Fight Night Round 3 Review

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(More customer reviews)I decided to rent this title after seeing this game being played by some of my brother's friends on the Xbox 360. With my curiosity, and my newfound powers as an 18-year-old, I rented it and popped it into my Xbox. What I had expected was a good fighting title that would consume many hours of my life. Unsurprisingly, it did... for the first day.

When I first entered the game, I played a skirmish fight against my brother, mainly for control of the Xbox for the time being. He played as Roy Jones Jr. and I played as James Toney. Unfortunately, I lost the match via TKO. Therefore I lost the Xbox for the night.

Back on the subject, the fighting mechanics of this game seem difficult to learn at first, due to the movements needed to execute a simple jab or an uppercut. However, the controls are surprisingly intuitive. After a few fights, you'll have a basic jist of what you need to do to execute most moves within the game. You have to mix up these punches, just like in real life as well, so you can't just go in there and throw a knockout punch with your first punch. You also have your specialty punches (to go out and K.O. your opponent with style), taunts, and cheap shots to put in there to catch your opponent (and sometimes the referee) off guard.

The mechanics are pretty good, but it doesn't come without it's flaws. The only gripe I have with the fighting mechanics is the random pause that you get when your opponent blocks your move. When your opponent does this, you randomly stall for about two seconds. During this time, your opponent has probably knocked your memory back a few hours with a swift haymaker to the temple. It isn't much, but it gets very frustrating after a while.

For the career mode, I had high expectations. You start out by either creating a custom fighter or restarting the career of one of the fighters selectable in the game. If you are creating your guy, you get taken to the area where you create your boxer. You choose what he looks like, what his fighting style is, and what nickname he will be called by (there are some decent nicknames, but some of the nicknames in the game are just outright stupid and laughable).

After you create your boxer (or use one of the real-life boxers in the game), you go through the rough and grimy rings of small-time gyms, warehouses, and training regimens. When you enter the career mode, it's pretty immersing. The Game appears to have that small-time Rocky-esque feeling to the menus and gyms, as in it seems old-fashioned and out-of-date. I don't have a gripe against this. Actually, I like it a bit.

When your boxer trains, you have the option of choosing between three trainers. Here's a hint, always choose the first trainer. The other two trainers only boost your skill increases minimally in their specialty (Let's see: +1 Strength when I train for $25,000. That's a ripoff.). The actual training is just a bunch of mini-games. However, these minigames aren't just some excuses to burn some time. These minigames are well-thought-out and will not bore you to death when you play them at first. You have your trainer push you harder by telling you that "my mother can do this and she has an ingrown toenail!" (They don't say this, but it's kind of like that). These are a good excursion from the usual fighting in the game, however, these get repetitive after a while (since there are only three minigames to choose from). Another thing that's a bit awkward is the results of your training. Every time you train, you seem to go from chump to champ in your appearance. This is just cosmetic, but it looks like your fighter just conquered the potty and not the punching bag. I got a chuckle out of it after a while, so this isn't that bad.

After working my way up, I found that the game itself got pretty repetitive in terms of boxing. Your character has the same intro, the same intro music, and usually fights in the same stadiums time and time again. Don't get me wrong, it's a good fighting engine, it just seemed to get really tiring and hackneyed after a while. Also, there isn't any change in your routine for matches. You schedule a match, you train for one thing, you fight the guy, you win (or lose), you schedule another match, etc. It gets repetitive after a while, and that kills off the replayability.

Another gripe I have is with the mass commercialism in the game. Sure, I expected to see an advertisement or two in some of the bigger stadiums, however, when small-time gyms like the Windy City Gym are plastered with advertisements from Burger King (EA must be having their way with BK's coffers with all of their ads in the game), there are tons of buyable equipment from corporations like Under Armour, and the game advertises a bloody 2007 Dodge Charger before Wednesday Night Fights, you have to ask yourself: Is this a game or is this a glorified billboard? I don't like this kind of shameless and brutal advertising method, but then again, they did the exact same thing on Need for Speed: Underground 2.

One more serious gripe I have is with the music. I hope you enjoy rap, since it's the only bloody type of music they have on this thing. Unfortunately, for a guy like me, who absolutely hates rap with a passion, there's a problem with the music selection in the game. This could've been fixed with allowing us Xbox players to import our own music into the game, but no, EA wants us to think that EA Trax doesn't stand for crap.

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Pros: 1. A solid fighting system, with tons of moves, specialty punches, taunts, and cheap shots to fool your opponent

2. The mini-games are surprisingly addictive... at first.

3. Creating a Boxer is deep and there are many options at your dispersal

4. Career Mode will suck you in the first time you play it... several hours of my life just disappeared like that.

5. No bugs. The game is competently programmed.

6. There is a level of strategy within the game. The computer will make you pay for thinking that you are Rocky Balboa or if you hit the wrong place

Cons: 1. Career Mode is too linear for mass replayability.

2. When blocked, your player just stands there for several seconds waiting for your opponent to punch the lights out of him.

3. The music is, once again, too selective and one-dimensional. It will alienate a good deal of people who play the game.

4. The mass commercialism in the game will make you sick. I thought we played video games to get AWAY from the commercials...

5. Not much incentive to hire the other trainers within the game.

6. There are some really lame nicknames when you create a boxer.

7. You can heal every cut. Not realistic, and I don't even watch boxing all that much.

Final Verdict: Worthy of a rental, but I wouldn't recommend buying the game, unless you absolutely need a formidable boxing title to add to your gaming stable. I haven't played FNR 2, so I couldn't tell you if this is a rehash of that title or not.

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Product Description:
Fight Night Round 3 brings back Fight Night, the undisputed champion of boxing games. It's one of the best looking and playing sports games on the market. Now it takes the action outside the ring -- where gamers can establish rivalries through pre-fight events, putting purpose and passion behind every hit. It's the closest thing to being in the ring without getting punched. Film-quality graphics -Gamers rely on facial expressions and body language to gauge an opponent's health and energy creating a more emotionally immersive experienceOnline gameplay for wilder boxing action against real-life opponents

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