FULL ACE TENNIS SIMULATOR (PC/STEAM) - BEST TENNIS GAME OF ALL TIME!!!

aussiepesfan

aussiepesfan

Champions League
17 April 2002
Hey guys, Im surprised this game hasn't got its own thread, let alone been mentioned in the discussion of great sporting videogame simulations.
Its been out since Mar 2018, is regularly updated, and modded - links posted in the steam community/discussions thread. Ive been a huge Tennis Elbow fan (still am), but after purchasing this almost 1 month ago, i have to say, hands down, this is the best, most realistic, and most fun Tennis game ever made. Best tennis game to date. It kinda makes Tennis Elbow (2013 with mods, and TE4 the latest version) look and feel kinda arcadish in comparison. And when you compare this to all the other big name latest tennis games for PS4, xbox etc, man.. they are just so disappointing and unrealistic in comparison. Sure this game doesn't look as good animation wise (even though i think they are in no way distracting and pretty damn good atm) compared to the big company games, but this sure as hell plays so much better. The sliders are amazing, as you can play at ultra hard/realistic (where timing and footwork are paramount), but you can also dumb it down to play more arcade (great way just to get the hang of it - after perhaps watching the tutorial). Anyways here is the steam link:


Here is the latest mod (1.4) link with real courts/players/tournaments etc:


And here is me playing the game with my favorite display settings, camera angle, and difficulties etc:




And with a higher difficulty on the last 2 clips (clay definitely easier due to slower surface), with all but timing setting set to 'real life" or 24. Also modded the aiming cursor to be slightly smaller. The aiming cursor mechanic makes this game brilliant.. its the key to the awesome game play, as is the timing/error mechanics and cpu player AI.




Surely this game is worth sharing. I cant believe i only discovered this a month ago.. .
 
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Wow, this looks awesome. I saw the clip of Federer vs Nadal and the movements, the spin on the ball is very realistic in both players. (I am especially impressed with the spin of the different strokes, it looks so realistic).

I'm a big tennis fan, this definitely looks like a game I'd like to check out! 🎾
 
Yeah really is amazing, very surprised there are no responses here... honestly one of the best sporting sims that exist today.. like a true sim. The only thing it doesn't have (which i dont think any tennis game has), is diving or stretching... Apart from that, everything about the actual gameplay mechanics is amazing.
I love the sliders.. found that all the way up (for most difficult and realistic) to 24 was just a bit too hard.. so im on 20 for every setting except shot timing (got this on about 16). Its at a sweet level for me... as you play tournaments, the first game or 2 are easy, but then when you get to round 3 or 4, against the top 20 seeds, its a battle...
Just been playing exhibitions for the first few weeks of owning this game, and then a few tournaments (never won yet), but just realised the depth of this game (apart from the visual settings and difficulty sliders) by beginning a Career mode.. kinda like master league for tennis, where you can enter as little or as many tournaments as possible... just amazing.

Im still in awe of how good this game is. And produced by one dude.... and instead of making a new game each year.. you buy the game once (came out in 2018), and the game is continuously updated to include things the community are asking for. I think doubles (not my thing) and female players are some of the 'coming soon' updates to arrive. The community is also great, and there is a continuously improved mod (currently 1.4) that comes out every so often.

Anyways, nice to see a response millossobek. Get this game.. its the only game thats stopped me from playing pes21 for a while. And honestly, the only tennis game ill ever want. :GSCARF:
 
This looks top class bro.. Will definitely try to check it out when I can. Who is your favorite player to play with? I actually peRFectly know who I'm choosing! :LOL: :LOL:
 
especially with tennis games or basketball or football... i am still waiting for a decent foot planting and animations system that looks like the real thing!

i jsut cant wrap my head around whats happening in this regard for decades! it might be minor but i'm sensible to that stuff. sorry.

have a look at the videos above. the grand sheme looks great, but that foot work... :YAWN:

one freaking day... one day we will have it! we will video game characters in sport games moving like the real deal! one day...! :WORSHIP:
 
PRO_TOO said:
especially with tennis games or basketball or football... i am still waiting for a decent foot planting and animations system that looks like the real thing!

i jsut cant wrap my head around whats happening in this regard for decades! it might be minor but i'm sensible to that stuff. sorry.

have a look at the videos above. the grand sheme looks great, but that foot work... :YAWN:

one freaking day... one day we will have it! we will video game characters in sport games moving like the real deal! one day...! :WORSHIP:
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Foot planting got worse in almost every single sports video game since 2012. NBA 2k11 had decent foot planting. Even their college hoops game from 2008. What's happening then? They just add more and more automated animations, the user doesn't have full control and they don't care working on their engines to have a smooth transition between the auto animations and user control. The devs are lazy and the result is sports games with sliding.
 
