Fight Night: Round 3 - Final Opinion.

I have completed Fight Night: Round 3 for the Xbox 360 having earned all of the achievements. Is it the best boxing game ever made? Does it unseat Evander Holyfield's "Real Deal" Boxing as the champion? Almost, but not quite. The game has a lot going for it, but there are two issues that keep it from being the best. First and foremost is the front-end interface. You load up the game, and then it asks you to select the storage device. You select the harddrive, as it's the only thing you have. See how that works? Why doesn't it just check? Now it'll load your saved system settings, which for me will fully silence the hideous licensed hiphop music, and then the game will ask for you to select a profile to load. You select your profile and are then able to access the main menu. From there you'll select your game mode and you'll begin to play. Whenever it comes time to save something, it'll again ask you to select the storage device. Why not use the one I'm playing off of? The only one available? Does the system tell the game there is another potential storage device? No, it doesn't. Now I understand the logic here for EA. They're offering up a system in which multiple players can have their own profiles and various games and settings. But why the hell is it so annoying? It should be automated for the single user. All it takes is for the option of saving to current game, or save elsewhere to pop up when it needs to save. Why does it make you jump through considerable hoops every single time? Because it's a badly implemented front-end. So much so that I'm docking the game one full point for it. Now, the other issue is in the game proper. It's the cheapness in how Electronic Arts has artificially inflated the difficulty for the end game bouts. Even though I've trained my fighter so that his statistics are superior to whatever my opponent's may be, the numbers lie. The opponent is able to take whatever you throw at them. They aren't stunned or bothered by the hardest hits anymore. Their AI switches to just charge in nonstop. Never tiring. They never stop punching. You essentially end up pounding on them well beyond what should be needed to take them down. Whereas you're still susceptible to their attacks on the same level you always were. It doesn't take much for them to knock you around at this stage. And with them just bulldogging you relentlessly the entire time, it's not hard for them pull it off. For most ofthe game the challenge is perfect and honest. It's only near the end where they've unnecessarily inflated the challenge to silly proportions. Another point taken away for that. So Fight Night Round 3 ends up with an 8.0. The rest of the game is great. The controls are perfect. There is a configuration that will just about fit anyone. All boxing styles are well represented. You can set your basic style, punch, and defensive styles independently from each other allowing you to create a boxer that suits your own sense of style. The game offers up a few modes of play from classic, to fight now, to career, to Xbox Live. Fight now just allows you to select a pre-made boxer and jump into a single fight. Classic allows you to play as one side of a famous boxing match on the level of Ali Vs. Fraser or Hopkins Vs. Jones Jr. There are numerous classic matches to select from. Career mode is the bulk of the game. You'll create your boxer and take him through his entire career. You'll start off by signing a contract. In most cases you'll have a few to select from. You'll have to pay attention to details like the opponent's skill ratings, the purse offered, any bonuses for wining under certain conditions, and how long until the fight night. Your fighter will age through career mode. You need to get to the end before you're out of your prime as you'll start losing skills at that point and it will become tougher. Once you've selected a contract, you'll have to train for the fight. You'll select a trainer, each one with their own strengths to better help you raise a specific stat. There are three training minigames and you can only do one per training session and you get one training session per contract. Hitting the targeting dummy will raise your boxer's speed and endurance. Weight training will raise their power. Hitting the heavy bag will raise their stats regarding cuts and their ability to withstand damage and the like. You have to keep focused on where you want to end up and when to train what over the course of your career. After training you'll go on to the fight. After the fight it's back to selecting a contract. With each successful fight, you'll gain popularity. Gain enough popularity and you'll get a shot at a special fight. The special fights unlock achievements. You repeat this cycle all the way through trying to become the champion, and once becoming the champion, in unifying the titles. There is what's called the fight store where you're able to buy new outfits and better equipment for your fighter with the winnings from your fights. More stuff in the fight store is unlocked as you win more fights. Xbox Live mode is where you go online to face another player. Online you can use your career mode fighter once he's been retired. Otherwise you can use a stock created fighter or play as any number of famous boxers. The gameplay itself is very well done. It controls perfectly and effectively conveys the science of the sport. A button masher won't survive long against anyone who knows what they're doing. The player model graphics are impressive. And they react and contort amazingly to the punches and damage they're taking. The backgrounds are good, but not great. The sound design is right on target and some of the hit sounds will make you cringe. The announcer does a better than average job of calling the fight and isn't as annoying as announcers typically tend to be. I really enjoyed Fight Night Round 3 and I'll be interested to see what they do in Round 4. Hopefully they'll streamline the front-end and keep the end game challenge fair. Do that, and they'll have the best boxing game ever made. But for now Evander Holyfield's "Real Deal" Boxing remains, in my opinion, the best bit-for-bit boxing game in the world.