Virtua Tennis 3

E3 06: Virtua Tennis 3 First Look

In its second succession of PS3 trailers shown during the Sony PlayStation Press Conference, Sony showed off some of Sega-AM2's Virtua Tennis 3 in motion. Though perhaps not as breathtaking as some of the other trailers shown, the gameplay footage and close-up shots of the various tennis pros that the trailer was comprised of definitely retained the realistic, sunny aesthetic that is key to the Virtua Tennis style. The players' faces looked good, and though the video was edited very quickly, we were able to catch the names of famed tennis pros James Blake, Rafael Nadal, and Lleyton Hewitt flashed in the corner.

There was plenty of the standard Virtua Tennis camera angle, perched high behind the back of the character being controlled, and one key video cut that went from a grass court to a clay court showed lots of subtle wear on both courts, just as you would expect to see on a real-life court. The only puzzling aspect of the trailer shown was the fact that there were "insert credit" indicators flashing on select screens, making us wonder if Sega is retaining such an arcade touch for the sake of style, or if the footage being shown was simply the Power Smash 3 arcade game. Either way, it has definitely whetted our appetite for Virtua Tennis 3, and we are eager to see more of the game.