New Tennis Game: AO Tennis

This is not a good tennis simulation... I find it baffling how anyone could think the gameplay resembles actual tennis in any way.

The physics are terrible, the player movement is dreadful/on-rails, the patterns of play are nothing like tennis (so neither are the tactics used), some really poor animations...

A challenging game with a decent amount of content and nice editing features, sure, and maybe that's what you want... But to call this a good tennis simulation is just wrong.

Full Ace or Tennis Elbow are the only sim-like tennis games available at the moment.
 
It just sounds ridiculous to me, like someone calling a game as trash as Ubisoft's Pure Football a "really good football simulation". That game resembles football about as much as AO resembles tennis.

This game and Tennis World Tour have both been an absolute joke and an insult to tennis fans who have waited so long for a decent tennis game (on consoles anyway, at least on PC there are a couple of options).
 
agree both games look horrible all around, played tennis myself bambini and youth age
where i disagree are the so called sim games he mentioned, the animations alone look horrible, old games like top spin 1 even trump them in that regard, and that is being half an arcade game, yes animations take huge part in sim too, not just looks
 
Gunslinger said:
Based on your vociferous criticism of the game I have concluded it is too hard for you.:))
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And you'd be wrong. Got nothing to do with that...

cosmo said:
where i disagree are the so called sim games he mentioned, the animations alone look horrible
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Modded Tennis Elbow (e.g. ITST Mod) has excellent shot animations with most players having their own signature anims, look at some Youtube videos (one was posted at the end of page 1 here). Full Ace's aren't too bad now either, but lack the variety of modded TE and the movement/volley anims are a bit awkward.

I wouldn't say the anims are worse than AO on the whole though. Only TS/VT have done them better/smoother and it seems neither of those are coming back.
 
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I am still really enjoying this game. Taking my time building up my player in Career Mode. Some of the matches i play are fantastic and so tense. Each player I have played against I can see the weaknesses and strengths and it is a challenge trying to change my gameplan during the match. It is such a good feeling when you recover a lost cause and gradually work yourself back into the point until you are on the attack.

Yep i know that Tennis Elbow is probably the best tennis game ever made. But i only have a PS4, so i cannot play it. So I have to make do with AO but who cares because this is fantastic anyway.

I will upload some videos soon.
 
I am also really enjoying it. It looks that there is a major free patch coming in January which will add more features and licensed players.

They really messed up the launch of this game back in January, it has done so much damage to it as the reviews were rightly scathing. Since then they have really gone and improved it massively but the average consumer looking at the reviews from January will avoid it , shame but a lesson to developers not to rush out unfinished games.
 
Here is a short clip of a nice little rally. I thought i was out of the point but managed to retrieve it. This match was excellent although i eventually lost. The final set was going to serve until my opponent successfully challenged my shot which was called ‘in’ but it was ‘out’. That gave him the break of serve and he eventually won. I thought i recorded that bit but i didnt.

 
geeeeee said:
Here is a short clip of a nice little rally. I thought i was out of the point but managed to retrieve it. This match was excellent although i eventually lost. The final set was going to serve until my opponent successfully challenged my shot which was called ‘in’ but it was ‘out’. That gave him the break of serve and he eventually won. I thought i recorded that bit but i didnt.

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Fantastic watch, that makes me want to buy this!
 
Chris Davies said:
Fantastic watch, that makes me want to buy this!
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Chris, if you like tennis you will really like this. The learning curve is just perfect.

You need to play it enough to get used to the shots and not forget how to play them. It feels great when you work your opponent and you hit a winner. But then you remember it is only for one point and you have to do it all again for the next one.

In real life i have always debated with myself if i prefer Footy or Tennis. Tennis is so absorbing and it is all about mental strength as well as skill and speed. Sometimes i get just as good a feeling watching a good tennis rally and shot as i do watching a good goal. It is the same playing this and FIFA. I keep going to and fro.

The training is basic but when you build your player up point by point you can feel the difference and it is really satisfying. I havent even won a match yet and i am in my 3rd year of my career and yet i am still enjoying it because i know that pretty soon this tennis player will start winning sets and matches.
 
geeeeee said:
Chris, if you like tennis you will really like this. The learning curve is just perfect.

