Rockstar Games presents Table Tennis

To serve, you've got a golf swing-style meter that determines the strength of your shot. Bang it in the middle of the bar and you'll hit a more accurate, more dangerous first attack. Finally, there are two special shots - the 'Dink' on the left shoulder button, which chips the ball close to the net, and your Focus shot on the right.

With each successful, spin-charged return you'll fill the intensity bar, which changes colour as you charge it up. When you've charged it up, hold the Focus button and hit a shot, and you trigger a slo-mo, super-accurate thwack. Right now, it's not properly balanced, so it's a little weak - Rockstar want a Focus shot to be blindingly quick, a near impossible to return blast that finishes the point.

But that's just the basics. There's an ocean of depth to get involved with under the surface. Each character - at the moment there are 11 to choose from - has a speciality. Liu Ping is better at forehand topspin, while Luc is more defensive, and is better at backhand backspin shots. Push your opponent into positions where they're forced to return the ball into your strongest area, and you're sure to take the points.

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Ben Richardson is a former Staff Writer for Official PlayStation 2 magazine and a former Content Editor of 12DOVE. In the years since Ben left GR, he has worked as a columnist, 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.