New gameplay controls: Intuitive controls, now incorporating the right thumbstick, allow for precise movements and shot variety providing gamers with an unprecedented tennis experience.
Signature style: The world's best players including Roger Federer, Maria Sharapova, and Andy Roddick are accurately depicted like never before with actual apparel, equipment, and even swing animations.
Tennis legends: For the first time ever, play with or against legendary figures such as Björn Borg, Boris Becker and Monica Seles.
2K Sports online: Play against anyone, anywhere, anytime in up to four game modes including singles, doubles, quick-match, and a comprehensive world tour with live stat tracking
All-new soundtrack: Great new music is included featuring Jamiroquai, Calvin Harris, Boys Like Girls, The Go! Team, Stone Roses, and Franz Ferdinand
description
Top Spin 3 brings the fun, action-packed excitement of tennis to your console with authentic features including signature styles and expressions for over 20 top ranked players, more than 40 breathtaking real world venues, jaw-dropping graphics via all-new Evolutionary Visuals™, fully licensed soundtrack, and much more! Top Spin 3 is the first tennis game to incorporate right analog stick controls, and to include classic legendary players of the past. Are you ready for the challenge?
Showing the last 5 reviews, out of a total 6 reviews. Please note that opinions expressed in any review are those of our customers and do not necessarily match those of the Play-Asia.com team.
Top Spin 3 Put Russian bombshell Maria Sharapova and the faultless machine Roger Federer on the cover of a tennis game and you're on your way to selling lots of copies to people who want to emulate them. Top Spin 3 goes beyond that. Once you fire up the game, you instantly get the feeling that you are on the clay courts of Roland Garros, for example. The French Open venue is just one of several locations that you play at. You get to play as current champions like Federer and Rafael Nadal (who appears exclusively on the PS3) or legends like Bjorn Borg, with the 40 or so licensed players. The experience is like watching your favorite players in a Grand Slam tournament on TV - except you get to control how they play. Developer Pam Development has nailed down the details to every pumped fist from Nadal's muscular arms and noisy grunt coming from Sharapova.
Okay, maybe they toned down the sharp-pitched grunts from the princess of women's tennis a little but she still gives out a familiar shriek when she struggles to reach a shot. It is this attention to detail that grips you from the start at a stretch. Let's start with the graphics. On the PS3 version I tested, skid marks you make while retrieving the last shot stay on a clay court as the match progresses. The red clay, as in real French Open matches, also soils the skirts and shorts of players as the game wears on. The gameplay itself is realistic - if a little too much for casual players.
Anyone who has swung a tennis racket at a ball knows that timing is all important. You have to run up to the ball, firm up your posture and hit the ball with your racket's sweet spot. That combination of reflexes and aim translates itself realistically in Top Spin 3. For example, to hit a cross-court shot from the left, you have to push the D-pad on the controller left, then, at the last moment, as your player is near the ball, release a button and move the D-pad in the opposite direction. Sounds complicated? That's similar to what goes through your head as you hit a ball in the real court. I started playing the game in Normal mode and was whacked out of the court in the first few tries. Yup, even when I pitted the men's top two of Nadal Federer against Sharapova.
I eventually tried out the tutorial and played the game in Easy mode, which made the learning curve a little gentler. I realize I could vary my shots - from flat but fast ones down the line, to top spins that pushed the opponent back because the ball spins away from the court. There are also the intricate lobs and drop shots but they are even harder to get right. My favorite, however, are the risky shots. These are the winning moves that you can employ to decide a long rally, for example, by fizzing a low one straight down the line or letting rip that cross-court forehand. Employ this "risky shot" and you get Nadal leaping up to whack a double backhand across court. With Federer, you see his trademark backhand whipping well across the body. All said, Top Spin 3 deserves your time when you are not swinging a real racket on the court.
yukicheng18(1) on 02, Aug. 2008 02:03 (HKT)
Realistic T be honest its probably the best tennis game out now, but there are some flaws such as quite slow game play but overall its a very good and a realistic game. i would recommend it to all tennis fans.