You need to play it enough to get used to the shots and not forget how to play them. It feels great when you work your opponent and you hit a winner. But then you remember it is only for one point and you have to do it all again for the next one.

In real life i have always debated with myself if i prefer Footy or Tennis. Tennis is so absorbing and it is all about mental strength as well as skill and speed. Sometimes i get just as good a feeling watching a good tennis rally and shot as i do watching a good goal. It is the same playing this and FIFA. I keep going to and fro.

The training is basic but when you build your player up point by point you can feel the difference and it is really satisfying. I havent even won a match yet and i am in my 3rd year of my career and yet i am still enjoying it because i know that pretty soon this tennis player will start winning sets and matches.
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You've sold me. Purchased the game on Xbox (4K, HDR) for £20 from Base.com. Looking forward to trying it!
 
Chris Davies said:
You've sold me. Purchased the game on Xbox (4K, HDR) for £20 from Base.com. Looking forward to trying it!
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Hopefully you enjoy it. For some reason I thought you had a PS4. Hopefully it plays as well on Xbox. Here is another video for you...


Also here is a link of how to download players and stadiums...

https://forums.operationsports.com/forums/tennis/933824-ao-international-tennis-editing-thread.html

Again, hopefully this available on Xbox.

There are also sliders too but I have not touched them yet. Let me know what you think :)
 
My copy arrived this morning, it was a nightmare to track down to buy online! Ended up getting it from Base.com for about £20. Put it in during my lunch hour to play it, and... 8gb patch... so I won't be playing it until after work...

If I want to update all the competitions to be "official" and the same for all the players, do I have to make a list of what I need, or do I just download a single package, or...? I'm all new to this! (Thanks @geeeeee for posting the editing guide!)
 
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Chris Davies said:
My copy arrived this morning, it was a nightmare to track down to buy online! Ended up getting it from Base.com for about £20. Put it in during my lunch hour to play it, and... 8gb patch... so I won't be playing it until after work...

If I want to update all the competitions to be "official" and the same for all the players, do I have to make a list of what I need, or do I just download a single package, or...? I'm all new to this! (Thanks @geeeeee for posting the editing guide!)
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I searched for one of the guys in that editing guide called ‘Llewellyn’ and just downloaded some of his ones. I am not really into the editing side of things like I am with PES so for me just getting the top seeded players is enough and I am happy.

Let me know what you think Chris :) Hopefully you like it.
 
When you play tournaments in career mode Chris it seems to download automatically the appropriate stadium and at the end of the match is asks if you want to save the stadium.

Otherwise Llewellyn is one of the best creators for this game so you can search for his work.
 
kamy100 said:
When you play tournaments in career mode Chris it seems to download automatically the appropriate stadium and at the end of the match is asks if you want to save the stadium.
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I spent hours last night downloading all the best versions of all the ATP tour arenas, before realising the game downloaded them automatically! But when it does that, you don't get to choose which content you're downloading, do you? So I'm glad I did it externally (some are brilliant, others aren't) - but...

The method of assigning venues - where you go into each venue and click "assign", but then can't see where it's assigned to by the creator (they aren't "marked" in any way) - is crazy! I've got 70-odd venues to go into and assign, just in-case the creator hasn't assigned the tournament to that stadium!

I've also started downloading the ATP players, but I gave up last night around midnight when I realised I'm going to have to do a text search every time, rather than be able to browse a big list (because it only returns 50 results at a time, with lots being the same players over and over).

It took about an hour to download 20 players (that's after taking three hours to download all the venues and rename them uniformly)! It'll be fantastic when it's all done - but it's going to take another night's work at least.

The gameplay itself is excellent - the animations don't quite match up sometimes but it's great, isn't it. Realistic, challenging - and with the huge career mode (over 500 tournaments I can see, and that's not including the "challenges" from other players), it's a hell of a sports title.

Everything else - from Pro Evo to The Golf Club - needs to learn from this!
 
Chris Davies said:
I spent hours last night downloading all the best versions of all the ATP tour arenas, before realising the game downloaded them automatically! But when it does that, you don't get to choose which content you're downloading, do you? So I'm glad I did it externally (some are brilliant, others aren't) - but...

The method of assigning venues - where you go into each venue and click "assign", but then can't see where it's assigned to by the creator (they aren't "marked" in any way) - is crazy! I've got 70-odd venues to go into and assign, just in-case the creator hasn't assigned the tournament to that stadium!

