EA Sports Grand Slam Tennis 2 Demo Available

[BDSooner72]

Downloading now just to be safe. 

[BDSooner72]

Horrible game. Players animations are terrible and not consistent with how Nadal plays.  I can live with that. What I can't live with is that I beat the game on the hardest level (superstar).  The game is simply an arcade game of tennis dressed up as a simulation. In 30 minutes time, I had one unforced error and had one drop shot hit the net but went over.  The serving is a bit screwy, getting the timing down, but even with that I was able to keep my serve with weak second serves. I had no problem breaking serves.  That all said the worst part of the game is hitting drop shots.  I was returning serves with drop shots, hitting them from any part of the court and they would always land just over the net in perfect fashion.

You can play with the sticks or buttons or both but none of that can make up for a games that is this easy. I can't beat Top Spin 4 on the hardest level and this is a game I have put a ton of hours in.

That said I am keeping the pre-order and getting the game since it is only $39.99 with the discount.  Will be something to toy around with until Top Spin 5.

[Jason]

I downloaded it tonight and enjoyed it. I agree that it's almost impossible to hit a bad shot, but I think that can easily be tweaked/fixed. What I liked was how intuitive the controls were and how comfortable I got with them after a short period of time. I pre-ordered my copy tonight.

[BDSooner72]

Great, now here is one game I can guarantee a win every time we play.   

The swing is pretty much like Top Spin 3 & 4 where you have to put a priority on timing the release (usually just as the ball hits the ground, except for a volley) to hit a good directional shot - along with swinging early to get the power. I will use the buttons for ground-strokes and the Analog for serves. Same as I did in Top Spin 4.

* Also one nice thing about the demo is you can scroll down the menu and use the practice mode.

[Jason]

* Also one nice thing about the demo is you can scroll down the menu and use the practice mode.

I did not know that...I'll have to check it out.

[Jason]

I like the practice mode - it really gave me a chance to work on my swing mechanics. One negative thing I did notice is that timing has no effect on the direction of the ball, it only effects the power. As a right-handed player, if my forehand swing is early, the ball should go to the left, regardless of where I'm aiming - if I swing late, it should go to the right. That didn't seem to happen when it tried it tonight.

[BDSooner72]

They just added release date delivery for this game, SSX and Tiger Woods.  As a Prime member I get the shipping free. 

[Jason]

Same here.

I'm very tempted to pick up the new SSX too. The videos have impressed me so far.

[Jason]

IGN just post their review: Grand Slam Tennis 2 review

[Jason]

Brent, has your copy from Amazon shipped? Mine hasn't yet.

[BDSooner72]

Yea, shipped yesterday UPS Next Day, expected delivery is today.

[Jason]

They shipped my late last night with an expected delivery of today.

[BDSooner72]

Well you may be the one getting to play it today.

Dallas/Ft. Worth A/P TX
Delay in delivery due to weather or natural disaster - February 14, 2012 10:16:00 AM

[Jason]

So Brent, what do you think of it so far? I only played one game and hope to play it a bit more this weekend.

[BDSooner72]

Just going to copy/paste my reply from the other site I post on.


    Yeah that was really noticeable in the demo. I also dislike that I can hit a perfect drop shot from pretty much anywhere on the court, of course it does not matter since they get to them so fast. The difficulty seems a bit ramped up from the demo. I was easily winning games in the demo on the hardest level. Moved it up just a notch to "Pro" in the retail game and it is far more challenging. It feels harder to break serves versus the demo. Where the game seems much harder is when you mistime serves, they really take advantage of it.

    Going to start the career mode tomorrow and I sure hope there are more than 4 non-championship venues that are available in play now. I do like that you have multiple courts for each championship (take note 2K) and it is so nice to have commentary (again take note 2k). What I do not like is having only one camera view (take note EA) as Top Spin has always offered a nice selection of camera options. I prefer the camera to be a little lower and closer myself.

    I was a bit disappointed by the demo but the full game seems a bit more to my liking. There seems to be a few more unforced errors but they seem too random and not because of a mishit, bad return location, etc. Kinda looking forward to Career Mode, we will see how long that lasts.

    One strange thing was I did not get the pop up for the Online Pass and there is no way to enter my code. It let me go into the XBL area and go into a match versus and online opponent but still shows the pass "inactive" in the EA Player hub.

---------------------------------

    Scratch the love of commentary, after a couple matches it becomes really repetitive. To the point I have already turned it off. Also the game is a whopping 2.3GB installed on the disc and based on the fact you only have 8 venues to play in and limited commentary, it shows.

    So I jumped into the career mode...

    Worst Career Mode EVER. So bad they should have pulled a March Madness from the PS2 days and left it out completely. Making your own tourneys and playing the Classic mode are the only saving graces and even then this game is just one step ahead of Virtua Tennis in regards to simulating the sport. The only reason I list the two modes above is that you can control the difficulty.

    So you start career mode, make your player and you are off to week one (12 weeks in a season) and 10 seasons. There is no option to control difficulty in career mode, at least that I have seen. It is one of those, start you off with a low rated player and you ramp up. Typical of tennis games, except for there is no amateur or semi-pro levels. They throw you right into the professional season with all the scrubs, current pros and even the classic players. I went through what they call a pre-tournament and might have lost one point through 6 rounds, ending up playing Stefan Bengt Edberg in the final. Yup, those classic players are in all the tourneys. Then after beating the silly pre-tourney you return to the main menu only to find out you can play it again and again and again because QA at EA took the day off. You can also play training for the week or an exhibition at the same venue as the pre-tournament. You have two weeks of this same thing leading up to a Major tourney. So it has you playing in the same place for two weeks on a venue with a surface the same as the Major you play in the third week. On the bright side they do allow you to select how long each match is before each round (1set/3games - 3sets/3games - 5sets/6 games). The only advantage to playing a longer match is you are more capable of earning bonus attributes by performing specific challenges for the match.

    If you thought the ratings in NCAA Football were useless, this game puts it to shame. I was a lvl 35 player with opponents twice the rating and I had no problem with any of them in the matches I played in year one. I simmed like 6 years and the career stays the EXACT same, except for the difficulty. Starting around year three, that guy you beat in year one who had a serve of 65MPH and watched half of your shots go by is now the second coming of Roger Federer. It is just flat out lazy. I would be embarrassed to be someone on the team who was in charge of this pile of dung they call a career mode. Going through the first year of your career is set so low, in regards to difficulty, you should be ashamed if you lose a set through the first year. They just hand you a Grand Slam, which should be something anyone who enjoys tennis would want to be a challenge. Oh but you will have to earn them, just have to wait a few years as the players difficulty level jumps up and players can get to pretty much any shot on the court. So let me just say that if you want any sort of challenge, sim the first year and if you have any skills in tennis games, sim another. Otherwise it will just be mindless (1set/3game) matches just to get to a point where the CPU puts up a fight.


    For once Gamespot put it best in their review.

    http://www.gamespot.com/grand-slam-t...eview-6350038/

    The Good

    Only tennis game with all four Grand Slam venues
    Various control options that are all easy to grasp
    Great roster of classic players.

    The Bad

    Weak career mode
    Only a few court locations
    Female roster lacks top stars.



    Top Spin 5 can't get here fast enough. If I had not already played Top Spin 4 to death I would buy it again with the trade money from this game. Now I am just going to play the modes listed above and trade this in when Top Spin 5 hits. It might make for a fun online game so if anyone is interested I will gladly give online a go.