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When I said totally re-vamped, I meant it. The new mechanics include serving as well. In fact, serving has two new methods for the player to choose from. You can either use the button to toss the ball up and then hit it again to serve, or you can use the right analog stick, which it seems the game prefers. You pull back the stick to toss the ball up, and then press forward to hit the ball. The harder and faster you press forward, the harder the serve. If you want to slice your serve, you rotate the stick clockwise upwards to hit the ball. Top add top spin to your server it’s counter-clockwise. There are two new movement related features added to TS3. They are used in conjunction with the shoulder buttons. First, you can charge the net after any shot or serve. Normally, you would have to hit the ball and then press the stick up to move to the net. Now, you can hit the right shoulder button and a charging animation starts, which moves you forward with more speed than normal, and also sets you up for a volley set. Second, the left shoulder button is now used to quickly move from shot-to-shot (almost like a turbo), and it is used by pressing it when you make contact with the ball. Top Spin 3 also has a new fatigue and excitement gauge. After long rallies and at important points in the match, your heart rate will pick up. The faster your heart beats, the more nervous you may get, and the more shots you may miss. You also will notice sweat building up on your player as time goes on if it is hot out on the court. Players even get sunburned! If you combine the fact that you get sluggish as these two things happen with the fact that you get nervous, get ready to miss a shot or two, at least. All these changes are really trivial in the face of the main change I noticed, though. In the old TS games, you could literally hit the swing button when the ball crossed over the net towards your opponent, and then hold the direction you wanted to hit the ball in until the ball came back to you and you hit it. Well, all that has changed. Now, you can hit the swing button only after your opponent hits the ball back to you, and you had better release the button right before the ball hits its first bounce, or its whiff city. This also means that in order to aim the ball anywhere, you only have a short amount of time between when you first hit the swing button, and when you release it. It is so much harder to place the ball in the extreme locations of the court that you will find your rallies lasting much, much, longer, simply because you cannot get that extra inch to the left or right. In order to counter this, PAM added “risk” shots, where you use the triggers while you hit the ball, and it will basically add some oomph to your shot. The problem is, it is very hard to remember to hit the swing button, aim the stick correctly, hold down the right or left trigger, and then let go of all things on time and on bounce. In fact, for the pinnacle of shots, you can even use both triggers at once. I did not even attempt that feat more than once, for god sake, I am not Dr. Octopus. I only have 2 hands. It takes a ton of practice just to be competent, why don’t we just leave it at that. Also, as your stats increase, the risk shots become less daunting. |
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> rating
7.5 |
GR Rating |
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