I have not followed the Fight Night series that much. Fight Night Round 3 is in fact the first boxing game I’ve played in some years. What initially caught my attention was actually EA Sport's Fight Night Round 3 on the Xbox 360. After playing the demo that was available through the Xbox 360 Live Marketplace I was immediately hooked on the game. I then went on to purchase Fight Night Round 3 on the Xbox 360, so most of my time has been spent on the Xbox 360 version of the game. I have however been playing the Xbox version for a couple of days now, and I must admit apart from the graphics and the fact that the gameplay seems slightly slower on the Xbox version; it is exactly the same game. It's your turn to live out boxings greatest rivalries. Go on, knock 'em out!

Gameplay

In EA Sport's Fight Night Round 3 there is a fairly simple but yet complex fighting system. Upon entering the career mode you have the choice to Create-A-Boxer or you can choose one of over thirty legendary and current boxers to take through the game’s career mode. In the career mode your selected boxer will be presented with a couple of boxing contracts, you can choose which rookie you want to step into the ring with, before the bout starts you can train your boxer somewhat. I'd recommend firstly choosing the sparring mode, this then gives you some time in the ring with a fellow rookie, who will just be throwing some basic jabs in your direction. This is the best and easiest way to get to grips with the game’s fighting system; you'll soon be dodging and countering haymakers in no time. Once confident enough with the basic controls, it's then time to get some proper training done, before every fight in career mode you have to complete one of three training tasks: Combo Dummy, Heavy Bag and Weightlifting; which are designed to increase your speed punching, power punching and masculinity. It's now time for the first big fight of your professional career.

Once the bell rings for the first time, the fight begins; now go knock that punk out! Start out with a few basic jabs and stay on your guard. Once the timing is right, its time to move in and unleash some power punches, these are performed by moving the right analogue stick in specific movements to get the desired result, which hopefully ends in a Knock-Out.

During the end of each round you get to control your boxers cut man, here you have 30 seconds to patch up cuts and take down swelling. During this patch-up time, you get to see some pretty gruesome mug shots of your boxers eyes busted open and the occasional nose bleed as well.

Graphics

The graphics are good but not great, all the boxers in the game look very detailed, what lets it down really is the crowd and other people standing around at ringside, the animations of them moving are awful, you can see the square black outlines around their arms and elsewhere. This will no doubt though be due to the graphical limitations of what the original Xbox can dish out. Everything as far as the ring and everything that goes on inside the ring look really good. The areas outside the ring also look very well rendered; it’s just the audience and officials at ringside that stand out with these poor effects.

The graphics do of course seem less than impressive compared to the graphics on offer in the Xbox 360 version of this game. I was actually stunned by the difference at first, it makes you realize what developers are already able to achieve, graphics wise anyway, so early-on in the Xbox 360's lifespan.

Sound

The sound I find is the most impressive part of this game with a really catchy hip-hop soundtrack during menu's and loading screens. Commentary is the best I've heard in any game and is really convincing. The only thing that lets it down is that it’s not very varied, a lot of stuff tends to get repeated if a fight goes on for more than two rounds. At the end of each round, during your boxer being patched up, you get to hear some (normally) good advice from your trainer for the round a-head. Body shots and impact punches to the face sound insanely convincing, it hurts just hearing them especially in a KO replay. No, really, it does!

Longevity

Once you get through career, there’s not a whole lot left to do, but what is left, adds to the longevity of the game. In the ESPN Classic mode you get the opportunity to take part in a legendary boxing match. Being able to take part as one of your favorite boxers of all time is a real blast from the past. During the career mode you can have a rivalry that becomes so fierce it actually gets added to the ESPN Classic's section.

As well as offline game modes which feature two players, there's also an online multiplayer mode, where you can step into the ring with a friend or a stranger. There are also Leader-boards available, so try to keep ahead of your mates at least.

Overall

EA's Fight Night Round 3 comes out fighting on the Xbox. There are some graphical problems here and there. Though, overall it is a good game, definitely worth buying if you’re a boxing enthusiast. If you just like knocking people out online and are not into boxing then it's worth a rental as you may like it that much that you decide to buy it.

Pros:

• Online multiplayer
  
• Good soundtrack
  
• Impact punches
  
• Good commentary, but...
  

  Cons:
  

  • Commentary becomes repetitive
    
  • Training becomes tedious