I've also started downloading the ATP players, but I gave up last night around midnight when I realised I'm going to have to do a text search every time, rather than be able to browse a big list (because it only returns 50 results at a time, with lots being the same players over and over).

It took about an hour to download 20 players (that's after taking three hours to download all the venues and rename them uniformly)! It'll be fantastic when it's all done - but it's going to take another night's work at least.

The gameplay itself is excellent - the animations don't quite match up sometimes but it's great, isn't it. Realistic, challenging - and with the huge career mode (over 500 tournaments I can see, and that's not including the "challenges" from other players), it's a hell of a sports title.

Everything else - from Pro Evo to The Golf Club - needs to learn from this!
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Yes they have done a fantastic job and the customisation options with the downloads etc is just crazy. They did the same with their cricket title (ashes cricket). It is a shame they botched the launch so badly. Massively looking forward to the free update in January.
 
kamy100 said:
Yes they have done a fantastic job and the customisation options with the downloads etc is just crazy. They did the same with their cricket title (ashes cricket). It is a shame they botched the launch so badly. Massively looking forward to the free update in January.
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Any idea what the update will include?
 
Thinking about buying this, used to love playing Top Spin 4. Reviews made me avoid both this and Tennis World Tour. Sounds like AO has gotten much better. Is it very hard to get to grips with it? Is aiming alright? It looks like you have to move your player into position and once you pres a button to hit the ball you have to get the power right and also move a little white spot as your target with another button (L3 or R3 I guess?!). Does that work or is it a bit of a struggle to focus on both power and aim?
 
So I spent another couple of hours downloading on Sunday morning - after putting together a spreadsheet of the top 300 ATP players, I managed to download them all (bar one Chinese player who nobody's put together yet, so I replaced him with a lower-ranked player).

Pretty incredible - it's all there online, all the venues and all those players.

I started a career and then realised it'll be a long time before I actually see any of them - given the depth of the career mode and how low you start off (unless you pick a star player from the start, which isn't how I like to play sports games)!

Brilliant, though. My first game in the Futures event, I got put against someone I'm assuming was one of the seeds (he had [7] next to his name), and the best I managed was getting to deuce, once, before he won. It's hard as nails.

I think I'm going to need a guide on how to get the best out of it - a few times I'll see a situation present itself, where if I smash the ball to the corner I'll win, but I can never get a real "smash" off my racquet.

Really good, though. (Wish there was commentary!)

Milanista90! said:
Is it very hard to get to grips with it?
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In my first three matches I'm yet to win a game, let alone a set... I've got to 40 points and then thrown it away a couple of times. So yeah, it is. :D

Milanista90! said:
Is aiming alright? It looks like you have to move your player into position and once you pres a button to hit the ball you have to get the power right and also move a little white spot as your target with another button (L3 or R3 I guess?!).
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You run to the spot you think the ball is going to, hold down the button for the type of shot you want (e.g. straight, slice, lob) and let go of the button just as the power gauge gets to the top.
 
What I have found Chris is that when starting off try and have longer rally's if possible and if possible mix up your shots as much as possible, especially drop shots with the aim being to move your opponent around the court as much as possible and work on your timing so that you have as many shots as possible you have a green dot rather than a yellow, orange or red timing shot dot. I hope that this makes some semblance of sense.

This game has a lot of depth both on and off the court, the career mode isn't one that you will get instant success with but it is one that you will see a gradual improvement, especially as you start to improve your player in the stats that you want to improve to suit your style.
 
Played again last night and this morning before work (the sign of a quality game)...

...but I still haven't won a game, let alone a set (forget a match).

It's getting really frustrating - I can get into a position where the opponent is extremely far left/right, and there's a clear opportunity for me to smash it to the opposite side - but despite getting a green dot, it's just never powerful enough to smash the ball and win a point. It's slow enough for them to hit it back, at which point I'm usually too far to the side myself to sprint and manage a return.

I'm holding the right trigger when I want to power a shot, but it's no harder, it would seem. How the hell do you really whack a shot? Other than up your power attribute, which doesn't feel like it should be necessary!
 
Chris Davies said:
Played again last night and this morning before work (the sign of a quality game)...

...but I still haven't won a game, let alone a set (forget a match).

