Top Spin 2 (360) impressions

10spro · Post by **10spro** » Fri Mar 31, 2006 1:27 am

Blake is currently endorsed by Prince since december, but by the time they were making the game he was with Dunlop.

dbdynsty25 · Post by **dbdynsty25** » Fri Mar 31, 2006 1:30 am

10spro wrote:Blake is currently endorsed by Prince since december, but by the time they were making the game he was with Dunlop.

OK?

10spro · Post by **10spro** » Fri Mar 31, 2006 1:33 am

dbdynsty25 wrote:
10spro wrote:Blake is currently endorsed by Prince since december, but by the time they were making the game he was with Dunlop.
OK?

Leebo33 · Post by **Leebo33** » Fri Mar 31, 2006 2:00 am

I really like the zoom camera, but it makes me a little dizzy due to the shake.

I had pretty low expectations. I figured I'd take a shot since it was $40 and I have a few games that will be going up for sale within the next few weeks. I'm glad I did. I really enjoyed playing tonight.

Theo · Post by **Theo** » Fri Mar 31, 2006 2:06 am

Enjoying the game so far. I am hitting out of bounds way to much. Is this because I am holding down the face buttons to long, and/or because of the analog stick? Thanks for any pointers.

sportdan30 · Post by **sportdan30** » Fri Mar 31, 2006 9:55 am

dbdynsty25 wrote: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.

I too was pleasantly surprised they had some of the bigger name racquets and their models. I outfitted my created player with the Head Liquid Metal Prestige.

Can someone confirm this. I hear that you can't play ranked games with the pros, only your created player. Is that true? Either way, it doesn't bother me but some guys haven't been too happy. I think it's a good idea so you don't have everyone using Federer and Roddick.

I sure hope there is some training with practicing risk shots. I'm almost afraid to use a risk shot during a match because more times than not, I hit the ball long or in the net. My hand eye coordination must be slow because the bar seems to move way too fast and I can't hit the meter at the right time.

Looking forward to playing online if anyone is interested. For now, I'm looking to just play with the pros until my created player builds up his skills.

Leebo33 · Post by **Leebo33** » Fri Mar 31, 2006 10:15 am

I would be up for some online play. Feel free to send me an invite sometime.

I think the risk shots are hard too. They may have overcompensated because they were too easy before, but I don't mind. I use them for the first serve quite a bit but not much during the match. It feels great when you score an ace with a risk shot. It's also very cool that successful risk shot serves are *not* guaranteed aces. In general, I really like the way they handled serving. Right now I feel that it is perfectly balanced. You have to guess or cheat just a bit when returning, but it's not impossible. This is one of the few tennis games that I have actually felt like I'm playing tennis.

I really wish you could always have your player appear at the bottom with the Far view. That should be standard in all tennis games by now.

PhiPsi1 · Post by **PhiPsi1** » Fri Mar 31, 2006 10:32 am

sportdan or anyone,
just wanted to see if you guys noticed whether or not as career progresses if the computer ai tends to stand in no man's land...i hope that it's not ALL match..i understand that sometimes the ai will be forced to do this and hit some pick up volleys, BUT all match would make it so boring to always have your opponent hit volleys with you back and forth...
it takes away from the realism when guys like hewitt even stand a few feet behind the baseline...especially tournaments on clay, this would suck...any info. would be great...thanks again fellas..

James_E · Post by **James_E** » Fri Mar 31, 2006 10:45 am

I've only played Nippon tournament in career mode and these low ranked folks spends some quality time in no-mans land, but even the guy I met in the finals was smarter and stayed more at the baseline or properly up close to the net most of the time.

I've read on gamefaqs that as you meet tougher opponents in career, they play better positionally and don't spend alot of time in no-mans land. I'll wait and see for myself of course, but that's what a couple of posters have written over there.

Leebo33 · Post by **Leebo33** » Fri Mar 31, 2006 10:52 am

Where is "no man's land"?

James_E · Post by **James_E** » Fri Mar 31, 2006 10:59 am

http://www.tennisserver.com/Mills-tip/M ... _1_95.html

jondiehl · Post by **jondiehl** » Fri Mar 31, 2006 11:02 am

You guys broke me down, I picked it up at Best Buy last night (for $34.99 after using a $5 off coupon, from the Gamer's Giftcard I purchased for myself 2min earlier

).

Great game, the character customization is very advanced (compared to other games where they let you make your face). There are sooo many options for editing your player's face that I felt like I was sitting at the police station with some professional equipment trying to ID a criminal. With all of the options they give you to construct the face and head, you should be able to get very close to anyone that you want to create (yourself, tennis legends or pro's left out of the game). Very impressive.

