
The Top Spin franchise has always seemed geared toward the more hardcore tennis enthusiasts by incorporating a low tolerance for imperfection, but rewarding tenacious racquet-jockeys with outstanding shot control and a wealth of minute options. In Top Spin 3, the unforgiving-yet-detailed controls return, bringing with them a few new tricks, a bunch of licensed tennis pros and music, and an intuitive, precise character creation system.
While GameSpy's reception of Top Spin 2 could probably best be characterized as lukewarm, Top Spin 3 may surpass its predecessors this time out.

OPM: Thousands of Brits will be inspired to pick up a racket this week on the back of Andy Murray’s success at Wimbledon – but in this heat, and given our hand-eye co-co-ordination, we’ll be sticking to the virtual type. Looking to fill your week with some ace-smashing antics? Then join us in revisiting PlayStation’s finest tennis efforts…

Gamepyre writes: "When Virtua Tennis 2009 first came out I was very excited about the game; I was so excited that I actually went and got it on release day.
Virtua Tennis 3 has been one of my favorite PSP games, and I could not wait to see what the 2009 Xbox 360 version of the game brought to the table. After playing the game, I was very disappointed in Virtua Tennis 2009; not because it was a bad game per say, but because it wasn't anything new from the previous release."

Another week and another episode of Distributed Failure is here for your listening pleasure. This week's "What They've Been Playing" features discussion on Top Spin 3, Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood, Fight Night Round 4, Battlefield 1943, Final Fantasy IV: The After Years, and much more! They follow that up with some gaming news including the latest update on EGM, the addition of prizes to 1 vs. 100, and the announcement of a new Mechwarrior game.