Is it worth it?

[RainingAmoeba79]

TS4 is my first topspin gme, but i hear ppl saying how great topspin 3 was, and how you could serve and volley and make errors, which i want. So, after travelling to my local gamestop, i aw they had it new fr 10 bucks. Is it worth it? Can anyone here on itst play with me online? THX!

[djarvik]

Grab it now. Best tennis SIM on console to date.

Hard game to learn, near impossible to master.

[RainingAmoeba79]

Alright, will get it and post my reactions in a couple of days. Also, if it is the most realistic SIM, why did we discontinue the tour for it?tons of ppl seem interested, looking around the board....

[tonedawg1]

Alright, will get it and post my reactions in a couple of days. Also, if it is the most realistic SIM, why did we discontinue the tour for it?tons of ppl seem interested, looking around the board....

Cuz ts3 is old when it first started in 2008 I think, a lot of people played but as time went on ppl fell off. Also the connection wasn't good, that's the main reason people left

[LokiSharpShootr]

Alright, will get it and post my reactions in a couple of days. Also, if it is the most realistic SIM, why did we discontinue the tour for it?tons of ppl seem interested, looking around the board....

Cuz ts3 is old when it first started in 2008 I think, a lot of people played but as time went on ppl fell off. Also the connection wasn't good, that's the main reason people left

LOL, i remember that sometimes i hitted the ball then the game would freeze and my oponnent would magically teleport to hit the ball, it was kinda funny but really annoying.

[RainingAmoeba79]

LOL

i like the game mostly, but SVseems impossible.

[Corbon]

Was about to ask the same question, TS4 is my first game in the series. I think I'll grab TS3 off ebay if I can get a copy for like 6 Euro. Not in a hurry though.

I read that risk shot returns are ridiculously overpowered so in TS4 they basically got rid of the risk shot and turned returns into crap ("flat" full power shots still sail like 2 feet above the net). Not for the CPU on higher difficulty levels of course.

[Corbon]

So I got the game for 10 Euro off ebay. I am really greatful for that stats trick, that way I can experiment the way I want to without spending days on leveling.

The player creation is MUCH better than in TS4, there are more variations and refinement and people actually look like you created them on the court and in their character portraits. It doesn't affect gameplay though (I created a male char 205cm tall and like 150 kg heavy and with 100 Speed for shits and giggles, he moved around on the court like a hippo on crack).

Everything else however seems worse, gameplay is far less smooth and the graphics are a good bit poorer. Sound is awful at times, when I play against Sharapova, her grunts sound nothing like a human voice could produce. Most serve motions are ugly as well. I am also missing a power indicator to see how strong I am hitting the ball.

With 100 Serve and Power I can hit 221 km/h with male chars and 195 km/h with female chars. I am not sure if that's the maximum because I can't tell how hard I hit the balls. I also switched to button serves, in TS4 I am much more comfortable with stick serves (they basically replaced risk shots on serve). As for ground risk shots, I am glad they're gone.

Oh yeah forget about volleying, it's awful. Even on Very Hard, strong volleyers like Becker are easy to pass.

[emate007]

gameplay is far less smooth and the graphics are a good bit poorer. Sound is awful at times, when I play against Sharapova, her grunts sound nothing like a human voice could produce. Most serve motions are ugly as well. I am also missing a power indicator to see how strong I am hitting the ball.

The sound of the ball strike indicates how clean and hard you hit each shot. Play enough and you'll know instantly whether it was full power or not. Also, risk shots.

Oh yeah forget about volleying, it's awful. Even on Very Hard, strong volleyers like Becker are easy to pass.

The computer is just bad at its own game. Volleying was very well done in TS3, my biggest complaint was not having a 'cancel shot button' for when you release too early and a weak lob lands on your head.

[Corbon]

Thanks for the reply. I am still learning how to time risk shots perfectly. Also can you confirm those serve speeds? Because I am not sure if I actually hit the ball at 3 stars.

Volleying in TS4 is much more forgiving, timing is not as crucial and the smoother gameplay also helps. And in TS3 I noticed that even on Very Hard the AI sometimes misses your serve completely even when the ball is almost flying through him/her. Some built in fail mode. In general, AI serve speeds are more realistic when it comes to power. I mean you shouldn't see Federer consistantly serving at 160 km/h like he does in TS4 even on Expert.

[djarvik]

You need to play humans. Forget AI. It sucks, big time, and makes the experience quite bad actually.

The fact you don't see any meters for risk and other shots is a major plus in my book. That means there near zero chance of the game being "mastered", and that leads to rallies and points to be different most matches, unlike the TS4 where the match becomes an exercise in hitting same shots over and over.

3 different risk combos means you have literary three times more shots at your disposal, add the risk serve ....and the risk volley..... oh and "control shots" are there as well, just try.

Could the TS3 be more polished and have better animation - yes. And it would have been near perfect. That was the format of the game I liked, they needed to build on that, improve etc...

Taking away the risk is the wrong move, sales figures show this....as well as sign-ups. TS3 ran strong for 3 years! ...TS4 is losing momentum less then 1 year into the lifespan. Lack of depth now really shows....

[Ali-Iqb93]

Maybe because top spin 3 was the first ps3 tennis game?

[djarvik]

not sure I follow

[Moralspain]

oh God i pout when i remember how good TS3 was

[Corbon]

So I guess there's no DLC planned for TS4?

Feels like Tekken 6...

Good point about the missing power meters, it makes the game less predictable and doesn't turn into a snore fest like two equally strong Borg players trying to outwake each other.

What ali probably meant is that a first game of its kind on a particular console will be more fondly remembered than later games of the same genre.