Table Tennis

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dotK

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Mar 29, 2006
Messages
1,601
I've been playing this game for a few hours now and it's a lot of fun. The gameplay is fast and definitely requires your attention at all times. There are quite a few players to play as and there are quite a few unlockable players. It's definitely a game that will have a lot of replay value and won't be put down after two weeks.

The controls are simple to learn. At the end of one game I had a pretty good idea of how everything worked. However, it's a game that will definitely take a while to master. There are a lot of different combinations of shots and positioning yourself in the right spot after a shot can really make or break a match.

For $40, you definitely can't go wrong. I would spend $60 on it and wouldn't think twice.
 
every one of my friends will be picking this game up. it's just good, simple to play fun.
 
I'm going to go pick this up today. Mainly because the Eurogamer review was excellent, and I've heard nothing but good things about this game.

That and the $40 price tag.

Kudos to Rockstar.
 
My roomate bought this last night. I have to say, I am completely baffled by the existence of this game. I mean, it's just ping pong, nothing else, just ping pong.

I watched him play for a while, and tried it out myself a bit... not at all impressed. I mean, the controls are good, the graphics are decent, but in the end, it's just ping pong.

If it were a $10 game or something downloadable via Xbox Arcade I could maybe understand it, but $40 for a ping pong game that is just regular old ping pong? I really don't get it...
 
Why not just find a real ping pong table? Granted the game is cheaper and you dont have to exert any physical effort to play it but still, isnt the real thing better? :p
 
ping pong is great , but i suck at it....

but in the same branch... why not go in the army instead of playing bf2?
 
awesome, I didn't know this game came out already.... I knew it was coming out in May... great.

Did anyone have a chance to play online?
 
arr4ws said:
but in the same branch... why not go in the army instead of playing bf2?
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Personally, I think the reason is that games are a great way of indulging fantasies. If you joined the army you could most likely end up shooting at some taliban members somewhere out in the desert, but you also run the risk of getting shot at, you have to live in the desert, and basic training and all that unsavory stuff. With a game like GTA you get to steal cars, pretend to be a criminal, run amok, etc, which you could do in real life, but you'd end up in jail or shot by a gang member on some street corner. Then there are other games that bare no resemblance to real life, like Katamari Demacy or Geometry Wars, which are just fun in their own right. Or games like Flight Simulators or PGA Golf Games that you could do with some safety in real life, but it would be expensive as hell to do it.

Table Tennis on the other hand, is something that you can easily play in real life with no chance of negative repercussions, other than maybe tennis elbow. Simulating something that is risk free and cheap in real life in a game just confuses me.
 
NulloModo said:
Table Tennis on the other hand, is something that you can easily play in real life with no chance of negative repercussions, other than maybe tennis elbow. Simulating something that is risk free and cheap in real life in a game just confuses me.
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You must not like sports games. It doesn't seem to confuse a lot of people, sports games are some of the most popular titles on consoles.
 
NulloModo said:
Personally, I think the reason is that games are a great way of indulging fantasies. If you joined the army you could most likely end up shooting at some taliban members somewhere out in the desert, but you also run the risk of getting shot at, you have to live in the desert, and basic training and all that unsavory stuff. With a game like GTA you get to steal cars, pretend to be a criminal, run amok, etc, which you could do in real life, but you'd end up in jail or shot by a gang member on some street corner. Then there are other games that bare no resemblance to real life, like Katamari Demacy or Geometry Wars, which are just fun in their own right. Or games like Flight Simulators or PGA Golf Games that you could do with some safety in real life, but it would be expensive as hell to do it.

Table Tennis on the other hand, is something that you can easily play in real life with no chance of negative repercussions, other than maybe tennis elbow. Simulating something that is risk free and cheap in real life in a game just confuses me.
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i know , but i also play mario tennis on my n64 because i love the power ups... im sure there is something more than ''just'' a ping pong game in this game
 
tys90 said:
You must not like sports games. It doesn't seem to confuse a lot of people, sports games are some of the most popular titles on consoles.
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I like sports games a lot, but usually sports that I can't play particularly well in real life, again the fantasy element. I mean, I enjoy playing football in the outdoors, but I can't pull off plays nearly as well as a Madden character. Plus, that game has a lot of other modes, create-a-team, owner mode, etc, that make it pretty cool.

Anyone can play ping pong though, and from what I saw in the game, that was the only mode offered.
 
Football games in the end are just football - you throw or run a ball. Baseball games are just baseball - you hit and catch a ball. Shooter games are just shooters - you shoot unending waves of enemies. RPG games, for the most part, are just turn based dice rolls. When you analyze any game you will find that it will have a very simple and basic principle. Every game is "just ____" when you look at it like that. What counts and what makes a game good (or bad) is how they expand upon that simple concept to make it not so simple. Football games add plays and multiple ways to score. Baseball games allow you to steal bases, substitute players, and hit the ball in different directions with varying power. Shooters add multiple weapons that have strong and weak points (adding a strategy element), multiple enemy types that have to be disposed of in sometime unique manners, require some strategy when attacking fortified locations, and have some objectives to make you feel like you are doing something. RPG games add in-depth stories, often a very large array of attacks, lots of enemies often with strengths and weaknesses, and boss fights that require some strategy.

