GAMEPLAY
Much of the control and gameplay in Fight Night Round 3 is similar to Round 2, with some additions and tweaks. Total Control Punching is back, although you can also choose to use the buttons to punch if you are not comfortable with it. The way Fight Night’s total control punching works is with a combination of both analog sticks and the top triggers. The left stick moves your boxer; left and right sidesteps your boxer in the ring, while up and down moves your fighter forward and backward. It will take you a couple of fights to get that figured out right. The right analog stick does all your punching. Up and left throws jabs to the head, up and right throws straights to the head. To throw body punches, you need to hold the left trigger and punch as if you were throwing head shots. Throwing hooks and uppercuts are accomplished by doing "street-fighter"-style fireball moves on the right stick. Moving the stick to the right, then up will throw a right hook, and vice-versa for a left hook. Doing a dragon punch will throw an uppercut. And of course, holding down the L2 will throw these to the body. A match in the last version of Fight Night often turned in to a haymaker fest. This essentially took any strategy out of the fight. EA changed that in Fight Night Round 3 with the addition of three new Impact Punches. It only takes one punch to change a fight, and these new punches can do just that. There is a lot of risk with these punches, but the reward is well worth the risk. One of the new punches will even put you in a mid-fight mini-game that will let you land a knockdown punch. If you fail to land one of these punches, you better be prepared to take a beating. Also, you can really use ducking and blocking to your advantage much more than before. In fact, ducking and weaving becomes a critical part of winning bouts in the game. And just like before, you can parry a boxer’s attack and open him up for a devistating counterpunch. In fact, if you can parry off someone’s punch, and counter with a heavy Impact blow, you can pretty much send your opponent to the canvas in a big hurry.
The Cutman also returns in Round 3. Basically, you take over what happens in your corner between rounds. As you know during the fight as you take a pounding your face will get banged up, swollen, and bloody. This is something that Fight Night: Round 2 does well. So when you’re in your corner, you can target the swelling on your face, or the blood coming out of your nose. As the cutman, you highlight that region of your face with the left stick, then use the right stick motion back and forth to move the swelling tool around and bring it down. You have to work quick because you can only work on your face until the bell is about to sound again. If you don’t want to bother with any of this, you can simply hit the "Auto" button and the computer will work on your face equally. It’s wild to watch, especially as you’re working on your boxer’s face, you’ll visually see swelling going down. One problem that I have with the PS3 version is that EA cut the cutman feature in half from the 360 version, so it means that this feature wraps up sooner in the corner than it would if you were playing the 360 version.
Overall, EA did a good job of not letting Fight Night Round 3 turn in to a button masher. There is a lot of strategy involved in the matches, and if you come out swinging all of the time, you will find yourself losing a lot more matches than you will win. Each fighter has their own style as well. When you pick Muhammad Ali, it will feel like you are fighting as Ali. Since each fighter has their own style, you will find the fighter that fits you best in order to be successful. Fight Night Round 3 is also balanced enough where any one style will not have a significant advantage over another. Each style has their strengths and weaknesses, and it is up to you to take advantage of them.
