Last year, Runn Software partnered up with Grolier Interactive to
bring us Roland Garros 98. This year, Runn Software is at it again.
This time they've teamed up with Carapace and GT Interactive to
publish this year's edition, Roland Garros 99. There doesn't seem
to be a great deal of improvement over last year's edition,
however, and the absence of player licenses is certainly going to
disappoint diehard tennis fans.
Roland Garros 99 gives you the chance to relive one of tennis' four
major tournaments, the thrilling French Open. Although the game
is based on the French Open, it's not just limited to that particular
tournament. There are dozens of locations to play at including the
rest of the big four, the Australian Open, U.S Open and the creme
de la creme, Wimbledon. You also get to choose amongst a
plethora of tennis players, although you can't choose any of your
favorites. That's right, the dreaded license issue arises here in
Roland Garros 99, as they clearly did not secure the rights to use
actual players. Instead, you have to choose among players that are
based on their real life counterparts. Michael Chang is known as
'Ming', Cedric Pioline goes under the name 'Trempoline', and so
on. I can't re-iterate enough how important licenses are when it
comes to sporting titles and it's a shame Roland Garros 99
fails to take advantage of this aspect. On a high note, the players
provided do match their real life stars fairly accurately. All players
have ratings spanning such abilities as Speed, Serve, Volley,
Backhand, Forehand, and Endurance. Therefore, strengths and
weaknesses of all the tennis stars are apparent and portrayed
efficiently.
There are two modes of play in Roland Garros 99. You can choose
to play a single game or begin a season. Single player mode gives
you the option to play singles or doubles in any tournament
you desire. This is also where multiplayer options come into play.
You can play against or with a human opponent, but only on the
same machine. Roland Garros 99 does not support any Internet,
Modem, or LAN connections. This is certainly a disappointment
considering how far multiplayer has come along in the last couple
of years. None the less, this mode is perfect for players
looking to practice their game, or players looking for a quick
match.
Season mode allows you to play in a number of tournaments
including all the majors. In this mode you begin as the 50th ranked
player in the world, according to the ATP rankings. The goal of
this mode is to become the number one ranked player in the
world. This is done by accumulating points based on your success,
or failures, in each tournament. Unfortunately, this mode does not
support any multiplayer whatsoever. It would have been nice to
compete against a number of human opponents, trying to out rank
each other in the standings.
Graphically, the game supports Glide, Direct 3D and software
modes. In Direct 3D though, there seems to be a few glitches.
Loading times appear to be a little longer and players move a tad
slower in Direct 3D as compared to Glide. None the less, the
graphics are some of the best I've seen in a tennis game. That's
probably not saying much considering the lack of tennis games
out there, but it's a compliment none the less. The player
animations are extremely well done. The only odd animation I
noticed was when players dive for balls. Their body aligns in a
perfect horizontal line and it looks very unrealistic. All the strokes
and player movements, otherwise, are all well done. The
environments, while not rich, are accurate in dimension and nicely
detailed. I would like to have seen some ball boys on the court
racing after missed serves, etc., but the rest of the objects on the
court (net, judge, etc.) are well displayed. The crowds, on the
other hand, are not well done. I have yet to see a good crowd shot
in a sports title. Like many others before it, Roland Garros' fans
look like cardboard cutouts. Cleary they only made a half dozen
spectators, then sprinkled them around the stands hoping we
wouldn't notice that half of the people in the crowd are wearing
the same shirt. It must have been 'Hawaian shirt day' at the US
Open again. Overall, I was fairly impressed by the graphics.
Nothing spectacular, but certainly solid enough to keep me in the
game.
The sound on the other hand wasn't that solid. There is no
play-by-play that we've become so accustomed to in our sports
titles. Certainly this is something Runn Software needs to look
into for future editions. The sound effects were basically very
average. Crowd noise was fairly realistic, but didn't give me much
of a feel like they were really getting into the match. Other effects,
such as the ball hitting the surface, was fairly well done. Tennis
isn't a game that features music in it, so the lack of music in this
title wasn't surprising. Overall, the lack of play-by-play and
lackluster sound effects take away any chance of creating a good
tennis environment. This is one area that definitely needs
improvement.
There are six different camera angles to choose from in Roland
Garros. It's good to see a sports title cut down on the number of
camera angles and focus more on the quality of the angles. In
this case, there are many different angles that give the gamer a
good view of the game. Now that they have the camera angles
down, it's time for them to work on the realism of the game.
While you seem to be playing a game of tennis, you certainly don't
feel like you are. For example, computer opponents will hit their
first serve 95% of the time, barely faulting at all. Even the worst of
servers will nail their first serve, although usually with a little
less strength than the better players. On the same note, computer
opponents rarely make any unforced errors. They always seem to
hit it over the net. All of a sudden the pressure is on you to make
the big shot. The only way to gain points is to hit the ball where
you're opponent can't get it. If your opponent can reach the ball,
he'll hit it back perfectly no matter how hard a shot it is. There are
three different skill levels in the game, but I found it only seemed
to effect the opponent's speed and serving power, rather than the
opponent's ability to hit balls. Roland Garros 99 does a good job of
distinguishing playing surfaces. You do get a feel that you're
playing on grass rather than clay in terms of surface and ball
speed. Player control is also quite good. You can play with either a
keyboard or a gamepad and making any type of shot, whether it
be a lift, lob, volley, etc., is easy to learn and perform.
RG 99 also comes with an encyclopedia that allows you to look
back at the past winner of the French Open, all the way back to
the year 1968. Photos of the winners and statistics from each
of the tournaments are available to view. There is no editor that
comes with Roland Garros 99, so you won't be able to create your
own players. You'll have to settle with what they've selected for
you.
Roland Garros 99 seems to have all the components to make up a
solid tennis game. It's got decent graphics, a good engine, single
play, and a season mode that is well implemented. Now they need
to incorporate the things that will make Roland Garros 99 a great
tennis game. More multiplayer options including Internet play;
player licenses that allow them to use real players; an overhaul of
the sound system including the implementation of play-by-play;
realistic AI and gameplay touch-ups. There's not much competition
out there at the moment when it comes to tennis games, but that
doesn't mean you can settle with what you've got. You never
know when somebody's going to come around and claim the top
spot from you. If you've got a chance to hit a winner, you'd better
do it right. In this instance, Roland Garros 99 comes up a little
weak.