grand slam tennis 2- the game

[djarvik]

Is there such thing as Welsh Spaghetti?

[Tamthewasp]

Welsh spaghetti. knowing the welsh the only spaghetti they know is heinz or aldi.

[VMoe86]

creating your own player compared to TS4 is a bad joke
no option to decide if you want to play single or double backhand

also fewer options for the player (body and stuff like this...)

You can choose different stroke animations: Federer, Roddick, Borg, Nadal, Sampras and McEnroe. So you can choose between single and double backhand. I guess the strenght of the respective wings is determined by that choice, because Federer's backhand is weaker than his forehand in the game.

The best thing is: Having created your player, you can edit everything again after saving your player. You can also change the playstyle (AA, DB, OB or SV) afterwards and how you distributed the respective stats. This is more important for me than all those many (too many in my opinion) options to change the appearance of your player or the variety of setups if I have to go through that "Create a player" process again and again.

EDIT: The career mode has only one purpose - to unlock racquets and shoes, which add to your stats (just like in GST on Wii). So once you have created your player and start a career, the points are reset for your created player. EA probably thought that it might be difficult to play with a player having a rating of 35, so the difficulty level in the career mode adjusts itself according to how good your player - at the beginning you can sleep walk through the matches. I'll go through this one time only to unlock some racquets and shoes, that's sure.

[DutchFighter]

Is the backhand slice animation fixed?

[VillaJ100]

Is the backhand slice animation fixed?

it sounds to me like the same game as the demo. so im 90% certain no.

[BluudyEEfingaz]

Well...looks as though there are no changes in the backhands...just look at Sharapova vs. Ivanovic.

http://youtu.be/g6upbCjd-a0

[VillaJ100]

Well...looks as though there are no changes in the backhands...just look at Sharapova vs. Ivanovic.

http://youtu.be/g6upbCjd-a0

Ridiculous!

[supinesmokey13]

creating your own player compared to TS4 is a bad joke
no option to decide if you want to play single or double backhand

also fewer options for the player (body and stuff like this...)

You can choose different stroke animations: Federer, Roddick, Borg, Nadal, Sampras and McEnroe. So you can choose between single and double backhand. I guess the strenght of the respective wings is determined by that choice, because Federer's backhand is weaker than his forehand in the game.

The best thing is: Having created your player, you can edit everything again after saving your player. You can also change the playstyle (AA, DB, OB or SV) afterwards and how you distributed the respective stats. This is more important for me than all those many (too many in my opinion) options to change the appearance of your player or the variety of setups if I have to go through that "Create a player" process again and again.

EDIT: The career mode has only one purpose - to unlock racquets and shoes, which add to your stats (just like in GST on Wii). So once you have created your player and start a career, the points are reset for your created player. EA probably thought that it might be difficult to play with a player having a rating of 35, so the difficulty level in the career mode adjusts itself according to how good your player - at the beginning you can sleep walk through the matches. I'll go through this one time only to unlock some racquets and shoes, that's sure.

is the game worth buying even just to try the game out

[Rayman]

[/quote]is the game worth buying even just to try the game out[/quote]

I would say no. If you've played the demo, the game is exactly the same, single handed backhands and all.

[supinesmokey13]

Is there such thing as Welsh Spaghetti?

hav the recent comments about the game changed ur mind about starting a tour for the game

[Ary1g]

is the game worth buying even just to try the game out[/quote]

I would say no. If you've played the demo, the game is exactly the same, single handed backhands and all.[/quote]

The game is really good online! The computer can't be compared to the online experience.

[fedfan]

Still can't decide if I like it or not. The single handed backhands are annoying and the commentary could have been fun if it was not so incessant.

Winning from the baseline is nearly as bad as TS4 the rallies can just go on and on, this is where TS3 risking worked so well but others have failed. You just have to keep coming to the net to end the point.

Can we please not just have a repackaged TS3 with new players please!!!!

[VMoe86]

Some on PSN wonder "You really bought that crap. " or ask for impressions on the game because they were disappointed with the demo. The original GST on Wii wasn't well received here on ITST, it wasn't well received by many players. Most probably these players have never found out about GST's true depth regarding gameplay, but that's their own fault. So here you go, a GST veteran explaining what he likes about GST and GST 2.

GST on Wii: The good and the bad

First of all, I really enjoyed the original GST on Wii with its motion controls. The gameplay maybe doesn't look like it is a simulation of tennis, but nothing came closer to simulate how it is to swing a tennis racquet in tennis games. You could put heavy top spin on your shot, you could hit aggressive slices, very slow and low slices, flat shots and mastering volleying only few players accomplished. Thus, one had variety in the game, some players being able to put more spin on their shots, some sliced better than others, some were better at the net, others could hit flat shots - and all styles were pretty much balanced, allrounders being very strong, too. You could recognise your opponent simply by the way he hits the ball - that's probably the best summary of and best compliment to GST on Wii.

At the highest level it basically came down to mental toughness, executing when it really mattered. Among the top players there was no one who rushed the net constantly, only on good approaches, because rushing the net is actually not a good option against a skilled player.

