Top Spin 4 Demo Available Now, Post Your Impressions Here (360, PS3)

[2slik]

First impressions are promising. Gameplay is much faster which is exactly what the game needed to be. The in-game helpers are a nice touch but I turned them off in the first game because it was visually distracting.
Atmosphere has definitely improved. The Agassi Murray videos on youtube were worring because of how disinterested the crowed seemed but it the demo it's pretty good. There was a point where I was Federer playing against Nadal and I had come to the net and Nadal was trying to pass me but I kept on coming up with volleys, which made the crowd noise get louder and more surprised, until I made a winning volley and the crowd erupted. Great moment.
Volleys do seem to be a bit too easy though. I like the addition of the drop volley.

Must frustrating part of the game though are lack of aces and unrealistically low unforced errors. The aiming with the analogue stick doesn't seem that sensitive because I can never get the ball to go really wide on either side when serving. On top of that 95% of my shots go in and the ball never hit the net. I basically have to deliberately mess up my serve to get a net call. This was all on Hard level. I'm sure this is so that people are not put by it being too difficult like with what happened in TS3

I just hope that harder levels are immediately available in the full game other wise I don't think I can be bothered bagelling several opponents to unlock harder levels.

[paulitix]

I understand the calls for commentary but it is extremely difficult to execute if they are trying to realistically represent of tennis in a videogame...

Tennis commentary comes primarily in-between points with very little said during actual gameplay...(the same commentary phonomenon as golf commentators whispering while guys are putting). The question is, are you willing to allow 20 seconds in between points to allow the comentators to do their thing? Or are you pressing X to get to the next point...

If your answer is what I think it is (the same as mine)...thats a TON of work in order to implement something thats just gonna elicit smiles for the first few points on March 15th, and then be taken for granted until Top Spin 5

[tinpanalley]

One thing that I just noticed that is going to be really awkward with the Move. Nadal is a lefty. If you're right handed, and the game has true one to one movement, will you have to swing a forehand to get him to hit a backhand? And if not, won't it just be confusing to swing a right handed forehand and watch him swing a left handed forehand? With a normal controller (baseball batters, for example) you don't notice because the controls are not relative to the on screen character. But in this case, it may cause confusion akin to rubbing your belly and tapping your head at the same time.
Any thoughts?

[VinylOne]

Nice to see it out there, will d/l and play asap

[ocho cuatro]

I just had my first long rally, and the murmurs/anticipation of the crowd was fantastic.

They've done a lot of little things to improve the ambience.

[Smallberries]

Quote: Originally Posted by 2slik

I basically have to deliberately mess up my serve to get a net call. This was all on Hard level. I'm sure this is so that people are not put by it being too difficult like with what happened in TS3.

Huh? Not sure what game you were playing, but serving in TS3 was incredibly easy. In other words, terrible and overly simplistic. Very few aces, for either you or your AI opponent.

This demo shows some promise. I just don't like how crappy the serving is. And I'm worried that once you get the hang of it, rallies will be no big deal either. Also, I'm not overly impressed with the player models. While they bear a resemblance to their real-life counterparts, they're just not very organic. Their skin looks off, like something you'd have seen last generation, and there's no fluidity or movement to their attire. Animations look good, although someone here mentioned that the developer failed to include players' real life serving motions. I didn't really pay attention to that in the demo, but if so, that sucks.

Quote: Originally Posted by paulitix

Tennis commentary comes primarily in-between points with very little said during actual gameplay...(the same commentary phonomenon as golf commentators whispering while guys are putting). The question is, are you willing to allow 20 seconds in between points to allow the comentators to do their thing? Or are you pressing X to get to the next point...

I definitely think there's 5-10 seconds of time between points where a goof like Brad Gilbert could give his 2 cents. And then there are replays, which give plenty of time for game/point analysis. The point is that it provides another layer of immersion, which is missing in this game. To skip the commentary with a press of a button or to listen to it...I'd rather have the option than not.

[CMH]

Loved the demo.

Still not seeing aces and the only time I had an ace against me is when I just lazily approached the shot and never swung the racket.

It was very disheartening to place a serve in a perfect spot that forced the returner to run out of bounds and reach only to have the ball land safely across the net as if it were some regular old return.

Aces simply can't exist properly in this manner.

I have yet to see an unforced error in the statistics. Either they aren't being collected properly or I don't know what an unforced error is. Is it possible to not have a winner and not have an unforced error on the same point?

Everything else is great to me. I like the animations, the graphics, the control scheme.


Sent from my mobile device.

[BlueNGold]

I don't know much about tennis, but I do know that this game (demo) is awesome.