Play real tennis virtually! (Virtua Tennis 3 (PC))

Member Name: mattconnect

Product:	Virtua Tennis 3 (PC)
Date:	09/07/09 (99 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great easy pick up and play

Disadvantages: repetition.

Virtua Tennis 3 is released for many platforms, the PC version being only one of them. It is a PC DVD and requires medium system specs, which can be checked on systemrequirementslab or yougamer.

+++LAYOUT AND MENUS+++
The menu is extremely simple, a single list of activities, such as single player career mode, where you can customise your own player and start off your career into tennis stardom; exhibition, tournement, options and exit.. these are centred on the screen and in bright legible text. Extremely easy to navigate via arrow buttons and the enter key.

+++GAMEPLAY+++
Gameplay is extremely simple. You can get straight into a game via the Exhibition or Tournement menu and the matches are quick and easy... You can play with a range of players: Andy Roddick, Roger Federer, Maria Sharapova and so on... you can also play singles or doubles.

The rules are the same where winning two games wins you the match. This makes gameplay slightly shorter, instead of having to drag out a few sets!

There is a long list of minigames which is a nice distraction but it is only a distraction and cannot replace the tennis match part!! That i think needs to improve and more options and perhaps self customise the match and so on.

+++GRAPHICS+++
Graphics is considerably good for the PC, although i do not think it justifies the high system requirements. Characters are not as smooth or as realistic as it should be but nevertheless very good for its date of release.

However, the rate of play and theres no lag making it extremely good to play. The ball movement and player movement is very realistic aswell.

+++SOUND+++
The sound is limited to a few sound tracks which gets repetitive and I would rather switch it off, however, the voice detailing the scores is very good and would be better if this was increased and more voice over would be better.

+++DIFFICULTY OR LEARNING CURVE+++
The game only requires a few buttons to play, and is extremely easy to learn. What's more difficult is to learn how to hit the ball where and the placement of the player... Practice makes perfect!

Also some minigames are quite hard and I've rendered them impossible as I just cannot pass them! However, I'm sure they are do-able maybe I'm just not good enough :P

+++ENJOYMENT+++
VT3 is a very easy game to pick up and gives great pick up and play enjoyment. For a quick bit of gaming, VT3 is great as it is quite to load and quick to play!

I found it extremely enjoyable to gain rank and get better, however there is somewhat alot of repetition especially when you get better and you win everytime!!

+++MULTIPLAYER CAPABILITIES+++
The game offers multiplayer options where you can play with friends and family on the same keyboard, it is also joystick and gamepad compatible.

It is fun to play together, but can be somewhat confusing splitscreen. it is nevertheless fun and enjoyable to play.

+++OVERALL+++
It is an extremely enjoyable game, easy to pick up and play, and great multiplayer features you can play with friends and family! However, it is quite repetitive and once you've mastered the game, there is perhaps no replay value.

I bought this for under 10 pounds which was great value, and you should be able to get it even cheaper now that Virtua Tennis 2009 has come out (the latest version)!

NOTE: I have personally not experienced any problems with this game, but scouring forums, I have found that many other users have problems with crashing and so on, even installation and running problems. Make sure your system is compatible before buying.

Summary: really easy game to play and lots of fun