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RockStar Games Presents: Table
Tennis is possibly the most under-appreciated Xbox360 release
announced so far. With very few people attracted to the stand at
this year’s E3 and the word-on-the-street being that, only due to
its budget-pricing, the title’s sell-through won’t exactly send
shockwaves through the industry.
It’s quite a shame really, RockStar’s
first foray into the Next-Generation may not be the bloodlust
gun-crazy Free-Roaming experience we’d all been expecting, but it’s
certainly impressive. Serving is performed on a Meter acting as two
scales – one for power, and the other for accuracy. Holding any Face
Button will see a coloured bar appear with which a black diode
scales from top-to-bottom rapidly to denote the power, the
whole-while a white border fills around this Meter denoting the
accuracy; the key is to release the Face Button at the correct time
within the higher-end of the Power Meter as the accuracy increases –
all this may sound quite confusing, but simply after two-or-three
Services will come with ease.
All four Face Buttons act as returns,
each presenting a different strike. Depending on which type of
return is inputted by the player the trail of the ball changes colour
to represent the button pressed. Acting much like a short-range
Tennis title, RockStar Games Presents: Table Tennis is
l ooking to out-class the Xbox360’s only Tennis release, Top Spin
2, by quite a margin. Four playable characters were available on
the two selectable Courts. Both Single-Player and Two-Player Matches
were available, but finding another human to play with wasn’t
exactly an easy task at the world’s biggest entertainment Trade
Show.
The A.I. demonstrated some advanced
techniques and the graphics and animation are superb – although this
clearly isn’t a challenge given the lack of models required
on-screen at any time. Being so close to release, it’s clear the
title is finished, but with little word on what added features will
be available in the final code, the only question remaining over
RockStar Games Presents: Table Tennis would be one of its
longevity. |
