My verdict on Topspin 3

[EquitiesindallasBANNED]

Hi all,

I think I'm just going to come out and say it because I know a lot of you are still in denial.

Last Friday a game came out across Europe. It was called Topspin 3 and avid tennis fans waited and waited years in anticipation. (and after enduring 2 years of pain of Topspin 2, which was a botched followup to the best tennis game ever made; Topspin 1).

Their anticipation was in vain, in fact the French have screwed up topspin 3 so badly that I would actually rate it worse than a game called Power Serve on the PS1; and that load of shit came out in 1995....

Both games were french, both tried to achieve a level of ultra-realism which quite frankly is good if it works, but you tip the jug a little to far over and you're essentially bathing in your own piss. The graphics, okay they're good but the sound...wtf: why are all english speaking umpires robots? they sound like Stephen Hawking.

The player movement...is it only me or am I right when I say that far from being athletic, topspin 3 players (even if you have completed career mode) are sluggish fat FCUKS, the controls are very poor (especially at the net) as are reactions. The ball physics are very good but thats when you can hit the ball, which is unnecessarily hard. I play tennis for over 12 years and I assure you my rallies are way more fluid, quicker and exciting. YES I am saying it...Topspin 3 is a boring game. YOU KNOW IT IS BORING.

40 courts, good, thats an achievement and quite frankly the environments are sexy. But what about the career mode? It takes 1 year to complete the junior tournaments...do I have time for this shit? What about the suggestion "SHORTEN THE FCUKING CAREER MODE BECAUSE EVEN THE ONE IN TS2 was too long!" don't French people understand?

Compare TS3 to TS1....you'll notice they have taken 3 steps forwad and about 17 back. I mean how is Bjon Borg a legend if he quit his career at 25...went on drugs and made a failed come back at the age of 40 in 1991? How can you have legends and not include Sampras? Or Agassi? Or Ivanesavic (and don't give me that shit about downloadable content: its not gonna happen, the French are first going to bring back Henry Lacoste, followed by Henry Leconte, followed by that French-Iranian wierdo Monsieur Bahrani, followed by Guy Forget)

A true fiasco and seeing SCT3 I can tell that it is going to trump TS3. Im putting my money on the 4th of July when the former graces the London streets.

Ask yourself the question first; did you put in the game and say WOW this is better than I expected or did it take you 1 fkin week to force yourself to like this 2-bit piece of horse shit?

In closing I would like to run a poll. Please respond.

EQUITIESnDALLAS

[Q. Reese]

Only want to "kill" them for not having the doubles feature that allow you to play with any team-mate from around the world.

It should not be that hard to create.

[Ravin8]

I honestly have no idea how you people find "hitting the ball" hard? Granted I have only played the demo, and every once in awhile I have a brain fart and either forget to release the button or misplay the bounce/ball location, but other then that, it took me one like 10 minutes to learn what I needed in order to hit the ball like it was nothing. Granted I don't confuse myself and trying holding three buttons at once, and I hardly touch the risk shot because I could care less for it at the moment, but I seem to have no issue with hitting the ball what so ever.

Maybe I didn't overhype the game to myself, and I am just happy to play a tennis game, as this is the first game I have played since Super Tennis on SNES.

[Q. Reese]

Maybe I didn't overhype the game to myself, and I am just happy to play a tennis game, as this is the first game I have played since Super Tennis on SNES.

Wow. Welcome to a new gaming experience. Hehe.

[EquitiesindallasBANNED]

If you have played Super Tennis on the SNES, which probably is the best tennis game ever made (after TS1 that is), how can you actually find comfort in TS3?

It is so horrible it makes me want to submit it for review to the angry video game nerd. If you guys dont know who that is, google him.

[jayl0ve]

Your opinion lost a lot of credibility the moment you called the game 'unncecessarily hard'. I don't have the game, but I have played the demo, and it was difficult, but nothing you said made me want to NOT buy the game. Robot umpires...who cares? You're right, the characters are seriously weird looking and Federer looks like he's been on a 5 year Jack Daniel's binge, but again, who cares? The controls are 'poor'? What does that even mean? That YOU'RE having trouble moving the little guy on the screen, basically. I beat the computer in the demo...don't see what's so incredibly hard about this game, but maybe I was playing the CPU on easy or something.