Career mode is stepped up from the original Top Spin as well, way more options to add stars and it seems that career mode is much deeper than before. It's going to take a while to get to #1, that's for sure. I've played through about 2/3 of my 1st season, and it's cool that you can only play some of the minor tournaments (starting out as a rookie) so week to week is mostly doing some training and building up your character (while playing tournaments whenever they let you). I'm assuming that in my 2nd season I might get my rank high enough to enter some Masters tournaments, and then in season's following, the Slams. Cool progression though.

I also tried an exhibition, Federer (me) vs Roddick (CPU) on the regular difficulty. It seems that they modeled Roddick's game quite well. He has an absolutely killer serve, and that's about it. If you can get a racquet on his serve, you should be able to rally and then win the point (very realistic compared to Andy's game BTW). They service animations are right on as well. Roddick's looked just like him, same with Fed's.

I like the amount of unforced errors in the game, especially in career mode when you don't have alot of ability yet. Early on in the career, you almost have to hit all "A" button safe shots because the spins and slices typically go wide if you aren't perfectly setup for them (and forget about trying to aim them at this point). Unless you load up way in advance, the safe shot will be a sitter for the opponent too, so while you can load up the power ahead of time and get a winner with a safe shot (if you have the opponent running and out of position), the safe shot might get pounded otherwise by someone who has some spin/slice skills.

The graphics and HDTV are quite good, much better than I was expecting (after playing other 2k games like NHL 2k6, CH2k6, etc... It's not NBA2k6, but certainly better looking than the other 2 previously mentioned games). Of course, suffering with a 4:3 Top Spin (Xbox) game on a widescreen HDTV for so long, just having the game in widescreen @ 720p was a huge improvement.

Overall, I'm very pleased with the purchase (especially for only $34.99) and my fingers are already numb from a few hours of playing last night (not even finishing my first season of career play). I'm sure career mode will create some finger soreness, and that's not even including online play (which I have yet to try).

sportdan30 · Post by **sportdan30** » Fri Mar 31, 2006 11:20 am

Jon,

Glad to hear you like the game, given how aprehensive you were. It's nice to see the career mode has some "legs" to it, and online play is just icing on the cake. I played two online games yesterday and it was quite enjoyable although both me and my opponent were still feeling the game out.

Did you notice that the game only allows for five seasons of play? I guess that's long enough. With this game, I might actually create a female tennis player, something I haven't done in previous tennis games.

Now, all they need to add is commentary and a larger list of real pros. Can you imagine if they had over 100 male players and 100 female pro players?

jLp vAkEr0 · Post by **jLp vAkEr0** » Fri Mar 31, 2006 11:22 am

I'm getting this baby tonight along with college hoops.

jondiehl · Post by **jondiehl** » Fri Mar 31, 2006 11:28 am

dbdynsty25 wrote: 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 man, all of the licensed equipment is just awesome. First thing I did in career mode was blow some of the 200k coin that they give you on some new gear (my real life racquet, a Volkl Tour 10 V-Engine Midplus) my real life shoes (Kswiss Glaciator SCD) and the shirt/shorts that I like to wear (all Nike dri-fit stuff). Only thing missing from my "virtual" bag is my Nike dri-fit visor (I put a headband on my character) and my Bolle tennis shades (I put on their Oakley's instead). I guess for people that don't play tennis or aren't that interested in real gear, this isn't a big feature for them, but I thought it was cool as hell as well.

sportdan30 wrote: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.

Dan, I noticed that too (in career mode) that early on in career mode most of the AI would end up inside of the baseline. However, in the last tournament that I played before forcing myself to bed last night (2am), the AI actually stayed on the baseline most of the time and did not try and get to the net (and if he did, he was right at the net to volley, not near the service line). The players you meet in the final's and semi's are much better about where to stand on the court. Also, I'm starting to see a variety in play now, so hopefully that's a sign of good things to come when you get higher in the ranks.

sportdan30 wrote: Can someone confirm this. I hear that you can't play ranked games with the pros, only your created player.

I haven't played online yet, but according to the manual, ranked games are with career/created players, exhibitions can be played with either created or pro players. I hope there isn't a AR save for this game. Sorta like Links 2004 on the Xbox. You couldn't just copy someone's career player and use them for yourself. You knew that when playing someone with 40 stars (or whatever it topped out at in Links, I forget) that they had actually earned it.

sportdan30 wrote: I sure hope there is some training with practicing risk shots. I'm almost afraid to use a risk shot during a match because more times than not, I hit the ball long or in the net. My hand eye coordination must be slow because the bar seems to move way too fast and I can't hit the meter at the right time.

Looking forward to playing online if anyone is interested. For now, I'm looking to just play with the pros until my created player builds up his skills.

I suck at them too. In career mode, your coach will ask you if you want to practice those shots (independent of regular "paid" training where you earn star points). First, the coach will run you through all 4 regular types of shots (I skipped all but the first one), then the coach will run you through all 4 risk shots (which was helpful, I did each one). The popup usually occurs after you play a tournament, but sometimes after a regular training segment. I'm guessing that the advanced shots will be next.

