Tennis Manager 2023
Review
Hitting the Court
by Howie Howard
reviewed on PC
New and improved?
Tennis Manager 2023 is the third incarnation of a sports management game that initially got its start in 2021. The game is developed and produced by French video game house Rebound CG. As with most serial management simulations whether sports or otherwise that are released annually; they are incrementally improved upon with each years release. Some new features are added while other things are improved with graphics being enhanced and game AI being improved. The same can be said about TM23, but is it a worthwhile purchase or can you just stick with the 2022 version? Stay with us as we try to answer those questions.
It's my personal data!
After installing the game and upon entering for the first time you will encountered something that I have rarely seen. Actually, I have never seen it, at least not to this extent. It was a privacy policy screen that required reading some rather long text and then answering yes or no to indicate whether you agree or disagree with it. We all have experienced warnings in games stating that strong language, drug references or other adult related material might be present but this privacy policy seems to go above and beyond just some simple warning and it is kind of disturbing.
In short, the privacy disclaimer informs the game player that if they agree then, "advertising on billboards in the game would make more sense." It went on to indicate that if you agree to have the enhanced ads that, "user data and behaviour would be shared with 3rd parties to display targeted advertising." If you chose to say no: "you will still see advertising, but this will not be based on inferred interests, preferences or location." It goes on to say: "we do not collect or share personal data from any other 3rd party source, e.g. Internet browsing." To end, the privacy policy disclaimer informs you: "To ensure that advertising on billboards is age appropriate we will share your age with 3rd party advertisers!" If data mining is not going on in this game then why not just include the option to opt out completely and then have no ads appear. Or have some generic ad that simply shows the words Tennis Manager like it did in last years version?
I can have alien tennis players in my ads, errr... rather academy?
If the rather intensive privacy policy doesn't bother you then continue reading. The manager and the first player creation segment is much improved upon. There are more face options available for the manager and there is an expanded attribute set up as far as options for the manager and player goes. If starting your own academy - and you should - you can choose to start with a ready made first player or create your own. I suggest creating your own first player because the options are expanded upon too. There are additional faces and body types to chose from but the skin colour choices are very good because you can create a fantastical first player. I created a green skinned tall and husky guy with weird looking yellow hair and named him Bruce Banner! I then named my academy Green Hulk Tennis Academy. I wish the option to create all of your academies players was present because then it would be possible to have a team full of green aliens that probably came from some place other than Earth!
Moving past the initial manager and first player part makes the manager start managing the team. This includes expanding the academy, setting up training schedules, scheduling matches for your player(s), recruiting and to start thinking about game tactics along with other managerial chores. All of the initial requirements come with a nicely done help screen system. Upon starting to do a new task a text help screen pops up and it explains how things work. You can turn it off but there is an icon on the screen that can be clicked at any time if help is needed.
Lots and lots of new tennis stuff...
There are a lot of new things included in the game with an update on match play animations being in the forefront for this years edition. Player appearance on court now has a more realistic 3D look to it. The accompanying motion has been enhanced with new tactical and behavioral features. Match animations now allow for players to showcase their skills in much better detail.
Even with match animations being enhanced that's not the entire story of the updates to this 2023 edition of Tennis Manager. There are many other additions to the game and the biggest has to be the ability to play doubles in tournaments. Add in the possibility of an appearance in the Olympics, World Cup and possibility to be your nations team captain are all very big improvements indeed. Even the games player database has been updated with new name additions. However, since player name licensing doesn't seem to be present in the game then that means the top stars names are a bit different. Luckily there is the option to modify them in your own custom modules.
Final tennis manager thoughts
There really is a lot more depth to this new version of Tennis Manager 2023. In addition to the above improvements, all of the various screens have been improved. The manager and player statistics look really good and they contain expanded stats which can help to track the academies player progress. Even though I'm not a fan of personal data sharing and location tracking in games, these days it does appear to be a growing aspect of computer and video game development. I would prefer that Rebound CG and other developers rely more on their creativity and game quality to be able to draw more people in to purchase their products. The fact that we are constantly being bombarded with ads on TV, cell phone, on the Internet and everywhere, that I for one want to be ad free in the games that I play. However, even with that said, Tennis Manager 23 is a worthwhile game and that's based on the efforts made to improve things in game. If you don't mind sharing even some of your personal information and DOB certainly is very personal then you don't have anything to worry about.
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8.0
fun score
Pros
There's a whole lot of game improvements and additions in this new Tennis Manager edition.
Cons
The idea of harvesting and sharing, and selling personal data with 3rd party advertisers is quite unsettling