The little credibility you had after the 'too difficult' comment got absolutely diarrhead on when you asked how Borg is a legend...simply amazing, really. I honestly don't even know how to respond to that, besides just laughing. Do you want stats , or something? (*cough* 11 GRAND SLAMS *cough*, *cough* amazing 82% overall career win-loss record *cough*, *cough* once annihilated an Olympic distance runner in a race *cough*, *cough* THE TIEBREAK *cough*, *cough* etc. etc., et **** cetera *cough*) I-V-A-N-I-S-E-V-I-C was a great server and a funny guy, but he's not in Becker or Borg's league.

[ANILTJE]

The little credibility you had after the 'too difficult' comment got absolutely diarrhead on when you asked how Borg is a legend...simply amazing, really. I honestly don't even know how to respond to that, besides just laughing. Do you want stats , or something? (*cough* 11 GRAND SLAMS *cough*, *cough* amazing 82% overall career win-loss record *cough*, *cough* once annihilated an Olympic distance runner in a race *cough*, *cough* THE TIEBREAK *cough*, *cough* etc. etc., et **** cetera *cough*) I-V-A-N-I-S-E-V-I-C was a great server and a funny guy, but he's not in Becker or Borg's league.

Man Jaylove
I know we had our things here on the forum and sometimes think you just scream whatever but most of the time its right on the money and damn , you can write.
you are by far the best writer here on the forum. You should become a critic or write a colom or something for a living .

[jayl0ve]

thank you anil, and I promise that usually when I'm just 'screaming' ( ) like you said, I'm drunk....I can write fairly well when I'm totally sober- like I am right now. Also, trust me, I am done with any drama we had in the past. TS2 was terrible and I just want to forget about that game.

I hope you don't take any of that stuff personally, equitiesindallas, but if you write as confrontational a post as this, I guess I'm going to be equally confrontational. It really is nothing personal, and like I said- I don't even have this game yet.

[Ravin8]

If you have played Super Tennis on the SNES, which probably is the best tennis game ever made (after TS1 that is), how can you actually find comfort in TS3?

It is so horrible it makes me want to submit it for review to the angry video game nerd. If you guys dont know who that is, google him.

I find comfort in TS3 for a simple reason. I am a tennis fan, and I own an Xbox 360. Not enough for you? Well lets just get into it. At my age and my time in life, I don't go insane into games. I heard about TS3 on another forum where we talk about Madden and I play in an NHL league. So in my course of finding out about this game, I decided it would be good to try. I never put massive stock into games, and actually when I buy games, I am a little nervous because I never want to waste money on crap. But I also buy my games based on what they are, and don't go insane into things. I believe a lot of people on this site have over hyped themselves for this game. Because of that, they are not getting what they want. The world "realism" was thrown around like a cheap date so much, that when the game came out, people nit-picked at the unreal factors of the game, instead of looking at the game for what it is.

Is the game slow? To me, hell yes. Very slow. But I come from hockey so everything is slow to me. But to the world of tennis, it seems right. It isn't slugging to the point of unplayable, and infact, until people said things, I probably would have never given the "slowness" any sort of thought what so ever. Video games are always going to be slower. You have to accept that or you are always going to be disappointed.

On your hitting the ball. As I said, hitting the ball I found to be very easy, and you honestly must have problems with motor skills if you honestly can't understand how to use them, OR you didn't go into the tutorial. I spent my first 10minutes in the demo playing the tutorial and went into my game knowing how to win. And I did. I am now working on how to serve better and how to get myself into the right BETTER position to hit the ball. But hitting the ball is not a problem. Net play, ok I can agree, it is a pain in the ass having to press another button to hit things at the net, but I don't play much net, so it doesn't bother me.

