Calling all fight fans! In the blue corner we have Ross "The Cobra" Alexander fighting from Edinburgh, Scotland - one fight, one win by way of knockout and no losses. And in the red corner we have Ricky Hatton, hailing from Manchester, England - thirty-three fights, twenty-five wins by way of knockout and no losses. The bell goes and the first round begins. Hatton is ducking and diving, swinging up out of nowhere and chinning me time and time again, then comes an uppercut - BAM! - my head practically comes off and he's into the body, quick short calculated punches sapping my breath, as I try to back away, sweat pouring from my brow, my chest heaving as I try to stay on my feet. Then it comes, a Haymaker from nowhere, a huge right hook to the face, blood and saliva launching liberally from my mouth as I fall…. 7, 8, 9, 10. It's all over! But I'll be back and Hatton knows it. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the joys of EA's Fight Night Round 3 on Xbox 360. LET'S GET READY TO RRRRRRRRRRUMBLE!!!

One of the first things you notice when you boot up Fight Night is the dope, phat and downright fly hip-hop soundtrack. I found myself scouring the back covers of the manual to find out who the songs belonged to so I could play them on my computer at work and make all my colleagues think I'm down with the Kanye Crew. When you come to the main menu screen, there's the option of Fight Now or you can enter Career Mode. Fight Now lets you choose a boxer and launch straight into some fine pugilism. There're tons of boxers in here, ranging as far back as Bobby DeNiro's Jake LaMotta from Raging Bull and greats like Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier, to modern stars like Evander Holyfield, Marco Barrera and even Jeff Lacy, who some of you might know got his ass kicked by Joe Calzaghe a few weeks ago. You can choose a fighter on any weight from Light Welterweights to Middle Weights, all the way through to the human tanks that are the Heavyweights. One of the nicest additions is to see that Ricky Hatton has finally been given his due and added into this game and hopefully after Joe Calzaghe's recent performance, we can maybe expect to see him in Fight Night Round 4.

So if you go for Fight Now, you pick your boxer. If you're starting out it's probably best to pick a Heavyweight boxer and choose yourself a Welterweight opponent, as the game has a steep learning curve. Once you've got the knack, however, you're pretty much sorted. When you enter the fight arena you'll see just how awesome this game really looks. The crowd actually move about and act independently of each other, instead of all swaying to and fro together and jabbing their fists in the air at the same time - a fault of many a previous boxing title. The lights above the ring burn and crackle from the shadows, as your boxers take their place, muscles gleaming and moving as if alive within your TV screen (or HDTV screen if you're not short of a few bob).

The bell goes and it's game on. To move your boxer forwards, backwards, left and right you simply move the left analogue stick. However, with your right analogue stick you can choose which punches you'd like to throw. This is such a liberating and enjoyable idea, as you can craft, to a good degree of accuracy, exactly which combination of hits to use. If you swing your joystick in a half revolution upwards you uppercut the opponent, or if you swing in quarter revolution, you hit him with a left or right hook, depending on which direction you turned the stick. You can also duck and dive by holding the left trigger and moving the left analogue stick. This is perfect for when you see a blow coming, so you can dip out of the way of a punch and then use the right stick to wally a huge one into your opponent's face and catch him off guard. Blocking is similarly helpful and is done by holding the right trigger and using the right analogue stick. By timing your block to perfection you can knock away an opponent's strike and hit him back instantly, without allowing him an instant to recover his guard.

The goal as you go is to knock the hell out of the other opponent and try and get him down and out on the canvas. To do this you also have a signature punch, called a Haymaker, that when it connects really does the other guy a mischief. You'll know when he's good to go down, as the game enters slow motion and the sound of your opponent's breathing becomes amplified. In this slo-mo mode you have about six seconds to hit him with a final blow to get him down, otherwise he recomposes himself and you have to try and knock him into another slo-mo sequence. If you do get him down, you're treated to a spectacular slo-mo replay of the punch that landed the vital blow - this is truly sumptuous, as you can see the rolls of skin rippling away from the impact point of the punch and hear the strained growl of pain coming from your opponent, much like Neo's famed punch to Agent Smith's face in The Matrix Revolutions.

Indeed, the graphics in Fight Night Round 3 simply scream next generation and this is without doubt one of the greatest looking Xbox 360 titles yet, truly emphasising the progression in visual technology. The fabulously realistic and well animated surroundings are complemented by phenomenal detail on the fighters themselves, with smoothly sculpted muscles, superb skin textures complete with dripping sweat and some wonderfully atmospheric dynamic lighting effects, along with amazing depth to facial features and plenty of blood and drool flying when you land those slow motion killer blows. Accompanying this are some great sound effects for every punch, plus the sound of your opponent (or yourself) crashing down to the mat, all of which makes the experience all the more satisfying.

If you don't want to select Fight Now, then you can enter Career Mode. This mode allows you to either play as one of the boxers in the game or even create your own boxer. You can choose everything from jaw size to nose length and cranium width to eye colour in your quest to recreate your very own Rocky Balboa, minus the curled lip and slightly retarded speech (we hope). In Career Mode you fight your way up from the amateur ranks and hopefully make it as a professional before going for the title yourself. On the way you can customise your boxer with special equipment, which helps your fighter's attributes, such as power-increasing gloves and agility-boosting trainers. You can also train between each fight and there's a series of rather disappointing and irritating mini-games you can go through to earn your attribute points. I tended to select Auto-Train so I could avoid these mini-games, as they are a nasty blemish on an otherwise top quality game.

As you progress in your career you can unlock new fighters and new punch moves, but only if you can knock your way past all the other fighters, which can be hard. You'll start off kicking the hell out of everyone and then all of a sudden you'll come up against someone really good. What's great about this game is that it's so real; against big hitting fighters you have to keep your guard up and try to take them on the counter attack. Or with quick fighters you need to get stuck into them early to try and sap their energy before they overcome you. Before long, you'll find yourself thinking like a boxer and you may even flinch when your rumble pad signals a Haymaker to your fighter's face. Once you've honed your skills to a tee, it's time to try the game out on Xbox Live and show those Yanks how us Brits whoop ass! The options on Xbox Live are fairly limited, in that you can only fight separate one-on-one bouts and not tournaments, but it's great fun to play this game online, as it gets the adrenaline going as you linger around your opponent for that killer blow.

Fight Night Round 3 is awesome. Boxing games tend to get a bit dry after a while, but I've been playing this non-stop since I got it. I've become at one with my fighter and have really immersed myself in the tactics involved in a boxing match. That's why Fight Night is so special, as it actually recreates the sport so accurately that you can come away from a bout and actually have learned something about the sport itself. It looks fantastic, plays wonderfully, sounds superb and feels just right - truly this is the undisputed heavyweight champion of the gaming world. Other boxing games beware, or sit out the ten count.

Reviewed by Ross Alexander for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).