Intro
Fight Night Round 3 is the very first boxing game I have ever played. Moreover, it's the first boxing game I have ever even considered playing. This review is not written from the mindset of a boxing fan, or someone who has even sat down to watch a whole fight. Nope, it's coming from the mind of someone who picked up the game at a friend's house, had a great time, and went out to buy it. As you've probably deferred from that, this game is extremely fun, though be warned, it is definitely a rent-then-buy situation.

Gameplay: 9.5/10
This is where Fight Night Round 3 shines, for sure. The game is incredibly fun to play, and rather addicting when you get into a groove. The control system is pretty easy to grasp after you learn a few basic movements of the analog stick, and triggers. Punches are nice and simple to pull off, and it is pretty simple to put together a nice combo. In the single player department, this game is gold. The career mode, while perhaps a bit repetitive, will certainly provide most players with a decent challenge as you battle your way up from being an amateur fighter, wearing a padded helmet and such, to a superstar headlining pay-per-views in MSG. The only real downside is that you will basically always be the underdog in the fight no matter how hard you train, and how much money you spend on clothing and equipment to boost your stats. Somehow, the computer always seems to have astronomical gains in strength, stamina, speed, etc. Regardless, it really doesn't have too big an effect on the matches, so the negativity is minimal. Other gameplay modes include quick match, which is a simple matchup between two boxers, controlled by humans or computers, or a mix of both. It's pretty cool, because you can fight different weight classes against each other, so more skilled players wishing to handicap themselves might fight as a featherweight against a heavyweight, or so forth. Finally, there is ESPN Classic mode, which allows you to re-enact some of boxing's most memorable matches. It is a cool mode, though nothing you couldn't take care of in quick match.

Graphics: 8.5/10
When I first turned the game on, the graphics amazed me, they had me thanking my lucky stars I had shelled out the money for an Xbox 360. However, I soon realized that the animations, while very fluent and detailed, got repetitive really quickly. You'll notice the opponent (or you...whatever) get up from a knockdown with the same exact angry motion time and time again. The animation for when you score a knockdown is great as well, though like before, they get boring to watch after the first couple. Aside from that, the character models are great, the lighting is great, the shading is great. The only real animation problem I could find, aside from repetitiveness, was the rather lackluster blood effect. If a boxer has a cut that is still bleeding, the animation for it is just really bad, it doesn't look realistic at all, more like someone just started to pour red koo-aid down their face. But aside from those minor problems, Fight Night Round 3 is a visually stunning game.

Sound: 5/10
There, unfortunately for the genre of boxing, is not much sound to a boxing match, other than gloves hitting faces. The sounds they have are good, but the overall lack of sound is a downer. You have the same announcer for every single fight you participate in, which is odd considering I doubt any pay per view commentators are going to be showing up at Joe Schmoe's Amateur Boxing Club any time soon, yet this one does. In the menus, you will certainly notice the same couple of songs repeated over and over and over and over again. I wouldn't expect the game's playlist to rival my mp3 player or anything, but it really seemed like there were only 3 or 4 different songs that played, and that's just not acceptable in my book. The one saving grace for the sound department, is your ringside trainer, your cornerman. He often has something important, and generally slightly amusing to say, though again, you'll notice him repeating himself rather quickly.

Play Time/Replayability: 6.5/10
Despite the great gameplay, there really isn't much to the game. Once you beat career mode, there just isn't much left to do unless you happen to either have some friends that really love boxing, or you are really into classic matches. The online mode was a big downer for me, the lack of online achievements for one thing, made it seem mildly pointless to strive for greatness online. Furthermore, EA's online servers are rival only to GameSpy's in terms of lack of quality. I had trouble connecting to much of anyone, and when I did, stuff was laggy. And that's weird considering that I'm on a high speed cable connection, and all my other 360 games run just fine. Aside from which, and to no fault of the game, the sport of boxing simply does not offer a whole ton of different ways to play. It's always the same, you fight until one of you can't get up. After a couple online matches, it stops giving that fun little kick you get from beating somebody's face in, and just starts being repetitive.

Final Recommendation
If you are an absolute boxing nut, you've probably already bought it, but if not, it could definitely be worth it to you. For those of us who weren't into boxing beforehand, it's definitely a good rental. Like I mentioned earlier, I had no interest in the sport at all before I played this game, and now I'm trying to catch matches on ESPN every Friday night. I had fun, and I finished as much of the game as I care to finish, so my disc is getting traded in. The moral of the story is: Rent, and if you find you just can't stop playing it, then think about buying so you aren't stuck in the same position as I am, wishing you'd spent $7 instead of $45. Don't get me wrong, I'm very happy I played the game, but it just didn't have enough to keep a non-fan's attention for very long.

Spleen gives Fight Night Round 3 and 8 out of 10, and suggests you at least rent it.