Grand Slam Tennis: EA Sports Tennis Game

Spooky · Post by **Spooky** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 2:13 pm

EA Wii ID: Spooky73

Let's game!

Leebo33 · Post by **Leebo33** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 2:58 pm

Leebo33

Post by **ScoopBrady** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 5:26 pm

sportdan30 wrote:What are your EA Sports userid names so I can add you guys?

I'm still having a blast with this game, and really enjoying the online experience. Each time I play, I figure out something new in terms of using angle on my shots. I'm getting much better at hitting my shots down the line.

I too am using only the Wiimote and thus far, I don't feel as though I'm missing any balls I shouldn't get to. I still tend to get overly excited sometimes and swing when I don't intend to and obviously that is a lost point.

Can someone explain the Wii training challenge? I go in there and see a calender. I click on the present day, and then I get an option for singles, doubles, etc. I then get a message that I'm exiting the training challenge. How exactly do you take part in this mode?

To do the fitness challenge you set a goal on the calendar (for example burn 1,000 calories in a week) and use a created player to take on the challenge. After you exit you play any of the game modes, make sure to choose your created player, and the game will track your progress.

EA name = ScoopBrady

Teal · Post by **Teal** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 6:05 pm

What's this?!?! Two...TWO EA games in a row that aren't bashed to hell in DSP one way or the other? It's not global warming, after all, then...it's just hell trying to melt the ice cap that just formed over it...

And they're both on Wii...god help us...

wco81 · Post by **wco81** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 6:11 pm

Give it another month or so, see how it holds up.

Spooky · Post by **Spooky** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 7:00 pm

wco81 wrote:Give it another month or so, see how it holds up.

People might start to find some flaws in Tiger, but I guarantee that you won't see any new issues with this game creeping up.

10spro · Post by **10spro** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 7:07 pm

Spooky wrote:
wco81 wrote:Give it another month or so, see how it holds up.
People might start to find some flaws in Tiger, but I guarantee that you won't see any new issues with this game creeping up.

That's for sure. Having a blast everytime I play it vs a human player which is the way to go online or off. My nephew is getting so good at it that I have to get used to coming to the net and finish the points quicker with him as we're having just some outstanding rallies, except that they drain me.

BTW, here's Kristan Reed's re-review of the game:

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/grand ... nis-review

Rodster · Post by **Rodster** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 9:26 pm

My last game was the closest i've come to beating the CPU. Still haven't won a match even on easy. I took Hewett into a tie breaker and lost it there. I was down 0-4 and came marching back. I'm getting better not generating missed swings. This is the best sports game i've played in a long time. It's so good I haven't even had a chance to play the better more polished game on the Wii, TW 10.

F308GTB · Post by **F308GTB** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 9:57 pm

Rodster wrote:My last game was the closest i've come to beating the CPU. Still haven't won a match even on easy. I took Hewett into a tie breaker and lost it there. I was down 0-4 and came marching back. I'm getting better not generating missed swings. This is the best sports game i've played in a long time. It's so good I haven't even had a chance to play the better more polished game on the Wii, TW 10.

Man, I need to play you online to get my ranking up

Using the M+ or M+ & Numchuk? I'm just using M+ at the moment and have no problem beating the CPU on easy. Time to move up a notch or bring in the numchuk. Just remember to bring the Wiimote to "zero" (parallel to ground, facing straight ahead) after each shot ASAP. That's the key to not missing a shot.

It's a great game. The wife keeps wanting to play.

Leebo33 · Post by **Leebo33** » Tue Jun 23, 2009 8:13 am

Teal wrote:What's this?!?! Two...TWO EA games in a row that aren't bashed to hell in DSP one way or the other?

I don't see a lot of undeserved EA bashing here except for one poster that may have a hidden agenda. The praise for NHL and FIFA 09 was almost universal. The versions of Madden and NCAA right before the latest generation that were packed full of options, features, and fun gameplay were well liked as well. MVP was also a favorite around here.

