Top Spin 3 Hands On Preview
 

Dave Branda just posted his hands-on impressions for Top Spin 3.

Special thanks to the folks at PAM and 2K Sports for letting me take a peak at the game.

If anybody has any questions feel free to post them and I'll do my best to answer.

Re: Top Spin 3 Hands On Preview
 

Thanks for the impressions Dave

Just a few questions- I'm a big stickler for tennis since its the sport I played throughout high school and I have much higher standards for it than any other sports game.

1) Is the AI capable of having long rallies with the user? That's one thing that has bugged me about a lot of games in the past- rallies are always too short. I want nice long rallies where the CPU doesn't take stupid risks i.e. going for a down the line winner instead of opting for a safer cross-court shot.

2) Serving- one of my pet peeves with the previous Top Spins was that there wasn't enough of a difference in serves. For example, most real life 2nd serves have a ton of top-spin but they seemed flat in most games. Does a big serve really feel big? Basically, do the serves feel different?

3) How's the atmosphere?

4) Another huge problem with previous versions- why are there 1 set matches in major tournaments? Grand-Slam tourneys should have best of 5 sets (for guys) the whole way through and previous Top Spin games definitely didn't do it- we didn't even have the option. The non-Grand Slam tourneys should have best of 3 in the early rounds, and best of 5 in the final. Is this even a selectable option?

5) Do you see a lot of shots variety i.e. balls hitting the net and going long? I don't want to see perfect shots each time.

Thanks! The Sharapova pics were also awesome, I'm obsessed with her ;)

i hear you about being a stickler. I was one of those folks who didn't like TS2 a lot for the reasons you posted.

Honestly I didn't really get a huge chance to check out the computer AI. We mostly just had the opportunity to play matches against others there. What I saw briefly when starting the career mode was promising though. The computer worked me a bit side to side before finishing.

I think one big difference will be the way they do the "big shots." no more meter, instead its using the trigger why you swing with positioning, timing and your aim controlling where it goes.

From what we did see if you didn't hit a shot right the result was it going out, or long or into the net. For instance if you were on the left side of the court, tried to hit it to the right side, but let the ball get too deep, you couldn't pull it off.

The atmosphere seems very good. Lively, energetic crowds who are hooting and hollering while you play (I always enjoyed the announcer in other languages too).

It's actually pretty refreshing to play a game that doesn't feel the need to jam a play by play engine down your throat and instead concentrate on the crowd.

btw i'm not a Wii gamer - only played on game (bowling) on it ever - but this game looked ridiculously fun on the Wii. As the preview said, not a lot of meat on the bones, since its intended for more casual, party style playing, but everybody was smiling and laughing while playing it and really seeming to have a blast.

I'm really looking forward to this title. Always enjoyed tennis and after playing Top Spin 2, I think there were minor things that needed to be changed to make the game play close to real tennis. Everything else will make the overall game play deeper.

Re: Top Spin 3 Hands On Preview
 

Really hoping this game comes thru with points scored(human and cpu) by unforced errors.Shots that go wide,long,into the net so on, and not just scored by winning shots! I wonder if they have challenges on shots close to the lines?

Re: Top Spin 3 Hands On Preview
 

I'm more interested in the wii version. How does it compare gameplay wise to the tennis game already on the wii? Can we control movement of the player(right, left, back and forth) and user shots using the wii control. Meaning does it just take into accout that you swung your arms, or does it actually take into account the swing(forehand, backhand, overhead etc..)

thanks