Fight Night Round 3 (PS3)

Fight Night Round 3 on the PS3 stays very faithful to the Fight Night mantra, and anyone in possession of Fight Night 2004 or Fight Night Round 2, will be able to step straight into the game and perform well.

The game offers the same tried and tested options of quick fight, career mode, create a champion and a new mode entitled 'Get in the ring'.

This offers you the opportunity of fighting in first person mode. Its done quite well, and represents a fairly accurate depiction of a fighters eye view of a boxing match. It isn't my personal cup of tea as I found judgement of distance to be quite tricky and spent much time swinging wildly and missing the target. I played this mode once, then returned to the normal view, which I find easier and more satisfying.

Quick fight offers you an exhibition type fight between two pre-selected fighters. There is a reasonable selection of boxers, and all look great. The skin texture and facial detail is really impressive, but the construction of the menu system and hip hop background is a little disappointing. I critiqued previous versions of Fight Night and suggested a more 'big fight' feel to the theme and menu, but once again they have gone with the very American hip hop style, which for loyal fans, will be getting tiresome by now.

Career mode is where you will spend much of your time. As ever you can create a new fighter or re-create from scratch the career of a big name boxer. I went for a new fighter and, as per normal, you get to customise pretty much everything from height, build, appearance, style and kit. Not much is different here from round 2. Once created you enter the usual scenario of selecting opponent, training, buying kit and fighting.

The fight store allows you to buy new gloves boots etc. The more expensive variants of these will offer increases in certain skill areas of up to 20%. The 20% kit is very expensive and needs saving up for, but once you have progressed in career mode, the kit becomes essential to bring yor fighter up to competetive level.

The training consists of mini games of weightlifting, combo dumy and heavy bag. Nothing new here. The mini games are pretty easy and do get dull. Unfortunately if you go for the easy option and select 'auto-train' you will only get half of the available improvement, which isn't enough really.

Once in the ring, the game really excels. The perspective appears noticeably closer than previous games and this takes some getting used to. The action, with low rated fighters, is also slower than previously and probably represents a more accurate simulation. Nonetheless, the action looks fantastic. The boxers are not far from looking totally realistic and the sound effects are brilliant. The game uses the same total punch control of old, with two new types of punch in addition to the standard haymaker. These are the instant knockout punch and the stun punch. Both require increasingly exaggerated movements on the control and are almost impossible to pull off. I've been playing the game for a month and have never got one right!

The stadia in the game are also well done, but are not done anything like as well as the fighters. The crowd is also done to an acceptable level, but again, its very clear that most of the detail has gone into the boxers, and rightly so. The fights generally don't last for more than 2-4 rounds and on default difficulty you will be despatching opponents quite quickly. You proceed to take on various opponents and some fights offer more than others, financially or in your popularity level. Some will also unlock new kit etc.

My only criticism of the career mode is that it lacks coherency. In previous games you receive a ranking, which makes your progress feel steady and linear.

In Fight Night Round 3, your progress is judged on your popularity. Its a different slant, but leaves you in the dark about how well your doing, how close you are to a title shot etc.

Another irritation is that even when you hold your respective title, the game makes no fuss over it. On entering the ring, you are not introduced as the champ or wearing the belt. Its not a major problem, but in a sport where being the ttle holder means so much, it should have been recognised and celebrated in game.

The action continues in career mode until you hold the title. You can then compete at different weight levels for an extra challenge and finally go for the pound for pound title. By the time you have all the belts, your fighter will be no spring chicken and the game will start deducting performance as he gets older. This follows the theme of older games and gives you the chance to bow out on top, or go down fighting.

In summary - Not much has changed and the franchise is still strong, especially in light of the total lack of competition. Similar niggles exist from previous versions, like the hip hop theme and relatively long load periods. Despite this, the game is brilliant fun if slightly repetitive. The graphics are excellent on the fighters especially.

Graphics in Fight Night Round 3 are good but could be better. But hey one of the first games on PS3. Loved the way you design your player's face. Liked the stun punch, good idea. Training gets a pain in the end. Also once you're at the top of your game and won all the belts the game takes power and everything else off you. Can see why they've done that. Good game hope they do another and improve graphics.