I think that after you create the game, you just click the xbox button (quick tap...not the long one that brings up the shut down game options) in the center of the gamepad and then click the friends button when the panel pops up. You can invite friends from there. This is pretty standard in all of the online games I think.

This happened to me as well! I was pummelling the guy but he would NOT fall and my cut was getting bigger and bigger.

Is there a way to shake off a clinch?

The games difficulty definitely ramps it up after the Burger King bout. I can barely win by KO now. My "Rival" also is a pain in the arse! There was a cool cut scene before our last bout. I won't spoil it for anyone but it was pretty funny.

Sam

You are sooooo right

I had a simular experience last night. I was playing the career and went 8 rounds with this guy....The first 7 I won every round, and knocked him down quite a few times. All of a sudden in the 8th round he nails me with this punch out of no where (I still had ALOT of energy bar left) and I went crashing down and instead of there being that little green circle to put your circles into, there was one HUGE red one in the left hand corner and it didnt matter where I moved my circles, I was done for......

1 punch......1 stinkin punch......

A clinch? That hugging thing? The A button works well for me.


My rival is a pain as well, and as for that cool cut scene, it IS very cool.

The same thing happened to me. I was beating the shit out of my buddy for 7 rounds and all he kept doing was throwing lefts at my eye and the ref stopped the fight I was pissed

I bought this game for ps2 today. I have to say, i was rather disapointed playing it. I liked the original FN, but this one felt a lot slower, and the responce from the movement wasnt anywhere near as fluid to me (its not the controller, bought a BRAND new logitech wireless pad for ps2 at the same time). Am i missing something that you guys know lol.

I think a lot of us are playing it on the 360. That may be the main difference. :-)

This is a great game get it.

Yes, I'm playing on the 360, it's really good. Really enjoying the offline version of it.

I'm really loving this game so far. When I first heard of it I was torn between getting it on the PSP and getting the 360. Then I downloaded the demo on 360 and I was hooked. It's great on the 360 but I am thinking I may have to pick it up on the psp too.

Hey guys, just found this site on the official forums. Check out the free tournament they are holding. I am gonna sign up since it is march 12th which gives me plenty of practice time.

edit: forgot the url

http://www.x360leagues.com/

I bought this the day it came out for the 360. I love it. I can easily play for hours at a time. I do have a quick question. I don't know if anyone has played this far into it, but...Is there a point in the game to where your fighter is forced to retire?? I've got a created guy and I've taken him to everything there is. He had a record of 61-1 w/ 59 KO's. Only reason I didn't have 61 KO's was because I played around for 10 rounds and the only reason that I have the loss is 'cause I let me son play Anyway, I just ended up retiring him myself becuase it just kept on making me fight and I was like 40 years old. Anyone know??

This is the reason I got a 360. This game is sweet.

Ok, quick update. Stopped by a friends house today and tried out FN3 on his 360 on his 60" LCD screen. He had me set the controls to the 3rd one (buttons for moves) and man, we had a BLAST. We must have played for 30 minutes and the graphics were SERIOUSLY amazing. You can easily tell all the love and emotion went into the 360 version.

I also played some PG3, NFS:MW, Condemed and NBA2K6. After the full experience, i have to say, first impression was seriously awesome. After all the dust settled, i came back to reality and i knew i didnt need to own the system. Not yet =)

FN3 was definetly a blast multi-player tho, and on a huge screen in HD and full 5.1 system, its truely a sight to behold. I already want to upgrade my 42" plasma to a 60", but without a HD gaming system, ill wait.

How much more polish is in the final game vs. the demo?

There is a bit that they fixed but some things still annoy me. Like in the demo I would be clobbering the Jones and they would say he was clobbering me. That isn't nearly as bad now, it only happens once in awhile, like when I go in and start clobbering and when I am moving out I get hit with one shot they say stuff like he can't take a beating like that all night long and so on.

Another thing was in the demo I could do illegal moves the whole fight and just tear up the other guy with elbows and lowblows, in the real thing they DQ you. I also noticed that in the real game, never ran into it in the demo, you can be getting creamed by the other guy and let's say he never defends his left eye, if you just keep popping him there and he doesn't listen to the commentators and cover that eye, they stop the fight and give it to you even if you have been knocked all over the ring. I think they do that to encourage everyone to learn how to box, not just brawl.