But EA has gotten fat and lazy in this generation removing features and options. Madden, NBA Live, March Madness, and NCAA Football have not improved or in many cases digressed since the X360 debuted. It's 2009 and there is still no in-game save for Madden something that was in the PS2 version 5 years ago. Most of the games recently have shipped with serious bugs that require patches out-of-the-box. It's unacceptable to ship a game with broken CPU sliders two years in a row.

Maybe EA Sports is having success with the Wii because they can port a lot of the code or knowledge from the PS2. This is a lost generation for many of their franchises. Maybe they can finish strong or rebound with the next round of consoles.

Rodster · Post by **Rodster** » Wed Jun 24, 2009 2:44 pm

This game is crack even with some of the control issues. Tiger 10 Wii still has gotten little play time.

sportdan30 · Post by **sportdan30** » Wed Jun 24, 2009 3:01 pm

Rodster wrote:This game is crack even with some of the control issues. Tiger 10 Wii still has gotten little play time.

Yep, I agree. Actually, as many of you already know I prefer to TW 10.

Rodster · Post by **Rodster** » Wed Jun 24, 2009 4:59 pm

Finally won my first game 6-3 over Hewitt.

LazyScumbag · Post by **LazyScumbag** » Sun Jun 28, 2009 3:02 am

some thoughts from a lurker:

i play a bunch of tennis irl and have messed around with the game for a couple of hours now. i am using motion plus fwiw and have played with and without the nunchuk.

the game feels decent to me but i have to say that i'm surprised at the reception it's gotten because from my end it seems pretty flawed.

down-the-line groundstrokes are (obviously) a big part of tennis. they seem to be a non-factor in this game. i'll clarify: the game does a good job of recognizing slices, flat groundstrokes, and top spin groundstrokes based on motion. however, aiming seems to be almost completely timing-based. the problem with this system is that the game -- like real tennis (but unlike wii tennis!) -- rewards you for taking the ball early. what follows is that if you want to hit a clean, powerful shot, you have no choice but to go crosscourt.

the issue can be mitigated to some extent by hitting the "wrong" groundstroke. for example, say you're on the deuce side of the court, the ball is coming to your character's forehand, and you want to hit a clean groundstroke down the line. if you swing early with the forehand motion, you'll hit a forehand bomb crosscourt (if i haven't been clear, this seems to be the shot that the game "wants" you to hit in this situation). if you swing late with the forehand motion, you'll hit a weak forehand down the line. if you swing early with the backhand motion, though, sometimes you'll hit a backhand bomb down the line.

unfortunately, while this works somewhat, it often results in your character spazzing and producing a backhand with no pace. besides, even if this trick were to work consistently, it would still result in awkwardness and a major lack of realism. furthermore, inside-out groundstrokes would still be nonexistent. the inside-out forehand is only one shot, sure, but it's a major part of lots of players' games. if i'm using federer, for example, i need to be able to hit that shot because it's his money shot and the backbone of his game. it's a shot i hit a lot irl, too, so the fact that i struggle to hit it in the game is a bit of a deal breaker for me.

on another note, player characteristics don't seem pronounced enough to me. for example, i mentioned federer's forehand. the real federer has a cannon for a forehand while his backhand is merely solid. strangely, i found myself hitting more backhand winners in the game with the federer character than forehand winners. i doubt that this is a personal thing because i crush my forehand irl, too, and i don't have much of a backhand.

maybe i'm missing something, idk. i wanted to like this game a lot, but it being a crosscourt groundstroke fest eliminates much of the strategy that it would've presented otherwise. i don't think it's a skill issue, either, because i was able to destroy the ai on the medium setting as soon as i started playing. hopefully i'm way off and will be able to aim better if/when i play more and improve.

maybe my expectations were too high and maybe my tennis background is causing me to demand a lot more realism from this game than most sports gamers will. i'm not looking to hate; on the plus side, i found playing online to be very smooth and have been able to have some fun with that despite my gripes. thoughts on my comments from those of you who are enjoying the game?

