EA SPORTS Grand Slam Tennis 2

EA-published role-player Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning has launched top in the UK all-format charts.

Making a new tennis game must be a daunting prospect given that two series have, like Novak Djokovic turning the screw on a flagging opponent, already got every angle covered. On one side of the court there's the zesty arcade brio of Virtua Tennis, with the controlled, sim-like approach of Top Spin on the other. Perhaps unsurprisingly, EA Sports has gone for something in between, but it's another sports game it most resembles.

Grand Slam Tennis might as well be called FIFA Tennis. It's a brand thing, and it's a bland thing, too - all crisp, sterile menus, ESPN swooshes bookending replays, tournament icons swooping in after every point, licensed players and stadia. But FIFA has been benefitting from its maker's iterative approach to sequels for years; formerly raw and unfocused, it's been tweaked and refined over the years into the well-oiled machine it is now. Grand Slam Tennis 2 has but a single predecessor, and that was a Wii game. Essentially, this is a debut all over again.

The first made a bit of a splash on Wii as the first title to support the original, unwieldy MotionPlus dongle, and it played a solid game, with acceptably precise motion controls and a caricatured look that was a perfect fit for its host console. Naturally, the visual style is more realistic here, but that serves only to highlight what's missing.

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John McEnroe, Novak Djokovic and Maria Sharapova are on the cover of the global version of EA Sports Grand Slam Tennis 2.

While PlayStation 3 owners will be able to enjoy EA Sports' Grand Slam Tennis 2 with the Move controller when it launches next year, Xbox 360 gamers won't be able to hook up a Kinect unit for a spot of air-slapping.

Sharapova the moon.

EA Sports has announced Grand Slam Tennis 2, due out on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 next year.

It features all four Grand Slam championships and is the only game to feature Wimbledon. EA Sports said today it features a "deep" roster of elite and present players. The PlayStation 3 version supports the Move controller.

Other features:

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