Top Spin 3 – Xbox 360

fun game great price
if you like videogame tennis at all you will like this game. It’s more of a tennis simulation than an arcade tennis game such as Virtua tennis. They are both fun games, but this game is pretty demanding in order to play it well, which could be off putting if you just want a simple fun easy to learn pickup and play game. In that case get Virtua tennis Virtua Tennis 2009.What I liked about this game is the challenge of learning to play it. It has a bit of a learning curve, but it’s rewarding.Add to that the fact that it was really cheap, made it a great buy.

A Good tennis game…
I like it, but the only thing is that I find this game a little bit complicated on the controlling hits. It doesn’t follow the normal methodology compared to the other games, or even the other TopSpin versions. I like it though. Great graphics. For the ones who love tennis, you’ll notice how similar the player’s moves are.

I initially gave this two stars. After playing it for a few months, I’m upgrading my rating to a 3
One of the tagline bullets is: “Easy to Pick Up & Play – intuitive controls give you the ability to set your own pace and learn to master the courts, no matter what skill level you are”. This was the biggest lie that I’ve ever read under an Amazon description. This game easily has the worst controls ever to get comfortable with. I’ve had this game for about 3 weeks and have played it everyday since then hoping my appreciation for it would grow as I got used to the controls. WRONG! This is the most frustrating tennis game I’ve ever played, to the point where I almost decided to give it up and go back to Topspin 2.At first the controls in this game seem totally inconsistent and completely unpredictable no matter what level you are playing at. Here are some of my more specific grips with this game.1. The movement of the player is extremely slow and difficult to control (no matter what shot you are going for). The player will sometimes move into position right away and other times he will move into the wrong position, stop way too early or even run in the opposite direction. It’s ridiculous!2. There is no such thing as a safe shot anymore. Anything you try may (and will inevitably) result in an unforced error at random times. This wouldn’t be so bad if it didn’t seem to occur more often on break points or other key points in the match. It almost seems as if the CPU AI knows when it wants you to make an error.4. Risk shots and special shots are almost impossible to learn in the early stages of gameplay. You spend so much time just trying to “teach” yourself the regular controls that trying out a risk shot seems like it requires years of experience.5. You’d think they would have pay’d more attention to detail of background characters after the third incarnation of Top Spin. But no! The linesman and ball boys are even less animated before doing absolutely nothing at all in this game. The umpire is equally useless since this game doesn’t afford you the oppertunity to “challenge” line calls.7. No Wimbledon? No Rafael Nadal? No Serena or Venus Williams. Am I supposed to believe this is a TENNIS GAME? I know that there are licensing agreements that need to be worked out in situations like this but seriously. Work them out! Then make the real tennis game!It wouldn’t be fair if I only mentioned the bad things about the game. There were subtle things about it that I enjoyed:1. The graphics are much improved in all aspects (not just in the areas previously mentioned).2. They added in the replay feature again (to observe previous rallies in the match)3. They added a “stamina” gauge that indicates how tired the players are after a point.4. The career mode is definetely much better (longer, more developed) than in the previous Topspin.5. The player creator is the most advanced and varried compaired to the previous installments.6. After playing the game for a few months, I’ve finally got the hang of the shots and can play consistently now. I’ve actually gotten to the point where I think the controls handle smooth enough for me to make my plays look “realistic”.

Good game~
I bought this for my brother since he wanted it so bad. He loves tennis and he also loved this game. It is a really good game.