3 new screenshots have been released for the delayed Top Spin 2 for the Xbox 360, and they shine -- in ways both good and bad.
Sure, it's great to see the HD incarnations of Maria Sharapova... and those other (less well-rendered?) tennis players... but there's always a potential downside in approaching and entering the so-called Uncanny Valley: approximating freckles and the beginnings of birthmarks may raise our level of immersion in next-gen sports simulations, but they may also begin to freak out even the most devout tennis devotees with a shiny/plastic game-world sheen and potentially zombie-dead eyes on the players.
So the question is raised once more: photorealism in games, a friend or foe? We could argue game-design philosophies till kingdom come, but, in the end, it all depends on how you see things, and what the game in question calls for. Just watch out for those eyes, 2K.
