What a beautiful game. I don’t buy EA games on principle, so this is one that I’ve had sent by GameFly, but Fight Night Round 3 is just amazing looking. I’m having a ton of fun with it, too, as my wife would attest to after hearing me heckle the other pugilists with ridiculous nicknames like “The Body Snatcher”. (Not that my nickname of “The Professional” is much better.) I sat there last night threatening to send The Body Snatcher home in a body bag, stuff like that.

I normally shy away from the idea of creating fighters in my own image, since I’m not that attractive a guy, but for some reason I decided to make my fighter in the career mode look just like me. I started out pretty pudgy, but as I’ve trained and gained in skill, I’ll be damned if I don’t look like I’m chisled out of granite.

One thing I’m disappointed in is that the game tries a little too hard to be realistic. The stamina system is interesting, making you conserve your punches so that you can continue to hit like a sack of bricks. However, it’s a game, and if someone drops his guard, I should be able to throw a five-punch combo without losing too much oomph towards the end. Of course, there’s no HUD, so you don’t really know this has happened until the announcer mentions it.

Speaking of the announcer, it’s pretty good. He’ll even comment when you’re boring him, as I did last night since I needed to wait until a particular round to knock someone out (in order to earn a bonus). Sometimes the announcer sounds sort of like what Trey Parker and Matt Stone did to Issac Hayes last night on South Park (stitching words together to make a sentence), but overall, one of the better announcers I’ve heard.

However, I’m starting to become bored with it. The fights are pretty much all the same, and when you’ve knocked out Mohammad Ali in your first four fights, it’s hard to press yourself to keep going. God bless the ridiculously low number of achievements (only 8) for keeping me moving forward.

Complimenting the painfully accurate graphics, is an amazing attention to detail on audio. FNR3 makes sure that your subwoofer beats out each and every punch. The music definitely fits the game, although, it can start to get a bit competitive at times.

Being the only next-generation boxing title on the block, Fight Night Round 3 immediately goes unmatched in it’s genre. The supreme audio and visuals make this one a delight to play, if for no other reason than to show off your HDTV to your gaming buddies. The violent instant replay action is enough to make just about anyone let out an “Ooooohhhh!” every now and again, and we love any game that can invoke that kind of reaction.