Virtua Tennis 3 (PS3)

Release Date: 23/03/2007

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Summary

Developer:: Sumo Digital
Publisher:: Sega

Based on the spectacularly successful arcade version, Virtua Tennis 3 adds dazzling power to the renowned series for next-gen consoles while retaining that easy to play, difficult to master gameplay loved around the world.

The Virtua Tennis series serves up an ace with enhanced photorealistic graphics and advanced player animations that perfectly match the behaviour and mannerisms of some of the greatest professional tennis players to date. Next-generation systems allow gamers to see the most detailed expressions on the faces of their selected players as they battle to win heated tournaments around the world.

Now you can take on the world's greatest tennis stars on any court surface worldwide with newly added players and improvements to the game's AI. Virtua Tennis 3 has upped the challenge to become the top seed of the tennis game world. In Career Mode, gamers will travel the world and take on the biggest stars in tennis. On top of this, you'll be able to create your own star right down to the finest detail with the improved Player Creation Mode.

Plus, no Virtua Tennis title would be complete without the popular and addictive mini-games, and Virtua Tennis 3 is no exception. In addition to the popular mini-games from previous titles used to sharpen players' skills, there will be a whole host of brand new games to keep players in top form.

Features:

The world's best-selling and universally loved tennis series comes to next-generation consoles!
Photorealistic graphics bring tennis home like never before.
All the game modes you expect from the world's leading tennis sim.
Create a legend! Extensive player manipulation is now possible with the power of new console hardware, allowing you to create your own player to the finest detail.
The original career mode has been completely revised for the next generation, featuring new training games, instinctive navigation and map, fully customisable characters and more.
Play on any court surface worldwide against a host of the world's leading players.

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Screenshots

Virtua Tennis 3 Review; Author: Mark Scott ; Published: 29/03/2007

C’mon Tim!

2001 was a memorable year for British sport. Man Utd won the Premiership, Liverpool nabbed almost every cup going, and David Beckham’s last-minute free kick against Greece dragged England heroically into the 2002 World Cup. Over at SW19, meanwhile, Tim Henman had his bestest-chance-ever of winning Wimbledon, coming within a rain delay of reaching the final. Gamers too benefited from a bumper sporting feast, with Pro Evolution Soccer and Virtua Tennis 2 hitting PS2 and Dreamcast respectively.

Since then, PES has gone on to be an industry leading brand, but Virtua Tennis has been oddly abesent on home systems. Indeed, 2005’s PSP World Tour has been the only original VT title on any platform in almost six years.

Cue Virtua Tennis 3. It’s been some wait, but Sega have finally delivered a standard-setting sports sim that firmly places the series back atop the gaming leaderboards.

The to-and-fro of real-life tennis

‘Sim’ being the key word. VT3 comes closer than ever to recreating the to-and-fro of real-life tennis, and as a result might seem initially a little unforgiving to VT novices. However, the three button control system – dictating top spin, slice and lob shots – retains the simple arcade playability, and after a few games players will be enjoying epic twenty-stroke rallies.

It’s thankful then that VT3 boasts such a subtle-but-startling degree of depth. Anticipation is key, even more so than shot selection, and the silky smooth animation will see keen-eyed players observing opponent’s body language, pre-empting shots, and taking up advantageous positions to fire back thumping groundstroke winners, deft drop shots and outrageous lobs – all played at a speed dwarfing an Andy Roddick first serve.

You’ll need every trick, dive and full-power serve in your arsenal to get anywhere near the ruthless computer A.I.

That’s helped by a fantastic roster to choose from, including 20 – 13 male, 7 female – of the world’s top pro players, all with extraordinarily balanced set of abilities.

Brilliantly, Tennis fans will notice that playing as their chosen character would in real life gets the greatest rewards here; so serve-volleying with claycourt specialists Nadal or Nalbandian might see you get slaughtered, but pinging opponents from side to side with tenacious baseliner Hewitt, serve-volleying with Henman, or mixing it up as all-around expert Federer, are likely to garner success. This is especially true at the higher difficulties, where you’ll need every trick, dive and full-power serve in your arsenal to get anywhere near the ruthless computer A.I.

While Exhibition and Tournament modes may be your first stop, the World Tour mode presents Virtua Tennis 3’s main singleplayer challenge. Enlisting in either the men’s or women’s tour, you’ll create your character and start out on your twenty year career to become world number one by taking part in full-on tournaments, as well as building your player’s stats in some frankly barmy minigames.

Alligators, fruit and giant tennis balls

For many, these minigames will be the highlight of the entire title. From tennis variants on Space Invaders and Bingo, to ones involving alligators, fruit and giant tennis balls, they add a lighthearted side to the otherwise hardcore tennis action, and can even be played in multiplayer from the main menu.

Multiplayer itself is where the true longevity lies – and also throws up the biggest differences between the two console iterations. While the PS3’s same-screen multiplayer is as fun as any VT before it, the Xbox 360’s exclusive online mode is an unbelievably robust offering encompassing ranked and unranked matches across singles, doubles and mixed doubles against real-life opponents; with the task of climbing the Worldwide Leaderboards in particular incredibly addictive.

Arguably the best sports game ever made, one of the finest online games going, and amongst the most entertaining releases of recent years.

The gameplay itself holds up remarkably well online too, and lag is handled about as tastefully as possible; the ball stalling in mid air to allow you to see your opponent’s movement before flying back at you; and points being replayed entirely when lag interferes a little too much. Sadly, the PS3 lacks online play - it's own unique inclusion, tilt sensitive control, proving less intuitive than hoped - meaning PS3 gamers will want to stick to the standard control setup. It’s difficult not to recommend the Xbox 360 version more highly, then; though Sony owners will still have the addicting World Tour, Tournament, and offline multiplayer to enjoy.

Of course, Virtua Tennis 3 looks phenomenal in high definition, with every player (bar Sharapova) looking uncannily lifelike, and courts modelled to really give that big arena atmosphere. Sadly there are a few niggles in presentation; replays often take on unhelpful camera angles, the World Tour player creation tool is rather limited, and the pop-rock elevator music soundtrack painful to the ears after only a short while. But that’s a bit like picking fault in Roger Federer’s record-breaking career… for not winning the Nottingham Open.

Arguably the best sports game ever made

Ultimately, Virtua tennis 3 is arguably the best sports game ever made, one of the finest online games going, and amongst the most entertaining releases of recent years. In the end, it’s difficult not to love a game which lets you turn back time and put things right on that hallowed Centre Court turf. So we’ll start this review where we began, and get back to our own chip-charge masterclass…

C’mon Tim!