Rodster · Post by **Rodster** » Sun Jun 28, 2009 8:03 am

^^^^^

I've finally started to win more. The biggest knock on the game has to be the quirkiness of the controller. Some here have issues with it and others don't. It's not so much of a problem for me as i've adjusted to the way the controller reacts to my movements, in other words getting around it's flaws. That's a big reason why some have had no problems with missed swings or no swings at all when trying to hit the ball.

I try to hit every shot by not making sudden movements again working around the controllers quirkiness. All my backhands are hit with one hand whereas every forehand shot I swing with both hands on the controller. The only way to figure out where the controller is messing up and not correctly reading your movements is to go into practice mode and just experiment. My ratio is now 98% success with backhands and 95% success rate on forehands. Before it was 75% backhands and 25% forehand shots.

The one thing I still can't get is serving. Most of my serves are weak like 47mph serves. Every now and then I blister one but I have not served an Ace as of yet and i'm still playing on easy. The tutorial says hit the ball at it's peak and i've tried that and they are still weak so i'll need to practice that some more.

Spooky · Post by **Spooky** » Sun Jun 28, 2009 9:26 am

LazyScumbag wrote:some thoughts from a lurker:

i play a bunch of tennis irl and have messed around with the game for a couple of hours now. i am using motion plus fwiw and have played with and without the nunchuk.

the game feels decent to me but i have to say that i'm surprised at the reception it's gotten because from my end it seems pretty flawed.

down-the-line groundstrokes are (obviously) a big part of tennis. they seem to be a non-factor in this game. i'll clarify: the game does a good job of recognizing slices, flat groundstrokes, and top spin groundstrokes based on motion. however, aiming seems to be almost completely timing-based. the problem with this system is that the game -- like real tennis (but unlike wii tennis!) -- rewards you for taking the ball early. what follows is that if you want to hit a clean, powerful shot, you have no choice but to go crosscourt.

the issue can be mitigated to some extent by hitting the "wrong" groundstroke. for example, say you're on the deuce side of the court, the ball is coming to your character's forehand, and you want to hit a clean groundstroke down the line. if you swing early with the forehand motion, you'll hit a forehand bomb crosscourt (if i haven't been clear, this seems to be the shot that the game "wants" you to hit in this situation). if you swing late with the forehand motion, you'll hit a weak forehand down the line. if you swing early with the backhand motion, though, sometimes you'll hit a backhand bomb down the line.

unfortunately, while this works somewhat, it often results in your character spazzing and producing a backhand with no pace. besides, even if this trick were to work consistently, it would still result in awkwardness and a major lack of realism. furthermore, inside-out groundstrokes would still be nonexistent. the inside-out forehand is only one shot, sure, but it's a major part of lots of players' games. if i'm using federer, for example, i need to be able to hit that shot because it's his money shot and the backbone of his game. it's a shot i hit a lot irl, too, so the fact that i struggle to hit it in the game is a bit of a deal breaker for me.

on another note, player characteristics don't seem pronounced enough to me. for example, i mentioned federer's forehand. the real federer has a cannon for a forehand while his backhand is merely solid. strangely, i found myself hitting more backhand winners in the game with the federer character than forehand winners. i doubt that this is a personal thing because i crush my forehand irl, too, and i don't have much of a backhand.

maybe i'm missing something, idk. i wanted to like this game a lot, but it being a crosscourt groundstroke fest eliminates much of the strategy that it would've presented otherwise. i don't think it's a skill issue, either, because i was able to destroy the ai on the medium setting as soon as i started playing. hopefully i'm way off and will be able to aim better if/when i play more and improve.

maybe my expectations were too high and maybe my tennis background is causing me to demand a lot more realism from this game than most sports gamers will. i'm not looking to hate; on the plus side, i found playing online to be very smooth and have been able to have some fun with that despite my gripes. thoughts on my comments from those of you who are enjoying the game?

Great observations. I agree to an extent but it does not take away from my enjoyment of the game at all. But then again, I am far from a tennis purist.

So...I too have wondered if the down the line shots were not powerful enough because you just cannot take a full swing if you want to aim that way. But I feel that most of my down the line shots are good enough as long as I make sure I do a full backswing but stop my forward motion about a quarter of the way. They do seem a bit less poweful than the cross court shots at full strength. But not enough to bother me I guess.