PRO_TOO said:
especially with tennis games or basketball or football... i am still waiting for a decent foot planting and animations system that looks like the real thing!

i jsut cant wrap my head around whats happening in this regard for decades! it might be minor but i'm sensible to that stuff. sorry.

have a look at the videos above. the grand sheme looks great, but that foot work... :YAWN:

one freaking day... one day we will have it! we will video game characters in sport games moving like the real deal! one day...! :WORSHIP:
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The movement anims in this game are a bit weird, but it actually does have decent mechanics for footplanting and inertia. The player only moves when they make steps, split steps if they are standing still, small side steps for small movements etc... The quality/variety of animation and complex animation blending systems to make it look perfect aren't there because it's made by basically one guy on a shoestring budget, but the fundamentals and vision for simulation gameplay and realistic physics are there in abundance and executed remarkably well for being one person's effort.

Give this developer the budget and resources spent on (the absolutely shite) TWT/AO and he would put them to shame in all departments. He's already made one of the best sports sims I've seen despite the lack of bells and whistles and it's steadily improving all the time.

I can't speak highly enough about this game and the developer - there are no shortcuts taken here, the gameplay is driven entirely by physics. The net is merely a physics object, not some magical "bad shot magnet" like in every other tennis game I've played. Here you can play "perfect" shots (timing wise) but dump them in the net because you tried an almost impossible shot, like blasting a flat shot down the line (high part of the net, shortest distance to baseline) from a low slice.

In other games as long as you position/time the shot well enough that the game categorises it as a "good shot" you won't make an error. The game decides the outcome first and the ball trajectory is made up to suit, in Full Ace that is flipped around, you manipulate the ball trajectory directly and if the outer limits of the margins of your shot intercept with the net or miss the court, that's on you for your shot selection, for the same reasons as in real life.

I agree with you that games should have more realistic footplanting/animations these days, but titles like this are not the problem. An indie dev like this making a realistic sim because they're a fan of the sport would love to be able to achieve that but doesn't have the resources. The problem is the bigger studios who can do that stuff choosing not to or simply being too incompetent/greedy.
 
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rojofa said:
The movement anims in this game are a bit weird, but it actually does have decent mechanics for footplanting and inertia. The player only moves when they make steps, split steps if they are standing still, small side steps for small movements etc... The quality/variety of animation and complex animation blending systems to make it look perfect aren't there because it's made by basically one guy on a shoestring budget, but the fundamentals and vision for simulation gameplay and realistic physics are there in abundance and executed remarkably well for being one person's effort.

Give this developer the budget and resources spent on (the absolutely shite) TWT/AO and he would put them to shame in all departments. He's already made one of the best sports sims I've seen despite the lack of bells and whistles and it's steadily improving all the time.

I can't speak highly enough about this game and the developer - there are no shortcuts taken here, the gameplay is driven entirely by physics. The net is merely a physics object, not some magical "bad shot magnet" like in every other tennis game I've played. Here you can play "perfect" shots (timing wise) but dump them in the net because you tried an almost impossible shot, like blasting a flat shot down the line (high part of the net, shortest distance to baseline) from a low slice.

In other games as long as you position/time the shot well enough that the game categorises it as a "good shot" you won't make an error. The game decides the outcome first and the ball trajectory is made up to suit, in Full Ace that is flipped around, you manipulate the ball trajectory directly and if the outer limits of the margins of your shot intercept with the net or miss the court, that's on you for your shot selection, for the same reasons as in real life.

