be. Don’t forget, that feeling of control can be taken one step further with the PlayStation Move controller. It will literally feel like you are playing with a racquet in your hands!

Throughout the development process, we had some amazing head-to-head matches and tournaments within the team. It was a great environment to be a part of and many classic matches and rivalries were created as a result. With these realistic controls, and the ability to battle head-to-head online we hope you will develop your shots, battle against opponents all over the globe, and create some cool memories of your own.

EA SPORTS Grand Slam Tennis 2 is now available on PlayStation 3. It is the exclusive home of Wimbledon and features PlayStation Move support, over 20 of the greatest past and present players, a deep 10-year career mode, a wide variety of online gameplay features including EA SPORTS Game Face technology, and lots more.

For more info and to check out some producer videos, click here: www.easports.com/grandslamtennis2

SSX is just over a month away, and we’re excited to give our PS3 fans in North America some exclusive content to keep you busy on the slopes. Mt. Fuji, the legendary Japanese mountain will only available on PS3 in North America. The mountain that owns the horizon in Tokyo is packed with six unique event drops. Three race drops and three trick drops will have PS3 players carving down and in the majestic landmark in true SSX fashion – with a complete disregard for the laws of physics. From racing through cherry blossoms to tricking off Torii gates, North American Playstation gamers will have something unique to look forward to when SSX arrives on Feb 28th.

Now a few words from the creative director on bringing back SSX from Creative Director Todd Batty:

“Extreme Sports is a dead genre.” Over the past three years I can’t tell you how many times I have heard this. As a gamer who has been playing for more than 20 years and, as a huge fan of games like SSX and Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, it is also something that I refuse to believe.

Don’t get me wrong: I enjoy blowing things up and shooting people in the face as much as the next guy! But spending hundreds of hours with my friends stringing together endless combos in search of the ‘perfect run’ in SSX and THPS is easily some of my fondest gaming memories.

Fast forward nearly a decade and our team is hoping to not only re-launch one of the greatest IP franchises in EA Sports history, but to bring this type of experience back to the forefront of gaming. SSX is a game for gamers.

Arcade games are challenging to design. On one hand, many players expect instant gratification from an arcade title and have little tolerance for an overly steep learning curve. This is actually true of most games today, but is even more important in this type of game. On the other hand, with a shallow learning curve and instant gratification comes the perception (which is often true) that the game lacks depth and is therefore only going to be enjoyable for a short time.

Embracing this challenge from the onset, our team adopted a motto for SSX: “make awesome easy, and make oh-my-god really hard.” Rather than following a more traditional zero-to-hero learning curve, SSX lets you feel like a hero from the first time you pick up the controller. And from there, with a little practice, or in some cases a LOT of practice, you can start to perform like a superhero.

We had three major goals for SSX. The first goal, and where we spent the majority of time and effort with this reboot, was to recapture that core gameplay magic across Race, Trick and Survival events. The second was to build a massive world for players to explore. The third goal was to redefine social gaming on a console with something we call RiderNet.

Race it, Trick It, Survive It

There are three ways to compete in SSX.

Race it is all about bombing down the mountain at insane speeds and trying to find the fastest path down our huge open mountains. Think: Burnout on snow. Beyond that, racing in SSX has always had its own game-changer as doing tricks gives you boost. Your reaction time needs to be lightning quick as youtry to decide whether or not to jump off a huge kickers to earn some valuable boost, or avoid them altogether and stick to the ground so that you don’t lose your speed. When you factor in the coolest new gameplay addition to SSX – a wingsuit that lets you glide high above the terrain for short stints – the level of depth gets even greater.

Trick it has always been the heart and soul of SSX, and this version is no exception. Trick it is all about style and flow, and trying to string together the perfect top-to-bottom combo in order to max your score. In this SSX you can ride everything in the world. Literally. if you can see it, you can ride it. The freedom of trying to grind, backflip, and vault off any piece of terrain means that you’re constantly discovering new tricks and lines on the mountain, even some stuff that we never designed or intended. It’s an awesome feeling knowing that you can make almost any line work if you can find the right angles.

