The most recent foray into simulated ball-smacking is 2K Sports’ Top Spin 3. Claiming to be an evolution over Top Spin 2 (a game that I played and enjoyed for about a month straight), Top Spin 3 has some pretty big tennis shoes to fill.

Before I continue, let me first give you some background information: I don’t like sports games. On top of that, I find tennis itself to be especially boring. I played tennis a bit in high school gym class and during “sports day” in the army, but only because the only other option was baseball which I find to be even lamer.

Given my feelings on the subject, it was an absolute triumph in game design that I could not only play Top Spin 2 without falling asleep, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. The only other time I enjoyed tennis this much was playing the aptly named Tennis on my Game Boy when I was nine and always yelling at that lying bitch line judge Mario for calling my shots out.

That being said, how does Top Spin 3 compare? Read more…

The trend in gaming as of late has been a push towards “reality”. Games like COD, Battlefield, and SOCOM all boast military advisors on staff, with a focus on making the game experience as “realistic” as possible.

The obsession with reality doesn’t end there, and its relation to a game’s overall fun factor, got me thinking — just how real do we want things, and at what point does reality cause a game to no longer be fun? Read more…

According to Kotaku, at the recent Ziff Davis’ annual Electronc Gaming Summit, Peter Moore explained EA’s stance on licensing in videogames, stating…

“EA feels that licensing remains an important part of adding realism to their sports titles and that he can’t imagine a time when they wouldn’t seek them.”

Interesting. Apparently EA is suffering from a lack of licensing with goal post nets, on field referees, and the sometimes forgotten but extremely important sideline targets that are the chain gang. Read more…