Fight Night Round 3

"The Haymaker Lands Beautifully!"

I had never played any Fight Night games until this came out, so this is a perspective of someone who has never played before. I got this game because the graphics looked amazing, and I was not let down. This game is a game that every serious gamer should look in to.

Graphics: 10/10
Amazing. Everything is well defined. The crowd looks about as good as any crowd has in any game I have seen. That probably sounds stupid, but they look real. If there are any complains I have, is that some of the fighters just do not look like their real life counterparts, and the blood effect on close ups is nothing but a red line. But you will probably have to look hard at this stuff to really notice anything. I will go as far to say these are the best graphics of any game I have ever played. Now to be fair, there is probably a lot less details to animate then for example Call of Duty 2 but for what it does, it looks great.

Game play: 7/10
Being a newbie at this series, this might not be the opinions of veteran players. But for one the control scheme is very hard to master. There is in-game training you can do, but it honestly does not help very much. So pretty much all you can do is smash the guy with haymakers until you get used to it. It took me around 20 fights to actually understand it well enough to be real comfortable with it. Even. so, its very confusing. But to be fair, the graphics are so good it does not matter because you will find yourself being amazed by that instead of concerned at how bad you are.

The new impact punches are really hard to land, but they are cool and I for one use them. Its a good way to turn around a fight, but if you are losing, you probably won't be able to land them because your fighter becomes sluggish so its hardly a good tool to use when you are down.

Only after about 4 to 6 hours of gaming, there is really no new tricks it has up its sleeve. It slightly decreases the value... but just slightly. The knockdown replays are really cool at first, as you see the guys face ripple from the blow, but after seeing multiple times you are just going to want to skip it.

Presentation: 5/10
On the cover it says it is featuring ESPN but you will not get that ESPN feel. It is a movie type presentation but I do not like that very much. There are no fighter or trainer interviews, which I would like to see, the commentator just likes to spew random details that sometimes do not even really apply to the fight. The menus do not look very interesting and the loading screen that shows up between like every transition is annoying. This aspect does not compete with the rest of the game.

Career Mode: 7/10
This is where you make a boxer, and start him out with terrible abilities and work your way through the ranks. That is about as interesting as it gets.

The deal is first you get a choice of 1-4 fights you can pick at any one time. Then you train for the fight. The training for the fights are not fun, and once you do each a few times, you will not want to do them again. You can auto-train to get half of the values you normally would, but thats what I do anyway because they are not very fun. Then you fight. Thats it. You can update your gear and such but thats not really shockingly fun.

There are some special fights you fight in, sponsored by EA Sports, Burger King, Everlast...ect. But once you enter the fight, there is no difference. It is supposed to be a big deal, but its the same as the regular fights.

Career mode a good way to get better at the game, but its not as intense as it could be. If you enjoy fighting and do not care who is involved then its more for you.

Extras/Online play: 10/10
Online play makes this game as far as I am concerned. Its fun to play online and you can usually find someone who is worse than you are. The extras are also cool. You can use the Burger King as a ref. You can fight with the "We must protect this house!" guy from Under Armor. You can unlock multiple fighters and thats a nice bonus. You can reenact classic rivalries with ESPN classic fights, like Ali vs. Frasier and Jones Jr. vs. Holyfield. You also get to watch a cool looking cut scene before those fights, so its a nice bonus to the game.

Value:
Boxing fans: 10/10
Non-Boxing Fans 8/10
If you love boxing then you will not find a better game out there that even comes close to this one. If you are not a fan, it still will provide you solid entertainment but probably would be a better rent just to see how terrific looking this game is. It might even make you more interested in the sport, as that was the effect on me.

So in conclusion...
Solid game. As previously stated, it is worth your time even if you have never heard of Fred Toney or Diego Corrales, I advise everyone to at least rent it and give it a try. If you find nothing exciting or interesting in it for you, you probably do not have a pulse.

Overall: 8/10

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 02/28/06