Survive it is something completely new to the SSX franchise. These levels act like mini “boss battles’ where we challenge you to simply make it to the bottom of the mountain in one piece. In game design terms these are referred to as “exciters and delighters” – not meant to be a core part of the experience but something unique and fun to discover hidden among the many awesome race and trick events. Here you will battle different environmental challenges on nine of the most iconic mountains in the world. These challenges range from outrunning and jumping over massive avalanches on Denali in Alaska to riding through perfect darkness in the depths of Kilimanjaro with only a headlamp strapped to your head. Each of these “deadly descents” offers a fresh, and often harrowing, new gameplay experience.

The Massive World of SSX

The new SSX has more mountains than all of the previous versions of SSX combined. The massive world you will explore spans the entire globe and includes nine different regions, 29 unique mountains and over 150 different event drops, each unique in their own way and each offering tons of replayability. If you want to earn a gold medal on every drop in the main mode of SSX (named simply, “Explore”) you will find more than 50-100 hours of fun. And once you start chasing your friend’s records on your favorite drops that number will grow even larger. Much larger.

Ridernet

Finally, we wanted to put competition with friends at the absolute heart of the SSX experience, and we do that with something we call RiderNet. Inspired by Criterion’s awesome Autolog feature from NFSHP, RiderNet allows you to compete against ghosts of your friends best runs, points you to drops where your friends are dominating you, recommends drops based on what you and others like, allows you to share and collect something we call “geotags,” which are user-created collectibles found throughout our massive world, and so much more. We even have a mobile RiderNet application in development that lets you see what your friends are up to when you are away from your console and send them messages, letting you congratulate them or talk a little trash…This SSX was built from the ground up for the connected generation.

We think this game represents the beginnings of a new franchise and the return of an almost-forgotten genre, and we hope that after you get your hands on it you will agree.

SSX lands on the PS3 February 28 in North America and March 2 in the rest of the world. In addition, Sony gamers in North America will be treated to an exclusive mountain that is only available on the PS3 – the legendary Mt. Fuji in Japan. Look forward to seeing you all on the slopes!

The same physics-based, data driven technology that powers FIFA gameplay on PlayStation 3 drives FIFA Soccer on the Vita across eight different game modes, including authentic 11 versus 11, Be A Pro, Tournament Mode with over 50 real-world competitions, a full in-depth Career Mode, and head-to-head online. The game definitely looks and plays like the award-winning FIFA console game.

So the game definitely delivers the authenticity and quality that the FIFA franchise is known for. But the cool stuff comes in the innovations that the development team up in Vancouver has cooked up to utilize front and back multitouch screens to create an intelligent and unique gameplay experience. These Touch Screen features are optional… so you can use the traditional controls just like you’re playing FIFA on your PlayStation, but they definitely add an big element of fun and creativity to the gameplay experience.

Touch Screen Shooting delivers pin-point accuracy and removes that element of “hit and hope” from shooting. As well, Touch Screen Passing opens up the field of play for more creative, precision passing, giving players the ability to distribute the ball and make decisive passes like never before. Finally, Touch Screen Free Kick Control enables players to swipe a finger to aim and curl the shot around the wall.

Plus, players can compete with over 500 officially licensed clubs in 11 v 11 matches in authentic stadiums from around the world.

Also right in the game is the popular FIFA Career Mode, where you play or manage your way to glory through an authentic experience that mimics the real-world game. You begin as a real or created player and evolve into a player-manager and manager – or just begin at the top and enjoy a 15-season career in the real world of soccer.

What else? There’s Head-to-Head Online play, a fun Training Mode, Be A Goalkeeper Mode, and lots more.

FIFA Soccer for the PS VITA is coming in February.

