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Serviceable, but riddled with minor imperfections

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 7 / 9
Date: August 01, 2006
Author: Amazon User

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.

EA doesn't care.

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: March 07, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Alright, now I know they put all sorts of effort in to the Xbox 360 version and the game is fantastic. The Xbox and PS2 versions were put together as afterthoughts however. They are terrible. For instance, you can heal any cut on your boxer in the 360 version and the commentary says things about it. In the Xbox and PS2 version you can't and they haven't even taken out the commentary about cuts that you can't heal. It can't get any more simple than that. The A.I. is unrealistic and practicing against it isn't going to make you fight another person in vs. any better. Simple things like being able to preview items you have to press a button for and then you can't even rotate your boxer to see what it looks like. It's very evident that they didn't care about these versions. In fact there's less content than there is in Fight Night Round 2. If you're looking for a good boxing game look back to the last game for a much cheaper price tag.

Can you even name the current heavy weight champion????

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 3 / 6
Date: March 15, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Oi, for those who want to thrash this game for actually playing how boxing is today you need to sit back a sec and think of the sport on a whole. The game can be rather irritaiting for those who think they can just walk up to this and go "Rocky" on it. Yep, it's not a mindless lets just plummit the boxers into the next dimension. Yet, those who seem to be giving this game a bad rating that's really what's their problem. Boxing is just like this game portrays it as. You have to think move duck and weave and pull punches at right time. So, yeah one ends up fighting 4 to 12 rounds because of that. Or you can get your butt chewed up for mashing your way through and be tko'd by the third round. Actually once you learn the controller's combo's the game move's rather smoothly and can be at times rather easy. Overall it's solid on play. Where this game goes rather weak on is background graphics are just plain flat horrible but, hey this is good ol' xbox. The boxers look awesome and that's really what you're staring at overall anyways. Also, the training mode while it's useful for those who want to master the controls fully it can be frustrating at first cause it gives no tip's on the screen as to what you should do instead you're left to your own clumsy learing (this is where I think this game get's a weak rating due to the crappy instruction booklet and no game help on control's EA must save a few pennies doing this and where else are you going to shop for a sports title these days anyways Yeah EA this cheap way to save a buck is going to bite you someday.....) Game overall delivers what it is boxing. As to game endings for winning the championship ect....What the heck it's boxing and for that matter does any sports title ever have a super ending no, not really. Play any other EA sport's title from Pride wrestling to NBA to Madden the endings have always sucked cause it's a sports game theres really no real ending..... And, regardless how boxing games progress the only boxing game that delivered what fans want out of a boxing game was punchout for the Nintendo..... All boxing games need to take heed to it's formula even though it was missing two player action. It had solid control gave you some easy yet they were the first time ackward first few rounds then got tougher yet, not impossible or just boring repeats....Cept the tyson part he was just redicules....Speaking of Tyson's punchout thats also, where this game kinda of lies on the back it says relive some of boxing's greatest matches yet it only gives you a few and the hook line sinker one is of course Ali vs Frazier and then after that it kinda of goes down.....Now that I think about it this game is sub par. Why?!? The game's not; it's because the sport it is drawing apon has gotten weaker and weaker the last twenty years..... Lets face it no one cares about boxing....98% of the people who will buy this game couldn't even tell you a rough top ten heavyweights right now even in the wrong order and hence where this game should've been made up of fantasy boxers ripping off Rocky or something.....

Fight Night Round 2.1

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: February 22, 2006
Author: Amazon User

If you have owned previous titles in this series, you are going to be disappointed. Not because this is a bad game, but because it is different. Not in the "Fight Night to FNR2" sense though. This game has taken a huge step sideways from the franchise.

Graphics: More along the first Fight Night line. The graphics are built around the FNR2 engine, with the same grainy feel of the first FN. Polygons fall through each other, particles are blocky, and all textures are fuzzier than FNR2. They brought back the old facial damage model from FN, which to me is a huge step back, as cuts will now form those same red lines straight down the face of the boxer, regardless of head angle. Facial details have improved slightly, but the whole feel of the experience is one of half-assedness.

Sound: Par for any EA Sports title, whic means more bumping hip hop tracks that anything else. Honestly i still cross my fingers for the occasional hard rock track, but alas, i think it will never be. Many of the announcer calls have returned from FNR2, as well as some new ones to accompany the newer features, but its more of the same. There are some especially cheesy effects during knockout sequences that are just obnoxious. The sound is like walking through pudding when you spray your opponent onto the mat. I do really like the hit sounds though, as well as the breathing (which comes in real handy if you are using the no lifebar option)

Gameplay: The meat and potatoes of any game. This is what earns the game its 4 stars. It is no FNR2, so dont expect the Modern Mike Tyson's Punch Out here. The game is slow. It is much more paced like real boxing, which i actually like. No more parrying matches against all haymakers. This round is more about picking your openings and fighting tactfully. With a wider range of styles represented, including the Rocky stand-there-and-get-hit-alot, you really have to know your opponent. You can even switch stances in mid fight from orthodox to southpaw. You really get into the fight if you turn the HUD off, as you must rely on the announcer, your breath, and the opponents reactions to gauge how close you are. When slow trading of jabs turn into a quick 3 hook combo, with your opponent staggering back, its nice, just nice. Dont buy into the hype about all these new punches, they are just variations of the EA Haymaker. In fact, its hard to tell the difference between all of them, and which one you are throwing. Regardless, it still makes you cringe when they hit.

