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Review

Top Spin 3

8.0

Format Xbox 360

Developer Unknown

Publisher Take-Two Interactive

Genre Sports

9-Aug-2008 Takes Virtua Tennis 3 and turns the realism up to ten

1 Comments

Fire up Top Spin 3 and your first port of call really ought to be the training area. If, like us, you're expecting it to play like a clone of Virtua Tennis 3, you're going to be more than a little confused.

Why? Well, unless you work out exactly how to play the game before leaping in, your character will spend most of his time just standing there, as the ball whizzes past him.

You see, it's all about timing. Now we know all sports games say this, but TS3 really has implemented this well. If you hit the ball too early, your man over-reaches and stumbles. Go for a ball too late and he digs it out from behind him and stumbles. Either way, it's you that looks like the idiot who can't play games properly.

Release the shot button at the right time, however, and you're treated to a super-powerful shot of perfection that may even make your little computer person leap off the ground to smack it that little bit harder. There's no arcade-style auto-aiming, auto-hitting and auto-positioning going on here - you have to do it. You have to move, react and, above all, pay attention.

The animations of the players help get across the importance of timing and positioning. You learn what's happened and gone wrong by the position of your player's body after a shot, and each player - particularly the real ones in here like Federer, Andy Murray and the lovely Maria Sharapova - has unique animations to watch and learn from.

There's not just a minor difference between them, either. Playing as the measured Roger Federer is a massively different experience to playing as the lighting-fast Andy Roddick.

The only downside to this serious-isation of tennis is the increased complexity of the control system. Triggers and bumper buttons all serve (arf) a purpose, you're worrying about your power, position, balance, heart rate and angle of shot all at once.

There's a lot going on in every match, but Top Spin 3 does offer a much more realistic game of tennis for anyone not a fan of the Virtua series' crazed dramatisation. It's a bit boring and won't win any major trophies - but that didn't stop Tim Henman making a career out of it.

OXM Staff

Overview

Verdict

Superb tennis sim, but where's Wimbledon?

Uppers

Great player animations

Loads of courts and events

Amusing face-morphing toy

Deeper simulation-like controls

Downers

Rather slow-paced and worthy

Screens

Interactive

Read all 1 comments

Screens

1 / 4 Screenshots

Reviews:

Top Spin 3

Previews:

Top Spin 3

News:

Top Spin 3 serves up Live demo

Andy Murray, Boris Becker revealed in Top Spin 3's cast

Top Spin 3 screens spin our way

Top Spin 3 - first look

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