Top Spin 2 (360) impressions

sportdan30 · Post by **sportdan30** » Thu Mar 30, 2006 4:24 pm

These are early early impressions.

I've only played one game thus far. Blake (me) vs. Roddick. Playing at Indian Wells.

- Crisp graphics. The colors are very vibrant.

- Playing on default, I've already hit it wide during a rally. While I was serving, twice Roddick hit the ball back in to the net off my first serve.

- Nice racquet to ball sounds and a very nice atmoshpere.

- The "X" button the reviewer was referring to is the slice shot. I can understand how you can keep the ball in with much success. It's more or less a safe shot.

Back to playing.......Roddick to serve

sportdan30 · Post by **sportdan30** » Thu Mar 30, 2006 4:26 pm

Holy sh*t does Roddick have a strong first serve! Aced me three consecutive times. Finally returned his serve, but he quickly put me away. I'm very much liking what I'm seeing so far.

sportdan30 · Post by **sportdan30** » Thu Mar 30, 2006 4:32 pm

Down 2 games to 1. Ok, I can kinda see where the reviewer was talking about where your player doesn't seem to respond to a ball that he doesn't think he can get. I do think this can be rectified by starting your swing earlier. It happened to me twice in a row, but it did seem to help by hitting the button a little sooner.

By the way, in the last game I hit the ball wide twice. I'm liking the unforced errors.

TheTruth · Post by **TheTruth** » Thu Mar 30, 2006 4:42 pm

Good impressions so far. Keep'em coming.

marino · Post by **marino** » Thu Mar 30, 2006 4:42 pm

Sportdan

All I want to know is if you can save during matches in the career mode.

You couldn't in the first one and it took too long to play before you can save.

sportdan30 · Post by **sportdan30** » Thu Mar 30, 2006 4:43 pm

Roddick won 3-1, 3-1. Roddick had 7 unforced errors and I had 8. In the last game, we each hit the ball in to the net. Roddick tried a drop shot and went in to the net.

I changed the view from far to zoom and it is very playable.

I have not seen any more of those "hiccup" animations after I started pressing the shot button earlier.

So far, I'm extremely impressed.

Time to take this game online!

sportdan30 · Post by **sportdan30** » Thu Mar 30, 2006 4:44 pm

marino wrote:Sportdan

All I want to know is if you can save during matches in the career mode.

You couldn't in the first one and it took too long to play before you can save.

That was a major complaint from many. Let me try and get an answer for you.

dbdynsty25 · Post by **dbdynsty25** » Thu Mar 30, 2006 8:04 pm

Even after only a few matches, I can already tell this game is a HELLOVA lot deeper than the previous tennis games that have come out (Top Spin 1, Virtua Tennis, etc.). It is really easy to mess up and there are a ton of different options for shots. I love it so far.

sportdan30 · Post by **sportdan30** » Thu Mar 30, 2006 8:19 pm

marino wrote:Sportdan

All I want to know is if you can save during matches in the career mode.

You couldn't in the first one and it took too long to play before you can save.

Yes you can. I just won two matches to advance to the semi final and saved my progress. That is great great news.

sportdan30 · Post by **sportdan30** » Thu Mar 30, 2006 8:23 pm

dbdynsty25 wrote:Even after only a few matches, I can already tell this game is a HELLOVA lot deeper than the previous tennis games that have come out (Top Spin 1, Virtua Tennis, etc.). It is really easy to mess up and there are a ton of different options for shots. I love it so far.

Try playing from the "zoom" camera. It actually shows off more of the graphics and I think it's very playable.

The player models could be a bit better but that is nit picking. It's cool to see their shirts fly up in the back when they're cutting loose on a ground stroke. Just the little things like the shadows of the players and the sun moving in and out of the clouds is a nice touch.

dbdynsty25 · Post by **dbdynsty25** » Thu Mar 30, 2006 8:24 pm

Yeah, I'm already playing on Zoom.

dbdynsty25 · Post by **dbdynsty25** » Thu Mar 30, 2006 8:50 pm

Playing on Clay is absolutely nuts...guys sliding all over the place. I played one womens match and Sharapova was grunting and screaming the entire time...it was kind of a turn on. LOL.

BTW...this game appears to be a steal at 40 bucks. If only more companies would come out at the lower price point. That would be wonderful. Obviously they are trying to boost the sales of the game. I know a couple guys who wouldn't have bought it had it been 60, but they were more willing to give it a shot at 40. Seems like a pretty good move to me.

