it improves a few things, but gets suckered punched in others

I got FN round 3 about a month ago, it was on the platinum choice and I hadn’t bought a new xbox 360 game in a while so I picked it up. After playing it online and unlocking the achievements it’s time for the review.

Now Fight Night Round 3 is a boxing game made by EA and I bought round 2 for the gamecube because it contained super punch out has an extra. I thought the round 2 main modes were impressive enough for me to try it on the xbox. The same idea for the main mode career mode is the same though build up a boxer and take him up through the ranks.

Graphics.

Ok graphics on the game are pretty good even if it’s an older 360 title. With the exception of one or two rough edges in close ups the fighters in this game look almost real. You can see the sweat dripping and the blood coming out of the eye. It’s very pretty game to look at. And the camera is set closer in so you get to see every bone crushing punch that gets thrown in the game.

Sound.

There’s the usual EA urban tracks that make me want to hit mute every time they sing. And then the EA ESPN announcer. While Joe remarks are decent enough like all sports game announcers they get old. Especially since there repeated sometimes two to 3 times a round and sometimes they make little sense. For instance I was beaten a few times in career mode and despite me making a comeback and winning 10 fights in a row I was constantly reminded that my fighter was out of shape, it kind of made me wish there was an option to step out of the ring and beat the heck out of the announcer instead.

Gameplay

I’ll give you the basics of the game play and then the changes both good and bad. The game is pretty easy to pick up and play. The left analog stick moves while the right controls your punches. The trigger sticks control body movements like ducking and leaning, or blocking. Each button on the face does something like your special moves or your illegal hits. The controls work pretty well and keep up with the fast movements of the fight.

In the main game two things have been changed, first up the HUD is now defaulted to off (all though it can be turned on in the settings mode) so the screen just contain you and your boxer and you will have to watch your boxer movements to determine his health and stamina. Add in the AI is a lot more harder which is kind of good because in round 2 it didn’t even put up a fight, in round 3 even in easy mode it will do counter and hay makers when your open. My only complaint is that the AI does make the game a lot harder in the later areas of career mode has the game seems to be able to counter every punch in any difficulty settings outside of easy. Still I like a game that can put up a fight better then one that can’t.

The changes to the presentation of career mode aren’t for the better. In fight night round 2 you had a latter that you had to work up and you could choose your rights and special fights based on the popularity of the latter. You could also choose your trainer, cut man, intro music, and ringside lady to help pump up the crowd. This allowed you to pump up your fighter by spending some cash in the later rounds and put some flexibility into the fights. Now all except the trainer is gone, and with the exception of a new unlock able trainer which is the burger king mascot (more about the commercial aspect later in the review) there the same trainers has before. The free one, the power trainer, and the speed trainer. The burger king one is the same has the free trainer except he boosts your fighters recovery rate. So they take out my ability to select a bikini girl now with HD graphics, in order for me to step in with a freaky burger king mascot, yeah I’ll list that has a con.

Working your way up to career mode has been simplified to being boring. Basically every fight fills up a bar, when the bar gets filled a championship fight that gets you some prize from some sponsor, the difficulty goes up and you start over again. To help relieve you of the tediousness there are rival fights, a rival is pretty much determine at random once you hit the pros and when you encounter them in a rematch they are usually a little bit more aggressive, hitting faster and throwing in a few illegal punches, including incredibly corny cheap shots at the weigh in. The rivals are ok but there needs to be more to it.

One last thing about the single player career mode and that is the amount of commercials in this game. I heard there was going to be the Mattel belt where He-Man would slug it out with Skeletor and GI Joe, oh well there is always round 4. Ok so I am joking a little bit but there is a lot of commercials in this game. Load screens have advertisements for dodge. Knockout footage have dodge and burger king signs, every achievement you can unlock in the game has some company attached to it. And the of course all ready mention travesty of the unlock able burger king mascot. Is it any wonder why a lot of gamers hate EA.

Outside of career mode check out ESPN classic mode where two big historic rivals like Ali and Fraiser can slug it out. Each fight opens up with a bit of history between the two fighter and clips of the two men fighting.

Xbox live and achievements.

There is a lot to do in this game, multiple weight classes, an ESPN career mode that is hard has heck, training mini games that could be perfected. And of course xbox live matches to boot. Why don’t the achievements take this into account. You only have to go over a little past half way through the career mode to win the 1,000 achievement points, once you get all the dodge and burger king achievement points you’re a master has far has this game is concern. There is a lot to do here but don’t except MS achievement point system to entice you to come back and do them.

Has for xbox live the game can be a bit laggy sometimes but it works for the most part. There are still plenty of people online that will gladly give you a chance to make out with the mat.

Final Recommendation.

Like the new graphics, like the harder AI for the most part, and Xbox live is decent. Unfortunately taking out a lot of the great presentation from round 2 so they can stick in Burger King commercials I don’t like. EA should have made more attention in making this game better on the presentation, and less time trying to sell me a burger. Oh well I am out to McDonalds in an old toyato just to get even..