The one thing Fight Night Round 3 does right is enter the gaming world as the best-looking game on the Xbox 360. Character models are flawless and the texture quality shows up every skin blemish. Gone are the days where you can see - either in the texture or a polygon seam - where the arm joins the torso and no longer will you be scanning the top of the screen to see how much fight your boxer has left in him.

Before Fight Night 3 there was always the option to turn off the health gauge, but the only thing it added to the game was the surprise of not being able to get back up after a knockdown. However, with this version you can visibly see if your character is getting tired, you can tell if he's hurt, and the blood pouring down his face will tell you your blocking skills aren't quite what they should be. When it comes down to it, there is absolutely no need for an HUD unless you are new to the franchise. And even then, you may only use it to find out you get a burst of energy after any successful haymaker.

Haymakers played a successful part in beating your opposition in FN3's predecessor, which based winning a round purely on who could get the haymaker in first. This year it seems that while a successfully planted haymaker can do a lot of damage and can give you a few seconds of extra energy, it's the missing that can really hurt.

If you are successfully blocked your character stumbles a bit and if your stats aren't high it will take him a while to get back to his base pose ready for a block, and all too often you will find your haymaker countered with a crushing uppercut or stun punch.

Stun punches and flash KOs are the new additions this year. A stun punch - if it makes its way through the defence - will put the action into a mini-game from the victim's perspective, where all the victim can do is try to defend or parry the oncoming punches. Flash KOs can shift the entire game around. These punches can send your opponents to the ground if pulled off correctly, and if you happen to be dazed - which happens once you are seconds from being taken down - a flash KO can swap it around so your opponent is no longer on the offensive. While these power punches are slow-moving and easy to defend against, a successful connection will definitely pick up any slow moments in the game.

Speaking of slow moments, ten-round bouts can become a little tedious. While a quick five-round match can be entertaining from start to finish, you will find that both players will be tired, slow and have very little power behind their punches by the end of anything longer. You can fix this by trying to get in as many jabs as possible and only pulling the power punches when absolutely necessary; it does turn the game more into a simulator than an arcade match. If possible, stick to the shorter matches, unless of course you are in for the realism. And if that's the case you are in for a treat as FN3 brings you everything you could hope for.

At the end of each round you get the choice of auto-healing or personally taking care of the cuts and swelling that your boxer has received. Auto-healing very rarely does better than what you would do manually, but for the gamer on the run it's a gift from the EA gods.

Fight Night Round 3 is broken up into four game modes. Play Now lets you select which corner you are fighting from and chucks you into a fight. ESPN Classics has a list of classic matchups from that let you change history.

Career mode is the guts of the game. You get to either select a well-known fighter, or create your own, and work him up from nobody to world title-holder. You start off with not a cent to your name, train with a cheap nobody and box with headgear, but after you've won a few matches and earnt respect from the spectators you will find yourself with more money than you need and the ability to earn achievements in Pay Per View matches or earning the 'Burger King' as your ringside mascot.

The one thing that needed to be rectified is that while money may be a hard thing to come across at the beginning, mid-way through your career you will have more than you know what to do with. There are shorts, shoes, mouthguards and taunts you can buy, and more expensive trainers that will pump up those lacklustre stats, but why can't we buy a mansion, some new cars or even better the stadium in which we fight? If we have big money, we want to buy big things.

Multiplayer mode is where most people will spend their time. These are people who find the computer matches far too easy, and while they may be to easy at first, it will take a lot of training and matches to think so.

With either two on one console or over Xbox Live you are bound to have the time of your life. If using Live, lag can make the game unplayable. What would have been excellent would be to include what Burnout Revenge has going for it: to come against your rival and automatically find your match is set in a larger stadium with bigger crowds and sponsors.

Commentary is a mixed bag in this title. While the announcers may be right on the ball and comment precisely split seconds after a move is made, all too often they have no idea what they're saying. It isn't uncommon to hear them talk about the mindblowing punch the red corner dealt as they show off the replay of the blue corner knocking his opposition to the ground.

The same can be said about the trainer when you're fixing up the cuts and swelling between rounds. He'll tell you how great you did and then follow it up with how you were terribly beat. Consistency is definitely lacking and something EA needs to look at. Other than this the sounds are spot on. Bone-crunching punches and the sound of spit and blood couldn't be better.

What does need to be looked at is the spectators' reactions. You will get the occassional chant from the crowd but where is the roaring or wailing as their favourite boxer nose dives to the mat?

As mentioned before, the game is a graphical masterpiece - but every masterpiece has its flaws. While many will not be noticable to most, it will be hard to ignore the popping that happens between each blocking stance. The main reason behind this is that it is difficult to animate anticipation and when you push up on the controller you want your arms to raise at that exact moment, so while not looking the best, it's going to be hard to fix for future games. Other small flaws include fists occassionally clipping through opponents' heads or feet through the canvas and the extremely fake-looking blood in replays. All of these are minor and do not detract from the actual gameplay experience, however.

The game's controls put you in complete control. No longer do you have a jab/haymaker/cross button to push: instead all punch control is mapped onto the right thumb stick. A quick push up and right will jab with the right fist, and vice versa for the left side. Different rotations of the stick will see you pulling off crosses, uppercuts and haymakers with ease, and by holding down the right trigger it will see you with full control over your blocks.