Fight Night Round 3

Fight Night: Round 3
Developer(s)	EA Chicago
Publisher(s)	EA Sports
Platform(s)	Xbox 360, Xbox, PSP, PS2, PS3
Release	February 22, 2006 (US), March 10, 2006 (UK), December 6, 2006 (PS3)
Genre(s)	Sports game
Mode(s)	Single-player, Ad hoc, Infrastructure

Fight Night: Round 3 is a boxing video game developed by EA Sports. It is the sequel to EA Sports' previous boxing title, Fight Night: Round 2, which was released in 2005. Round 3 was released on February 22, 2006 for the Xbox, Xbox 360, PSP and PlayStation 2. The PlayStation 3 version of the game was released on December 6, 2006.

Overview

Fight Night: Round 3 is the third boxing title from EA Sports to carry the Fight Night name. It features the usual improvements such as better graphics and gameplay. "Impact Punches" is one of the most drastic changes, along with ESPN Classic fights and a new career mode, in which the player fights to gain popularity in order to reach sponsored fights, or to be featured on ESPN. Unlike in older versions, Round 3 defaults without a heads-up display (HUD), allowing a player to judge the status of their stamina and energy based on their stance, movements, and facial features. The game, of course, also features online multilayer with Xbox Live. It lets you go head to head against other players. You can either have a ranked match and unranked match, and as always a leader board for the top players.

Versions

The game has been released for several video game consoles and some differences exist between the versions. The cover art features Arturo Gatti and Micky Ward on all versions, except the Xbox 360, PS3 and PSP versions which feature a photo of Oscar de la Hoya instead.

Critical reception

Official Xbox Magazine awarded Fight Night: Round 3 with a rare 10, the highest score given by the magazine.

G4techTV's Reviews on the Run's Victor Lucas stated that Round 3 had the best graphics he has ever seen on a video game.

The game has been criticized for its highly intrusive product placement. While brands for athletic apparel, such as Everlast and Under Armour are expected in a sports game, sponsorship by Dodge and Burger King is regarded as excessive. It won GameSpot's award as the game with "The Most Despicable Product Placement".

The career mode has also been criticized for lacking reality to boxing with a simplistic ladder to the top, taking on present and historic characters as well as made up boxers. The intelligence has also been called limited; for example, the game automates a rival during the path as an amateur boxer and throughout the career of the boxer. The player's fighter does not have a world ranking and world titles cannot be won, lost or unified, unless the player follows the automated progress.

Furthermore, the minigames are the same from the previous version, with the only alteration being the perspective from which they are viewed. Additionally, the Xbox 360 version has several flaws on what is essentially a modified version of Round 2 that include a cutman who warns of cuts before they can be remedied by the player; and issues with characters falling after being knocked out, such as the common glitch where a character's limbs are thrown around randomly after he hits the ground.

Another problem with the game is its low level of challenge from the AI. Various gaming websites (and other critics) that have reviewed the game thought that the AI was too easy.

Awards

• Received the IGN award for Best Offline Multiplayer on PlayStation 3 in 2006.[1]

External links

• Official website
• Fight Night: Round 3 at MobyGames (PSP version)
• Fight Night: Round 3 at MobyGames (All other versions)