February brought one of the first games to really wow me for the 360 from a graphical standpoint. This isn’t to say there weren’t some great looking games already out for the circle, but this game made me sweaty with how good it looked. You’ll see what I did there…
February 2006
Fight Night Round 3
I’ve never been a big real life boxing fan. Scratch that, I actually couldn’t care less about boxing, MMA, etc. Karate Kid? That’s pretty cool though. Anyway, boxing is whatever, but boxing games are fun at times. I thought Ready to Rumble on Dreamcast was a ton of fun way back when, and who can forget Mike Tyson’s Punch Out!? The Fight Night Series is (was?) a sim take on boxing compared to the aforementioned titles arcade take, but it was a good time to pummel an opponent with big red gloves with some great graphics. Round 3 took the series to the “next gen” and looked unbelievably lifelike. You could see sweat! Sweat! The boxers glistened with it! The boxing itself was interesting, using the analog sticks to throw punches. There was a lengthy career mode, all the bells and whistles and production of an EA Sports title, great announcing. Just a good sports punchy game. Did I mention the sweat and how good it looked? Next gen, for real. Dude on the box looks sad but should probably be happy due to the check he likely received for looking sad.
Shoutout to Full Auto by Sega. It’s a fairly decent car combat game, lots of explosions and some fun tracks. I remember it got pretty tough, or maybe I’m just terrible at these games, idk. I need a racing line and rewind!