Fight Night Round 3
A pugilistic powerhouse and easily EA's strongest PS3 title yet.
Published: December 15, 2006
At least, if nothing else, the training games are fun -- if quite limited in scope. You have a weight lifting bit where you hold up on alternating analog sticks without going over, a Simon Says-style memorization game where you lay into a torso in pre-set patterns, and just wailing into the upper and lower portions of a punching bag. There's always the option to train automatically, but it won't yield nearly the same results as doing it all yourself and you'll suffer the same sapping of the other skills. The idea is that you work particular skills before a fight but after signing a contract and using the game's scouting report to see what kind of stats they have. You can pay some trainers to reduce or eliminate the offset, but it's still not a perfect trade-off.
The beauty of the game is that all types of boxers -- even virtual ones -- are given their dues; the guys that love to bulk up and improve their ability to suck up hits to the face and body can rock it as pure power brawlers or even inside fighters, while more strategic players can pour stat boosts into improving speed and just milking parries and tons of jabs. Later on, though, it's rare that you'll run into clear-cut examples of a particular boxer, leading to swarmers or boxers that favor the outside for the most part but don't mind charging in as fatigue sets in. Online, it's even more interesting, and thanks to the depth of options in parries and blocks and styles, you never really know how someone is going to play other than looking at their career stats and seeing who they pick as a boxer.
Much has been made of the game's visuals, and it's easy to see why: this is easily EA's purest next-gen effort on the PlayStation 3 from a graphics standpoint. The texture detail is fantastic, whether from the satin sheen of crumpled shorts to the sweat that rolls down the bodies of the boxers to the now-infamous slo-mo replays of mat-flattening hits that cause ripples in the cheeks from the impact of the big hit. These are, unequivocally, some of the most impressive graphics displays ever seen in a game, and little effects like flitting bits of dust in the air or the blown-out light searing its way into the warehouse level are testaments to the visual prowess of the PS3.
It's not all perfect, though; the roping effect of saliva and blood that spurts from a particularly long hit still doesn't look quite right, and more distractingly, from the moment gravity (and ragdoll physics) catch a falling boxer, things go to crap. Too often, big hits are delivered up against the ropes, and seeing bodies that formerly moved with grace and realism tweak out as they bounce off the ropes and they spaz out on the ground sort of ruins the "hell yeah!" moment of delivering a huge hit. Worse, there are times when a gloved fist will pass completely through a face or neck and shoulders during a replay. Granted, this is a first-gen PS3 game, but it's yet again another one of those things that pulls you out of the game.
Another is just that you'll hear the same handful of tracks over and over and oooover again. If you take the time to sign onto the online network, you can pull down the latest ESPN pre-recorded bits (and they are impressively lengthy), but that doesn't dispel the fact that you'll likely end up killing the soundtrack halfway through your career. Likewise for the commentary, which is absolutely painfully stunted in the way of variety. It's possible to play three different fights and hear multiple regurgitated sound bytes in completely different situations.
Now granted, no amount of pre-recording will match the kind of play-by-play that you would catch in a real boxing match, but all it takes is spamming a bunch of quick R2 insta-haymakers to your opponent's gut for 30 seconds to exhaust about 75% of the comments for things. Luckily, the effects that count are fantastic. Punches land with the kind of smacks and thwips and crunches that you pray for a in a game, and the advantage of Dolby Digital actually comes in handy when the creak of the ropes is up behind you (particularly in the first-person Get in the Ring Mode).
Round 3 is easily one of the PlayStation 3's strongest titles. Never mind the fact that it was one of the 360's strongest titles when it originally came out, there's enough here to warrant at the very least a rental, and, if you don't have a 360, a definitely purchase. I can't hammer home enough the point that though this is very much a sports sim, it's still both accessible and deep enough that neither the casual nor hardcore crowds will be dissuaded. It's easily one of the PS3's strongest titles, and one of those games that you'll be able to bust out for months to come to show off the PS3 -- at least until Round 4 hits. Now stop reading and go check it out.