playing the game... :)

[jayl0ve]

Yeah I'm pretty surprised that so many people play with the d-pad. I have never used the 360 d pad for any game, ever. Besides those games where they treat it like 4 extra buttons.

Besides some of the old systems I have like Genesis, SNES, and NES, I haven't even touched a d pad since N64 That controller changed everything

[DRII]

I dont see why the d-pad is such a big deal. So much easier with the stick.

Some of us prefer the dpad! It gives me much greater control.
try and see things from both sides coolhand: any good lawyer would ...

[Cro Morgan]

try and see things from both sides coolhand: any good lawyer would ...

Coolhand isn't a lawyer, just say'in.

[jayl0ve]

[DRII]

Yeah I'm pretty surprised that so many people play with the d-pad. I have never used the 360 d pad for any game, ever. Besides those games where they treat it like 4 extra buttons.

Besides some of the old systems I have like Genesis, SNES, and NES, I haven't even touched a d pad since N64 That controller changed everything

Yes, well the n64 controller was the last truly excellently designed in-house joystick controller. The Xbox controller is ok but is not nearly as intuitive, but it is still far better than the standard PS3 controller with its stubby mushroom capped sticks!!!

[DRII]

try and see things from both sides coolhand: any good lawyer would ...

Coolhand isn't a lawyer, just say'in.

Yea, but he will be...

[Cro Morgan]

try and see things from both sides coolhand: any good lawyer would ...

Coolhand isn't a lawyer, just say'in.

Yea, but he will be...

He could also be a drunk, begging for money on the streets of Kentucky. The future is kinda **** that way.

[DRII]

Actually a good lawyer kinda just concentrates on your side.

I should know because my lawyer just got me out of a marijuana DUI and controlled substance charge in court on Wednesday.

Not really. A good lawyer needs to anticipate the other sides approach and possible tactics. Like yours probably did...

And damn, what have u been doing? Take it easy man, life is short no need to make it shorter and risk others in the process!

[jayl0ve]

Nah it was just a series of BS accusations.

Hence why the case got dismissed.

Thanks for the holier-than-thou routine though! hahaha

[pfnerch]

Ok i have game and i must say this is best tennis game eva U have expert difficulty when complete first grand slam on very hard level yay

Unlock overview

Yeah but do me a Favour and buy a real commercial Copy of the Game.
It's much cooler to have a real commercial Version of the Game than a pirated Copy anyway.
We have to support Games like Top Spin so good we can with a few Dollars or Euros to keep the Series alive and if you wanna play those Games in the Feature.
Tennisgames belong to a fringe Group anway and are not the big Blockbusters like a Halo or some of the big Ones.

But it's cool to see that you like the Game.

I fully agree with all the points Sinna mentioned.
On the one hand I am glad to hear that the game seems to be much fun, but on the other hand I am quite sure that no one living in Europe is able to get the game legally yet. In my opinion this might just be possible for people living in the US as the game will be released there on Tuesday and local stores and online warehouses should have gotten the game today.
But I assume that in Europe even the shops do not have the game yet, because the game will be released on Friday here.
I do not want anyone to get me wrong. This is not an accusation towards anyone who is already in possession of the game. I just want to make clear that I would not be happy if anyone hyped the game on this forum illegally.

Nevertheless I appreciate every information about the final version of the game, especially from those who have paid for it.

Greetings,
StrategyGuide94

P.S. : I apologize for all the grammar/vocab/spelling mistakes I might have made, but it is 1:08 am here ;P My English teacher will kill me xD

See you on tour!

I think with luck Wednesday in Europe is realistic. my friend who worked in a small videogame store told me that they have the game on wednesday. 2 days earlier would be great for me. i hate pirates. 60 Euro aren't much money for a game we play 2 years or more so please buy a legal copy. everyone who is a pirate should go in a ship in the sea hahaha

[tenjintenkai]

Hey im back! This was one crazy night i tell you! Sorry but i was in no shape to write anything when i got back home so i write my impressions only now.

Oh and sorry if i go offtopic by telling unnecessary details on the condition and context of playing the game but it is way too funny to not share this You can still skip to the TS paragraphs if it annoys you

So i only came back to the guys place around 11pm! (gf... ) and he was supposed to leave in 45 minutes to go to the radio (not far from his place). When i arrive the scene was just surreal. They were REALLY wasted.. that was quite a sight. And to my stunning surprise there were 2 absolutely gorgeous girls there. Hence my existential question: what in the world are such breathtaking girls doing with these kind of guys? ...that's a mystery.

Anyway after some social trivialties (3 minutes) i grab the pad and start to play again. I only played against cpu because the guys were just... you can imagine. As someone mentionned in this thread it wasnt really the best condition to enjoy the game with monkeys jumping around me... but whatever. I was still lucky to play the game early

I take Roddick for a spin against Federer 3rd outfit (dark purple) on very hard. I aced him 95% of the time! It is easier with Rod to place the ball on the lines on serve and the ball is very fast. I was better at stick serve on TS3 because i cant seem to max out the serve in TS4 for an unknown reason but roddick serves were always between 215 and 227 km/h (sorry i put the game speed to km/h and not miles). I am sure you can hit faster though. Roddick was fun to play with, VERY strong from the baseline. It's difficult to win the point on long rallies but if you handle him well you dont need to go on long rallies. His groundstrokes are lethal. Definately one of the strongest characters. So yeah "power" characters will be a real threat again. 6-1 6-1

Then the radio guy asks me i i want to go with him on the radio to talk about the game as a "specialist". I said: "cool". Then he said i could also stay at his place alone to continue playing if i wanted to. I said: "even cooler!" So i decided to accept his nice gesture (well, he was waisted) and play the game until they come back around 1am. And guess what? The 2 girls said they wanted to stay with me! which led to the answer of my existential question: Because they didnt know me yet!

