Rewarding. But Is It Worth The Time Investment Needed?
How brave have PAM Development been in releasing Top Spin 3? Not only have they risked alienating their followers, who fell head-over-heels for Top Spin 3's two predecessors, but also possibly turning away casual gamers, who will perhaps be more drawn towards Sega's Virtua Tennis 3.
I am of the male gender, which means I don't like being told what to do. By anyone. Ever. But everyone needs to head straight to 'Top Spin School', because while this is still a Tennis game, it certainly challenges perceptions of what that genre entails. The controls feel radically different at the start, but they become instinctive and very responsive. It doesn't take too long before your confidence builds up and you will want to head to the court.
There are basic ways too play all shots, but there are also advanced way to play a select amount of shots. The shots that have a basic and an advanced technique are the following: Drop shot, Lob and Serve. All of these have a basic technique which just requires one face button to perform the shot. The advanced technique however requires the player to make use of the right analog stick to perform the shots. Of course there is still the opportunity to perform a Risk Shot when trying any shot. The L2 button makes your player try to hit the shot far closer to the line than usual and the R2 button makes your player hit the ball harder than he would usually do. It is also possible to combine the two, which will combine the two abilities in the same shot.
The Risk Shots are a good idea, and provide a very good strategy to a long rally. Do you risk hitting the ball hard but burying it in the net to end the point, or do you bite your tongue and just keep trying to run your opponent around the court. The one shot where Risk Shots simply do not work is during serves, on every first serve you will find yourself constantly holding down R2 and performing a blisteringly fast serve. But apart from that you will find yourself only using the Risk Shot sparsely.
The Create-A-Player is the most detailed I have ever seen in a game. I managed to create a player that looks remarkably similar to me, and I have never managed to make such a detailed player before.
The Career Mode is very well put together. You progress from just an average club player to a Legend fairly quickly. With the difficulty jumping up at steady increments each time. Obviously there's not a whole lot of variety that you can have in a Tennis game, especially not one that stays as true to the actual game as Top Spin 3 does.
This does create a problem however. It is very hard to play Top Spin 3 for more than 30 - 60 minutes at a time. But alot of people that want to play this game will probably not want to play it in long sittings anyway.
This game is the best game you can get if you're looking for a realistic Tennis game. And I admire PAM Development for being willing to change the formula so drastically. I recommend this game, and I hope you enjoyed my review.
I am of the male gender, which means I don't like being told what to do. By anyone. Ever. But everyone needs to head straight to 'Top Spin School', because while this is still a Tennis game, it certainly challenges perceptions of what that genre entails. The controls feel radically different at the start, but they become instinctive and very responsive. It doesn't take too long before your confidence builds up and you will want to head to the court.
There are basic ways too play all shots, but there are also advanced way to play a select amount of shots. The shots that have a basic and an advanced technique are the following: Drop shot, Lob and Serve. All of these have a basic technique which just requires one face button to perform the shot. The advanced technique however requires the player to make use of the right analog stick to perform the shots. Of course there is still the opportunity to perform a Risk Shot when trying any shot. The L2 button makes your player try to hit the shot far closer to the line than usual and the R2 button makes your player hit the ball harder than he would usually do. It is also possible to combine the two, which will combine the two abilities in the same shot.
The Risk Shots are a good idea, and provide a very good strategy to a long rally. Do you risk hitting the ball hard but burying it in the net to end the point, or do you bite your tongue and just keep trying to run your opponent around the court. The one shot where Risk Shots simply do not work is during serves, on every first serve you will find yourself constantly holding down R2 and performing a blisteringly fast serve. But apart from that you will find yourself only using the Risk Shot sparsely.
The Create-A-Player is the most detailed I have ever seen in a game. I managed to create a player that looks remarkably similar to me, and I have never managed to make such a detailed player before.
The Career Mode is very well put together. You progress from just an average club player to a Legend fairly quickly. With the difficulty jumping up at steady increments each time. Obviously there's not a whole lot of variety that you can have in a Tennis game, especially not one that stays as true to the actual game as Top Spin 3 does.
This does create a problem however. It is very hard to play Top Spin 3 for more than 30 - 60 minutes at a time. But alot of people that want to play this game will probably not want to play it in long sittings anyway.
This game is the best game you can get if you're looking for a realistic Tennis game. And I admire PAM Development for being willing to change the formula so drastically. I recommend this game, and I hope you enjoyed my review.
