Table Tennis - it's the future!
Rockstar serves up an unexpected next-gen treat
The creator of Grand Theft Auto has announced a brand new game for Xbox 360 - 澳擲幸čæ5å¼å„å·ē åå²ę„询:Rockstar Games presāents Table Tennis, due for release on 26 May, priced šat £30.
Developed by Rockstar's San Diego team - who created free-roaming racer Midnight Club and wild west shooter Red Dead Revolver - table tennis might be a gigantic leap from the crime-antics of į¦GTA, but it's still gettingꦔ the full, quality-obsessed Rockstar treatment.
We had a chat with Sam Houser, executive producer at 澳擲幸čæ5å¼å„å·ē åå²ę„询:Rockstar Games, about what made Rockstar decide to develop a table tennis game. "We absolutely love table tennis," he told us, "anš§d were very interested in making a game š§that took classic one-on-one gameplay to a new level, while pushing every technical and visual boundary in the book."
As for being a 360 exclusive, Sam explained that Rockstar felt that "the hardware could actually make the game we were imagining - a tablš«e tennis game that not only looked good but felt good, becš§ause of the physics and control.
"Rockstar San Diego is known for creating game engines that push the hardware fuš °rther than a lot of what is out there. With Tašble Tennis they've done it again."
Sam added that the San Dišego team has createį¦d "an incredibly detailed game that focuses the hardware's entire power on one activity, instead of sprawling, wide open environments.
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"I think it's an interesting way to showcase what we think the focus of high definition gaming is going to be - using the detailed graphics to improve gameplay, not to hide wšeak game desiš¬gn," Sam concluded.
You couldn't accuse Rockstar of weak game design, so we're expecting a table tennis sim that is both everything you'd expect and nothing you'd ever anticipate. And although it's 360 only right now, 澳擲幸čæ5å¼å„å·ē åå²ę„询:Rockstar Games presents Table Tennis sounds like the perfect Revį£olution title. We'll have māore for you real soon.
Ben Richardson is a former Staff Writer for Official PlayStation 2 magazine and a former Content Editor of GamesRadar+. In the years since Ben left GR, he has worked as a colšumnist, communications officer, charity coach, and podcast host – but we still look back to his news stories from time to time, they are a window into a different era of video games.