grand-slam-tennis
Latest
Three pros score love on Grand Slam Tennis 2 cover
EA has picked three different athletes from three different times and places to grace the just-revealed cover of Grand Slam Tennis 2. '70s American champ John McEnroe is in the middle with the hair, Russia's '00s champ Maria Sharapova is on the left, and current champ Novak Djokovic sits on the right, all with slightly different reactions to what we can only guess are balls hurtling through the air. The diversity of choices emphasizes the game's Legends of Now and Then feature, which offers up 20 pro tennis stars from history to play in virtual person on the court. This version is also notable for "Full Racquet Control," which allows you to use the controller's right stick like a tennis racquet, and full motion controls with PlayStation Move. The first HD version of EA's tennis series will be on shelves next month, February 10 in Europe and February 14 in North America.
EA Sports Wii/DSi accessory bundles announced
Because your EA Sports games need that extra oomph, EA has signed a deal with Sakar International to produce a lineup of attachments for your Wiimote and -- wait, DSi? Sure enough, the press release mentions "realistic-looking EA Sports golf clubs, tennis rackets and baseball bats for the Wii and Nintendo DSi as well as fitness gear for use with EA Sports Active" as part of a deal EA announced last month. Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 and 11 on Wii will get a series of golf club attachments for kids on up to adults -- extendable up to 24 or 36 inches depending on the set you acquire -- and Sekar will also offer baseball and racquet accessories for other Wii games like Grand Slam Tennis. As for the DSi, the press release mentions five-in-one carrying kits themed around football, baseball, basketball and soccer -- each kit will include a game case, skin, stylus, and clip-on earphones or headphones. Then there's the EA Sports Active stuff, which comes in two flavors: Starter Kit and Gym Kit. The first will retail for $19.99 and comes with a Wii Balance Board bag, yoga mat, fitness cord, armband and legbands, while the Gym Kit will set you back a bit more at $39.99 and includes a gym bag, yoga mat with a fitness cord and wrist and ankle weights. While we can't really comment on these proposed attachments without at least seeing them first, we just hope EA reads the internet every now and then. Some attachments are great, while others are just a painful memory you wish you could forget.
HD Grand Slam Tennis 'delayed indefinitely' due to EA Sports Active
During yesterday's EA conference call, Peter Moore named yet another game that's been bumped out of its original release date: the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 Grand Slam Tennis. This delay is even more alarming than the constant movement of games out of this year and into Spring 2010, because, according to a statement given to Kotaku, Grand Slam Tennis has been "delayed indefinitely." The EA Sports rep assured that the game would actually come out.The delay, according to Moore, is the result of EA Sports staff being diverted from the tennis game in order to get the EA Sports Active expansion out by the holidays. As of right now, the only way to play Grand Slam Tennis is to get a Wii, which also lets you experience EA Sports Active and its upcoming expansion. How devious.
Engadget gets in-depth with the Wii MotionPlus
Like trying to watch a foreign language film on a tiny TV, it seems that our buddies at Engadget can't figure out if they've got problems with the Wii MotionPlus technology, or just the way it's being used. The site recently did an exhaustive hands-on with Nintendo's new add-on, the fruits of which you can see here.The best implementation/demonstration for the super-sensitive tech seems to be manipulating an e-frisbee in 3D space, which is almost too precious and appropriate for our brains to comprehend.
Target offers gift cards with MotionPlus games, Guitar Hero Smash Hits
The Target flyer for the week of June 14 shows the retail chain will offer gift cards for two very particular game purchases. First off, customers who buy both Tiger Woods PGA 2010 (with Wii MotionPlus) and Grand Slam Tennis will receive a $20 Target gift card. Meanwhile, those who purchase Guitar Hero Smash Hits (which isn't out until Tuesday) will receive a $5 gift card, no matter what platform they buy it for. However, we should also mention there are Smash Hits pre-order specials from several other retailers, so you should check to see if those are still available.
Peter Moore says EA Sports is 'under-performing' on the Wii
In the past, Peter Moore has hinted at the tenuous relationship between the company he helms (EA Sports) and Nintendo's three-DVD-wide home console (the Wii). Yesterday, the leader of the highly athletic development studio fully acknowledged EA Sports' lackluster sales performance on the Wii in an interview with Eurogamer, stating, "when I look at the attach rate on the Wii of our software to where I think we should be, we're under-performing still, we need to do much better."Moore is hoping to claim a few extra slices of that sweet Wii pie with the studio's upcoming MotionPlus-infused sports titles, Tiger Woods 10 and Grand Slam Tennis. Of course, we can't have a story about Mr. Moore without one of his trademarked Awesomely Ostentatious Quotes: "Those two titles couldn't come at a better time for us, nor for Nintendo quite frankly." Oh, yeah. That one's going up on the fridge.
