Sega's Virtua Tennis 3 (Xbox 360, PS3) is a phenomenal video game because it looks amazing and plays beautifully, a visual tour de force that packs intense volleys and vicious cross-court smashes. It's great, but also arcade based, so it lacks the depth of actual tennis. Top Spin 3, the latest from 2K Sports, is more for the tennis aficionado, the gamer that knows the sport's intricacies and wants to strategize. It also helps that it, just like its competitor, looks gorgeous. Whether it plays better is up for debate.
Top Spin 3 (available on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Wii) offers a robust tennis package with a more realistic edge. Unlike Sega's game, players get tired, sweating through their clothes (a game with underarm sweat stains- finally) and grow fatigued as the match wears on, which at times makes them a bit sluggish. In addition, the serve is a powerful weapon, and after getting the hang of the controls, you'll be able to blast 100 plus mile per hour balls of fury at your unsuspecting opponents. This increases the odds of acing the other player, something that happens mostly by accident (as in, they weren't paying attention) in Virtua Tennis 3.
OPM: Thousands of Brits will be inspired to pick up a racket this week on the back of Andy Murray’s success at Wimbledon – but in this heat, and given our hand-eye co-co-ordination, we’ll be sticking to the virtual type. Looking to fill your week with some ace-smashing antics? Then join us in revisiting PlayStation’s finest tennis efforts…
Not really, most of those games were available on multiple platforms.
Just so happens that the PS magazine wrote the article so makes sense it would be 'Playstation's greatest games' :)
Gamepyre writes: "When Virtua Tennis 2009 first came out I was very excited about the game; I was so excited that I actually went and got it on release day.
Virtua Tennis 3 has been one of my favorite PSP games, and I could not wait to see what the 2009 Xbox 360 version of the game brought to the table. After playing the game, I was very disappointed in Virtua Tennis 2009; not because it was a bad game per say, but because it wasn't anything new from the previous release."
Another week and another episode of Distributed Failure is here for your listening pleasure. This week's "What They've Been Playing" features discussion on Top Spin 3, Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood, Fight Night Round 4, Battlefield 1943, Final Fantasy IV: The After Years, and much more! They follow that up with some gaming news including the latest update on EGM, the addition of prizes to 1 vs. 100, and the announcement of a new Mechwarrior game.
