[trouty65]

I must admit i have not really been a Tennis fan in the past but i fear that all may be about to change
A friend of mine had a small bet on Andy Murray to beat Noval Djokovic so this caught my attention and i watched the whole game with interest. Must admit found myself getting rather drawn in and as i had'nt played a tennis game for many years thought it would be a great excuse to go and grab a copy of Top spin 4 from the bargain bin

So after doing a bit of research on the currently available tennis games i decided to opt for Top Spin 4 from 2K Czech. Picked up a bargain pre owned for £15.

I must admit that i'm not the best when it comes to mastering the controls of sports games but was looking forward to the learning curve as my enthusiasm was overflowing

I started playing the career on easy to find the whole experience quite frustrating most of the time yet very rewarding when i did seem to start getting it right.
I completed all the training which seemed to help, yet i still could not seem to get my head around what i was doing control wise.
The four buttons control top spin, slice, normal shot and lobs. the amount of time you press and hold the buttons determine the power of the shot. This timing for me has taken some getting used to and the the more i have played and the more natural the shots have become the more addictive this game has become.

At 1st i found it very infuriating when i was hitting shots that i seemed to have no real control over or the game appeared to be doing the opposite to what i wanted it to do.
To be honest i still cannot explain what i am doing right (when i do get it right) but i can only say that the feel of the controls is absolutely superb. Once the timing comes together and you end up controlling a rally this game really is one of the most rewarding sports games i have played.

A word of warning !

in career mode i got to level 17 and whilst waiting for a loading screen i was sitting there button bashing and all of a sudden Yep ! i managed to delete my player and progress so far AARRGGHHH !!!!!!!!

If the game was not so addictive i would have just binned it there and then but something just kept me coming back for more.

Even tho' i had deleted my player i had managed to retain all the academy training that i had done. So off we go again: Create a new player !

I was quite upset at deleting my will Ferrell look-a-like and no matter how hard i tried couldnt seem to re-create that one again lol
Anyays new player created i have now managed to get back to level 17 and things are starting come along very nicely.

I re started career on "Very easy" but this seemed to make no difference to the amount of times i was getting beat, much like the 1st time around. Again much thought was going into trying to work out what i was doing wrong whilst trying to beat the AI lol
Finally after many hours of game play and reaching level 17 again i think i am finally getting the hang of it

Its still not easy to win but boy some of the rallies have been entertaining. I have managed to win my 1st 3 in a row and get to the final round of a tournament and win it . The way both competitors start the walk out of the tunnel for the final whilst the commentator is doing the build up and the fans are cheering is pretty cool too.

Once again this game is all about timing but once it "Clicks" and you start getting the timing right there is nothing quite like outwitting the AI and playing a "Blinder" especially when its a "Smash"
The replays really are fantastic and great to watch especially the ones where you win the point not so much when its the AI winning

Graphically i think this game is superb and veers more toward sim than arcade. The players move very fluently and really do look good when playing the shots. This really helps translate that "real" feel when you are playing and you cannot help getting drawn into some of the rallies. A few of em have had me heart in me mouth i can tell ya

On a final note at 1st i did not think the graphics were great compared with the new Grand Slam 2 graphics from EA due out this month .... But .... after playing the demo and comparing the 2, Top spins graphics really are not that bad and this game is a year old now.

The gameplay is absolutely superb and runs very smoothly whereas Grand slam seems a bit more arcadey.

I will probably buy Grand Slam 2 as i have the bug now but just hope it offers a bit more than the demo which i am sure it will.

i have not plucked up the courage to play online yet as i am sure mose people will be masters lol Once i have finished the career i will def give it a go.

Things really have improved since the last tennis game i played some years ago.

Worth a shot if you enjoy tennis.

cheers

Paul

[Mush xx]

Thank You Trouty, good review

[uncagedbigben]

I played Grand Slam 2 demo today I enjoyed it the graphics are very nice but all the tennis games I've played seem to have good graphics, in fact if I'm right Virtual tennis 3 is one of the only 1080p native games on consoles at the moment, though it's a Arcade version of the sport but just shows how tennis game really do seem to have nice graphics. I use to play top spin 2 a lot but I lost all my players when I messed up my old hard drive, Wow I loved playing on the clay surface on that game it was quick. Nice Review
P.s watch out for those French they are good on the tennis games

[trouty65]

uncagedbigben, on 09 February 2012 - 09:22 PM, said:

I played Grand Slam 2 demo today I enjoyed it the graphics are very nice but all the tennis games I've played seem to have good graphics, in fact if I'm right Virtual tennis 3 is one of the only 1080p native games on consoles at the moment, though it's a Arcade version of the sport but just shows how tennis game really do seem to have nice graphics. I use to play top spin 2 a lot but I lost all my players when I messed up my old hard drive, Wow I loved playing on the clay surface on that game it was quick. Nice Review
P.s watch out for those French they are good on the tennis games

Lol Thanks Ben but honestly i am playing this on very easy and still getting beat a lot
Going online ... that's scareeey
Gonna have to give it a go tho' .... just a few more games in career