It's getting really frustrating - I can get into a position where the opponent is extremely far left/right, and there's a clear opportunity for me to smash it to the opposite side - but despite getting a green dot, it's just never powerful enough to smash the ball and win a point. It's slow enough for them to hit it back, at which point I'm usually too far to the side myself to sprint and manage a return.

I'm holding the right trigger when I want to power a shot, but it's no harder, it would seem. How the hell do you really whack a shot? Other than up your power attribute, which doesn't feel like it should be necessary!
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Chris are you in career?

Once your player gets better, stronger, faster etc... all of this clicks into place.

In my career I play all the training ‘games’ before I play a match, so this could be 5 weeks without actually playing a match. For example I may pick Slice Shot, then I will play the first training game, then pick training, then pick the next one and so on etc...

This enables me to practice that type of shot but also it helps me to build up a little money from my sponsor (weekly pay) which may enable me to increase one of my Shot Types by one point depending on the price. Also doing the training enables me to increase my Experience Points which then gives me, I think, 9 points to use on attributes like Power, Stamina, Speed etc... ah man there are five different ones but i cannot check at the moment. You can pick where to use the points but in my sad and sorry state I use a random number generator on my phone to determine where each point is used :P

It is these points that really help because they make you faster, more powerful etc...

Gradually you notice this in your player as suddenly your shots get more powerful and it is harder for your opponent to return. This reminds me of retro PES when stats mattered, when an increase of 1 point to Acceleration would have a tiny but realistic impact on the player.

Also, before a match you can compare your attributes to your opponent’s. My latest opponent, in that last video i posted has a weak back hand. So i was playing a lot of powerful shots to that side of him. Holding R2 while pressing ‘O’ (on PS4) was quite affective.

After all these excellent tips, meanwhile I am yet to win a match :P

PS. I just noticed what you said at the end. Why would you not want to up your power? Maybe at the moment your player has a weak arm, he needs to go to the gym. To me it makes sense to up the power to hit a more powerful shot. It’s not like you have to up it by much just 5-10 points for me and i have noticed a slight difference which is a lot in a match. ;)
 
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After not winning a single game, I came up against someone in a Futures event last night and it was unbelievable, almost every game was going to deuce, and the first set ended up finishing 7-5 to him after I totally ran out of stamina.

Is there a way to manage stamina, by the way? I see the meter falling, but I don't know how to stop it falling (other than not hitting power shots, which I don't anyway, because they're useless - see below).

Also, does the stamina bar mean you don't have to power shots to the top of the bar as usual? (There's a lot I don't know, and that I'm guessing - the game's tutorials are so poor!)

Anyway, it was absolutely brilliant, really rewarding.

Another question - I want to up my power, but it's in the "attributes" section (which is different from the shot type section). When I do training events, I can boost my ability at certain shot types, but there's no option to boost your power etc. - is it a level-up thing?

Reading your post above @geeeeee I'm guessing it is - so what's the quickest way to do that?!

geeeeee said:
Chris are you in career?
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I am!

geeeeee said:
PS. I just noticed what you said at the end. Why would you not want to up your power?
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My point was that, whatever mine is right now, it should be enough to allow me to hit one real power-shot occasionally! It shouldn't have to be 80+ just so you can smash a ball when you need to (a rare occasion).

geeeeee said:
Also, before a match you can compare your attributes to your opponent’s. My latest opponent, in that last video i posted has a weak back hand. So i was playing a lot of powerful shots to that side of him. Holding R2 while pressing ‘O’ (on PS4) was quite affective.
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This is a brilliant tip, thank you - it helped me throughout the game I describe above!
 
Chris Davies said:
So I spent another couple of hours downloading on Sunday morning - after putting together a spreadsheet of the top 300 ATP players, I managed to download them all (bar one Chinese player who nobody's put together yet, so I replaced him with a lower-ranked player).
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Caved in and bought it. Could you share that spreadsheet you made?
 
Milanista90! said:
Caved in and bought it. Could you share that spreadsheet you made?
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Sure - it's nothing that special though, just a copied/pasted list from the ATP website really! Here's the link: ATP Top 300 (Excel file)

My only advice is, do them by country - if you filter by country when using the search function (in Excel and in the game), you can get through them a lot quicker that way, because you can download e.g. ten at once, rather than one at a time....
 
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