Overall I would say the real game is a lot more polished, graphically even since I used to always see the boxer who was knocked down laying in the ropes literally and his arm or leg shaking uncontrollably. I have only seen one major glitch in graphics in the real fight, I knocked this kid out and in the replay it showed my glovve going right into his neck and coming out the front. We both had a good laugh over that one.

My only complaint is that in the online mode I have to play with controller 3 now. I kept getting beat by guys who obviously weren't better at boxing than me, but they were able to do the moves faster. Turns out a lot of people online like to do controller 3 so they can be ALI or Jones and just come in and nail you 5 times while you are trying to set up your first punch. By using controller 3, I still can use the right stick for punches but if someone tries that I can start doing some quick hook and jab combos to stop them.

I absolutely HATE that! Why can't there be an option for sticks only fighters?

add me to your friends list!! Havuk

FINALLY AN EXPLANATION. I thought I just sucked and I wondered why everybody wanted to be Ali and could out punch me 10-1. I feel much better now, but pissed that they can just button mash, which is exactly what the loading screens say the control stick controls are meant to avoid. Feel free to add me to any friends lists, xbox live tag is "RogerEbertIsFat". I'm usually on in the evenings MST.

Forgive me if I missed something, but why don't you guys like people who use the 3rd controller config? Is it because it's quicker to press a button to throw a punch than it is to use the stick? I guess I sort of understand that, but I don't know why so many people are so pissed off by it.

I'm not so pissed off about it as I am dissapointed. I think the demo used config 3 as default because I had never changed it but my demo was on 3. So I get the game and it is stressing that you should use the stick because it allows total control, like power so on. So I start using the stick and get pretty good at it until I am on live and people are throwing 10 punch combos and knocking me out before I even get a single 2 punch combo on them. Now I know EA built in tools to stop the button mashers, the parry system is the main one. It's just so difficult to do this because you have to know exactly which punch is coming and where it is going to hit, so then you have to parry and immediatly do a haymaker or else they catch you with a haymaker and you are knocked out. I do think the stick is the better way to fight and the more realistic fighting style. When I fight with the stick I really feel like I am fighting at the real speed of a fight, not this crap where 5 rounds in someone is throwing 10 punch combos like nothing.

Now that I have switched my online profile to config 3 when someone starts that I just step back and start a haymaker and then start my own 5-10 punch combo on both body and head. Then they realize they screwed up. Except last night, some dude hit me right on the first punch of the fight and knocked me down with a stunner and then a haymaker. That pissed me off. The whole fight all he did was work his way in and try haymakers, then I parry them and hit him with one. Well like I said earlier, if your timing isn't just like this (Parry and immediatly haymaker) then you are stuck going slow on the haymaker and they come out of the parry and knock you down. It's like even a second to long and you are screwed because guys like morrales and jones jr come out of the parry freeze so quick you sometimes can't even land a hook before they are swinging on you again.

I forgot to mention, does anyone else have any good strategy tips? I was in this game last night I was jones jr. and the other guy was de la hoya, anyway, I keep trying to keep him out with a jab and he could hook me from futhur out than my jab, that sucked, so he would always get to come right in and start a 5-10 punch combo. He knocked me around the ring the first round and then I started getting smarter on him. He knocked me down in the first 4 rounds but in round 2 I started stepping back and fast when he came in and then throwing a signature punch to the body, then jump back either another body sig punch or head sig punch, for the round 2 and 3 I did this the whole round and was cutting his right eye with my counter hook by leaning back sometimes and then just countering his missed shots. Then in round 5 I hit him with a haymaker on the right eye and the ref stopped it because of his right eye. I bet he was pissed cause he had knocked me down in each round once and in one round twice. I just knew after the second round though that the right eye was swollen and cut and he couldn't repair it in time. So I kept my assault on his right eye.

I've got the game and love it. Haven't played online because I'm sure I would get aggravated at some of the cheap styles out there. Couple of questions though......

I'm confused on the different "major" type punches.

I know what the haymaker is. It's basically the fighter's special move. But what is the stun punch and what is the parry? Is the parry when someone throws a punch, and you block it and have that second or so where he's off balance and you can get a good punch in?

Oh, also, do you always have to train before a fight? There's no way to skip that in career mode?