Yeah, I only ever bought FFNY for the raw, gritty, over-the-top fighting. Eventhough I like hiphop, it wasn't really of any particular influence.
They should return the whole Fight Club theme. Infact, a good Fight Club game would be nice too. (Instead of the bullshit Fight Club game for the original Xbox)
It would be really cool if DF4 has more RPG elements like working out, training and stuff, perhaps a bit more like Fight Night. Not to mention how cool it would be to have really large areas, like a cityblock. Where there are just people hanging out, clubs to go to, gyms to work out at. As you progress through the level, you could travel to a different cityblock, like downtown, office district whatever. You could talk to people, make friends, perhaps recruit people for your gang. Or start a war with another fight gang or a single person, whatever. Then it could escalate to a fight, really on the street with people getting involved and crowd being an important factor. As more people build up, you could have a friend of you in the crowd hand you a weapon, like they promised in FFNY.
Maybe even have the cops show up if it really gets out of hand, arresting you or whatever. In such a case, it's nice to have friends around to back up your story and land the other guy's ass in jail instead of yours. So if you fight really well you get more respect, more friends and less problems.
You could elaborate with random crimes like getting mugged and choosing how to respond to it.
I also vote for making the game even grittier. More blood, maybe broken bones and whatnot. I don't care about an 18+ rating. Look at GTA still going strong after all the controversy. No publicity is bad publicity.
I wonder, alot of great thoughts on these boards, so why did they let Kudo do Icon? He did a great job at Fight Night, but totally blew this one. And it's not like they're pressed for people. I, for one, wouldn't mind working at EA. I don't care, I can just sit here, send in ideas and not get paid. If that makes a better game, I'm all for it.