Top Spin 3 (Xbox 360)
alt="Image 1"/>Xbox 360 owners once again have it all over their PlayStation 3-playing brothers when it comes to hitting the virtual tennis courts. Last year, it was a choice between 2K Sports' simulation-style Top Spin 2 versus Sega's more arcade-style Virtua Tennis 3. This year, Atari's upcoming Smash Court Tennis 3 will try to grab the thumbs of arcade tennis fans, while 2K Sports has raised the realism bar with its Top Spin 3. The latter game takes videogame tennis to a new level, but all that realism comes at a price -- namely, a steep learning curve that might stop some players from getting the most out of the disk.
I've played the earlier versions of Top Spin, so I didn't really think it would be too hard to jump right onto the court this time around. I am a professional, after all. In quickly became apparent, however, that something was horribly wrong. My guy wouldn't hit the ball! Roger Federer was throwing the match -- and he wasn't even doing a good job of pretending to be trying to win! As it turns out, the problem was that the controls for this latest iteration of the Top Spin franchise have been completely overhauled. In previous games, it was about loading up your shot by holding down a face button and then releasing it to hit the ball. Now it's about loading up to generate appropriate power, releasing, and then hitting the face button to execute the shot. It's a bit like dealing with the pitching meters in baseball games or the shot meters in golf games, but without the benefit of, oh, actually seeing the meter that you're trying to use. This new system takes a small world of time to get used to, but it creates a game that's more intense and deeper than any tennis game to date.
alt="Image 2" />In addition to using the different face buttons -- and various modifiers -- to hit different types of shots, this time around you can use a shoulder button to charge the net and the right stick to serve and hit lob and drop shots. Helping you wrap your brain and thumbs around the new controls is the "Top Spin School" tutorial mode. You won't be a world-beater when you leave the school, but you will be equipped to begin to enjoy the action. Also helping you deal with the demanding new control scheme is the game's slower pace, when compared to Top Spin 2. Players move at more of a jog than a sprint this time around. This can make things seem sluggish at times, but for the most part it's nice having a few extra milliseconds in which to set up and execute a shot.
As with most games in the sports genre, the bulk of the experience is in playing through the career mode. Fans of really detailed create-a-player features can pick a player template and go to town, editing everything from eye color and shape to nose size. Budding phrenologists could spend days tweaking the skull shape, alone, just to see if it affects play on the court. One bizarre "feature" of the player editor: Whenever you adjust anything on a female player, her skirt will ruffle up in the front like she's standing over a vent or trying to hide a squirrel. A lesser reviewer may not have mentioned this.
alt="Image 3"/>Once you're done with the skirt-ruffling mode, you'll jump into a deep career mode that'll have you trying to move your player up the ranks by mowing down the competition in tournaments and various challenges. The way to the top here is a no-nonsense trip, though. If you're used to Virtua Tennis, where a typical career-building workout may include knocking over oil drums with your return shot, here you earn your experience on the court against CPU foes. Along the way you'll level up with accumulated experience points and get a chance to hang out in new gear.
The focus on realism goes even deeper than the play on the court. You can now go inside your player to see how hard his or her heart is beating. If the action has been intense or your player has wasted a lot of energy charging the net, that player's heart rate will be high and he or she will have a tougher time nailing the shot. It's like a cross between a fatigue meter and the sort of heart-rate-based "choke factor" that's been attempted in some golf and basketball games. Frankly I think this concept should be part of more games that focus on pressure and clutch performance. If 2K adds more player-monitoring options through downloadable content I'd definitely drop some dough to be able to keep tabs on my player's cholesterol and body mass index.
alt="Image 4"/>When you're not trying to make it to number one in the world, TS3 lets you square off in an exhibition match as any of a number of pro players. The game loses a Williams sister from TS2 -- Venus is a no-show this time around -- but gains Monica Seles and a couple of tennis' all-time greats. In addition to being able to play as some of the current best in the world -- Federer and Sharapova -- you can go old-school and hammer away as Bj?rn Borg or Boris Becker. Unfortunately, if you want to bring it as Rafael Nadal, you'd better be holding a Sixaxis or a DualShock, because the king of the clay is a PlayStation3 exclusive.
@@
You can also take your game online, where you can face off in a single match or enter the "World Tour," taking your created player through tournaments that will affect online rankings. Be forewarned, though, competition can be hard to find. While the matchmaking interface is very smooth, there just weren't a whole lot of opponents out there during my testing. It's not much better on the other side of the next-gen fence; I had similar trouble finding anyone to play against with the PS3 version of the game.
alt="Image 5"/>Visually the game has gotten a significant facelift when compared to TS2. Character models are more detailed than before and the venues are cleaner and crisper. The images could be even sharper, though -- despite a packaging claim that the game runs at 1080p, a 2K spokesperson told me the display maxes out at 720p.
While the series has gotten a kick visually this time around, things are not as great aurally. Those who enjoy audio commentary may be bummed out that there's no team of announcers dissecting every point, just like last time around. Personally, I don't mind. I've played way too many sports games with oft-repeated play-by-play lines that have been permanently installed on the hard drive of my brain. TS3 feels like a throwback to EA's college football games of the '90s, in that you hear what you'd hear if you were actually at the event. I could have used more intensity from the crowd, but that's about my only gripe.
Even if you're a die-hard Top Spin fan, you will be dropping a lot of expletives until you figure out the controls for this year's game. Top Spin 3 is the most demanding tennis sim out there and if you're not up to the challenge, you might end up being disappointed. On the other hand, if tennis is your thing and you don't mind investing some time, you'll want to take the court with this one.
This review was based on a retail copy of the game that was purchased by a very realistic and high-polygon-count version of the reviewer.