So all in all, not a bad game, just disappointing to fans of the series, but i think the price tag takes at least a little of the sting off. Gamers new to the series will enjoy this title. Fans will be split, though i think i may be the only one on the happy side of the fence.

PROS: More "realistic" boxing experince, expanded roster, Rivals Matches, immersive.

CONS: Definitely made for next gen consoles, as game feels sloppy and patched together. Graphics could be way better. Big letdown from FNR2

Fight Night Round 3 KO'd

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: March 01, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I bought and enjoyed Fight Night Round 2 as it is a great button masher for parties. It's fun to beat up one another on the screen and the graphics were second to none in terms of boxing titles.

Simply put, DO NOT BUY Round 3. It's terrible. It is EXACTLY the same thing as Round 2. The "added features" of weigh-in brawls are terrible. )I still cannot figure out how to swing back in those things, so they're more like weigh-in beat downs as I try to block my angry opponent's punches.) The press conference fights promised on the back of the game do not exist. The in ring fights are exactly the same as Round 2, as are the training sessions for your fighters. This title has all the hallmarks of something rushed out of development a full 6 months before it was ready. EA should be ashamed. It's not even like a football or baseball game where the real life season means a hard and fast deadline. This is boxing where 6 months wouldn't have meant anything to EA.

Some other things that bothered me: when you win a championship belt there is no animations denoting this fact. All you get is a little text box that tells you you're the heavyweight champion of the world. Great. Thanks for having me spend 3 hours to get there EA. The fight entrances are always the same whereas they were customizable in Round 2. Maybe Round 3 has more boxing shorts available for purchase than Round 2, but if that's what EA thinks makes up for the disaster that this game is I'd be shocked.

You will find yourself mashing buttons endlessly in the off chance that something new and unexpected will happen. Don't waste your time or money. It won't.

Also, in the off chance that someone from EA reads this, whoever invented "Total Punch Control" should be forced to be the punching dummy to record accurate knockout animations. It's the most frustrating concept imaginable. Throwing left right combinations with it is impossible. It's not even worth trying to learn. I stick with the button mashing (which gets very repetitive) and I learned from Round 2 that total punch control is a complete waste of time.

I can't stress this enough. Don't buy Round 3. If you love boxing games buy Round 2 used, but Round 3 isn't even a rental unless you have a group of people who want to play.

Sick!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: March 10, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Well, I own Fight Night Round 3 for Xbox, and its one of the best games ive played. Wat the hell is up with all these bad ratings? I guess that some of these people prefer the cheaper way out by just pressing random buttins. The use of the nalog stick makes it realistic and fun, and the graphics are SWEET! the gameplay is also very realistic and fun. u can fix up your boxer, and there are hundreds of ways to custimize! This game is hot!

Don't answer the bell in Round 3

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 1 / 3
Date: March 08, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I own all three Fight Nights and they almost seem to digress. I loved the first one, but I hated the announcer, so having a fairly sophisticated announcer in the Round 2 was a welcomed change.

All of the "upgrades" in Round 3 are disappointing. Sometimes you swing and miss, and your boxer is just frozen there to be punched for 3 seconds (I don't know what is with that). Before some of the fights you have to "weigh in". Fights break out but you can not punch, so it just becomes a chance to block while your opponent drills you. The announcer says the same thing every fight.

When it comes down to it, Round 3 is still a good game but it is not quite as good as the first two fight nights. The graphics for Round 3 on 360 are incredible, but they are no better than Round 2. If you do not have a 360, save your money until you do.

Round 2 was 10X better

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 1 / 4
Date: February 22, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This game is pathetic! Not only are the graphics worse and slower. They have hobbled the EA Sports Cutman (no longer has good interface and can't do above and below the eye). The game doesn't even score rounds right (You get 10/10 rounds and the total on the rounds doesn't add up correctly). More proof that QA no longer exists in todays software companies and they take NO PRIDE in their work.
The sounds are a joke and are unrealistic! I have only played for a couple of hours and I hate this game. I don't understand why they changed everything from FNR2 to be worse. It is as if this game was completely rewritten by a completely different company.
Rent this game and try it before you buy it. You'll understand. Fight Night Round 2 was 10X better.

Solid title (for non button mashers)

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 4
Date: March 03, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Why are so many people complaining about the total punch control? EA put this in the game for people who like something new(oh no not that!)in our games and us who like a challenge(oh God no!)Question...how come no one has anything to say when EA releases a "new" Madden yeah after year with the same graphics engine and one or two new features? Its because the games are updated each year. Key word, UPDATED. Now, I'm not huge EA fan, I think their NFL stunt was F'd up, but give it a rest. They probably took out some features to speed up the gameplay. Anyway. Graphics: almost the same as last year but not as sharp. Sound: good soundtrack, nasty K.O. sounds(after all, who wants to hear the real sound of a leather glove hitting a face. It's only good if it's a hit from B-Hop),commentary does get repetative. Stop whining about TPC and try to learn how to use it. It's much more rewarding when you lay your boy out using the analog stick and he's going nuts button mashing. Great game.

Ok

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 5
Date: March 28, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Fight Night round 3 is a decent game it is everything that round 2 was except for the training which is easier in this game except for the problamatic combo dummy
in the fight when you are going to your corner to get all patched up by your manager and what not it is completley different from round 2 round 2 is so much simpler and uses the q-tips to soak up the blood and the d-sweller to take away the swelling this is my most hated part of this game for some reason i JUST HATE THAT THEY DIDNT KEEP IT THE SAME other than that there are no new features to this game just if you like round 2 youll probably like this one

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