"Great gameplay, but poor presentation keeps it from being perfect."

Fight Night: Round 3 is the followup to EA Sports' last boxing game, Round 2. It makes a lot of great advancements in actual gameplay, but lacks a lot of the flashy effects that you might expect based on the last game.

Gameplay:
EA has greatly improved the gameplay this time around. Round 2 had a very arcade feel to it, many fights were centered around throwing haymakers, and while it was easy to play, it wasn't very realistic. Round 3 changes that completely by making haymakers much slower and tougher to hit, and by making hooks and uppercuts more meaningful. Now, you have to be careful with every punch, and actually box your way around your opponent. Blocking punches is not foolproof, but it is the best way to get good shots in on the other boxer. By forcing the player to actually box, rather than just throw punches, the game makes each fight a bit more realistic. It can be tough to grasp the concept at first, but it's very rewarding when you master it. EA also included a decent selection of different stances, punch styles, and blocking styles. Each combination changes the strategy a bit, and switching boxers can refresh the game when you've begun to master it. Playing as any given boxer forces you to play to his strengths, and switching to another boxer who is bad at those things makes it a completely different game.

Graphics:
The graphics are very clear and very pretty. Boxers look very realistic at all times, and it's easy to recognize those fighters who you know in real life. The rings and locations all look very nice, and everything meshes very well. A major disappointment, however, are the blood and sweat effects. During replays in Round 2, blood and sweat would fly off of the boxers, and it was a good effect. Round 3 fails to reproduce this effect. The blood and sweat in the air looks better than it did in Round 2, but it's motion is seriously flawed. It appears out of nowhere and doesn't seem to go anywhere. The boxer's faces look great during the fight, though, and it's fun to watch them swell up or cut open. During replays the stretching of the faces is well done, not exaggerated, and it makes the punches look that much more painful. When the boxers go down, they fall with a nice ragdoll effect. Sometimes they wrap up in a comical way, but usually the effect is great, and keeps you from watching the same fall every time. The minigames, such as cutman and training, aren't that much different. They do their jobs, and add a bit more strategy to the game. The ability to skip them is great, too -- new players playing against experienced ones can even the match a little bit when both players skip the cutman scenes.

Sound:
Sound is mostly good. The announcing is above average, usually relevant to the fight. In a slow moving fight, it's perfect, the only flaw comes in fights where a great deal is happening at once. Usually when two unexperienced players fight, there's very little blocking, and the announcer gets somewhat confused, but it's not a huge problem. The sound effects sound painful, especially during powerful combos, and it adds to the effect. All the sound effects add to the experience except for those during replays. Replays feature a crackling sound effect during the punch, but it's not the type of sound you expect to hear in a boxing match. It's not a very bad effect, but it's definitely worse than the effect they used in Round 2. The music is just okay, but it goes well with the game, I can't complain about it.

Presentation:
Overall, the presentation is good, but it is missing some important aspects. In game, the graphics all sport ESPN logos, the rings sport real ads from companies like Burger King, and it makes the game seem more realistic. Real boxing trunks on all the fighters, good looking cornermen, sagging ring ropes, it all makes the game feel like a real boxing match. It's not perfect, though. Boxers no longer make a long entrance to the ring, instead you only see them stepping between the ropes and doing a short animation inside the ring. Between rounds, if you choose automatic cutman or during the computer's turn, only one cornerman is visible. It would have been better if they had shown 2 or 3 or 4 lass detailed men, instead, as that's a bit more realistic. Replays are nice to look at, and enjoyable, but they now only show one replay from each round, as opposed to 3 in Round 2. Meh.

Overall:
The gameplay is markedly improved, and it makes the game much more fun to play. learning the styles is enjoyable, and any big time boxing fan should enjoy it.
If you want a fighting game, this isn't going to do it for you, but if you're willing to learn the gameplay it will be a blast.

8/10 is a fair score -- the gameplay is fantastic, but the poor presentation drags it down a few points.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 03/13/06