Yes, Table Tennis is just hitting a ball back and forth. However, if you're going to look at it like that you must also look at the aforementioned genres (and more) in ultra simple terms, too, which only naturally brings up the question of "why would you want to play any game at all if they're so basic and primitive?" The answer is because they're not basic and primitive and neither is Table Tennis. There is quite a lot of strategy that can go into hitting that ball. What kind of spin should I put on the ball? Should I hit it hard, soft, or regular? Which side of the table should I return the ball? Should I play defensive and wait for my opponent to get careless or should I play aggressive and hope to overwhelm and intimidate my opponent? Based on past experiences, how and where is my opponent likely to return my shot? And what can I follow up with to put myself in optimal scoring position? What strategy is my opponent using to try to score points? Where should I stand, in a place that will allow me to safely return anything or in a risky position that will set me up for a possible score? There's a lot to the game.

Why not just play the game in real life? It's not always that simple. First of all, you need to find someone of relatively equal skill. If you're an amazing player it won't be a lot of fun destroying newbies. On the flip side, if you don't have a lot of experience it won't be fun to get your ass handed to you by an expert player. It's a lot harder to find someone for the real game when you only have a pool of those around you to choose from. However, on Live you can play against players all over the country.. Being able to play with people all over the country is nice. I just played one of my friends who lives ~2,000 miles away from me last night - I can't do that with the real game. Also, there are space concerns. I can't fit any kind of game table in my apartment and there's not a lot of room for one in my house... maybe if I squeezed some other stuff together. I live in a somewhat rural area when I'm not going to college so the number of places I could play the game and the number of people I could play it with are limited. At college, it would be a bit easier to get a game going but most people do not have that luxury.
 
[T5K]thrasher said:
you know what this game would be perfect for? Wii :p
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I knew somebody would say it in this thread... lol. Though I don't think I'd pay $40 for a game of virtual table tennis, even on the Wii. The rudimentary table tennis that will eventually be included in the Wii Sports pack will have to do. Still, good for Rockstar for branching out - but don't charge so much next time!
 
TheCowOfNow said:
Why not just find a real ping pong table? Granted the game is cheaper and you dont have to exert any physical effort to play it but still, isnt the real thing better? :p
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Why not just grab a toy gun, and play 'bang bang' with your friends in the front yard instead of playing it on your screen ?
 
NulloModo said:
I like sports games a lot, but usually sports that I can't play particularly well in real life, again the fantasy element. I mean, I enjoy playing football in the outdoors, but I can't pull off plays nearly as well as a Madden character. Plus, that game has a lot of other modes, create-a-team, owner mode, etc, that make it pretty cool.

Anyone can play ping pong though, and from what I saw in the game, that was the only mode offered.
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Can you play ping-pong like you can in the game? I agree with the extra modes arguement, but this game is only $40 at release. At $30, I would call the value/modes about equal, I'm sure you will be able to get it online or used around $30 not too long from now.
 
[T5K]thrasher said:
you know what this game would be perfect for? Wii :p
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Yeah really. I mean, now that the Wii is announced and we know how its going to work, I simply can't imagine playing a game like this and just pressing a button to return the ball. This game is MADE for the Wii, and I hope to see it there.
 
nintendo !!!!!!s, please exit. we're talking about a game that is currently released on the 360, not in your wii dreams.
 
We are just stating that this game (not developed or produced by MSG) would lend it self to the wii very well.

no fan b0yisims going on here.


We are not dogging on your console of choice homie.
 
I'm impressed by the game, but I don't plan to buy it. I just can't get into any kind of sports title. I would play it for a few minutes and that would be it. Maybe if I start up a gamefly subscription or something.

As far as playing it on the Wii, I think I would get exhausted trying to play it. :p
 
tys90 said:
Can you play ping-pong like you can in the game? I agree with the extra modes arguement, but this game is only $40 at release. At $30, I would call the value/modes about equal, I'm sure you will be able to get it online or used around $30 not too long from now.
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$40 is still damn near full priced for a game. Now the Sega sports releases last year, NFL 2K5 et all at $20, those were a good deal.

I could see it being worth it if it were a suite of games, sort of like the Olympics game that came out, that has a number of different games of a certain type on the disc, Rockstar Gameroom, or something like that, with the table tennis, pool, and like virtual foosball or something.
 
The game is addicting...cant stop playing. Its worth every penny. The gfx are amazing as well. But is anyone having problems trying to play on XBOX Live? It doesnt show any servers running.
 
I really don't see this working on the Wii because it's just so damn fast. I know I can't play TT in real life like what's happening in the game, which is basically what you'd be doing with the Wii!

I'm really impressed with the game so far, I just wish it wasn't so damn hard to unlock the characters.
 
Baredor said:
I'm impressed by the game, but I don't plan to buy it. I just can't get into any kind of sports title
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I know what you mean, except for Pro Evo Soccer, that game makes me cry with joy ;)
I'm glad Rockstar made a game like this to show their diversity and competence to handle different types of games.
 
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