Sport73 · Post by **Sport73** » Sun Jun 28, 2009 2:27 pm

Color me FRUSTRATED in my first few plays of the game...Most of my best opportunities for cross-court forehand winners are ruined when my character jumps to a backhand stance and then just stands there as I flail away trying to get him to hit the forehand shot.

Other than that (not small issue) the game seems good.

Is there a trick or secret I'm missing? I return the 'racket' to a center position before each shot (pointing toward the screen). I sometimes react like I would in real tennis and bring the racket back slowly while setting up my shot - that appears to be the source of the problem.

I find it hard to recommend this game without some improvement on the control issues.

Slumberland · Post by **Slumberland** » Mon Jul 06, 2009 3:36 pm

This game is fun and super immersive but the CPU opponents have some gift for getting into these endless deuces against me... it's like they just refuse to lose. I had a half-hour before a rehearsal yesterday and figured I'd get a game in but eventually had to turn it off because no one could put it away. I'm 5-7 so far, so things are going okay, but man I want to strangle those cartoony f*ckers sometimes, especially when they hold their arms out to the side and do that whole "fronting" taunt (if that's what you call it)... yeah, easy to act like a big man on the other side of the net, you block-haired bastards.

10spro · Post by **10spro** » Tue Jul 07, 2009 11:39 am

Has anyone tried beating the CPU on hard level? Can't seem to get more than three games. Yesterday was the closest that I've ever come in upsetting Johnny Mac in his house in Wimbledon losing 6-4. His serve and volley style is demoralizing on grass. I was playing B. Becker and the only way to get even close in a match on hard level was to serve and volley myself.

Love the animations, best in any tennis games out there, still wished that the M+ would be more responsive at times. I find that calibrating the controller doesn't do much for me at this point. I prefer to unplug the sucker, wait 3 seconds and snap it back to make the M+ more accurate.

Slumberland · Post by **Slumberland** » Tue Jul 07, 2009 11:49 am

I'm pretty much okay with the M+. Yesterday out of nowhere it started recognizing slight motions as drop shots without using the trigger, which was either awesome or a malfunction.

toonarmy · Post by **toonarmy** » Thu Jul 09, 2009 12:11 pm

10spro wrote:Has anyone tried beating the CPU on hard level? Can't seem to get more than three games. Yesterday was the closest that I've ever come in upsetting Johnny Mac in his house in Wimbledon losing 6-4. His serve and volley style is demoralizing on grass. I was playing B. Becker and the only way to get even close in a match on hard level was to serve and volley myself.

Love the animations, best in any tennis games out there, still wished that the M+ would be more responsive at times. I find that calibrating the controller doesn't do much for me at this point. I prefer to unplug the sucker, wait 3 seconds and snap it back to make the M+ more accurate.

If someone can win consistently on hard level they have my respect. The AI is just too tough to dominate at that level.

Spooky · Post by **Spooky** » Thu Jul 09, 2009 12:38 pm

Slumberland wrote:I'm pretty much okay with the M+. Yesterday out of nowhere it started recognizing slight motions as drop shots without using the trigger, which was either awesome or a malfunction.

Yeah...I've had to do that too.

JackB1 · Post by **JackB1** » Thu Jul 09, 2009 4:10 pm

has anyone tried this on the 360?

sportdan30 · Post by **sportdan30** » Thu Jul 09, 2009 4:31 pm

JackB1 wrote:has anyone tried this on the 360?

It's not out until sometime in the Fall.

Slumberland · Post by **Slumberland** » Mon Jul 13, 2009 10:14 am

I made a surprise run at the Wimbledon title last night with my one-star player. Had a long battle with Federer in the finals, finally breaking him to take the set 10-8. The game holds up and in some ways gets better and better the more comfortable I get with the controls, but I'm a little worried about my newfound ability win 90% of my points on serve by just serving at an extreme cross-court angle, rushing the net, and then volleying their return the other way.