Top Spin 4

I mentioned this in the PS3 thread. I thought the demo was really, really good.
 
i enjoyed playing it, but i hope the final version is way more difficult, after 30 min i was already beating the cpu 7-0.

Ps2 graphics btw, i don't mind, actually i think ps2 visuals are easier to look at.
 
Watched a video and no one hit the net or made unforced errors, is it like this in the demo? I'm not a tennis expert, but I'm pretty sure unforced errors are pretty usual and hitting the net happens quite a lot from what I can remember. Does this game come with sliders?
 
Gab_ said:
Watched a video and no one hit the net or made unforced errors, is it like this in the demo? I'm not a tennis expert, but I'm pretty sure unforced errors are pretty usual and hitting the net happens quite a lot from what I can remember. Does this game come with sliders?
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there are forced errors, i'd say demo it too short to get a glimpse of the real thing, but so far so good.
 
Might try the demo at some point over the weekend.

May be fun as an arcadey thrill, but doubt it would be very deep or sim-like.

TS3 was decent, far better than the Virtua Tennis series, but had shite AI, very scripted gameplay and a rubbish career mode...

Dream Match Tennis Pro is a better simulation, as the shot direction depends mainly on timing, rather than just holding a direction and a button until the right moment.
That's a PC games and has poor animations/graphics compared to TS, so may not be for everyone...
http://www.bimboosoft.com/DMTP/
 
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Tried it earlier - it didn't seem like a great step up from TS3 tbh.

Gameplay is still scripted and unrealistic, it's a bit more responsive and less glitchy, but didn't blow me away!
 
Rob92 said:
Tried it earlier - it didn't seem like a great step up from TS3 tbh.

Gameplay is still scripted and unrealistic, it's a bit more responsive and less glitchy, but didn't blow me away!
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Sad to hear that, I was hoping it would be sim-like.
 
The game roaster is depressing... really. Teher´s not even the top 10 ranking players (male/female). Aperantle there´s no option to create or share players and insert them in the tour, so we can´t create the top 20 to make the roster a little realistic.

They choose to put roddick and davydendo and no soderling, that would be one of the funest players in game to play for his different style, hard flat shots player.

Another problem is some of the atributes, my god, those guys don´t watch tennis. Murray backhand worse than his forehand? Federer 65 speed? Nadal 45 volley????? All players are level 20, why is that since the circuit is completly dominated by Nadal/Federer in the last 5 or 6 years? Those players should be better than other so we could play a realistic carrear and see them gettin in the finals. I know they made it to keep the game balance, but hey, tennis worls IS NOT BALANCED!

Here´s what i think (and i hope i´m wrong). They deliver the game to the new studio, 2kCzech, they got the game, improve gameplay, sign the players, added some graphics and that´s it. I bet carrear mode is exactly like previous game, that by the way have more than 3 years old. I just hope this time they don´t promisse DLC with players and other stuff, cause i waited for a DLC to TS3 for almost a year before knowing the studio had been shutted down.

Game´s industry is becoming a joke...
 
Only had one match, me as Federer vs Roddick so I have a quick game and get to grips with it. On normal difficulty, I completely smashed Roddick and he barely got a point against me. Also saw Honome say that he won comfortably on Hard level so I'm thinking the difficulty levels might be a bit messed up.

Nice game though, graphics look okay and so on. The timing is weird, I want to let go of the button AS I hit the ball and not at the start of the swing like it says. Takes some time to get used to but I keep getting late hits.
 
Agree with the timing, my brain can't get used to release so early either.

Ball physics feels really good I think and hitting the ball doesn't feel so scripted because I had the ball going all over the place (hitting racket frame and so on), in that regard it feels more PES than FIFA if you know what I mean.

I only played one game so far but I don't think the AI hit any of those really bad returning shots though, hopefully they do. Played one game in Career mode, I play realistic settings without any indicators on Hard so it took 1 hour and 30 minutes... and I lost. Hopefully this game doesn't become too easy when you learn to time the shots. Career mode seems pretty shallow though so I'm not sure how long this game will keep me interested anyway.
 
