Fight Night Round 3

8.1
Good

Gameplay	8.5	"Bloody and bruised boxers have never looked so good."
Graphics	9.0
Sound	7.5
Value	7.5

By Shaun Hunter

The bell rings to signal the start of the round, and we’re ready to fight!

Fight Night Round 3 is the latest boxing game to hit our consoles from the folks at EA, and it’s once again packed full of the fighting action we’ve come to love.

It’s nice to know that the same Total Punch Controls as seen in the previous Fight Night games are back, and still work better than ever. The right analog stick is where the majority of the concentration will be during fights, with different directions, and combinations of directions, used on the analog stick, resulting in various punches. Instead of being a game where button mashers are able to pull wins out of their hats, it takes some real skill and perfection to nail the different punches, and when to use them with the controls in place.

Added to this iteration of Fight Night are the impact punches. This adds a whole new dimension to the fight, as pulling out one of these could mean the difference between sending your opponent to the floor or being dropped like a sack of potatoes yourself. Impact punches include the haymaker, flash KO and stun punch. The stun punch is one of the more unique punches, as using it will cause you to take the view from the eyes of the opponent, and you’re given around five seconds to really lay into him before he wakes back up from his stunned silence. The flash KO sends your opponent into a state of seeing stars, giving you ample time to take advantage. Landing a haymaker will knock your opponent down to the mat, similar to the haymaker in last year’s edition.

One of the most impressive qualities of Fight Night is the way that a boxer will start to tire, and become slower, in both movement and throwing of punches, as the fight progresses. Of course, the boxer who is on the receiving end of the punches will become tired quicker, making it increasingly harder to mount a comeback.

Aside from the play now mode, which allows you to choose any boxer to fight any other boxer in an arena of your choice, there is the ESPN Classic mode, made especially to relieve the classic bouts between legends such as Ali versus Frazier. Winning matches in this mode will win you some cool new gear, which is always welcomed. Onto the career mode, which is seemingly average. As you progress through this mode, you work your way to the professional rank, then fight to earn popularity, which in turn awards you with title fights and sponsored fights. New to the career mode in this installation of Fight Night are rivalries. Rivals are no different to normal opponents, except for the fact that you get a different cut-scene before the fights.

The graphics the PlayStation 2 are capable of continue to amaze, with stunning effects when a competitor takes a hard blow, such as blood flying from the mouth, and sweat being knocked off the boxer’s head. The boxer models themselves are also very nice-looking, or at least at the start of a fight. As the rounds add up, you’ll notice the boxers become bruised, sweaty and more often than not, bleeding.

The game’s sound is as equally impressive, with each punch creating a sound comparable to the size of the hit. If you knock down your opponent, you’ll notice when the slow-motion replay is in effect that there is a solid ‘thud’ as your glove hits him in the face, then a series of more sounds as the spit is knocked from his mouth, and their face is busted open. Unfortunately, the music selection is not the greatest in an EA game, with the same tracks repeating often, especially in the boxer’s entrances.

Couple the best graphics seen in a boxing game yet with the mechanics of boxers tiring after taking major beatings, and you have a breath-taking boxing game in Fight Night Round 3.

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