Top Spin 3 Comments by Kristan Reed

As good as MGS4 then?

Sold.

"In truth, all bar the most advanced players will ever master it - I've played them all, and it's a trick that, to this day, eludes me."

If it eludes you, then that means you're a master!

:D

Tidy.

I love a good game of tennis, and the depth certainly appeals.

"Even against the rookies in career mode, you'll struggle pathetically and wonder what on earth you're doing wrong. Serves will fly limply off target, returns won't go anywhere near where you want them to, and you'll lumber along like a complete chump struggling to win a single point. It's the anti Wii Sports Tennis - a counter-intuitive tennis game that only the committed hardcore player will be able to play."

Are you sure you're good enough to review the game then? ;)

i really enjoyed TS2 so looking forward to getting this.
Best tennis games since Match Point! lol

Shame the Wii version isn't online, or I would of bought it straight away! Any chance of a Wii review to see if its worth picking up?

I think ill stick to my Mario Power Tennis...

Mighty generous review. The game has some notable achievements like decent animation and the heart rate system, but other than that I thought it was rather sluggish and unresponsive. Pretty to look at, terrible to play.
Although Virtua Tennis 3 is more arcade rather than sim, it certainly feels alot more satisfying to play due to the faster gameplay.

whens the new virtua tennis due out? comparison of the two titles i must...

I think the comment about sluggishness is fair enough to begin with. The more you invest into the game's intricacies, the more satisfying it feels, but getting to that point does take a fair amount of time. It really depends how patient you are. I can totally understand why some people will not take to it and stick with VT.

only 1 week late i see !!

i have it and its great!

Review is spot on. It's the Anti-Pick-Up-N-Play.

Dedicated players only please.

Virtua Tennis 3 ftw...still!

Virtua Tennis 3 worked great online on the 360, for me at least.
I am not sure whether I should pick this up, loved the first TopSpin but I thought the second one was horrible.

I think TS3 is brilliant.

Spot on review imo, and it's defiantley a title with a good learning curve, and a game that you're going to have to put time into to get good at it.

I love the little touches like sweating and stuff, and this might be just me, but I'm pretty sure the players get a bit of a tan too. My career dude used to play in a short sleeve t-shirt, but after a few tournaments I changed to a sleeveless top. Upon closer inspection, my guys forearms look very tanned, while the upper arm is quite pale.

There is no excuse today to leave out the casual gamer!

Hope it bombs, so there will not be more games of this sort.
It rather should have come out for the pc-zombies.

"There is no excuse today to leave out the casual gamer!

Hope it bombs, so there will not be more games of this sort."

Sod off back to the pikey travelling circus to play whack-a-mole then.

Rafa Nadal is PS3 exclusive, and thus ps3 game is more complete(coz u can have number 1 VS number 2 match), and again EG reviews the 360 version... i can only wonder why? :S

Ace review (ho ho ho) and absolutely spot on IMO having been playing the 360 version extensively since last Thursday evening. It's so insanely addictive but I have to admit that I did find frustratingly difficult at first to pick up due to having been playing Virtua Tennis 3 to death. Top Spin 3 really does take a bit of adjusting to after that game but it's ultimately a much deeper and more rewarding experience. The only things I don't like about the game are the sloppy menus, the sparse ingame sound and the fact that the Training School is seriously dull and doesn't really explain the lessons thoroughly. Also there's a bug which means if you play a custom sountrack, as I do during the otherwise music-free matches, the ingame music still plays in the menus and stuff which is rather annoying. I'd give it 8/10 too but I still love Virtua Tennis 3 for its pick-and-play appeal.

@Slipstream - Top Spin 3 certainly feels sluggish when you start the Career mode with a 30 rated player but at a rating of 68 now my player feels nice and agile. Besides which Top Spin 3 's Career mode is a realistically paced game based around non-pro players unlike the pros-only Virtua Tennis 3. Both games are great but Top Spin 3 definitely feels and plays more like the real sport (well as accurate as you get with a game that plays with a controller anyway! LOL ).

I've played the PS3 version as well as the 360 one and the only real difference I noticed apart from strangely longer saving times was the lack of a Mall option (to change outfits, hair, etc.) during the Career mode. The Mall is definitely in the 360 version as I'm forever changing my players appearance (now I have over 300 items to choose from!) and I don't ever remember it not being there. I only played the PS3 version to month 4 of the Junior circuit so maybe I just never noticed that it unlocks later on. You can alter your player's appearance from the Player Arena option in the Main Menu though so there's a way round it, albeit a bit clumsier. Can anyone with the game (EG?) confirm that?