I agree with you that games should have more realistic footplanting/animations these days, but titles like this are not the problem. An indie dev like this making a realistic sim because they're a fan of the sport would love to be able to achieve that but doesn't have the resources. The problem is the bigger studios who can do that stuff choosing not to or simply being too incompetent/greedy.
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Agree. It was never my intention to say some bad about the title. Just took it as an example without thinking to much.

what I meant is more the overall thing.

The details you describe sound awesome. Guess I’d love that gameplay as a Fan of manual gameplay! Wish Konami or EA or any other showed that passion.
 
I bought it when the Summer Sale started (the discount will be available until tomorrow 19:00 CET). For anyone who even remotely likes tennis and simulation gameplay, I would easily recommend this game, especially at this price!

It's the closest thing I've seen in a game to how tennis works in real life. To be honest, I can't even believe how a single dev managed to create a game this good. Videos actually don't even do it justice before you've played it - most aspects of tennis are fantastically represented here, and it truly makes you feel like playing tennis, so even though it's frustrating at the start because of the learning curve, you still get immense satisfaction when it clicks.

There is room for improvement as with anything (volleys especially imo), but after seeing the absolute rubbish tennis games in the last few years, I'm so happy with this one!
 
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fear said:
Foot planting got worse in almost every single sports video game since 2012. NBA 2k11 had decent foot planting. Even their college hoops game from 2008. What's happening then? They just add more and more automated animations, the user doesn't have full control and they don't care working on their engines to have a smooth transition between the auto animations and user control. The devs are lazy and the result is sports games with sliding.
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I believe the developers would like all the time/space to get autistic on this kind of things but with smaller teams there is no monney.time for it.
The bigger teams are far more corporate and about the money instead of protecting passion for the project.
 
millossobek said:
This looks top class bro.. Will definitely try to check it out when I can. Who is your favorite player to play with? I actually peRFectly know who I'm choosing! :LOL: :LOL:
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RN all the way!!!! Im keen to play against RF on the settings that ive recently gone up with (20 on all, except 16 on shot timing, and with most visuals helpers off), but reckon ill get killed... ill give it a go now :) and post a clip or 2
 
At 10.55 mark, you can see all the settings im currently using.



RF is tough, beatable, but itll take me bit more patience. Nadal is my go to player... and one of the big tips in this game (by the developer himself), is dont aim too close to the lines.. thats my biggest problem, as well as my impatience to go for winners so early in the point... Thats what i love about this game... its realistic in the way you have to earn a point.
 
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I just can't seem to unsee their GIANT FEET. It's like clowns playing Tennis!

Thanks for bringing this to my attention, however. Love the dedication this dude puts into this.
 
lol, hey Tom, great thing is the community is constantly bringing stuff up to the creator, who actually listens, and often makes these changes. 3 wks ago, i suggested that the aiming cursor should be customisable in terms of size, in the settings. Im pretty sure this must have been a common request, however this was fixed last update a week or so ago. Now this can be made smaller or less intrusive. Ill mention the clown feet :)
 
First tennis game i liked (and remember liking) was Namco's "Smash Court Tennis Pro Tournament 2" on ps2. Still more arcade than sim.. But for me better than anything on ps3 or ps4. Since then though, Ive been heavily into Tennis Elbow 2013.. my goto tennis sim.. And this game was/is heavily modded with a huge community.

However, I found out about FATS earlier this year, and in comparison to TE2013 (and even TE4 which just came out recently on steam), its just a better simulation with more variety in terms or timing, shot mechanics, and error variables. Kinda makes TE look arcadish tbh.

SHITE!! just remembered my all time best tennis game ever (before FATS, and the previous TE2013). The obscure and so ahead of its time psx's "World Pro Tennis '98" - a Japanese tennis game that was rare and mostly unheard of. Just found a youtube clip of it (posted below). You guys should at least try this one out!! This game, with its fake spelling (and imposter looking Sampras and Agassi on the title screen) had 50 or so of the top players at the time, and each player felt so totally different (the player id was truly amazing). Serving with Sampras was so so different to serving with Agassi or Lendal etc. Had to get used to each player you tried. Totally beyond its time, including the first tennis game that had timing affecting the direction and/or errors of your shots. I still think the court sounds (racquet hitting ball/ ball bouncing) are better than what we get today. Im almost certain the guy who made FATS had some influence from this game.. Of course i could be wrong :)

 
as a kid, i went to a local video cassette rental shop (dont know what its called in engl.), nearly every freaking day (during the summer holidays and after) with a close buddy of mine.

edit: it was called movie vision:
OL-Movievision1-12.01.jpg


they had a demo station for the dreamcast and one game to play: virtua tennis.

