Fight Night 3 demo for 360 now available on live

I’m about 50% done with the download, so no impressions yet.

Well, the demo has been a hit at the GAF (Thanks, Dave, for getting me hooked.) Has anyone tried it yet?

Starting my download now…

Although I won’t be playing it until USC finished trounces Texas although I wish it were the other way around.

Looks great, about as impressive as the demo from E3. Really does look next gen. I haven’t played the previous FN games so I can’t comment too much on the gameplay aspect as I might be missing some mechanics. Boxing seemed ok, a little sluggish, and I always feel in these straight up boxing games like I should have some more moves (but that might just be because I’ve played too many fighters)

Demo is offline only, one arena and only two boxers. Does support two players.

A note: there seems to be some sort of weird graphical anomaly where you get a thin dark vertical line at the bottom of the screen right in the center. No your TV isn’t broken, this appears to be the game and everyone seems to have it.

I really, really hate you guys right now.

Meh. Graphics are alright, nothing special. I couldn’t figure out what the hell I was doing, why the block button didn’t block and I only threw punches half the time and why those punches I did throw were weaker in the game than what I can do in real life. The players look a lot better than in any of the other EA sports games, but considering that there are only two of them, they damn well better.

Fuck this, next-gen SSX please.

Hold down X I think after you select Red or Blue to see controls and select different control setups. To block you have to hold down the block button and then use the right analogue stick to block high or low. I was confused by that for a bit too. Uppercuts/hooks seem to hit with some power but jabs are totally wimpy. I thought the graphics were really quite good.

The newest SSX seems to have tanked. I kinda think they’re going to let the series die along with the current gen consoles.

I gotta say, I’m loving the downloadable demos bit. I got to try out quake 4 earlier this week.

Shit, that’s just because they fucked it up. SSX3 rocked.

Wow, does EA have any animators working on any of their games? After this and Madden, it doesn’t look like it.

I’ve never played boxing video games, or even seen them since some Genesis game my friend liked, but I’ve seen real boxing matches, or real people for that matter, and this isn’t what they look like. Everything here is beautiful till they start boxing. Robotic movements, and every punch looks like it’s being pulled. Totally killed the “experience” or whatever.

From what I’ve heard, EA is trying to outsource as much art as possible – including animation.

All I have to say is, you get what you pay for…

I thought the graphics are great. It’s like Contender the video game! I couldn’t figure out how to bring up the control mapping help screen. The 5 sec you see it during the load isn’t long enough. I was mashing buttons which didn’t seem to do much until I realised you had to use the right analog stick.

I’m certainly not a boxing expert, but that sounds about right for many, if not most boxers in RL. The jab is harrass and set range, but for most boxers the jab lacks power because the boxer has not committed the major muscle masses behind the punch like you do with a uppercut/hook/cross.

New to FN 3 is the ability to change your lead foot. Hit the left bumper (MS speak for shoulder button) to switch stances.

Yeah it sucks that you can’t bring up the controller map. So the left trigger blocks and left analog stick dodges?

I can’t figure out how to do the big haymaker punches. Is there a difference between using the four main buttons and the right stick?

From the Red Blue select screen, after you slide the controller to red or blue hit X (might be Y) and it will let you select from 6 controller schemes as well as look at the controller map. They should totally let you see it from within the fight, but you can get the config up and just stare at it for a bit to figure out what the hell does what.

So you can switch your stance. What else is new?