During the character creation part of Top Spin 3, I was amazed at how detailed one could get with his/her look and feel. The ability to actually use 3d software facial points to create specific details was good stuff. And at that point I couldn't help but think, "wow, this is going to be good." Well, not so much, and the rest was pretty much downhill from there.

Graphics – I will admit, the tennis venues were fantastic and very nicely detailed. Playing on clay felt and looked like clay, grass the same, etc. etc. The characters motions and physics were also nicely done, but that is all I can say positive about this game, so if you want to hear the bad, just read on.

Sure the stadiums were great looking, but I think they probably modeled 5 or 6 different fans and then put them all over the stadium. And I never once heard a word come out of their mouths that made sense. Blah is a very good word to describe the look and sound of the crowds. The actual character modeling was horrible…other than some occasional motions that looked like the actual player, the player graphics for a game in this day and age were weak at best.

Gameplay – Well, its tennis, and that is pretty much it. The new control system was very unique, and nice compared to standard button mashing. However, play one or two sets and you have the entire game. Winning matches earns you points…points you can spend on equipment. Cool! I get to upgrade my equipment just like in Tiger Woods or Virtua Tennis…again, not so much. From the time you turn the game on, you get a choice of semi-decent clothing and about 12 rackets. Nothing has any value other than looking good. So by the end of the game I had (guessing on the low end) 10-20 thousand points. I nice Nike shirt costs about 80 points. So what's the good of all those points? Throughout the game you don't gain access to new equipment, its just the same old stuff. You also earn $ in the form of career earnings…and for what? Absolutely nothing is done with earnings, unless you want to brag that you have 2 million dollars. Playing the same people at each level of the game 10 times got old real fast…In one game player "a" would kick my a*s in 10 minutes and hit everything under the sun thrown at him…two games later the same guy couldn't hit the side of a barn. And when I say player "a" I mean just that…who are these guys? I was hoping to play some real tennis players. I wont give away who they are, but playing against Andy Murray should never be a highlight. Federer of course was a god, and about 75% of the time it was almost impossible to get a shot past him, you just needed to play human backboard until he screwed up. And trust me, I had my guy maxed out and it wasn't just me…just ask my brother, he had the same issue. The other 25% of the time it was liked he was stoned and on muscle relaxers at the same time.

Winning each mach resulted in the same thing…Character cheers, crowd cheers, hands in the air…done. Again, and again, and again, etc. etc. etc. I thought after winning my first major against Federer that maybe I would get a trophy, you know, walk around the court with it in the air. Apparently my guy was no more excited about winning a Grand Slam Major than he was winning a match on the streets of Chicago.

Overall – There was abosolutely zero thrill or desire to win a tournament. There was absolutely zero reward for time spent playing the game, and almost no challenge at all. The multiplayer aspect is just fine, but by the time I got to multiplayer, I was done with the game in general.

And btw, did I finish? No, I was at the second to last match of the [spoiler] when the game decided to freeze, and despite rebooting my brand new Xbox, my countless hours were out the window. Yet another reason why I don't like console games…had this been a pc game, I would have had multiple back ups and could have just got back a game or two.