It's tough to tell whether the success of EA Sports' early-2005 game, Fight Night Round 2, was a result of its being such a finely tuned semblance of boxing or that expectations for boxing games had sunk so low in recent years that any game portraying something remotely exciting would have been a hit. Nonetheless, the second game in EA's revamped boxing series has set a new standard, one that creates an entirely new level of expectations for the third game in the series, Fight Night Round 3. At a recent EA Sports event in Redwood City, California, we got a chance to see and play Fight Night Round 3 and were pleased to find out that the game looks to not only meet but exceed our already lofty hopes.

More polys and powerful processors means Round 3's pugilists will be powerfully pugnacious in appearance.

Sure, the game is being developed for the PlayStation, Xbox, and PSP, but there's a reason EA Sports producers had the Xbox 360 version of the game running on the biggest television in the room. The next-generation version of the game looks flat-out amazing, with big burly boxer models that are astonishing in their level of detail and clarity. The camera angle seems closer than ever to the action in the ring, really providing a sense of immediacy and motion to the two boxers as they square off. You don't just feel like part of the action here; you feel like an errant swing might knock your block off at any moment.

The development team behind Fight Night has always been about pushing the series forward--the additions they make to each successive entry have consistently felt new and fresh. Fight Night Round 2, for example, beefed up the game's control scheme with haymaker and clinch controls, as well as a cool cut-man minigame, making it one of the best sports games of 2005. With Round 3, the team at EA Chicago is adding two essential features: rivalries and boxing styles. Rivalries were basically nonexistent in the last Fight Night--you simply punched and parried your way up the career ladder on your long march to championship gold. That won't be the case here, because you will definitely have your share of rivalries with other boxers as you make your way through your career. Rivalries between boxers will be told in a number of different ways--videos where a rival calls you out, interactive media circus brawls like those seen on ESPN, and so on. In addition, the storylines between the ropes will be dictated by the game's complex artificial intelligence, which may find your chief rival delivering some low blows once the bell rings to up the emotional ante that much more. We didn't get to see any of the rivalries scenes in action, but we're definitely curious to see how interactive they'll be and just how they'll affect your virtual boxing career.

While there were some nods to boxing styles in last game, you could choose from only three options: power, balance, and speed. When it came to getting busy in the ring, one of the most important aspects of your "style" usually involved deciding when to let loose with your haymaker. Boxing styles will play a much larger role in Round 3, and you'll have more control than ever when deciding exactly how you want your created pugilist to fight. Your entry into this improved style system will be the improved create-a-boxer feature. Of course, it will contain the requisite insane amount of detail and flexibility that made the last game's create-a-boxer feature so fun, and you still use the dual analog sticks to make adjustments to things like face size and nose shape. Along the way, however, you'll also be asked to choose your boxer's in-ring style, and you'll have a number of different options to choose from under three main headings: movement, punch style, and block style.

Styles will play a big part in your success in Fight Night Round 3.

When it comes to movement, the available style choices are, among others, smooth, bully, upright, textbook, mummy (think George Foreman), and wild (think Prince Naseem Hamed). When choosing your punching style, you'll choose which types of punches you wish to focus on when trading fists in the ring, such as the lethal uppercut. Finally, a plethora of blocking styles will be included, so you can choose from a cross style à la Jake LaMotta or an up-and-down block style. These different styles will play a huge role in your success in the ring and will dictate how you'll need to shape your style to be effective. Your block style, for example, will determine how effective you are at stopping punches from a variety of different angles, and as a result, you'll be more effective against certain punches than others.

More so than any previous Fight Night game, Round 3's focus on styles will mean there's more to beating an opponent than simply hoping you get lucky with a haymaker. Just like in real boxing, you'll be responsible for picking apart your opponents' defenses and watching how they react, probing for chinks in their armor and exploiting any weakness you find for maximum effect. Of course, choosing one style won't mean you're locked into one way of fighting--just as in real life, you'll be able to switch tactics in the ring on the fly and, for example, switch up your stance so that you're leading with your power hand. The design approach for boxing styles in Round 3 seems to focus on making sure that styles are an advantage for the player willing to make the most of them, while ensuring that a balance is found for every skill level.