You should have seen the face of the guys when they said that! ahah that was priceless. Another victory for mr. Ten! In a way you could say i was close to heaven playing my most wanted game (i almost play ONLY top spin, dont have much time to play other games and i am a tennis freak) surrounded by 2 beautiful ladies.
Then at that time all hell break loose. I was alone with 2 girls in this flat of some guy i barely met playing top spin 4. A night to remember! Especially the fact that the guys never came back (!) lol We stayed there until 4am...

So while the girls were drinking i continue to play the game. Sampras vs Agassi (i played 3 sets 6 games for all my matches). Agassi was playing agressive and i was not used to play with SV. 4-6 6-3 6-0. So you see i got used to SV Sampras was very cool to play with. i did some amazing volleys. The thing i think that is a bit broken or that maybe i have to get used to is to go to the net after the serve. Most of the times it feels a bit like in TS3. Your character charges the net and he's kind of walking on a "rail" and you can get a passing shot VERY easily. I mean especially if like in real tennis you serve wide and come to the net following the ball (and thus not going right in the middle) your character just refuse to move on the side if you have to. The guy has glue on his shoes. It may be because of the RB button. I already saw that in the demo but i thought it was because we couldnt play with a real SV player. Well... it is the same even for SV. Maybe to make this kind of character not too strong. I imagine balance all play styles in programming the game is difficult. So i felt better by just going to the net with good approach shots and it worked marvelously. It was very fun and very efficient. Even if, again, sometimes the character simply refuse to move to the side while at the net. The ball is there, you can reach it, but no the character doesnt feel like going there. Sometimes you make some dive volleys with good angles and it is well done.

At this point the girls were starting to get hot on me (!) so it was very difficult to keep my composure. I simply ignored them first Then of course i had to explain my geeky reaction. I said it was because i have a gf. I cant even be sure if it was the true reason but what the hell i had to concentrate there. ...what have i become?!? the "18yearsold-me" would have punch me in the face but i am 33 and a responsible man now! Please tell me i was right. oh this is so sad...

So i continue to play on the verge of losing my sanity, justifying myself i have a mission for my ITST comrades to report my impressions. I am a top spin god so out of my way you mere mortals! I am burning like the phoenix! ...yeah i guess i lost it for a moment.

I played with Djokovic again, and he's one of my favorite characters in the game. I really had a blast with him and also with Davydenko. This may be the kind of attributes setup i'll be looking for when creating my first character. You have good control on your shots and they move very well on the court so you can really "work" the point and execute good tactics. The downside is the volley of course. From the baseline it is very easy to hit the lines and make variations on your shots. The slice in this game is deadly. At first i didnt thought so because it seems that the opponent can more or less easily reach them but you can be very precise and if they are executed at the right moment you are in position to end the point 90% of the time.

Drop shots are still something i have to figure out. If your opponent is not 2 meters behind the baseline don't even think about it. Not only they can reach the ball easily but then you get short cross court missiles in return. That's not very realistic in the way that even if your opponent is completely outside the court and you drop shots on the other side he'll get it if he was at baseline level. I may not be the "drop shot artist" so maybe there's more to that. Anyway i felt the same using Chang so...

CRO said that unforced errors are overrated. I cant say what you said is wrong, i agree with you at heart it would be borring to have lots of UE (but realistic if you play WTA ) but still... a few of them from time to time wouldnt do any harm. Of course there are forced errors but they work pretty much exactly like in TS3... except the fact they (for now at least) don't look scripted! This is a point that i didnt really see discussed here while for me it was a CRUCIAL improvement from TS3. Now i dont feel like the shots and where they are landing are scripted anymore. This is SO MUCH better. Thats why sometimes you hit the line and sometimes it lands short. So there's some "random" factor on your shots, also depending on how well is your timing and position. It's good to not always see the same animation of the loopy ball just dying in the net like in TS3.

This is why it is too bad about unforced errors. They should have put it in the game as we all said it would be cool to be: the more risk you take to hit the line the more you risk to put the ball out. It's as simple as that.

An as Djarvik already noticed the control shots (along with half charged shots), especially the top spin control shots, are the way to go. Fully charged shots are really just to finish points. So i end up playing without charging 90% of the time. Then you can really control the rallies. If you time it well it is also very powerful... I am a bit disapointed by hold and charge shots but in the end maybe it gives us more control and the opportunity to be more creative during rallies to decide your shots at the last moment.

I confirm that long line shots are not very efficient during rallies, except on a few rare occasions. ITST matches will be wrong foot feasts for sure.

The serve is now easier to ace but also easier to get a return winner. In TS3 and in real tennis it is efficient sometimes to serve ON the body of the opponent. It doesnt look like it in TS4. If you dont hit corners on serves you are open for a long line winner 95% of the time.

Anyway it is a very nice game with plenty to discover and master. So we'll have fun for a couple of years

Now i have to get some preparation, i have a "real" tennis tournament today and i only slept 4 hours. This will be a real slaughter.

I have found the phone numbers of the girls in my pocket this morning, hehe. I explained the night to my gf, very proud of how i could handle it so well and waiting to get compliments. She just said "are you even human?"
Of course not, I am the Phoenix!

don't hesitate to ask me some questions if you have some. I'll try to get my head out of my butt and find answers. I played with all characters.

[KluddKalle]

This is priceless.......thanks for that wierd story. Was there anything about TS4 in there??

EDIT: Only thing you did wrong was this - you should have stolen the game and gone home.

[Jason Fernandes]

Haha, epic story. xD Great read!

[StrategyGuide94]

Amazing story

Sounds realldy good and I want to play it NOW xD

[VillaJ100]

The SV gameplay has me a tad worried! Although bagelling agassi is pretty cool!