Fight Night: Round 3

It's early in round six and you and your opponent both meet in the center of the ring. Your body is bruised and you're ready to give up and you let your hands drop for a breif moment only to be hit with a jab on the jaw. The announcers voices fade and the world seems to slow down for a brief moment and all you can hear is the sound of your own breath and the crack of jaw when the right hook meets with the side of your face. You fall to the canvas and the count starts. 1...2....3....4....

Fight Night Round 3 is the third in a series of boxing games published by EA Sports. The game has been out since the release of the 360 but is one of those games that will stay popular even after the newest installment comes out. What makes this game so great? It seems the game developers took time to step into the ring and feel what it's like to catch a hook to the side of the head or even a jab to the stomach. Every movement in Fight Night was taken into consideration and you can box in just about any style available.

Want to be Mike Tyson and throw power punches? Done.
Want to be a bit for defensive and play the philly shell like Floyd Mayweather? Done.
Want to play as Muhammed Ali or Evander Holyfield? Done.

FN Rnd 3 brought back what is called the "Total Punch Control", or TPC as we'll call it from now. With TPC you use your right joy stick to execute punches how you want them. You are no longer confined to 2 hooks and 2 straights, as the four buttons on your controller give you, but now you can chain combos together how you want them. This allows you to box how you want; but that's not the only great feature of FN. They allow you to block any portion of your body using one button and at the same time you can parry, dodge, weave and duck any incoming punches and throw counters. This game really does take real boxing into consideration.

When your energy bar hits "0" your speakers crackle and you can now longer hear the announcers or your opponent. It's as if time has stopped. You have only a few short moments, when you hear this happen, to clinch up with your opponent or suffer the consequences of another hard shot which will send you down to the canvas. If you survive long enough to go into the next round you have 30 seconds to move the right stick back and forth to heal your face, depending on the side you picked.

The only real gripe I have about this game is the learning curve. If you know nothing about boxing you'll find yourself eating canvas quite frequently until you do a bit of research on what fighting style fits you. The developers expect that you've either placed FN Round 1 or 2 or have some sort of experience in boxing. I had to dig to find the training mode and after I did the rounds went by too fast to really grasp the controls. After playing for about an hour I finally got the hang of it and was able to adapt the game to my fight style.

For $20.00 you cannot pass this game up. It is worth all 1000 gamer points and the 10 + hours you could easily toss into it before making it to the end.