After much success with the first two installments EA Sports has finally brought us Fight Night Round 3. As with any sports series it's important to keep improving and innovating the title to keep the series fresh and new. Fight Night Round 3 comes with the same great graphics and addictive gameplay, but the big question is does this feel like Fight Night Round 2 ½ or a truly new title in the series?

While it is nowhere near the photo-realistic videos we've all salivated over from the Xbox 360 version, the game looks pretty darn good. All of the arenas and rings are nicely done. As you progress through a match you will begin to notice visible swelling on both your and your opponent's face. If you beat on your opposition enough cuts and bleeding will also begin to show; it all looks fantastic. This looks even better with the slow motion knockouts in the game. The only visual disappointment is the crowd members. These are quite terrible and look like they came straight from the ps1.

The audio in Fight Night Round 3 is a mixed bag. On the upside you have all of the in-fight audio. Punches sound perfect, and when a slow motion knockout occurs the bone-crushing sounds are quite chilling and really help to add feeling of real strength behind the punches. When your boxer begins to fatigue and get tired you can really start to hear him sucking wind and breathing heavier with each punch. On the other side, however, we have our less than intelligent announce team. They are generally wrong about everything. This becomes quite annoying when you clearly come out on top in an exchange of blows and you hear about how the other guy really rocked you. The trainers aren't much better. The worst part of all this is that both the announcers and corner men don't have a lot of different things to say, so it gets old fast.

If you've played either of the previous Fight Night titles you know how great the gameplay is. The controls are the same and are as fluid and smooth as ever. All of your punches are controlled by the right analog stick which may take a little getting used to if you are new to the series but works much better than any other setup I've come across. In addition to the haymaker you now have the stun punch and the flask KO punch. These take longer to complete, are easier to see coming and to block but they can really change the momentum in a fight with one punch; just like real boxing. All of your punches affect your stamina pretty accurately. Jabs have very little affect, while throwing haymakers non stop will have you gassed by the second round. Probably the best thing is the way the punches feel. When you land a big counter hook and rock the opponent you really feel the power of the punch.

As with most sports titles, career mode is the real meat of the game, as you make your rise from the bottom to the top of the boxing world. You start by either creating a fighter, or choosing a pro to go through career mode with. Everything from tattoos to facial hair to nose shape can be customized. It's amazing how accurately you can make your fight in your own likeness. There are lots of different fighting styles and stances to tweak your fighter with as well. In the end it boils down to train, fight, train, fight, buy a new mouthguard for $700,000, train, fight, etc. It gets very repetitive; but it's still a good amount of fun.

There are of course, other modes as well. The hard hits mode actually takes out the time rounds and only ends a round after someone is put on the canvas. This is nice for those who care less about jabs and winning in the cards and care more about beating the hell out of each other. There is also online play which, if you're not careful, will eat up hours and hours of your time. It generally is just an all out slugfest but who says that's a bad thing? Of course you will run into jerks and trash talkers as is the case with any game you play online but so long as you don't take it to seriously you will enjoy yourself immensely.

Fight Night Round 3 is a great mix of arcade and simulation, perfectly blended. The graphics are top-notch and the gameplay is very addicting. Controls work well and the game really let's you feel the strength of each and every punch. The career mode can get stale but the online play will keep you coming back. If you liked the previous titles, or enjoy beating on people, I highly recommend picking up Fight Night Round 3.

Apr 23, 2006 | 0 comments
Kris VanHaaren