PhiPsi1 · Post by **PhiPsi1** » Thu Mar 30, 2006 9:09 pm

db,
how is the ai? i have found that in past tennis games, the ai never seems to "evolve" or imitate the real life tendencies of the players on tour. like federer being an all-court BEAST, roddick being what i call an ONLY SERVE wonder with very questionable groundstrokes, and hewitt getting to EVERY ball hit (a wall) from the baseline...
i saw some dude on operationsports saying that he took sharapova and beat davenport 6-0! i hope that he didn't play on hard difficulty cause that would be a bummer....

anymore impressions would be great...still on the fence with this..if this game plays anything like virtua tennis on the dreamcast with some variable ai, with unforced errors and aces, count me in...i would definitely get this...also, are there any in-game save options...

anyone can chime in with comments..later fellas.

PhiPsi1 · Post by **PhiPsi1** » Thu Mar 30, 2006 9:16 pm

another thing before i forget...this quote was quoted from gamefaqs.com:

"Is it just me or does the AI always play in no man's land hitting impossible volleys? I hope it gets more realistic as I progress thru the carreer."

atleast for me, and just because i played division I tennis and an avid tennis fan, this would totally kill the game for me...when i play guys like federer and hewitt, i expect them to play from the baseline, not in no man's land!!! this is exactly what happened in the FIRST virtua tennis game on dreamcast and was corrected for virtua tennis 2....hope that this isn't the case on top spin 2.

any info. on this would be great....

fiore22 · Post by **fiore22** » Thu Mar 30, 2006 9:50 pm

Sportdan30,

How does Indain Wells look? We go to the tournement there every year and I am just curous how it looks in the game. Thanks!

10spro · Post by **10spro** » Thu Mar 30, 2006 10:11 pm

Dan, keep your impressions coming. If Roddick aced you 3 times in a row, it's not a surprise really as he does have a boomer in real life, but try to stretch it to a full set of 6 games and see how the AI plays. The main attraction on this game will be the career and online mode and I hear great things about the options on career.

Positioning your player correctly and outguessing the AI's shots will be key to any victory. Damn, I am still ticked about the $70 bucks I spent on this game, and don't want to open the saran wrap yet, so I look forward to more of your comments before I do an inquiry as to why we got "ripped off" here in Canada.

sportdan30 · Post by **sportdan30** » Thu Mar 30, 2006 10:33 pm

fiore22 wrote:Sportdan30,

How does Indain Wells look? We go to the tournement there every year and I am just curous how it looks in the game. Thanks!

I'm not real familar with Indian Wells, but the stadium and the atmosphere looked very good. The crowd looks 3D and respond well to the play on the court. All the stadiums that I've seen look alive if that makes sense.

I played a match in Japan somewhere, and I noticed a guy jogging by. Also, the onlookers would stand at times and clap after a long point.

Here's what is missing that I'd like to see added. Commentary. Not necessarily during play ground matches, but definitely in the larger tournaments. That would add to the atmoshphere.

Also another thing I noticed. The ball boys run across when the ball hits the net, but don't pick the ball up?!?!? Weird.

sportdan30 · Post by **sportdan30** » Thu Mar 30, 2006 10:39 pm

To answer your question PhiPsi, in general I think it's impossible to create a tennis video game and not have the opponent at times play in no man's land. That said, I really haven't seen them play out of position much at all. I've experienced a lot of rallies where both me and my opponent have both been beyond the service line for the majority of points.

So far, and it's early but this beats the pants off of Virtua Tennis in terms of the very question you asked.

PhiPsi1 · Post by **PhiPsi1** » Thu Mar 30, 2006 10:53 pm

sportdan,
that is AWESOME to hear...i completely understand that at some point in time, that you will be stuck in no man's land or bring your ai opponent or yourself to hit an approach and attack the net..i just hoped that the ai wouldn't hit a serve then come up to "no man's land" and stick there...it's good to hear that players stay beyond the baseline...it should lead to some nice rallies...

any more info. and detailed analysis from everyone here would be great...i'm getting psyched now for this game because after reading that teamxbox review, it was a downer...

if this in any way beats the gameplay of virtua tennis 2 on dreamcast (yes, it wasn't realistic, BUT extremely fun to play and had some good rallies) i'm set to buy this...

keep the impressions comin' fellas...

