Be Excellent To Each Other

I believe this came out today. I've always loved the VT games and was looking forward to this new version. The EuroGamer review is okay-ish, though it maybe sounds like this new one isn't as good as the earlier versions.

That said, this will have Achievements and that... I dunno what to do. I do love a good tennis game, and am hoping this still is.

I need confirmation on some things!!


VT1 and VT2 were aceness but I hated VT3 because of these issues...



1. The lob shot was totally neutered. It was my risky secret weapon in VT2 matches but unusable in VT3.
2. The music. Oh god... the music....
3. Stupidly divey players. Nearly every return put me on my arse.
4. Cheating bastard AI (final characters). Yeah fuck off I know you're reading what direction I'm holding.
5. (and the worst) stupid ranked achievements and the fact that they allowed Duke and King in ranked matches which meant regular players didnt stand a chance.


if they fix that lot I'm cool but I was staggered that more sites didnt pick up on how awful VT3 was compared to the Dreamcast ones.

I must confess I didn't ever try VT3, but from that review above, it sounds like the diving is at least sorted for this new version.

I almost picked up the game today, then wavered a bit and thought it best to wait and read some more reviews and whatnot. (To add some detail, I then spent the money on two pairs of trousers and a Mr Incredible t-shirt).

I think I'll get the game next month.

Be interesting to see if it's better than Top Spin 2, eh myp?

Also, will it include enormous-bosomed 'tennis babe' Simona Halep?

Pics please.

This be what the t-shirt looks like:

It won't be; TS2 is a game for the ages.

Coincidentally, I picked up TS3 today - I really hope it's not shit.

From the TV ad, VT 2009 looks no different from the previous games. They should've just stopped after the first one.

I agree.. I bought Virtua Tennis 2 for the DC and it's still in the wrapper and just the other day I bought Virtua Tennis 3 for the 360 (it was cheap) yet since the first one played such a great game of tennis, i have no interest in playing the sequels! I doubt they could offer anything that I haven't seen done so well in the first.

We need to play it again, man. Those cheevos won't whore themselves.

I've always sort of avoided Top Spin, only because I understood it to be quite a tricky game, whereas the VT controls are more straightforward.

Is this actually the case?

Top Spin 2 wasn't too bad, but TS3 is kicking my arse - it's as different to 2 as 2 was to the first game in the series.

I'm starting to get into it now, but I've had to pretty much unlearn everything I gleaned from the second title. Even though it's rock solid I'm still loving it. It's extremely satisfying and rewarding when it clicks.

TS2 can be had for peanuts now, so there's no real reason not to at least give it a try.

Meaty: I traded it in yesterday when I got 3. You should've said at some point over the last 8 months from when I maxed it out.

For me, Top Spin was about actually being in control of your player whereas Virtua Tennis seemed more like Dragon's Lair Tennis... you'd move the stick and hit the button but then you'd have to hope you'd timed it right as an elaborate animation took over (for me, largely of my character not even trying to return the ball but instead hopping in the air and angling himself to land squarely on his shoulder)

I'm used to being cussed out for this apparently incredibly wrong view that makes me an idiot. Back when the original Virtua Tennis came out, I was still singing the praises of Anna Kournikova Smash Court Tennis on the PSX (which, again, offered very direct control of your player as opposed to hitting the buttons and then waiting to see what your player decides to do).

I suppose this is why that Simona Halep is frustrated - she hasn't yet learned she has to plan moves several seconds in advance to take her added (and counter-acting) momentum into account.

Hmm, can't agree with those VT comments, as I've always felt you had proper control and that! But each to their own, and as Myp says above, TS2 is worth a bash as it's so cheap now, so I think I'll look into that as I'm still dithering over the new VT.

It's amazing when you get good enough to stop using the 'flat shot' button and start using slices and top spin shots all the time. The risk/reward mechanic is just fantastic.

Well, my tremendous willpower lasted about four more days before I caved and bought VT.

Thankfully, it still appears to play as lovely as it ever did, and so far, I've no major gripes.

Bah!

I know, sorry about that! I took on board your comments re Top Spin, and did a bit further digging, but then concluded it was just too complex a game (for me) and I'd be better off sticking with what I know.

Yeah, that's fair enough - different strokes for different... people.

Man, why haven't Namco released that (with added Live support) on XBLA? The best tennis game ever. Plus it has Heihachi and Pacman playing tennis!

Can you give me a brief rundown of how 2 differs to 1?

