Career Mode Very Hard difficulty -- Thoughts

[VarlusMD]

Hey guys Here to share something that happened to me yesterday, see what the general opinion is.

After being demolished at ITST Brussels Open, I decided to try and step up my game. Went back to Offline Career Mode (which was set in Hard), started playing differently, more control shots than anything, was doing quite good but struggled after Semis in Grand Slams/Top Spin Finals. I said "fair enough, this is the expected difficulty spike to Very Hard, all I need is practice." So I practised, both in Career and in Exhibition matches to eliminate the pressure.

After a couple of weeks I felt confident enough to face my great nemesis, Serena Williams, at Very Hard difficulty. I launch an Exhibition match set to Very Hard, and after a grueling 1 hour 4 minutes match I managed to win what was probably the most entertaining, epic, realistic and ultimately FUN match I've ever played at Top Spin 4. Final score was 4-6 / 6-3 / 7-5 (lost five match points! )

Now, my player is admittedly not min maxed or well developed. This is my original custom player, built without knowing the intricacies of the game, following what I most liked and felt comfortable with. This is what left me most "happy" about it: I do have a female player built "right", but after she crushed Federer on Very Hard 6-3 / 6-0 / 6-0 (game to 5 sets), it didn't feel "fair" somehow. (I will post my player stats when I get back home.)

So back I went to Career Mode, and decided to play the Monte Carlo Open at Very Hard since I felt ready. First match against the Lvl 17 fake player Maria Ribeiro. Figured "what the hell, it shouldn't be so hard." Next thing I know, she's playing at Williams level: powerful short shots, unbelievable rallies and corner balls, aces, very aware gameplay in general. I was very surprised. I managed to win in the end, 3-6 / 6-1 / 6-1, but not after 42 minutes of amazement at the level of play I was seeing from a fake player. I'm not complaining since it looks realisting, but I was left in a state of "How come I'm playing SO badly?"

So my question to you guys is: Is this level of difficulty expected even from fake players at Very Hard? Do I need more practice and that's it? I have no problem accepting this, but wanted to share and confirm with you guys if this is actually the way the game is supposed to behave. I really don't feel like dropping back to Hard since it will be back to boring 6-0 / 6-0 matches.

Thanks for reading this, and any comments are appreciated

[Agassi_Return]

I have only one advice for you: Control shots!



ok two: 98/98 Setting

[BrokeAddict]

You just have to figure out what works well (serving aces down the middle for instance), even on expert the cpu is pretty easy to beat.

[chris_high]

The level in exhibition match and career match are really different: hard on exhibition is like hard in career for a final of a challenger tournament or for the beginning of a grand slam tournament. But in big tournaments semi finals and finals, the level increase a lot! For instance, if you play vs nadal in roland garros final in career he will be really better than on exhibition game at the same level.
Second point: whatever the player you chose and whatever the cpu player, you have to (at least!) win easily 6-0 6-0 with almost no point for the cpu in the most difficult level in exhibition, if you want to expect anything on itst! as agassi-return said, control shot is the key of course...but also strategy, timing, placement on the court for offense and defense shots...etc
Good practice! Add me (chris_high) for some practice game if you want, i'm not that good for itst but i can play fair and with perfect or good timing control shots more than 95% of time.
See you!