3-3-08-dreamcast.jpg


we were playing for hours... till the shop owner had a smile on his face and let us be. we moved aside when customers wanted to play...
this went on a whole long summer till i decided to get my own Dreamcast! and then we played at home! but i will never forget the time we went there multiple times a week and had our share of fun! good times! so innocent!

 
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Bought it as well, will probably give it a first swing on the weekend. Haven't played a good Tennis game in what feels like forever. I adored Super Smash Tennis and Jimmy Connors on Super Nintendo, then Final Match Tennis on PC Engine later. Everything else that followed on newer machines like Virtua Tennis or the Top Spin series never really clicked with me. I love Tennis, so I'm curious to see how this one feels. Blessed be this thread!
 
Tom said:
Bought it as well, will probably give it a first swing on the weekend. Haven't played a good Tennis game in what feels like forever. I adored Super Smash Tennis and Jimmy Connors on Super Nintendo, then Final Match Tennis on PC Engine later. Everything else that followed on newer machines like Virtua Tennis or the Top Spin series never really clicked with me. I love Tennis, so I'm curious to see how this one feels. Blessed be this thread!
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Here's the mod to add the licensed stuff. (Link in the desc)
 
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Might sound obvious, but I suggest new players first do the tutorials and read all the advice it gives - some things are quite different to other tennis games so getting your head around how it works, when each button is meant to be pressed and what factors to consider can make you learn the game much faster and develop less bad habits :D.

I like how in this game you can vary the difficulty in so many ways - sliders for timing sensitivity, serve speeds, AI aggression, manual preparation etc.

Personally I would advise not to use the slower balls other than learning the mechanics as these can make hitting winners almost impossible for both the AI and yourself. Also AI aggressiveness I wouldn't lower too much, as they won't make as many errors - especially in combination, using such lower settings that seem like they should be easier can actually make the game harder, or not reward you for stuff you would be on a faster setting.

My suggestion would be to start on clay with the realistic ball, and almost highest settings but lower the challenge by choosing lower rated opponents or using the editor to lower the opponent player's power.

It may be tempting to jump in playing on grass with Wimbledon currently on but it is the fastest, most unforgiving surface.

Here's a ton of similar advice for new players from the developer himself;
https://steamcommunity.com/app/779430/discussions/0/1698293255128732330/
 
While I find it good to have the option to change so much about the core gameplay with those sliders, I personally started with everything set to the "real life" settings, i.e. how the game should be played eventually. Yes, it was frustrating, and yes, I still struggle to beat the better players, but essentially that's how it should be - imo starting out with the realistic settings has more benefits in the end, as it makes you work on your weaknesses and before you know it, you actually start to improve.

Also take note that, just like you would in real life, you need to put in the time in practice mode, especially when you're starting. You can play around with it and see how exactly the shot timing / placement works. It's a shame there are no drills for returning serves, as I find this to be the trickiest part of the game, but you can just go and play exhibition games against good servers, and mainly focus on that.
 
Yeah good stuff guys!!! The tutorials and tips are the best thing to do first - thats what i did. And i used default settings to begin with.. which are quite hard to begin with. As you get better, so does the game.. increasing the sliders, and as rojofa mentioned particularly the aggressiveness makes this game so much more realistic (more cpu errors, as they more often take risks going for winners). Never bothered with using slower balls (cos i dont like how the balls are actually colored differently) ..I like the default (fast) ball. Picking slower courts (clay) is the way to start.

Although im currently on 20 for everything except shot timing, every now n then (in exhibition only) I do like trying out the real life settings (max of 24) on all except shot timing which i leave on default (medium 16). Haven't tried 24 on shot timing, but on 16, i still make enough poor timed shots /unforced errors for realism. But, In career or tournament mode, i stick with all sliders on 20 and 16 ST, as its relatively easy to beat most of the mid 70 players (using a top seed like RN) , but a real challenge to beat the top 3 seeds.
 
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