Shorten the career? Wow, you really need to love your game more. Again using hockey as my example, I played a hockey season on my old PS2 and I started it in June and didn't finish till I believe January. I played the full season and playoffs. I guess this is personal preference, but I like a challenge and a long career to me is a plus because you can actually play the game offline for a good amount of time before it gets old. I hate playing a sports game, winning the cup fairly quickly, and then basically going "ok, now what? I won in the first season, do I do it all again?" I think people are pissed over the LONG SEASON because they can't get their characters built fast OR because they want to have the game beat quickly for some personal achievement as if it means something to have the game done the fastest.

There was been two of you guys that have just hated on this game, and spent the time to write massive huge posts about it. That should say something to how good this game is because people are more likely to de-rep something then rep something. It is much easier to pull out flaws then it is to be nice to the game. I honestly suggest you take the game, and put it down for a week. Don't touch it. And if in week you don't have the urge to play it, take it back to the store and get your money back and get something else. But if you have the urge, pick it up again and just play it for what it is. Not a realistic game, no the GREATEST GAME EVER~~~!!! but rather, just a tennis game.

[Rob ITST]

Man Jaylove
I know we had our things here on the forum and sometimes think you just scream whatever but most of the time its right on the money and damn , you can write.
you are by far the best writer here on the forum. You should become a critic or write a colom or something for a living .

We need a 'My Point of View' column for Jay every week.

thank you anil, and I promise that usually when I'm just 'screaming' ( ) like you said, I'm drunk....I can write fairly well when I'm totally sober- like I am right now. Also, trust me, I am done with any drama we had in the past. TS2 was terrible and I just want to forget about that game.

OK, we need two 'My Point of View' columns for Jay. One he can write drunk, the other sober.

And yes, TS2 was horrible and could really bring out the worst in a person.

TS3 on the other hand, is awesome. I completely suck at it, and that's why I love it. It's hard, like real tennis, which I also love and suck at. I can see playing it for a very long time and always improving, unlike real tennis, which I can see playing for a very long time and not improving.

[Ravin8]

Not to hi-jack a thread, but if are in need of columns or maybe tournament coverage, I could possibly help out. Basically I write for a living.

[ACERBOMB]

The harder the better.The players move just fine in my opinion. This game plays closer to sim than any other tennis game I have played in
forever. I love how the timing and positioning is everything. If your there and your timing is good you can get good pop on your downstrokes were as TS2 sometimes the groundstrokes were just weak period. As far as player movement, its fine there in my opinion, in TS2 an many other games they allowed players to track down too many unrealistic things, so maybe the day of building a super fast midget that fluffs everything over the net are finally over!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Rob ITST]

TS2 sometimes the groundstrokes were just weak period.

To add to that, sometimes they were WAY too strong. Like the RT+A half volley cannons from the baseline.

[jayl0ve]

Or the rt+B risk off a rt+A risk...the rt+b risk was soooo much easier to hit when somebody hit a really strong shot at you

[ANILTJE]

Hum i came to realize something though . It is very hard to hit a shot out in TS3.
Like they concentrated in this game on the positioning of the player and timing of the backswing but not on the feel of actually hitting the ball.
so basicly you can't 'hit' out. The ball only flies out if you are too close to the ball or too far away but that has nothing to do with the actaully hitting.
You can push the buttons as long as you want like in TS2 and VT3 just at a different moment . And so you can't actually hit long nor wide the only shots you can hit long or wide are the risk but they are too risky to only play with .
So i love TS3 for its timing and the gameplay as everything i do and try is like i would see in a match. but for me the game still stayed a bit too much in the arcade feel when it coms to the pushing of the buttons department.
I always refer to DMT (dream match tennis pro) where you concentrate only on hitting and not on the backswing which is a bit pity that you only do the htting but for me tennis is more about the forward movement. the feel with the ball on the racket and the follow trough of the movement forward. for me a tennis game should be way more sensitive then TS2 or VT3 or TS3 are.
TS3 is a major improvement and i am happy they made it , but thats a real minus for me. It's the most sim a TS series even been but there is room for improvement. But maybe it will never come cause TS has to stay commercial and easy to play ...