Top Spin Reviews?
 

Any Word of Mouth or reviews on this game yet?

Some reviews can be found here.

Stellar reviews across the board.



Why Sega just handed the tennis market over to a newcomer without a fight is just baffling. Over 370,000 Virtua Tennis copies were sold on Dreamcast. {And over 100,000 total of Sega Sports Tennis 2k2 were sold, despite the limited improvement, since the first was done so well.}

Who wouldn't have bought a new Virtua Tennis Online if it had showed up in the past year?

yup... sounds like a winner so far from the reviews. i am getting very very busy w/ all the new games coming out... just not enough time.

yes, i will be getting topspin as well.

It's up for order on X-box retail rewards site. Now I just wish there were other games on there to spend my 4500 points. Looking forward to getting this.

http://www.gamerankings.com/htmlpages2/562452.asp

So far the reviews are looking good.

well, some bad news for some people.

i just read that the only way to play doubles is to have each team on the same xbox. that is, you can't have 4 people on their own machines at home.

Just to clarify what young said, you can't get online with 3 of your buddies from different locations and play doubles together. Your doubles partner have to be sitting next to you to play.

It would have been nice to be able to do this, but it's still a pretty damn good tennis game!

Thong

yeah, don't get me wrong... i'm still picking it up b/c so far, people say it's a great game. people keep comparing it to virtua tennis, but since i never played that game, i don't know what that means.

i have my copy on hold at toysrus and will pick it up tonight.

Great game. Played it last night, though I didn't get a chance to go on XBLive with it. Graphics, animations, and gameplay are all outstanding. Improves on what Virtua Tennis did so well in every way.

Man! Ran up against Ken Nash in the career mode Pro tournament, and got my butt whooped. Ouch! More training!

Thong

Alright I picked this one up since they didn't have Crimson Skies at the local TRU but I haven't opened it yet just in case. I used to really like the Sega Virtua Tennis game (especially the mini-games). I'm not a big fan of real pro tennis though and generally would rather play shooters on XBOX LIVE since I always get killed when I try Football.

Anyone have any tips/insight into whether I should keep this one?

How about try renting TopSpin, if you like it, then open your copy. If not, return it.

Does it have mini games in it (like the serving game where you have to hit the blocks off the court) or is it just straight tennis?

Keep it. Yes it has mini games. They are in a story mode type of career. Game is awesome.

ok, after staying up til 3am playing this game, i have to give it a big thumbs up! i like it even better than crimson skies.

few problems:
loading times are ridiculous
loading hung once
while serving, i got a blank blue screen, and then a message to restart the xbox... :eek:

i played a friend of mine w/ max stats, i had 4 stars, and he crushed me. i think i won 1 point. so, for online, you may need to max out your players.

That kind of stinks. But isn't there some sort of Optimatch thing where you get matched up with players of similar skill levels? That may help people who want to play online right away, but don't want to just get stomped outright.

there is an optimatch, but honestly, i do avoid optimatch sessions at all costs.

i will be adding people to my friends list tonight from the dvdtalk list; if anyone wants to play against someone not fully maxed out yet, let me know.

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Serve - **
Forehand - **
Backhand - **
Volley - ***

skill - volley

I loved Virtua Tennis because it was fast, easy to play, and the mini games were fun. Top Spin was called "Virtua Tennis 3" by EGM, but I don't think it deserves that honor because it's not arcade-ish like Virtua Tennis was. It's got great graphics and animations, but I don't think it's as fun to play. The players move slower than in Virtua Tennis, and that takes getting used to. Control in Virtua Tennis was easy, but the power shots (or whatever they're called) in Top Spin that require you to time the left or right trigger just right are difficult to pull off. I haven't seen all the mini games yet, but the ones I have seen are boring games like hit-the-ball-here-using-forehand or hit-the-ball-here-using-backhand; so far I haven't seen any fun games like Virtua Tennis had, such as knocking over bowling pins or hitting boxes out of the court. There's no music during the matches, so that makes them sound dull (at least to me). It also would have been nice if Microsoft had given HDTV owners the option to play the game in 16X9 format. It's a good tennis game if you're looking for realism.

And oh yeah... the load times are ridiculously long!

Anyone tried the XSN Sports leagues yet? We should set up a DVDTalk Top Spin Conference.

This is a pretty fun game. I actually managed to create a character with the same skin tone and build as me. The hairstyle's a little off, and he kind of looks like a monster if you look at him in the face up close, but otherwise, he's a shoo-in for me! :) I even decked him out in the type of clothes I usually wear to play tennis. In short, the player creator is great.

It's also cool that you can get sponsored by real-life companies that make tennis gear (Wilson is mine right now). I couldn't seem to find a way to get sponsored by Head, though, even though my character started out with a Head racket. If anyone figures that one out, let me know.