]]> http://blog.us.playstation.com/2011/12/16/fifa-soccer-for-ps-vita-big-game-experience-on-the-go/feed/ 16 http://blog.us.playstation.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2011/12/6519716473_4e303e9855_z.jpg 3.86Producer, FIFA Soccer for PS VITA 16 3 http://blog.us.playstation.com/2011/11/08/begin-your-fight-night-champion-experience-for-under-5-bucks/ http://blog.us.playstation.com/2011/11/08/begin-your-fight-night-champion-experience-for-under-5-bucks/#comments Tue, 08 Nov 2011 20:02:17 +0000 Jazz Brousseau http://blog.us.playstation.com/?p=63713 PSN starting at $4.99. With Fight Night Champion, we delivered a dramatically new gameplay experience. In creating Champion Mode, it was the first time that EA SPORTS had incorporated a story-based game mode into a sports title. Inspired by classic boxing movies, Champion Mode allows players to step into the shoes of Andre Bishop, an up-and-coming middleweight contender who learns that the road to becoming a champion in professional boxing is one that is filled with unimaginable highs and brutal lows. Champion Mode tells a story of redemption and perseverance in one of the toughest sports ever imagined. Now with Fight Night Champion available as a customizable digital download exclusively on PSN, we’re once again delivering a new experience to gamers; we’re giving them the opportunity to customize their experience to meet their gaming needs. We anticipate a few questions, so here’s more detail on this unique approach to downloadable games:]]> Hey fight fans, I’m here to give you the run-down on Fight Night Champion Customizable, available later today exclusively on PSN starting at $4.99.

With Fight Night Champion, we delivered a dramatically new gameplay experience. In creating Champion Mode, it was the first time that EA SPORTS had incorporated a story-based game mode into a sports title. Inspired by classic boxing movies, Champion Mode allows players to step into the shoes of Andre Bishop, an up-and-coming middleweight contender who learns that the road to becoming a champion in professional boxing is one that is filled with unimaginable highs and brutal lows. Champion Mode tells a story of redemption and perseverance in one of the toughest sports ever imagined.

Now with Fight Night Champion available as a customizable digital download exclusively on PSN, we’re once again delivering a new experience to gamers; we’re giving them the opportunity to customize their experience to meet their gaming needs. We anticipate a few questions, so here’s more detail on this unique approach to downloadable games:

How does the customizable download work?
Fans have the opportunity to purchase Champion Mode, downloading it via PSN as a standalone game and experience one of the richest narratives in sports gaming. Users can then customize their experience within the Fight Night Champion in-game store by subsequently purchasing any of the following modes: Fight Now, Legacy Mode and Online Play.

Why did you decide to offer Fight Night Champion as a customizable download on PSN?
It’s all about providing choice. We know that gamers play in different ways. Some people are very into battling opponents online. Others prefer narrative-based stories, like you’ll find in Champion Mode. It’s really about letting fans customize their own experience by purchasing the game a la carte.

Why offer Champion Mode as a standalone game at $4.99?
Champion Mode is really what sets this game apart from Fight Night Round 4. It’s the first time EA SPORTS has had a story-based game mode. Champion Mode is inspired by classic boxing movies and provides hours of captivating and emotional gameplay. It’s the most instantly accessible mode and we felt the story line would draw gamers in who may not be huge boxing fans. By releasing Champion Mode as a standalone at $4.99, it allows gamers who may not be looking to purchase a full boxing title an opportunity to try it out.

What kind of player was the Fight Now piece created for?
Fight Now is for people who just want to get in and fight. They’ll have access to all the boxers and venues in the game. They can even create or download their own boxer.

Can they take that boxer through a whole career?
For that they would want Legacy Mode in the Games Mode download. This is where you get to create your alter ego and put him in the ring against past champions. You start with training and then fight through all your scheduled bouts. You’re goal is to establish yourself as the fighter to beat.

Is there a way to take your ‘alter ego’ online and fight other boxers?
You can purchase the Online Mode which will allow you to play people head-to-head or you can compete for local or worldwide belts.

Will the PSN trophies work any differently with this customizable version?
No, there’s no difference in how PSN trophies work. That being said, there are some trophies that are associated with specific modes, so you’ll have to have downloaded those modes to earn them.

Thanks for checking out this blog post! Bring your questions up here and we’ll do our best to answer as many as we can throughout the day.

Resistance fans will be happy to hear that the signature PlayStation franchise will join the PS Vita software lineup with Resistance: Burning Skies, a new Resistance experience developed specifically for PS Vita that takes full advantage of the system’s dual analog sticks and features an all-new hero and story written by William C. Dietz, author of Resistance: The Gathering Storm and Resistance: A Hole in the Sky.