I disagree with the review the control system is pants,they tried to fix something that wasn't broken,i got rid of it the same day i bought it.

Loved the 1st one, didn't play the 2nd.
Can anyone tell me if you can save the game during tournaments?
For example, if you win the first round, can you save it before your second round game or do you have to play the whole tournament like in TS1?

O look, an 8... what a suprise...

@jovus

I doubt if the inclusion of Nadal will affect the content of the review. Maybe they reviewed the 360 version because that's the one that was sent to them...

@ERG1008 - By default the game auto-saves after each game in the tournament but you can set it to manual and save that way if you want, say, if you wish to have the option of replaying the semi-final or final you just lost again! ;)

The bird on the box gives me the horn.
But tennis is very alien to be

Darren - That's good to know.
I was more concerned about the length it takes to play a tournament non-stop rather than replaying and erm cheating. :o)
Thanks for the answer mate.

Also one thing the review didn't mention was that you can build up your created player's XP (experience) and earn Unlock Points (self-explanatory) outside of the Career mode by using him/her in the Exhibition and Tournament modes. You can also earn Unlock Points using a Pro player too. I think this is excellent as it means you can still build your player up if you get bored of playing a tournament in the Career mode.

I've had this for a week and, although first impressions are pretty average with unresponsive players and sluggish movement, it does improve once you get used to the controls.

Worth sticking with if you're keen, but definitely not suitable for casual pick up 'n play. I spent my first match watching balls fly by me.

Have no opinion on the game, just wanted to say that tennis is a game that I have loathed since I was a child. It's wimbledon fortnight so the papers and tv will be saturated with the event. Why does anyone care about tennis? I mean, really?!

It is the shitest of all sports.

Awwww damn this wasn't allowed to be good!

/looks at woeful bank balance
/weeps

Darren - "the review didn't mention was that you can build up your created player's XP (experience) and earn Unlock Points (self-explanatory) outside of the Career mode by using him/her in the Exhibition and Tournament modes"

I disagree, that's exactly what I understood from this passage in the review:

"At this point, you've got a few other useful means of making serious progress: either take the lesser rewards of the easy tournaments, slope off to play the game's standalone tournaments outside of career mode, or try your luck in the online World Tour mode. Whichever you choose, they all help get you the extra XP you need to outperform the better players"

Ah yes, so it does, sorry I obviously missed that. /oops

the same applies to the ps3 version too?

Yes.

So a great looking simulation who plays nicely gets the same score as a stinky broken rugby game called rugby 08?????

Eurogamer start using a nice principle in your score: compare them......

DARREN


thanks.i m gonna buy it tommorow!

If you haven't already, read everything Darren has said in these comments, they're as helpful as the review itself.

My thumbs are hurting from a renewed interest in VT3, so I'll give this a miss until the price comes down and my thumbs revert to their normal size.

Each to their own, but I love tennis - the drama, the spectacle, the skirts going up when ladies serve. Cricket makes me yawn, but then I'm Scottish so it's not in our culture!

Actually playing TS3 with the 360 controller made me realise how uncomfortable its face buttons are to hold as to play the game you have to press and hold them down to hit the ball: the longer you do, the more powerful the shot. I actually had indentations on my fingers from playing the game over the weekend because of this... but I did play it for almost nine hours non-stop (well I did say it was addictive!)! LOL

In that respect the flatter buttons of the PS3's DualShock 3 make for a more comfortable game IMO plus the rumble effects are more effective - you can really feel how powerful the shots are for example whereas the effect is weaker on the 360's controller. That's just a personal preference though and as such it doesn't make one version better than the other provided you don't play it for as long as I do (typically 3-4 hours per night).

"Never mind Andy Murray's mum just loves a good gash eh? "

Wait, she's a lesbian?

Federer's overall rating is only 75?

Could do but then 2k would be bankrupt unless the RRP was £4,000

Fed is only 75 cos he got SPANKED by Nadal, and thus, deserves it.

(or it's because if they made him the tennis robot he is, no-one would EVER pick anyone else.... like Brazil in footie games)

disagree with this review. the game is slow and makes individual shots far too tricky. even after you get better this game never feels like real tennis.

i took it back to the shop.

Foooooooooool

Saw this in HMV yesterday and thought it looked like shit.

If it had been a launch title for this gen then I'd have given it a pass, but it looked fucking awful - uncanny valley players plopped on top of cartoon-esque environments with shoddy looking shadows and I swear there must have been free entry for facial burns victims, because the stands were packed with 'em. Lots of early Mario style running-in-place in the animation, too.

No Mansuor Bahrami, no sale!

How do the controls compare to Top Spin on the olde Xbox?

Is the onlineplay on PS3 any good ?