I'd be glad to give online play a whirl with anyone here. I'd rather not do ranked games with my character until I get him built up some more, but playing with some pros (even the chicks are fun) would be great.

Oh yeah, one nice feature (that I omited from my review above) is the ability to sim individual games in a tournament. It's already been mentioned that you can save your progress during a tournament (very nice feature) but in some of these early tournaments, it gets tiresome winning 3-0, 3-0 against some of the scrubs and they give you the ability to simulate a game at a time. It doesn't mean that you'll automatically win though, as I found early on. The best way to use this feature, if you're playing a scrub, is to win the first two games of the first set (assuming you break him). That will max out your momentum (or close to it) and then you can sim the rest of the games. That makes getting through these early tournaments alot quicker (and saves the thumbs). I've had it backfire a few times though, when playing a higher ranked player (even though I had all of the momentum) where he'd break me back and the 1st set would be 2-1 or 2-2 after simming a game or two. So I'd go back to the action and try and close out the set (one time I had a long 9-7 tiebreaker because of it). Anyway, nice feature for when you want to roll the dice and try and get through some early rounds of the tournament without having to play them.

Also, I can't believe that you guys can play on the zoom cam. I tried it a little and thought the angle was too low. It made it harder to play IMO (which could be a good thing in a few months I guess). I've always been a far away camera type guy though (Madden, racing games, etc) as I can see just fine from the far camera on the big screen (I think it gives also gives you a better look on which way to setup for the next shot too).

Spooky · Post by **Spooky** » Fri Mar 31, 2006 11:30 am

WOW! Color me impressed. I was not expecting this at all. This game is absolutely great so far. The presentation is decent and the graphics are more X-Box 1.5 than 360, but the control scheme is what makes it. The control itself is a tiny bit stiff IMO, but the ball movement and shot types are great. The differences in the players attributes really show as well but seem to be balanced well.

I did not dive into a career last night at all, but I did play a few exhibition matches as well as a few online games. First off, the online games felt no different than offline so they were smooth as possible. Also, they were truly fun, challenging, fair and even battles. So far, my biggest complaint with the last Top Spin seems to be gone, which was the abuse of certain shot types and character styles that would combo to be impossible to play against.

So far this game seems much more balanced but I am still not going to give it my full seal of approval in that area. I hope it continues to be balanced, but I fear someone will find a 'money shot' soon enough and then all multiplayer games will boil down to who can pull off that type of shot first.

One other thing that I am concerned about is the career mode player attributes and then playing ranked games online. Anyone know how those attributes work? Do you continue to gain attribute points as you move through the career? Is there an overall total limit? I hate these 'stat', point. attribute systems because then you can never truly get an even online match using your career character. If only a game would just give you 'x' amount of points to use at the beginning and that's it. Then you have to divide them up and balance them. Otherwise you just get too many guys who play the career non-stop and get all their players to 100% everything right away then I never find a truly balanced match. Hopefully this game has a limit and it is enforced at the beginning, but I doubt it.

Anyway, other than my 'money shot' concerns and attribute worries, the game plays really, really well and is fun as hell.

Oh, and I was having difficulty being competitive both online and off until I switched to the 'Zoom' cam. While I don't necessarily like the angle much better, it is playable and seems to make a world of difference in me being more competitive and being able to get to balls much easier.

jondiehl · Post by **jondiehl** » Fri Mar 31, 2006 11:38 am

sportdan30 wrote: Did you notice that the game only allows for five seasons of play? I guess that's long enough. With this game, I might actually create a female tennis player, something I haven't done in previous tennis games.

Yeah, my expectations were low, that's for sure. It's met and exceeded them, needless to say (even at a $60 pricetag, so $35 was a huge bonus).

NO, I did not notice that they limit you to only 5 seasons of play.

I guess they figure you'll have the character maxed out by then. I hope that I get to start seeming some major and slam tournaments by the 2nd or 3rd seasons then. I'm almost to the US Open in my 1st season and I've only been qualified enough for 3 or 4 minor tournaments.

I did a career with a female with Top Spin, it was quite fine. I was forced into it though, as the league/ladder I was playing in required you to have at least one of each gender for when you get challenged (challenger had choice of gender). I'm glad I did though, it was a nice change of pace from the men's game.