I thought I was getting quite good at Top Spin, until I started getting absolutely hammered by the AI towards the middle-end of the career. Then I took it online, and I don't think I managed to return a single shot.

I might pick up Top Spin 2 at some point if you can sell it to me.

yesterday i played VT3 again , and honestly can't think of a reason to buy another one (and actually that is not better than vt on the dreamcast, just faster to loadup for me)..

maybe one of the few reason would be they would put in the entire to 200 to give you more chances of replaying a real game like soderling v federer and cause the upset..

i hated topspin 2 for the DS, truly dispicable, topspin 3 ds is quite fun

Now you've put me on the spot, seeing as I haven't played the first game in about four years. From what I remember, they've used a completely different game engine, the risk shots are no longer as easy to use (basically meaning that anyone you played online would just solely use risk shots and suck all the fun out of the game), the career mode is much, much better (four seasons of playing the tournaments in the proper order, rather than being able to play Wimbledon over and over again).

It's just a much better all-round game in pretty much every department. As with all the TS games (except for the execrable DS ones), it just takes a while to click. Once it does, it's brilliant.

Ah, right, I'll have a read up on them.

Top Spin 2 and 3 are both a tenner, too.

Oooh, now I'm interested. Where's that, chap?

Top Spin 2

Tenner for Top Spin 3 was on the same site, but they're out of stock now. It's £14.99 on Play.com, though.

Top Spin 2 is usually cheap on Ebay too.

I haven't played either Virtua Tennis or Top Spin for a little while but I know if I was to go back to one of them, it'd probably be VT - simply because I'd have to re-learn all how to play Top Spin all over again.

Top Spin 3. I'm having a good time with it now I've finally got some idea what I'm doing with the swing, but there are still a few issues. I know a couple of other folk are playing it at the moment, so have you experienced anything similar or is it just my big fat stupid fingers?

1) The "rush to the net" button is incredibly erratic, especially when serving. There's one serve in particular - the one that kicks up into your opponent's body and is very hard to return - that'd be ideal to follow into the net but my player seems incredibly reluctant to do it. Is the button knacked or am I doing something wrong? I'm holding down RB as I swing and keeping it held after at the mo, which currently seems to have me serve, stop, then make a couple of shuffling steps into no-man's-land.

2) About 3/4 of my points seem to come from unforced errors by my oppo. It's very, very rare that I'm able to hit a clean winner, even when I've dragged the other fella right into the opposite tramline. To a degree that's because I often get overexcited and mistime the follow-up shot or use the safe shot rather than topspin, but even so it seems ridiculously difficult to put the ball anywhere it won't come back. Am I just rubbish?

3) Related, if I try a risk shot I seem to fluff it four times out of five. That seems to have gotten slightly better now my stats are going up, but that might just be that my timing of the ball is better. In any case, I push the shot wide/into the net so often that it's just not worth using the risk buttons at all. Am I just rubbish, part deux? Or is there a trick that I'm missing?

1) No idea, I didn't realise there was a 'rush to net' button. And I've completed the whole of the school section.

2) It's you being rubbish. You need to use your B button for top spin or X for slice and get it near the corner or opposite tramline. I've scored plenty of winners; you won't get many using A.

3) They've probably done it on purpose. TS1 was completely ruined by the risk shots being too easy, so that every time you played someone online, that's all they'd use. They made it better for TS2, but I haven't played enough TS3 to comment yet.

I really should start playing this more, but the outdoors is more attractive of an evening at the moment.

I haven't used those buttons since finishing the training. They both seem unpredictable and thus useless.



Can't say I've had that problem. You just have to wear your opponent down with increasingly wide shots until he can't reach.



I think it might be your timing, though I'm not sure. If I don't pay absolute attention to the ball's bounce, I pretty much always cock up the risk shots. I only ever use them when I've managed to predict where my opponent will hit the ball, and so I've been planted and charging up my power enough to prepare. Rushing a risk shot while moving is just a recipe for a fault.

Is there a naked cheat for Maria Sharapova?

THIS IS A DEAL BREAKER.

Thanks, net-o-chums!

Yeah, I had a feeling the second two were mostly me. Re: not using the "charge the net" button - so, do the pair of you never follow serves in at all, or are you just left-sticking it? Does that work for you? I'm buggered if I can get to the net with any sort of effectiveness at all.

Very rarely, because I'm completely useless at volleys and slams.

Only if you constantly use the A button and play safe shots all the time. Sometimes with B or X you can play some sublime passing shots (or using Y for a lob or drop shot if they always rush to the net/stay back on the baseline).