EA Sports MotionPlus bundles confirmed for North America and Europe
EA just sent out a press release confirming the rumored EA Sports Grand Slam Tennis and Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 bundles for Europe. Both games will ship with included MotionPlus accessories this summer. "This exclusive and limited-time offer is exciting news for sports fans who want to enhance their Wii experience for a great value with the new Wii MotionPlus right at launch with both Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 10 and EA SPORTS Grand Slam Tennis," Peter Moore said in the press release. The bundles will retail for £49.99.In addition, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 will include a MotionPlus in North America at launch -- over a month before Wii Sports Resort! GameStop has already posted a listing for the bundle (at $59.99) and a free overnight shipping offer (enter the coupon code EAGLE). No idea why Grand Slam Tennis isn't also going to have a bundle, but at least there's one more bundled game, so you can get a MotionPlus for your second controller.%Gallery-47656%
Wii MotionPlus can be oversensitive to your needs, say EA devs
The jury's still out on whether or not Nintendo follows our logic and is gonna release the Wii MotionPlus attachment before June 18th, the day Electronic Arts debuts the first compatible game Grand Slam Tennis. Regardless, the developers of that game want you to know that they had to actually to tone down the touted 1:1 responsiveness to make the game playable. We can't say that we blame them -- after all, the air resistance of a Wii remote is slightly different than that of a full tennis racket -- but we'd love to have the option to crank up that sensitivity and see just how unstable it really is. So when do we a chance to find out for ourselves, eh Nintendo?[Via Joystiq]
EA Grand Slam developer: MotionPlus is too sensitive
EA looks likely to be the first third party to ship games that support the Wii MotionPlus device with Grand Slam Tennis and Tiger Woods 10. The company may even beat Nintendo itself, unless Nintendo decides to announce a release date for Wii Sports Resort, and then ship it, before June. So, presumably, someone working on Grand Slam Tennis has had enough time with the attachment to know what's up.Thomas Singleton, producer for Grand Slam, said that the device is actually a little too good at registering one-to-one motion. He told TechRadar that "At times it's overly responsive. It had so much fidelity that at times we have limited that fidelity to make it a compelling experience and giving you full total control." So EA reduced the amount of control you have in order to give you "full total control?"%Gallery-47654%[Via CVG]
EA bundling Wii MotionPlus add-on with tennis game in Europe?
We'd already heard that Nintendo's Wii MotionPlus controller add-on was at least loosely tied to the launch of EA's Grand Slam Tennis game, but it now looks like the two may be even more closely linked than previously thought. According to a listing on Amazon.de, the add-on will actually be available in a bundle with the game (in Europe, at least), which will set you back €53.99, or just over $70, when it launches on July 2nd. As Joystiq speculates, however, this move could also be just the excuse Nintendo has been looking for to delay its own Wii Sports Resort game, which itself was supposed to come bundled with MotionPlus add-on but has been largely missing in action since its debut at E3 last year.[Via Joystiq]
Rumor: EA bundling MotionPlus with Grand Slam Tennis in Europe
NeoGAFfer CubeRevolution reported that EA was planning to release a version of Grand Slam Tennis for the Wii bundled with one of Nintendo's MotionPlus peripherals, for 59.99 Euros, just 10 Euros more than the standalone release.A listing on Amazon.de for "EA SPORTS Grand Slam Tennis + Wii Motion Plus" bears out CubeRevolution's claim. It appears that Nintendo really is allowing EA to bundle its first-party accessory with a third-party game in Europe this July. Amazon even took a few Euros off the price!While it's great news that people might be able to buy a MotionPlus in July, and with more bundle options, we can't help but entertain the theory that this option frees Nintendo up to delay Wii Sports Resort past the summer.%Gallery-47654%
John McEnroe headlines EA Sports Grand Slam Tennis
Electronic Arts is totally serious about including ill-tempered tennis legend John McEnroe in EA Sports' upcoming Wii release, Grand Slam Tennis. According to EA, McEnroe will be just one of several "all-time greats" in the upcoming title, which is expected to take to the court on June 16.Hopefully EA will package more than just McEnroe's likeness with the game. We can't think of a better use of the promised MotionPlus support than mirroring his juvenile antics on screen as we toss our Wii remote aside in disgust when calls don't go our way.
Joystiq hands-on: EA Sports Grand Slam Tennis
click to enlarge EA Sports' entry into the Wii tennis game roster came out to play at its "Season Opener" event in San Francisco. We weren't so much interested in the fact it was a tennis title from EA as we were with its support for Nintendo's yet-to-be-dated Wii MotionPlus peripheral.It was a little odd, then, that we started off our play session without said Wiimote doohickey. We were essentially playing a more -- though not entirely -- realistic game of Wii Sports tennis, right down to the serve mechanic and the automatic on-court movement of our character. Thankfully, we learned that the game will support a Nunchuk for player-controlled movement -- and we eventually got to give MotionPlus a try.%Gallery-47654%
Nintendo's MotionPlus due out prior to Grand Slam Tennis, or June 18th
Stay with us here, okay? For the longest while, we've wondered when exactly Nintendo was planning on releasing its long-since announced MotionPlus Wiimote add-on. At long last, pieces are beginning to come together. According to EA Sports' official Grand Slam Tennis page, said title will be available for the Wii on June 18th. Hop over to a recent Nintendo Power article about said game, and you'll find producer Thomas Singleton asserting that the MotionPlus accessory is "due out prior to Grand Slam's release." So, putting one and one together, we've come to the conclusion that Nintendo should ship its MotionPlus add-on prior to June 18th, or at least prior to whatever day Grand Slam Tennis gets delayed to. Logical?[Via GoNintendo]Read - Nintendo Power articleRead - Grand Slam Tennis website
