Fight Night Round 3

Ask just about anyone what the best kind of punch is, and they’ll probably say “uppercut.” This is partly because “uppercut” is the only punch that anyone outside of boxing fandom can actually identify by name, but mostly because seeing one pulled off well can be breathtaking. A rising blow from the hip to the target’s chin, a good uppercut can floor an opponent, break a jaw and potentially even kill. It can also look awesome.

Unsurprisingly, nowhere are uppercuts more awesome than in videogames, which since the ‘80s have shaped our perception of them to the point where they’re no longer just power punches employed by extremely tough men. They’re finishing moves, ultra-powerful attacks and metaphorical middle fingers to the enemies we’re about to knock unconscious. At their best, they also feel great to pull off, as proved by the following examples...

Barack Obama. The most important politician in a generation. A peerless orator. Winner of a historic election. And exceedingly effin hard to recreate in every create a character mode we could find. You’d think the current leader of the free world’s unassuming features would be easy to make with the plethora of chin, forehead and septum sliders most games now have. Wrong.

Not only did we fail to craft convincing Obamas, we

Theres nothing more satisfying in Fight Night Round 3 than watching your foe slumped onto his corner stool looking like hes been hit with a sack of rocks. After all that training and time spent perfecting haymakers, this is your reward. Swing after deadly swing stuns your opponent until his face swells up like the Elephant Man and the skin pulls apart like tiny fleshy curtains. Theres sadistic pleasure in wrecking his face with jabs rather than just knocking him

Last year a fellow with the Gamertag StripClubDJ became the first Xbox 360 owner to smash through the 100,000 Gamerpoint barrier. Quite an Achievement (excuse the pun). Instead of being shunned by the gaming community for being a daylight-dodging loser, hes been widely revered and showered with friend requests by fellow 360ites. But if youre not one of the Gamerscore elites, logging in to Live to see your buddies clocking up tens of thousands of points while you languish in the late hundreds