Punching is....what? I for one am not a fan of the new stick patterns to throw punches but that is 100% a preference thing and will vary per person. However I do know 1 thing, having to practically stop completely in order to throw body shots is disgraceful and the number of punches thrown per round have the potential to be INSANE. I just finished a fight where my opponent, in the third round (2 minutes) threw 182 punches with cotto. I usually laugh at these type of things, not now. There's also the atrocious jab which I hoped was going to be of use this time around and instead of serves no purpose at all outside of making you Jump toward your opponent and into the glue feet range. Why do I not have complete control over my characters actions anymore is just retarded.
-Removing the skill cap. This is probably the biggest problem yet and it starts with the terrible new blocking mechanic. They removed (as expected, and argued about before) the things that separated bad from good, good from great, and great from elite. Before, you knew a good defense when you saw it. Not everyone had a great defense, like in real life, because not everyone was great at reading their opponent and timing their attack. Now, everyones defense is essentially the same. What separates a good defense from a bad one, someone explain this to me please. It's just hold the trigger and let the RNG nature of things decide when a punch will get in or not. The game all in all is just EXTREMELY STIFF. When putting Round 4 back in I instantly noticed an enormous difference in fluidity, which is sad.
One button blocking/connect percentage- This is the biggest flop in the game, It actually pi$$es me off they simplified blocking like this.. WTF were the developers thinking, honestly? This is garbage and IMO it ruins the game for me.. I still think the games fun but this simplified garbage is exactly that, GARBAGE!!! I know for a fact I blocked 70% of the CPUs punches and I know they block 60% of mine.. ATLEAST, but some how the computer comes up 50% plus connect % every time, something isn't calculating right in the DEMO or it has every thing to do with that $hit one button blocking nonsense and punches are getting through the guard than I think.