Given the wide variety of options in the character builder, I think I'm going to have some fun with these characters (my 1st one is boring looking, basic athletic build, etc). Something that might be more distracting during the cut scenes, like this:

or

In all seriousness, with the depth of the character face creator thing, I have no doubt that I can create something that looks like those 2 people (when I have some time on my hands).

sportdan30 · Post by **sportdan30** » Fri Mar 31, 2006 11:42 am

Spooky,

I believe you can only have a total of 60 stars for your created player. Obviously, you divide those stars how want. That makes it much more competitive online and harder to beat the pros like Federer and Roddick who have 75 stars and 71 stars respectively.

jondiehl · Post by **jondiehl** » Fri Mar 31, 2006 11:51 am

Spooky wrote: One other thing that I am concerned about is the career mode player attributes and then playing ranked games online. Anyone know how those attributes work? Do you continue to gain attribute points as you move through the career? Is there an overall total limit? I hate these 'stat', point. attribute systems because then you can never truly get an even online match using your career character. If only a game would just give you 'x' amount of points to use at the beginning and that's it. Then you have to divide them up and balance them. Otherwise you just get too many guys who play the career non-stop and get all their players to 100% everything right away then I never find a truly balanced match. Hopefully this game has a limit and it is enforced at the beginning, but I doubt it.

Not to worry. You can't get your player 100% maxed out (every star filled). This was the same way in Top Spin, but to a lesser degree. They give you a limited amount of star/points and you can max out (at 60 I think) but looking at the available slots, there must be 100+ slots for them, which means an seemingly unlimited amount of options on how to distribute your points. It will all depend on what kind of player you want to make and where you want to bank your skill points.

Now, I'm sure that given time, we'll find that some combinations work better than others (even the game gives you hints like saying power, forehand, and backhand are some of the most important elements in the pro game). But to start, I'm planning on giving my character most of his points in the power, precision, forehand, backhand, serve, and baseline categories. That's not even half of the available skills though. Someone else might go heavy on speed, stamina, spin, volley, focus, etc. Other people might balance their available skill points equally in every category. It should create a wide variety of players online that way.

Now, it is true that you have to go through an entire career to get all of the available points to you, so people that have no life can sit there and built 10 different characters with a variety of different skills and attributes to suit their needs. This is one thing that I like about Fight Night Rd3. It does a similar thing with your career boxer (making you earn the points throughout a long career) but they also give the ability to "create a champ" and max out a boxer instantly to take him online. This would have been a nice feature for Top Spin 2, being able to quickly create a stable of different types of custom characters to use online, where everyone had the same points right away.

TheTruth · Post by **TheTruth** » Fri Mar 31, 2006 12:04 pm

Really like the game so far. Played a couple exhibition matches and started a career this morning. Haven't played in any tourny's yet though...just have trained. I guess I can see why they limited it to 5 seasons, so people will be forced to have multiple guys each with different abilities to use online and not one uber guy.

Haven't played online, but since you can only use your created character in ranked games is there an option to try to pair you up with someone with the same number of stars as you or say within like 5 stars or something?

Zeppo · Post by **Zeppo** » Fri Mar 31, 2006 12:49 pm

Anyone know if you can play doubles via 4 360s online? True mutliplayer? Anyone? I picked up the game (saving mid-tourney was the key, really), but am curious to know.

jondiehl · Post by **jondiehl** » Fri Mar 31, 2006 12:52 pm

Zeppo wrote:Anyone know if you can play doubles via 4 360s online? True mutliplayer? Anyone? I picked up the game (saving mid-tourney was the key, really), but am curious to know.

I have not yet played online, but I did goto the online menu and did not see an option for it. In other forums that I frequent, people have confirmed that you can NOT play doubles with four 360's.

So, it seems like Top Spin for the Xbox, the only way you'll get to play doubles online is if your partner is seated next to you on the couch.

Zeppo · Post by **Zeppo** » Fri Mar 31, 2006 1:00 pm

jondiehl wrote:
Zeppo wrote:Anyone know if you can play doubles via 4 360s online? True mutliplayer? Anyone? I picked up the game (saving mid-tourney was the key, really), but am curious to know.
I have not yet played online, but I did goto the online menu and did not see an option for it. In other forums that I frequent, people have confirmed that you can NOT play doubles with four 360's. So, it seems like Top Spin for the Xbox, the only way you'll get to play doubles online is if your partner is seated next to you on the couch.

Ah, Rivals. There are those who will always remember, whistfully, those days long past. . .

Zeppo · Post by **Zeppo** » Fri Mar 31, 2006 5:51 pm

Despite my considerable disappointment at the lack of real doubles, I think this game is pretty neat. It does feel like an Xbox 1.5 game, but that's not such a bad thing. It seems like it's 1/3 of the way there - nice player movement on clay, but no foot or ball marks; nice lighting, but not much dynamism; there was a cool little robot camera on a dolly on one court, but it just sits there, never moves.

But a 360 game 1/3 of the way there is a hell of a lot better than any other option, so I'm happy. The character creation is pure insanity. I propose a DSP Freak Tournamnet; make up the freakiest looking thing you can with default points and let's have a tourney!

Nozzleman_216 · Post by **Nozzleman_216** » Fri Mar 31, 2006 6:16 pm

that sounds freakishly FUN