Waste of Time and Money (Virtua Tennis 2009 (PS3))

Member Name: bhayanid

Product:	Virtua Tennis 2009 (PS3)
Date:	28/09/09 (35 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Nice Graphics

Disadvantages: Rubbish Gameplay

I abolustely love Tennis, and it comes dangerously close to overtoppling Football as my favourite sport. So when it comes to games my favourite sport games are always football as the gameplay is unmatched, however over the years I have had a few experiences with tennis game and i was a fan of the old Roland Garros game and its unique hitting but accurate system.

That was back in around 2002, so I thought nearly 8 years on, that a tennis game would have advanced so so much, however unfortunately this is not the case. It does seem a bit better, but nowhere near as good as a tennis game could or should be.

There is a wide selection of payable players, well not wide but all the top players are there, bar Del Potro, but this can be excused as he has only really emerged in recent times. My favourite player is Nalbandian and he is reflected perfectly here. That has to be the biggest plus point, that the characteristics are very realistic, but thats one of my only nice points.

There is a world tour mode which on paper sounds amazing. Basically you start of as an amateur ranked 100 in the world and have to play slow tournaments and get trained by Tim Henman to rise up to become the best. On the way their are mini games and a store where you can update your accessories with prize money. So as I said on paper this sounds good, however in the game is is pretty pathetic. Every tournament you win usually you only move one place up and it is ridiclously easy until you get into the top twenty in the world. Thats what like eighty tournaments to get there. Each of the tournaments as I mentioned is very very very easy. I can't emphasise how easy it is, and theres no difficulty settings in this mode.

What adds insult to how easy this game is that nearly every time you hit a winner there is a reply that takes like 10 seconds. It is frustrating just writing about it, and this mode is an awful waste of time.

The most challenging aspect of the game is the exhibition mode and in particular playing Nadal on the hardest mode. Here you really are challenged, but the AI isnt great and you can work out ways to beat the computer.

The problem I have with playng the computer, is that as soon as you hit the keys in a computer, it knows what shot your going to play and where you are going to move, so always knows how to beat you when it wants. Hence it is not realistic and in a way its cheating.

The online play is much more realistic, however there is lag and overall I can't recommend this too much. It is cool to test your skills out against others, however other sport games are much better, and hopefully Tennis games can advance much more in the future. For instance in many hours of gameplay I have never hit the ball out or hit the net, or made any type of unforced errors. In what ridiculous world is this ever possible. How can this be a game of 2009 and be so amateur as this. Others that think this is better need to realise how unrealistic this game is.

Summary: Don't buy this game