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				Graphics: 9.5 Gameplay: 9.0 Sound: 9.5 Control: 9.0 Replay Value: 9.0 Live play: 8.0 Rating: 9.0 Publisher:  Electronic Arts Developer:  Electronic Arts Number Of Players:  1-2 Cheats Screenshots
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  I will always think of Fight Night: Round 3 as The Game that Killed My First 360.

  I’d received the game from one of the rent-by-mail services and had played around with it a bit, but on this particular night I had resolved to really get into this game and learn all about it for this review.

  The problem: after about half hour of playing, the screen froze and got weird stripes. I restarted. Same thing happened again. Certain I just had a bad disc, I even tried the boiling trick. No dice. So I tried other games that had worked fine, such as Burnout Revenge and Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter. Now THEY were locking up.

  I can only conclude that the sheer horsepower required to run this game sent my 360 into major meltdown. It’s not surprising that this game would be too much for a console that probably never faced a game this powerful in any of its testing. FNR3 took my Xbox to the canvas in just a few rounds.

  But now that I have a replacement 360, I’ve risked playing this game again, and my 360 has survived along with my respect for the achievement this game represents.

  A further bit of background: I’m not a big fan of fighting games in general. I’m far too lazy to be more than a mere button-masher, and button-mashing gets tedious pretty quickly. But it’s possible to appreciate a game for the work that obviously went into it, and for the obvious leap in technology it is, even if one doesn’t particularly enjoy its genre.

  That said, FNR3 should delight fans of the series and of the genre, with its envelope-pushing graphics and online play.

  Several modes of play

  FNR3 offers several ways to mix it up in the ring. The cornerstone of the game is its Career Mode, which allows you to create a boxer from scratch and take him through the boxing ranks, fighting against AI boxers. You choose a weight class and then design his face and specify other parameters.

  Your first several matches will be in dingy little gyms with amateur trainers and very few spectators, most of whom are probably related to you or your opponent and have a few bucks riding on the outcome. You play through a four-round scored match, which you can win by knockout if you’re just that good.

  Between matches, you have the opportunity to train. Training builds attributes such as speed, stamina and strength that will assist you as you box stronger and better fighters. If you’re in a hurry, you can choose to “auto-train,” which will level you up less than if you actually go through a training exercise. Training exercise include weightlifting and sparring to practice punches and techniques. Your trainer will coach you in voice-over, letting you know whether you’re on the right track or on a one-way trip to Palookaville.

  Local multiplayer is also fun, allowing you and your couch-mate to throw punches and trash talk at the same time. In multiplayer, as in single-player mode, you can play with “EA Classics” matchups such as Ali-Frazier and Robinson-LaMotta (which is, like Raging Bull, in black and white, a nice touch).

  Xbox Live play allows you to play ranked or unranked matches. As in most Live-enabled games, you can simply jump into a quick match or an opti-match. There’s also a lobby system, where you can create a room for friends or random strangers to join. Strangely, it doesn’t appear that you can invite friends in, but you can password-protect the room to make it private and then send messages to your friends with the information they need to get in.

  The only way to directly invite a friend to box you is to create a “session.” You can set the number and length of rounds, whether illegal blows are allowed, etc.

  If you’re new to the game, you will find that most Live players will clean your clock easily, if they decide to finish the match. Most of my opponents, bored of hitting me without getting hit back, quit early for some reason. One opponent had illegal blows enabled and, as Ali, took my Frazier out with a well-placed knee to the groin. The best way to play on Live (as in most games) is with friends. There’s nothing like chatting with a buddy as he bruises your spleen.

  One thing that put me at a real disadvantage in my few Live matches was the different controller scheme. When I first started Career Mode, I chose a controller scheme that allowed me to use both buttons and the right analog stick to throw punches. Once in a Live match, however, all that changed. If there was a way to adjust my multi-player controller configuration, I was not smart enough to find it. Either way, why should I have to?

  My Live experience was also marred by random disconnects from EA’s servers, and when you are disconnected, the game restarts, forcing you to go through the ritual of locating your profile and loading it.

  Graphics make the game

  In most games, cutting-edge graphics are so much eye candy. In FNR3, the quality of the graphics is critical to the gameplay.

  In earlier installments in the Fight Night series, a heads-up display kept players informed of the health status of the boxers. But in FNR3, there is no HUD by default, and this is the way the designers intend for the game to be played. Rather than using an artificial-looking health meter, players are to take their cues from opponents’ appearance and body language. Are you noticing that your opponent’s left eye looks a little like ground beef? Then hammer it. Is he spending a lot more time protecting his midriff and backing away from you? Chances are he’s just a few combos away from kissing canvas.

  Movement is also fairly realistic, although a few of the AI players seem to move a little strangely. I encountered Joe Frazier during my ascendant boxing career, and his hands moved up in front of his face and down again strangely quickly and for no good reason. But for the most part, boxers move, block, dodge and punch in natural-looking ways.

  And when a player (virtual or otherwise) is knocked down, you’re treated to a slow-motion instant replay of the punch that brought him down. The boxer’s face wrinkles realistically, sweat flies in all directions, and blood spews from his mouth. It’s painful but amazing to watch.

  All is not perfect, however. As cutting-edge as the graphics are, they can still be glitchy. Knocked-down fighters some times have body parts disappear into the mat and through the ropes.

  Annoying soundtrack

  FNR3 offers a hip-hop soundtrack that gets pretty obnoxious unless that’s your cup of tea, and you’re stuck with it unless you want to use a custom soundtrack. Or you can go into the EA Trax menu and turn off every song so that you hear no music at all except in the menus.

  In-game sound effects are nice. Punches sound like punches when they land, and both boxers grunt and vocalize. Crowd sounds surround you (if you use a surround-sound system) and vary. The crowd in a dirty little downtown gym sounds different than the crowd in Madison Square Garden for an Ali-Frazier matchup.

  No button-mashers

  FNR3 is designed around the analog sticks. In what EA calls “Total Punch Control,” the sticks control which hand your boxer uses, whether he throws a head shot or a body blow, and how strong the punch is. Using a stick to deliver punches takes some getting used to, especially if most of your fighting-game experience is in fantasy fighters like Dead or Alive, where button combos rule the day. But the technique makes sense once you master it, because the stick movement is intended to mimic the throwing of an actual punch. A short jab to the left will throw a left jab. A quarter-circular motion with the stick throws a hook. You can even wind up all the way and throw a haymaker.

  But while the haymaker is obviously powerful, it’s not quick and is best saved for when your opponent is almost down for the count and unable to block and counter it. Your best bet will be to stick to combos of jabs and uppercuts to wear your opponent down.

  The right shoulder button allows you to deliver an “impact punch,” which is basically a haymaker. Even though it’s easy to call up with a button, it’s still hard to land because it takes so long to wind up and throw.

  The verdict

  For fans of real boxing, FNR3 is sure to amaze, and for fans of the Fight Night series, it’s sure to satisfy. For the rest of us, it’s worth a rent just to get a look at the future of gaming.

4/18/2006  Tracey 'Jerri Blank' McCartney