Virtua Tennis 3 for PS3, Xbox 360

By Tom Bramwell Published 25 April, 2006

Smashing news.

SEGA's begun its E3-teasing with a very welcome announcement - Virtua Tennis 3 is on its way to PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

Due out next spring and on display at E3, VT3 is the most visually detailed VT game yet - SEGA's promising "photo-realistic graphics and advanced player animations" including detailed facial expressions. See screenshots to make your own mind up. SEGA's creative director Matt Woodley reckons "the quality is so sharp and clear you can even see the veins on the players' necks". And the whatever-else on Maria Sharapova, my dad will be hoping.

There'll be new gameplay features too. Although the fundamental tennis game is unlikely to change a great deal (given how brilliant it was anyway, we can't say we mind that much), we can expect a host of new mini-games to join the most popular from previous VT titles.

Mini-games of course contribute to VT's Career mode, which will be back here, taking you all over the world and across every court surface - with new players and refined artificial intelligence for the ones you're up against. You'll also be able to customise your own character to a previously unachievable degree.

No word on online multiplayer yet, but it seems like a bit of a shoo-in.

We'll bring you our thoughts on Virtua Tennis 3 when we get to E3. Well, Kristan's thoughts - it's not like he's going to let anybody else near this one.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (25) Latest comment 6 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Darren #1 6 years ago

    Great news! Shame the game is a year away but at least I've got the superb Top Spin 2 now... I'm addicted to it and can't stop playing it...

  • lambtron #2 6 years ago

    Hmm, will the players still look like zombies like on the dreamcast? Henman in particular looked like he wanted to chew on some brains. :D.

  • wolfen #3 6 years ago

    Pretty? Yes. Photo-realistic? Sorry, but no. Perhaps some proper gameplay or player shots might change my mind.

    Counts the days to E3

  • Blerk #4 6 years ago

    Tennis? Pah.

  • abeit2 #5 6 years ago

    ANother sequel The generation of the Sequels This was as predicatable as youll get

  • peterfll #6 6 years ago

    Henman looks and talks like a Zombie in real life - I mean - have you seen those teeth?

    With all of his old iron you think you could get them fixed.

  • Ceatlan #7 6 years ago

    Can they please please please make sure that they don't put in the stupid calendar from the career mode in the PSP version of the game. The number of times I've missed playing the event I wanted and then having to trawl through another 12 months just to get another chance :-( Really wound me up that did.

    Also can I play a career mode, working my way up the rankings, WITHOUT having to play any of the tedious mini games. I got bored of those really quickly on the PSP, but you couldn't progress your career without playing them as they were the only way to improve your player. Why couldn't you get points to improve your player by doing well in tournaments ?????

    Ceatlan.

  • sir_tripod #8 6 years ago

    I think this will be out for Revolution but they just aren't allowed to say anything yet. d:-)

  • Perry #9 6 years ago

    Good news this is. VT2 on the PS2 is still good for a go here and there

  • Carlo #10 6 years ago

    Facial expressions on a tennis game?

    Does anyone actually give a shit?

  • Zuiyo #11 6 years ago

    They are actually very nice to have. Contribute to the atmosphere.

  • Talha #12 6 years ago

    Great news, I am all but salivating.

    Of course we want facial expressions, we want more of a human touch in our games - that's what next generation is for, to provide a greater sense of immersion. Is there anything fundamentally broken with the gameplay of VT2, or for that matter, Top Spin 2 or even Smash Court? No. The only area you can massively improve by harnessing next gen power is player models and the audience etc.

    The gameplay part of most modern games can nowadays be handled quite well by a handheld. It is the immersion part that is the new forefront of innovation.

    And all of those who either hate tennis or hate the computerized version, please find some other thread to rant on.

  • dbeamish #13 6 years ago

    cool. glad I iddnt get top spin now.

  • IP #14 6 years ago

    :: the quality is so sharp and clear you can even see the
    :: veins on the players' necks

    WOW! That's sure to massively improve the gameplay! Sign me up!

  • JonFE #15 6 years ago

    This is great news (for me anyway) - Now please let's have some similar VF5 news :)

  • DutchDemons #16 6 years ago

    Talha said it best.

    Basic gameplay is still the same, cause *gasp* tennis hasn't changed either. Still hitting a ball with a racket. I rather see a lifelike face on my char than a blocky pink blob with a few holes in it(PSX style)...if you don't mind the gfx, then i'm sure you're still happily playing VT1, enjoy that.

    I loved VT2 on the PS2, so im definately gonna buy this on the xbox360. I am looking forward to online tournaments and the lot:-)

  • Wobble #17 6 years ago

    so... now with camel toe?

    /lowers the tone.

  • oceanmotion #18 6 years ago

    Sega have confirmed that these screenshots are from the arcade version of the game, running on a Lindbergh platform.

    Anyway, good news. Go Sega.

  • ilmaestro #19 6 years ago

    Let's hope they have some announcements for games out this year too, eh?

  • The-Bodybuilder #20 6 years ago

    >"Does anyone actually give a shit?"

    I hope you realise you're not gonna get any brownie points for being so cool and hip in the EG forum?

    Because the amount of people who make post like yours just so blerk and tengu can give them a huge is absurd and rather sad.

    If you don't want improved agraphics and animation which adds a greater level of reality to the game (go play fight night 3 to see what I mean), then by all means stick with your ps1.
    No one is forcing you to make comments here.

  • The-Bodybuilder #21 6 years ago

    >"WOW! That's sure to massively improve the gameplay! Sign me up!"

    Maybe you can joing thier focus group to tell them how to improve on a game where you basically hit a ball with a raquet.

    I'm sure thier will be other things, like a large multiplayer world and tournaments, which would in fact be an improvement to the VT world.

    On another note, will sega be releasing pics of shenmue 3? (as I'm still living "de nile" over the series)

  • UmBongo #22 6 years ago

    Is it just me or does that look all Xbox 1?

  • tengu #23 6 years ago

    "Because the amount of people who make post like yours just so blerk and tengu can give them a huge is absurd and rather sad. "

    A huge what?

  • Blerk #24 6 years ago

    Is it not obvious? Look!

  • Rambaldi #25 6 years ago

    So, like, another reason you don't HAVE to have a PS in this generation....cool :)

    /is reminded of the rise and fall of the roman empire