The "improve your skill" minigames are a nice break from playing matches, but my GOSH, the second serve one is killing me. I got the first one sort of easily, but I've already spent $12,500+ on the second one. The forehand "improve your skill" games are a lot easier... I didn't mess up on those once.

my only real complaint is that i think it's a little buggy... it crashed 2x on me now (no other game has ever crashed on me). where it gives you a blank blue screen and then a message to restart the xbox. this has also happened to a friend of mine.

both times, it happens when a match is about to start (i just started to serve)

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i must say that it's very convenient that you can add friends while in the game and not in the xbox dashboard.

IGN Top Spin review Score 9.3

Gamespot Top Spin reveiw Score 9.1

A little more speech would be nice, too... I think are little blurbs when you start and finish matches sometimes, and of course when points are called out, but that's about it. I think it'd be great if Microsoft got Bud Collins, John McEnroe, and Chris Evert to do some sort of commentary. But no commentary plus no music when your match is loading up can make for an eerily quiet atmosphere, especially compared to other sports games.

But the sound the game does have is great. With a 5.1 system, you really feel like the crowd is all around you when they clap and cheer. The actual sounds of the game are nice, too. One additional thing I noticed was when I played in a pro tournament against a guy named Salvador Rios... people in the crowd would call out his name once in a while. "Salvador, I love you!" Stuff like that. Kinda neat.

I just bought this game...haven't even opened it yet. I would love to get in a dvdtalk xsn conference, or league, or however they work those things. That is, as long as the game is as good as everyone makes it seem!

The load times are really the only thing I dont like, they are MURDER. Especially if you fail a challenge. You have to load back to menu and load back into the challenge. Way too slow.

No crashes at all for me so far. Hope it stays that way.

Love the game otherwise. Online is really fun.

Yeah, I thought the whole point of having a hard drive was to not have long load times.

I finally got my second serve star! WOO! Looks like the third one will be even harder, though. I found that the easiest way to afford the challenges (at the Young Gun level, anyways) is to just keep whoring yourself out to company after company. You get WAY more money for completing the first two sponsor challenges than you do for winning a Minor Pro tournament, and in much less time.

Okay, I started a new character for giggles (Cap'n Morgan, meanest tennis player to ever sail the seven seas), and gave him the Defense natural ability as well as the Precision skill... so basically, less power, more control. I got the second serve star in one try. Yeesh.

I'm on the fourth serve star now, and that's giving me problems. I can't seem to hit the targets at 9 or 3 o'clock... the ones halfway into the service box and all the way on the left or right.

So who wants to play me online :D Is it me or is it really hard to hit the ball? How do you know which way it's going to go? By the time I figure it out the ball's buzzed me by :(

I just ordered this game, so I'll play you as soon as I get it :D

Woohoo :D

:D

On the serve? Or during a point? On the serve it can be really hard, especially if someone risk-shots you. There's no real way to know for certain until the ball starts coming at you, although I've found that certain opponents fall into patterns... some like to risk-serve out wide, and some like to go down the middle. Scoot back from the baseline a few steps, and you'll get a fraction of a second more to react... that might be all that you need. (Conversely, if someone sends you a weakass second serve, step into the court a few steps and send it back to them quicker.)

During the point I find that it's almost too easy to hit balls, unless you get caught too far in one direction. It seems like the game aids you with that in certain situations.

And I'll play anyone once I get a long enough Ethernet cable... that sounds a lot cheaper than a wireless bridge. I'm going to try and trade in for Crimson Skies, too, once it comes into my local Toys R Us.

I'll offer my usual group up as dvdtalk's 'subcontractor' if nobody here starts up a league. :)
http://www.powerhousesportsleagues.com/forum/

We have a league for every sport, but currently only tennis and golf are in the preparation/signup stages. (Football and hockey are currently in-season [but we could always use more people on the Waiting Lists], and basketball is currently full and soon to reach their Opening Night.)

<strike>where's the signup for the tennis league at your site? i'm very slow today...</strike> duh, i found it... it's grouped together w/ the golf forum.
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you know it's a good game when your thumbs hurt :eek: :D

Holy crap, this game is a ton of fun. I may have to drop out of society for this and RS3.

Are there any plans to do this on XSN for DVDTalkers?

Top Spin = beaten :D.

Since you've beaten the game, let me ask you how often you used the Risk Shot after the initial serve? I'm just wondering if I have to master using that technique in order to beat the game.

Thanks!

Thong

I would really like to get together with some "regulars" to play this game with. I don't really like playing against a bunch of strangers. An XSN league would be perfect.

don't need the risk shot at all to beat the career mode. but, you will need it for online.