I left-stick it, but I tend to be more of a baseline player except on grass and indoor where I'll try to serve and volley at bit more. You need to hit a really good serve out wide in order to get yourself into a good position for a volley, though (as in real life).

I don't use A a lot. But I'm useless at this game so far, so no doubt I'm not using my B or X shots effectively enough.

Guy, if you always move to the net after serving, I'm going to lob you to a clean game, like so.

As Wombledon is on I dug TS2 back out and resumed my game. It turned out I'd last played up to the final stage of the US Open where it was me vs Andy Roddick.

I would do fine when I was standing at the bottom of the screen, but when the game switches sides and you are now standing at the top, I find it absolutely impossible to judge my position to return the ball - which, against Roddick, meant guaranteed loss.

Until I tried to play from the 'Zoom' camera, which is always behind you, that is. While I'm quite as good from the lower perspective, it was enough that I was able to hold Roddick off, and after an epic battle I managed to defeat him!

So there's a top tip. Another is - when you are really good but play piddly little tournaments to earn stars, you'll note that if you just simulate the whole thing, the game seems to throw some (loaded) dice and say 'you lost!'. To some bottom-ranked trogolodyte with one leg shorter than the other. So, play a game or two to increase your 'power' bar, and THEN start simulating. You'll note the bar decreases a bit with each game you simulate - they're somehow related.

Also, the training modes are impossible. In order to increase my back/forehand bars any further, I need to complete the 'demolition training', in which I have to knock bowling pins off the tops of boxes.

HOW THE HELL ARE YOU MEANT TO DO THIS? Even when I smash the ball against the box with the hardest shots at my disposal, the box just shifts half an inch, the pin wobbles a bit but nothing happens. Am I meant to try and bounce the ball so that it hits the pin itself, or is there some other super move I should be doing to successfully fell them?

The training in Top Spin 1 had me shouting at the screen in anger at being told to hit tiny boxes. I thought it'd be nicer in Top Spin 3, but I was wrong; still the same targets to hit, with no indication of where your ball is going to go aside from your own internal clock, judicious attention to the exact position of your analogue sticks, and watching the ball like a hawk. Needless to say, it had me shouting again. Miss Malabar and I took it in turns to complete the whole training mode, swapping when each of us got too angry to carry on.

It took me about four hours to do on my own in two separate stints. I played some more of it last night and I'm coming to the conclusion I don't like this game anywhere near as much as TS2.

after the re review of eg i'll be buying grand slam tennis.. enough vt tennis in vt3

Got my power and forehand/backhand up a bit (and my timing of shots is now a lot better) and winners are flowing much more frequently. I've just won the French Open and have passed Federer to be no. 1 in the world. Although because like an idiot I played the easy tournaments the first two months of the year, I've missed the Australian Open and can't sweep the Grand Slams.

I don't know how much more of this I'll end up playing, though. It really is quite grindy. Although I did smile watching the Murray game last night and seeing him chucking in some classic Top Spin tactics - the slice in the middle of a rally to draw an unforced error and the lobbed return against someone serving-and-volleying.

Also: the Indian guy on the Challenger tour (Modi, is it?) is the spitting image of Stringer Bell. Put me off my game a bit wondering if I'd get whacked if I beat him.

Thread revival-me-do!

Today I swooped on VT3, pre-owned in Game, for about a fiver. Don't see how I can go too far wrong with that.

I traded VT 2009 in last year for something-or-other, so fancy a bit of tennis action again.

I've got three words for you: Top Spin 2.

I hate VT3. It's a completely shit sequel to one of the best tennis games ever but VT2009 fixes a few key issues and is a much better game for it.

*puts fingers in ears*

Sorry, what?

Well, I've found it perfectly excellent so far (same as all the VT games though, to be honest). The diving thing doesn't impact on the game for me - if it happens, I can recover from it in time, and besides, I just try to position my player better, to be sure it doesn't happen.

Is there any slowdown in the minigames as there was in VT3? (although I think it was only the later levels)

VT3, featuring the terrifying visage of ZOMBIE HENMAN.

ZOMBIE LINDSAY DAVENPORT is pretty bloody freaky as well.

Weirdly, despite having a really good time with VT3 I'm finding VT2009 extremely annoying. Perhaps Top Spin 3's ruined me for any other tennis game?

True! I recall, from VT2 I think (though maybe the first game), that Mark Philippoussis was also quite a horrifying spectacle.



It's all looked okay for me so far, though I haven't got to them all yet.