Anyone picking up Top Spin 4?

[BDSooner72]

Installing mine right now and really looking forward to the game.  Will post some impressions tomorrow, when I delve into the career mode.

[BDSooner72]

First off I want to boo and hiss all the people who cried about Top Spin 3 controls being too hard. Doing so dumbed down my favorite tennis game.  They went out and removed all the risk shots (Right and Left trigger + button).  Now you have the standard power shots (hold button down and release after the ball bounces for max shot) and (control shot which is less powerful and requires hitting the button once after the ball bounces). So it actually the same as last year as far as how you swing with an added option of the control shot, which seems useless so far but they go and eliminate the risk shots which made for more drama and mishit shots/unforced errors.  I played a few exhibitions and you will get some unforced errors if your positioning is bad and if you swing far too early or way too late.

They added a few courts but a couple are played on all black courts that are really annoying.  The graphical detail has not improved and in some areas, like grass courts, look worse as there is shimmering.  The player creator has advanced and is pretty amazin how realistic you can make a player (this is one area that they excel at and it has only gotten better).

Still no commentary outside the announcer who calls out the points, they did add some more statistics and in game stats pop up now and then.



The saving grace is the career mode (hopefully) as it is hard to tell in the early stages due to the AI being dumb as bricks. Fortunately they do not start you on the public courts and you can play actual tourneys from the start.

Copied this from the 2kforum and the options you have before starting a career.

Difficulty from : Very Easy/Easy/Normal/Hard/Very Hard

Career Autosave : No/Yes

Match Format:
 
Normal: (Default Setting) Different Competitions During your career each have their own specific format

Top Spin: All the matches are played in 3 sets of 3 games, plus a Super Tie-Break for the final set

Real Tennis: The real format of tennis matches. All the matches are played in 3 sets of 6 games


I went with normal because there is no way I am going to play the early (easy) rounds playing 3 sets with 6 games.  Only played one match (first tourney is tiebreaker only) and it was really easy so I am considering bumping the difficulty level up.

[Jason]

I'm buying 5 other games this month, so this one will have to wait for the bargain bin

[BDSooner72]

Forgot to mention they did add a few new things to the controls this year.  An inside out forehand shot using the L-Trigger and a simpler drop shot (I think it was R trigger or RB + x).

Also you can still use the R-stick to serve and it is a must since they eliminated risk serves with the triggers. It is your power serve and is like 20 MPH faster than a button serve.

[BDSooner72]

I'm buying 5 other games this month, so this one will have to wait for the bargain bin

What games are you getting?  I only have Tiger Woods 12 left for the month.

[BDSooner72]

More things I forgot about.  They added sweatbands, YEAH. Forgot to stick them on Borg, BOO.

I am playing with a woman first and it looks like a bunch of stuff is unlocked already (clothing, accessories) and the point system from last year is gone when it comes to purchasing things. I think more options are added based on sponsor events, etc.

[Jason]

I'm buying 5 other games this month, so this one will have to wait for the bargain bin

What games are you getting?  I only have Tiger Woods 12 left for the month.

Already bought Fight Night Champion and MLB 2K11...and renewed my Xbox Live for another year.

Still have NASCAR 2011, Shift 2 and Tiger Woods left to get at the end of the month.

[BDSooner72]

The game is starting to grow on me.  Once I moved the difficulty up to hard it is like a whole new game.  Played a match against Sampras with Chang and it was tough. Only played a set but he beat me soundly. I am starting to like how they incorporated the power swing with the risk shot. You really do get a fair amount of unforced errors when hitting out of position or an early/late swing. While I have yet to see a ball hit the net and go over, they have added it to the serves. I had a couple let serves in my match and had one that still went for a fault.

Scary thing is there is not just one more difficulty (very hard) but you can unlock and extreme difficulty. I am a pretty good tennis player on the virtual courts and doubt that I will go any higher than hard.

Another nice touch was how they distribute points in the career mode, based on the type of player you want (serve/volley. baseline defense, baseline aggressive) and is done automatically, so you do not end up playing guys online with full XP in certain categories. Adding coaches is another small touch but adds to gaining XP by performing certain tasks in matches.