Xbox 360 users that have at least an Xbox Live Silver membership can download a demo of Fight Night Round 3 in the Xbox Live Marketplace. Major kudos to EA for getting a free demo out more than a month before the game is scheduled to ship. In the demo you get your pick of Bernard Hopkins and Roy Jones Jr. and can test drive the game for four rounds.
The main attraction in the demo is, of course, the absolutely fantastic graphics. These are some of the best looking human character models to ever grace a videogame. Hopkins and Jones look completely realistic and the detailed facial expressions and flying sweat and blood really look great.
As far as gameplay goes, Round 2 veterans might be a little disappointed. The speed of Round 3 is considerably slower than before and for whatever reason the punches really seem to lack impact. Also, the right analog stick punching has been tweaked a bit and doesn’t feel nearly as smooth and satisfying as last year’s game. I’m not too worried about this stuff, though, because this is just a limited demo that is likely a few weeks old so it isn’t a 100% representation of what the final product will be like. Even with these nitpicks the game is still very fun to play and with the Xbox Live features in the final game it will probably be worth picking up. And like I said, the main attraction of the demo was to show off the pretty graphics more than the gameplay so we can hope that it’ll be tightened up before the Valentine’s Day launch.
For more information about Fight Night Round 3, check out the official Fight Night webpage.