SCEE also announced a brand-new title: Escape Plan, a ‘touching adventure’ where you use touch controls to guide our newest characters “Lil” and “Laarg” through a dark labyrinth of puzzles and traps.

Our publishing partners also unveiled some big news at gamescom: Ubisoft will launch a brand-new Assassin’s Creed for PS Vita, and EA Sports is bringing FIFA, the world’s most popular sports title, to the platform. As we mentioned at E3, the biggest and best games are coming to PS Vita, and today’s announcements further confirm that promise.

Please stay tuned as we bring you more updates from gamescom in Germany, and let us know what new titles and applications for PS Vita you’re most excited about in the comments below.

What better way to enjoy the most realistic golfing franchise to hit a gaming console than with the PlayStation Move motion controller? Starting next week, we’re very excited to be offering you a new bundle that includes PlayStation Move along with EA SPORTS’ Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12: The Masters Edition.

The limited-edition bundle includes a PlayStation Move motion controller, PlayStation Eye camera and a copy of Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12: The Masters Edition on Blu-ray disc, all for $99.99 (MSRP) at retailers nationwide. Now golfing fans and gamers alike can experience the most responsive motion controlled golf experience around!

Combining realistic, high-definition gaming along with intuitive control, PlayStation Move translates your real golf swing into virtual in-game strokes, putting you in the game like never before. Now you can hit the links at the legendary Augusta National Golf Club and drive, chip and putt alongside the masters of the sport.

Do you play golf, or are you a Tiger Woods fan? Are you interested in trying it out on PlayStation Move? Let us know in the comments!

Previously I mentioned how it’s been a first for EA SPORTS to have a dedicated story-driven Champion Mode alongside an enhanced Legacy Career Mode. Another first now comes with the demo that allows gamers to play head-to-head online until end of day February 17th. The beta period serves as an opportunity not only for fans of the series to get a taste of the game with their friends, but also as a means to gather feedback for the development team, who will have the ability to tweak certain aspects of gameplay without title updates.

“This year, we have set the game up so that we can update several game play variables online and deploy them fairly quickly without having to patch the game,” explains Gameplay Producer Brian Hayes. “With these ‘Tuner Sets’ we can make slight adjustments to stamina, punch power, counter windows, boxing ratings, and Create Boxer XP growth for online and offline gameplay. For offline gameplay alone, we will be able to adjust AI and Legacy Mode logic if we are finding that these can help make for an authentic in-ring experience.”

As I also manage the NHL community, who first used the Tuner Sets, I know that both the community and developers have benefited from not having to go through the longer process of providing title updates. Hayes goes on to say that not all gameplay aspects can be changed — however, judging by the comments from some demo players, the game may not need any changes at all.

“Fight Night Champion goes into a new direction as it continues the quest of capturing the essence and vision of the sport of boxing while building off of its previous foundations in a significant attempt to be considered one of the best sports games ever created,” says Anthony Lynn aka Indigo72 on PSN of UntilTheNextRound.com.

Ant was one of seven community members we invited participate in an early feedback session back in October of 2010. This group brought along a multi-page wishlist for the dev team and, so far, the demo is being regarded as much improved, especially in the online virtual ring where a lot of the cheese and sometimes unrealistic play from Round 4 has been removed.

To this point, online connectivity has been solid as over 1.5 million bouts have been played online and we hope gamers can continue to play during the time online is available to receive that continued feedback. You’re also welcome to comment below with your feedback on the demo or if you have any questions that I may be able to field on behalf of the developers.

Check my previous entry here on the PlayStation.Blog for the Full Spectrum Punch Controls video. And today, I’m providing some diagrams from the Controls Tutorials Blog on our FNC homepage along with some basics to get you started with the demo. But first you have to go download it…so do that NOW!

FSPC enables you to use the Right Stick to throw punches. Flicking the Right Stick to the Left will throw punches with your left hand, while flicking the Right Stick to the Right will throw punches with your right hand.

When you flick the stick at different angles, the boxer will throw different punches. Flicking the Right Stick Upwards will throw Straight punches, flicking the Right Stick to the Side will throw Hooking punches and flicking the Right Stick Downwards will throw Uppercut