 |
||||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| ||||||||||||||
 |
 |
 |
||
 |
 |
 |
||
|
Top Spin 3 (PS3/XBOX 360/Wii) By: Adam Waddilove Does the third Top Spin game serve up an ace or a double fault? The all-star player lineup for Top Spin 3, the industry’s most realistic and action-packed tennis video game experience, features today’s biggest tennis sensations, including Roger Federer and Maria Sharapova, as well as classic players like Boris Becker, Bjorn Borg and Monica Seles, three of the sport’s legends. Top Spin 3 marks the first time these iconic pros have appeared in a next-generation video game. Top Spin 3 also offers authentic gameplay and features, including signature player animations and expressions, weather changes and situation-specific behaviors, along with revamped audio with enhanced crowd reaction. Tennis fans will have the opportunity in Top Spin 3 to play on more than 40 prestigious and visually stunning venues from around the world such as Roland Garros in Paris (French Open) and Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne (Australian Open). Adding to the immersive gameplay experience, Top Spin 3 players can utilise a new and innovative Player Creator to customise their own unique tennis stars with free-form body sculpting, makeup and tattoos. Competitive Top Spin 3 players will also be able to create matches online and test their skills against friends or other ranked Top Spin 3 players around the world. Top Spin 3 player lineup includes: • Mario Ancic • Tomas Berdych • James Blake • Roger Federer • Tommy Haas • Justine Henin • Svetlana Kuznetsova • Amelie Mauresmo • Gael Monfils • Andy Murray • Rafael Nadal (PlayStation 3 version only) • David Nalbandian • Mark Philippoussis • Andy Roddick • Maria Sharapova • Nicole Vaidisova • Caroline Wozniacki Classic legends in Top Spin 3 Include: • Boris Becker • Bjorn Borg • Monica Seles Tennis games have always enjoyed a good level of success, from Virtua Tennis to Wii Sports there has always been at least one game that most will enjoy. Top Spin 3 is another contender for the popular tennis crown; its predecessor was an excellent game so you’d expect the next iteration to be much greater, well is it? I’ll reveal my conclusion as we go. Due to the nature of Top Spin 3, I have decided to compile all 3 current versions into one review. So you’ll know if you should pick up either the Wii, PS3 or Xbox 360 version and of course, depending on what systems you own. Let’s begin by looking at the next-gen versions. You’ll start out by firstly creating your own player and customising him/her to your liking. The level of options here is pretty impressive; almost every feature can be tweaked with to your heart’s content. Once done with that, you can enter your player into the Amateur league and start going up towards the bigger tournaments. The career itself is pretty in-depth and will keep you busy for hours and once done with it, you can go ahead and do some online matches. The controls have definitely been improved from TS2; they are tighter and more responsive. If you lose a game, it’s down to you and no-one else. Having said that, the AI has also been improved and will certainly test how good you really are. My one issue is that during every game there is no music of any kind, it’s just the sound of shoes skidding, audience reactions, the ball going back and the players grunting with each swing. There is a solution to that in the form of the 360 version by playing your own music, but PS3 owners will be stuck with the lifeless sounds of the game.    Graphically, Top Spin 3 looks pretty good. The character models are impressive and all have fluid facial animations. There can be the odd slowdown of framerate before the start of each match, or at least in the 360 version. Why that is I have no idea but it doesn’t stop you from the experience, so it’s barely worth worrying about. I did find it a little odd that Nadal only appears in the PS3 version, surely it would have been nicer for them to give 360 and Wii owners also exclusive players, or better still...make them all playable across all versions? There is also a lack of some players like Djokovic and its questionable why they didn’t make it in to the final game. I know some people are not happy about the decision based on topic discussions I came across, so let’s hope they release them as DLC. Now, the Wii version itself is clearly aiming for the Wii Sports crowd with its control method. But it actually lets players do a much more realistic game by giving them total control of their players with the nunchuk, apart from that its business as usual. You still swing for each ball, you can hold some buttons down for extra effects but that’s about it. It definitely feels more natural than the next-gen versions, but the lack of online holds it back from truly competing, unless you don’t care about online. The game looks nice enough on the Wii, although it’s not the nicest looking title for the system. The presentation as a whole, feels more of an afterthought than a decision made at the start. The truth is that you won’t get as much playtime from the Wii version than the next-gen versions, but it does feel much better to play. It’s a tough decision for any tennis gamer to make, extra content or natural control? That decision is best left to you. The Verdict The next-gen versions of Top Spin 3 are great; they offer plenty of content and improve dramatically over the past game. The Wii version offers a more fluid control style but less content, so it’s a choice that you will have to make, but either way you won’t come across a more realistic tennis game for a long time. 
|
iTunes