I lost a point where the ball hit my racquet and just spun off behind me and in the air, made me laugh :)
 
Loving the game so far. Gameplay is challenging and you have to use different strategies to beat different players. I win and loose matches on hard on exibithion but on very hard i was beated easily by roddick with federer, and let´s remember that there´s even an EXPERT difficulty to unlock.

Played one game in carrear mode and it looks much deeper than TS3, the way they made the players atributes evolutionis great to keep the game balanced. Also the players with low levels make a lot of mistakes, including my player, specially after fatigue is low.
 
Yes but serves have no stat based error it seems. Even at the start of the career mode you can do the hard one with right stick and never fuck up as long as you time it correctly and that is very easy to do. I think that even if I do time correctly with perfect aim, it should go through the stats and apply different amount of error in aim.

Currently you can just hit a hard right stick serve in the middle without aiming as your second serve, never any need for a weak/safe serve. Serving is only about gaming skills and not attributes. But in a way I guess normal shots are the same if you time them correctly, always end up perfect. Difference is that timing every normal shot is pretty hard, at least for me.
 
I remember TS3 being difficult/slightly sim-like to begin with, with those mishits off the frame, realistic "chip and charge" play, but after a few months with it, I could time ground strokes perfectly almost every time, to the point where I could use RT+LT risk slices as my "safe" shot (meaning the CPU had absolutely no chance against me, even with Federer on "Very Hard")

I know they've done away with the risk shots, but the perfectly timed regular shots seem more effective so the premise is probably the same - it's good until you get good at it.

The timing also doesn't work naturally in my opinion - I play tennis quite a bit in the summer, and when you try to play cross-court, you swing slightly earlier, and slightly later for shots down the line.
I also hate how you can't go try to go "all in" with a shot, aiming to just catch the line - if you perfectly time a shot, it will be well within the court, only mistimed shots seem to go out, and I am yet to see a shot hit the line (except for serves which do occasionally).
You see it plenty of times in real tennis where a player has a lot of time to set themselves up for the shot, times it correctly, strikes the ball sweetly, but misses by a fraction because they went for the line, not in TS.

Games such as Dream Match Tennis, Tennis Elbow and Full Ace do the above properly.
Admittedly those games are made by "amateurs" in comparison to 2K, making certain aspects unrealistic (especially the visuals), but to someone who plays tennis, they offer much more satisfaction. Perhaps if you only watch tennis, Top Spin seems awesome.
 
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Am I the only one finding the game really easy, even on the top settings?

I'm no 'pro' by any means, but once you figure out the timing of the shots on this game it's very easy to get the CPU on the back foot and as a result they become very predictable in their play making.

I've enjoyed the game but I'm a little disappointed.
 
mjsmith2k said:
Am I the only one finding the game really easy, even on the top settings?

I'm no 'pro' by any means, but once you figure out the timing of the shots on this game it's very easy to get the CPU on the back foot and as a result they become very predictable in their play making.

I've enjoyed the game but I'm a little disappointed.
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Are you playing without ingame helpers? On what difficult level?
 
mjsmith2k said:
The top difficulty,'Hard'.

Haven't changed anything else.
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The game have 2 more difficult levels, very hard and expert (that need to be unlocked). Also the ingame helpers make the game too easy and they might not be used if the person whants a real challange.

I ask you, how can you complain about the game being too easy without trying it on harder levels and without ingame help? It´s almost like a full assisted player complaining about fifa being too easy and thinking he´s the best player in the world.
 
I'm not complaining about it being too easy, it is IMO. Like every other Top Spin, once you find the sweet spot on the timing of shots, you're made. If you really think it's tougher on the higher difficulties, good for you.

I can only go as hard as it will let me so I have tried it on the harder levels by definition? I've also turned off the ingame help which doesn't make that much of a difference.

Anyways the rental is going back today, I'm disappointed with the game.
 
The difficulty levels just reduce the margin for error in timing, and improve the play of the AI opponent - the principles remain the same.

The ingame helpers (from my time with the demo, and watching videos), look like they would become unnecessary after a bit of practice anyway.

Nobody seems to have checked out that Dream Match Tennis game, so I'll post a vid (may need to go full screen to see the ball);
YouTube - Dream match tennis TarasUA VS Coolio

Notice the unforced errors, faults, aces, serve and volley play (2:43), shots hitting the net/lines and much more - it's such a better simulation than Top Spin...
 
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