PhiPsi1 · Post by **PhiPsi1** » Thu Mar 30, 2006 10:56 pm

also how difficult is the ai on hard difficulty? sorry for the extra post...or even normal difficulty...

Leebo33 · Post by **Leebo33** » Thu Mar 30, 2006 11:35 pm

I really like it so far. Keep in mind that these are first impressions, but this blows away Virtua Tennis IMO. As long as some ugly gameplay nuance that unbalances the game doesn't ruin it, I'm happy with it. The risk shots seem pretty hard to pull off even with the pros, but keep in mind this is my first night. LOTS of unforced errors, balls hitting the net (and occassionally hopping over), out to the sides, too long, etc. It could be that I suck, but the AI is challenging enough for me on normal. I did beat someone 3-0 in a set with Sharapova, but I ended up losing the match. Lots of variety so far in exhibition matches with the Pros. The CPU occassionally will double fault and they can ace you as well. I'm not 100% sold on the fact that hitting A results in a shot that goes in, but it's not as cheasy as it sounds because just because you hit A it doesn't mean that you will make contact. Plus, hitting A doesn't allow you to control direction as much as the riskier shots.

I don't know why they have to have the stupid training exercises with the bowling pins, cubes, etc. It was fun and cool the first time I did them in VT, but they are just dumb now and seem really out of place in a game that seems to be a sim.

The early career mode is a lot of loading, short training, saving, loading short training, saving and it's kind of bland with no announcer and crappy music. However, the tennis action is pretty fun whether it be in career mode or in the exhibitions.

The graphics didn't seem like much at first, but I'm really starting to appreciate the venues more as I play.

vader29 · Post by **vader29** » Thu Mar 30, 2006 11:42 pm

After 3 hours of play tonight there is no question this is the best tennis game I've played so far. Haven't seen a single framerate problem like what was written in the teamxbox review, game is very smooth. Graphics and presentation are great as sportsdan said. Played in a couple of minor tournaments in career mode, one was on grass in the park and it looks great with people jogging in the background and some stopping by to watch.

Career mode is going to be a lot of fun with all of the major tournaments in this version. I am playing it on the default of normal and have had a lot of 20+ rally points, never had anything close to that in other tennis games. Freaky thing when I created my player I ended up with one that looks really close to myself in real life.

Only thing I would have liked to see added would probably have been announcers for the major tounaments and a larger roster of pro players.

10spro, I had planned on purchasing this game for 60 bucks when it was announced, the 39.99 price tag is just a bonus for me, that sucks that you're getting screwed with a higher price wherever you bought it.

10spro · Post by **10spro** » Thu Mar 30, 2006 11:52 pm

Thanks vader for the pricing, but after james posted the correct CDN fund at Future Shop and Blockbuster, I am going to match it at EB for $50 CDN. Don't know what the problem is with EB, they think they are the only CO in Canada getting 1st priority games, so they charge all 360 games $70 without proper research I guess.

Regarding the lack of commentary, I wish TP 3 would hire the likes of Johnny Mac and Mary Carillo. That would be awesome.

sportdan30 · Post by **sportdan30** » Fri Mar 31, 2006 12:12 am

Alright, perhaps I should retract my statement I made earlier about the opponent playing in "no mans land". It does seem at least in career mode in the early stages, the lower skilled players do tend to play somewhere in the middle. It changes once you get them on the run. Not enough for it to be a game killer, but it's noticeable. It's hard to explain but I really don't think it necessarily takes away from the overall gameplay, but others mind find it rather annoying.

The last thing I'd hate, is for you to buy the game and come back on here and be upset with me because I wasn't thorough enough with my review.

If you have any doubts, rent it first. In my mind though, it's a steal at $40.

dbdynsty25 · Post by **dbdynsty25** » Fri Mar 31, 2006 12:24 am

Wanna know something funny...obviously when they got James Blake's racket to model it, they got a demo version rather than the real Dunlop M-FIL 200 racket. The demo versions of the Dunlops have the yellow bumper and grommets...the regular one is black...same thing with the M-FIL 700 I use. LOL...

I think it's cool as hell that they have all of the real rackets in the game...even if they did slightly mess up my preferred brand.

Oh yeah, it's also cool that you'll see the ball hit the tape and bounce over during the rally. I don't know if any other games have done that before.