Virtua Tennis 2009

Sometimes it's nice to put down the guns for a while and pick up something a bit more innocuous, like a tennis racket.

I played Virtua Tennis 2008 not long ago and was looking forward to seeing the improvements in the 2009 version. The championship game is longer because you have to climb the amateur rankings before turning Pro and beginning again, ranked 150th. It's an extension to the game duration but not an improvement.

The graphics aren't radically different from VT 2008. Considering the realism achievable with the PS3, this game is looking a bit dated.

The gameplay does seem to have improved a bit with a wider range of shots, but it's a fairly subtle improvement and not as slick as it could be..Losing points because your player doesn't start moving quickly enough after sliding for the previous shot, despite flicking the analogue stick in good tme, can be quite frustrating. The biggest problem however is that your opponents are simply too easy to beat from the outset. As long as you keep improving your skills and buying the best rackets you'll win far more matches than you lose. Particularly the practice matches. Your practice partners just don't keep pace with your own player's improvement. Evenually the practice matches become so easy that raising your stats further becomes a chore

Most of your opponents are an ugly, generic and unimaginative bunch, until you reach a Pro ranking of about 20 when you'll encounter some more recognisable names and faces. I expected these 'real' players to be much harder to beat than they were. Most fall in to a standard, predictable playing style (like the generic VT players). Once you've sussed their playing patterns it becomes relatively straightforward to beat the likes of Federer and Natal.

I gave this game 3 stars because I did enjoy the distraction but the game engine desperately needs updating. If they bring out VT 2010 and it starts looking like another re-hash I don't think I'll bother completing it to the end.

Much better than the other PS3 tennis titles around but this is not really an improvement on VT3. Graphics are at best shoddy, Gameplay is all too easy and players barely look like who they are supposed to.

First things first, the game looks incredible. After playing Top Spin 3 to death, I still thought VT'09 moved the game on in terms of graphics. Looks great on a HDTV.

That is probably the only good point of the game. Being a VT player before TS, I knew what to expect. However, I didn't expect it to be an exact replica of VT2 or even the original VT! After completing the 'amateur' season, I felt bored and actually couldn't be bothered to continue on the pro tour. I think the game was too easy at the beginning and made playing all those matches very tedious. The mini games are fun, but get tiresome after playing them a couple of times.

Saying that, the one player mode is what let it down.The multiplayer aspect is great and the online mode is really fun (like being in the arcades). Glad I only rented it, as it would have been a very dusty game on my shelf.

slow and a bit glitchy,gameplay is ok put takes an age to climb the rankings

Firstly this is a good game but it is spoilt by the ranking system and rather easy AI in the early parts of the career mode.The ranking system is soooo long that you only rank one or two places a tournament ,and after 70 odd tournaments and a few hundred games you get to the pro levels and that around 7 to 8 hours of going through amauter which is a long and repetitive just seems never ending.Graphics are not great but do the job, mini games are fun, if your into arcade sport and a game thats going to take a long time to complete then its worth a rent.