Fight Night Round 3

"There Is Only So Much A Boxing Game Can Do...."

INTRO: Fight Night Round 3 has received more praise by the critics than any other early 360 game. Why? I don't know. FNR 3 is a very strikingly beautiful game. But with that said there is only so much that a boxing simulator can accomplish. I mean it's boxing, which is a very simplistic and niche fighting game without real depth for anything new as a simulator. Despite my feelings on that though FNR 3 is probably the best boxing simulator ever.

GRAPHICS: Like I briefly mentioned before Fight Night Round 3 has the next gen look and presentation that we have all been waiting for. At the beginning of the game there is a some what lengthy character creation process that will give your boxer uncanny detail. And all of your opponents will be just as highly detailed. Facial animations, body language, muscles all have an unprecedented look to them. EA went to great lengths to create the physics engine and skeletal work on each character. Every character has layers of bone and skeleton to them. This means that bodies will cringe when hit and struck faces will have a shockwave go through them when given a heavy haymaker. The game also features some very dynamic lighting effects. This is what really gives the game it's distinct flair of realism. When it comes down to it Fight Night Round 3 has a very strong case as the best looking console game ever.

SOUND: To go along with the great graphics FNR 3 has some of the best sound effects yet to date. The act of punching someone in their sweaty face sounds just exactly as it should. Even some of the harder sound effects, such as the swooshing sound of your fist and bouncing off the ropes, sound great and very realistic. The menu music is also pretty good, which is good considering you will spend a lot of time in the menus. EA normally does have great soundtrack for all it's sport games too. But FNR 3 soundtrack is forgettable.

CONTROLS: For the second consecutive game EA tries the “total punch control”. This basically is using an analog stick for all the strikes. It works by pressing the stick one direction then another to create a momentum for all strikes. While at first it does feel quite intuitive, you will quickly find the face buttons give you a more precise and strategic control when fighting more challenging enemies. Other than that FNR 3 is a very polished game and everything responds very well.

REPLAY: Being a sport/fighting game there is naturally a lot of replay to it. Online there is quick match or custom match. Both of which have both ranked and unranked modes. This is where the game is at it's best. Like most sports game you will find a human opponent much challenging and fun to play than the AI. There is also a substantial career mode that will take a good 4 to 6 hours to achieve everything in it's single player experience. One new mode FNR 3 tries is out an ESPN Classic mode. Basically you and friend can relive some of the storied matches of the sport. And after you retire your character he will be added to the mode fighting against your career rival. Despite this large amount of content FNR 3 becomes repetitive after the awe of graphics where off.

GAMEPLAY: Fight Night Round 3 is the most enjoyable in it's mutilplayer form despite it's huge amount of content. This is because the career mode quickly becomes just one droning fight after the other. The total punch control is fun to use and feels intuitive, but at times not the most responsive. So I think most will find that switching between the face buttons and analog stick works pretty well. The real degrading part of the is game is the AI. You will go 10 to 15 matches of consecutive wins by knockout is less than 4 rounds. Then yourself get knocked out in 4 rounds. The computer either comes at you fast and hard with lots of stamina, or will merely pick at you exposing itself to the very violent barrages it deserves. This gives the game a cheap feel and adds some unneeded frustration. Thankfully though this can be solved by playing a real person online with leader boards and the whole lot. But without a real sense of a single player experience how fun can trash talking the same feeling fight over and over again be? The other real cheap thing is the computer AI will make liberal use of stunning you in a fight. This looks completely ridiculous as your player simply freezes and drops one arm. As you can imagine that give the AI a nice big fat opportunity to pummel you with it's super human speed.

BOTTOM LINE: Fight Night Round 3 is very much worth a rental nearly just based off of it's high production values. The online play and ESPN Classic mode are fun diversions for a couple of hours, as is the create a player. But unless you need achievements the bad AI, repetitive fights, and training give you little reason to play more than a few hours. And also I will mention in my opinion this is the best boxing game ever.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 09/07/06