However, the less skilled players had a joker: The just mentioned net rushing or serve and drop shot. Boring to play against, because cross court volleys off down the line shots were way too easy to execute. Thus one would hit cross court top spin shots and top spin lobs to hold them back. The reason why this was a good tactic is that players can reach the net too fast. A skilled player playing well never lost to such players, tough.

What ruined the fun online were a few things: There was a serve bug (some serves were unreturnable due to lag), there were wrongly awarded points (you made a point to set up match point, but it ends up being break point for your opponent) and the teleporting due to heavy lag against some players was ridiculous. Despite all this, I enjoyed that game a lot, one of the best games I've ever played. More than two years after its release I was still learning new things, creating new shots.

Intermezzo: Top Spin 4

I like tennis and I was really excited when I heard that Top Spin 4 would support PS Move. The demo immediately showed: These were fake motion controls, one couldn't direct shots or hit slices by swinging.

I still played Top Spin 4 on a good level with the pad, it is a good game, but GST changed my expectations of tennis games or more general of sports games. The excitement of playing with - more or less - "real" swings just cannot be replicated by pressing a button. It doesn't matter to me whether the actual rallies look as if they could be taken from a real tennis match. You just don't feel the pressure of "Well, now you better come up with that flick of the wrist passing shot.", "You have to put enough top spin to get the shot over the net." or just taking some risk by going for a winner from a defensive position - Top Spin 4 doesn't allow you to do the latter, it automatically says "Shots in these situations have to be moon balls.".

GST 2: Perspective from a Move user

The announcement of GST 2 was a surprise for me, didn't really expect it. And the Move support was what got me excited about it, nothing more, nothing less.

So once the demo was released, I was initially disappointed because it felt different. It is comparable to changing to a completely different racquet.

I gave it a second chance and now I like the controls, they are better than those of GST on Wii. On IGN they summarised that point very well:

Motion control with PlayStation Move will be a big draw for any fans of the first Grand Slam Tennis, and they'll be happy to know that it replicates the original's fidelity, accuracy and realism. It's very demanding, though, and offers no training for people who don't spend enough time on a real-life tennis court to know how subtle wrist movements translate into spin and curve on the court. It's the best in its class for those looking for an accurate simulation of real tennis - it takes self-control not to dive about in front of the camera, causing it to lose sight of the controller - but more casual players will face a steep learning curve.

Source: http://ps3.ign.com/articles/121/1218429p1.html

I could copy and paste that paragraph above about GST's gameplay, because that's how it is for Move users, too. Especially the part about net rushing remains true: It is probably the most common and boring tactic you will see online, but against me my opponents usually win about 10% of their net approaches, whereas I win about 40% to 50% - without having fully mastered volleying. It is because I choose my approaches wisely, setting them up with good play from the baseline.

So I boldly claim: The most dominant players at GST 2 will be those who master the baseline as well as the net game - the allrounders.

Playing aggressively, a bit inside the court, will result in unforced errros if you don't play well enough. There were matches in which I've dumped three top spin backhands in a row into the net. Or I put backhand cross court volleys wide. The good thing is: I've also seen pad players dumping shots into net when playing aggressively or putting volleys wide respectively into the net.

More importantly for me is the fact that Move users can compete against pad players! The reason is simple: With Move you can hit better top spin shots and top spin lobs and these are the best shots against the most common tactic online - net rushing.

However, lag is there when playing players from far away countries (so here from Germany this means for example playing someone from New Zealand or Australia). Here is what I had to endure as a Move user:

1. Shots slowing down.

2. More shots go into the net than in low lag matches.

3. Teleports from your opponent to seeming winners (probably the same for my opponent).

4. In an extreme lag match the Motion controller got constantly disconnected - so I had to turn off the motion controller, turn it on and recalibrate to continue playing. In the end I gave up in that match because it made no sense to continue playing that way.

5. If a match is about to stop due to a disconnect from the EA Server there is a "Match Recovery" - the match continues and you replay the last point. I'm pretty sure there is a way to trigger it, because I played against someone where this happened on so many break points, felt suspicious.

No serve bugs or wrongly awarded points so far.

Everyone who liked GST on Wii and wants to play with Move should definitely buy GST 2. Pad players are also invited to explore GST 2's shot system and ball physics, because there is more to it than it seems at first glance. Those interested in a tennis game looking like real tennis better stay away - some things really look ugly.

[djarvik]

Is there such thing as Welsh Spaghetti?

hav the recent comments about the game changed ur mind about starting a tour for the game

Just like for any new tennis game, we will attempt to organize a tour. We will run a few warm-ups following by a few ATP events.

We will continue to run ATP events so long as the interest is there.

[Moralspain]

Well...looks as though there are no changes in the backhands...just look at Sharapova vs. Ivanovic.

http://youtu.be/g6upbCjd-a0

Ridiculous!

this

I just don't get it, because it seems random, she doesn't hit always with 1 handed backhand, so what's that?, the developers screwed it up or what?