Anyone playing Top Spin on Xbox?

Slice - In real life, slice is also used to reduce the chance that your opponent will return big. Ideally, a sliced ball keeps very low after bouncing (virtually skippin/skidding). In TS, slice generally does a good job of reducing big returns, though I feel a high-risk shot can overturn that quite a bit, but it hasn't happened frequently enough for me to think that High-Risk owns all flat shots... yet... Overall, I really like how slice is implemented in TS.

Lobs -- Yeah, in TS, lobs are huge. Used to somewhat neatralize a horrible situation, and to punish mindless rushers. Too bad I haven't had a world of VT2 competition (aside from some really tough local VT2 competition), but I've generally been able to get to probably 90% of the lobs used appropriately, and I end up winning the point a lot when that happens. Could be just my small world of competition though..... But I feel that anyone who overlooks the lob in TS, is easily dead. Thus, I feel lobs are great in TS.

Topspin - I do have to agree with some of those that criticized Topspin Tennis regarding the topspin shot. I think it's excellent for angles in Topspin tennis, and it's awesome on the serve. But... I don't feel the topspin groundstrokes bounce as high as they should.... That is, I think they should bounce higher depending on stats/skills.... I'd like to see the Topspin Skill give the ball a big kick off the bounce if driven deep, for instance. I would also hope that the returner's level of skill with a groundstroke could reflect how they would deal with such a quick and high bouncing ball that just seems to lunge at them at the baseline. I think topspin shots are excellent in TS, but I think they can still be better by somehow having a kick variable to it... Maybe based on stroke style and racquet being used.

-Chanchai

 

Yea, I agree that the TP dosen't really make returning high bouncing balls difficult. But if you're playing an opponent who plays a more reserved style (more real tennis-like if you will) these tactics do work well. Unfortunately, too many online players now use risk shots on these balls which kind of ruins the whole realism. I really hope they balance the risk shots properly in TS2. Ideally in TS2 I'd like to see a kind of merging together of elements from VT and TP. For example, more refined control and more importance on deep shots would be nice.

Was playing some more matches last night...bloody hell, there's some scary players out there now. I'm struggling to rise my rank above 650. I actually played the number 3 ranled player last night and guess what tactics he employed? Yep, risk-shot after risk-shot over and over again. Despite this I manged to take a few games from him which royally pissed him off - he was clearly used to winning all his games 0-0. But generally these tactics are just lame and unrealistic....I may start confirming with folk before play that they don't abuse this shot.

Anyways, I'll drop you a PM sometime Chanchai and we can arrange to meet-up online for a game sometime. I usually play later evening 10pm - 1am.

Shoju, that's great news concerning Shenmue III. I really hope its true. I also hope there's a decent budget put aside for it if development does go ahead. A cheap project would be a real shame.

 

Lobs got toned down from VT1 cause they were too easy to throw out which was unrealistic on top of that smashes were weak. There really there in VT2 to deter a player from getting right up next to the net or premeditating their shot. At those times lobs worked very well and put just a bit of hesitation in a volleyer's mind about how close they could get.

I think lobs in TS although a bit harder to return work pretty much the same as in VT2. I usually only get caught out if I try to premeditate a volley.

 

Woohoo, finally played my first VFDC associated Topspin match. Thanks for the game, Maximum. Was a total blast and some intense points. Lots of changing things up too. Serves, returns, baseline, netrushing, counterpunching, aggressive attacking, etc....

Hope you liked my Marat Safin wannabe character I used in that match hehehe. Felt like we had a lot of 20-hit rallies.

To let you know, before we played, I was practicing some slice volleys in live games to see if it would help my netplay much. For the most part, it buys just enough time and sometimes results in a pass. Especially against low-star volley players (could be just me). Works well against someone on the run that can barely make it.

A note on risk shots... This has been known to quite a lot of people already I guess, but I didn't really apply it till today... D-Pad risk shots rarely fly off the court. Analog Stick risk shots EASILY fly off the court.

Also, I haven't yet encountered many people who use the drop shot much. I almost feel like an exception in terms of how much I've been using the drop shot today. Especially drop volleys.

-Chanchai

P.S. It blows that Rafael Nadal is now injured with a hairline fracture in the left ankle.... He's a fun player to watch, imo. Lots of energy, almost no fear, and so much raw talent. Furthermore, he looked like he was ready to get a few titles this clay court season. I hope he can play at Rolland Garros, but that probably won't happen. It was a real pity he didn't play Rolland Garros last year, though at least this year it's a legitimate injury (last year he injured himself jumping over a net lol, at least that's the story I heard in the press, but half the press doesn't know what they're talking about in tennis).

 

For anyone interested the final score was:

Chanchai beat Maximum 3-1 1-3 3-1

Was a great match, and very close all the way. Chanchai made great use of short balls and killing the pace. Good net play and court coverage too.

Looking forward to our next encounter. /versus/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

Same here, very much looking forward to it (with headset too perhaps, when I get one anyways).

However, I do have to say something.... I'm getting my ass kicked by Risk Shots all over the place.. Starting to have Risk Shot nightmares in Topspin tennis.... gotta figure out how to deal with all this.... grrr.... no matter what I mix up too...

-Chanchai

 

Yep, risk shot abusers are a right pain. I've no problem with risk serves or the occasional risk ground stroke but if someone is using them all the time there's not much you can do but meet like with like, and I'm not prepared to do that as I feel it spoils the realism of the game.

Against the dude who was ranked 3rd and constantly used risk shots, I managed to snatch a few games from him by pulling my player back and using lots of slice. If you can anticipate where the ball is going you can happily return pretty much any risk shot with the defensive slice, then occasionally mix it up and hope to thow him off balance. Actually, it was very satisfying winning a few games against him because I knew I'd really earned them.

Overall though, I'd say the best tactic is just not play people who abuse this shot. On occasion, and whenever I see someone with high rank, I'll ask them if they're risk-shot whores before I accept the match.

Thankfully, it seems the majority of TP players play fairly and don't resort to lame tactics.

 

Hmm... been checking out some videos of xbox live matches. Particularly this guy that goes by Sicilian Boy (all of the vids available are of him, posted by him of course). Very little lag as well (I'm almost jealous).

Trends: Almost all risk shots and drop shots. Some of his opponents are also Risk abusers, but some of his opponents use slice to some decent results.

The way to describe what it looks like.... Traditionalist's nightmare... that is, for what people were afraid of in terms of what "Power Tennis" might do to the game, that's what this looks like. Lots of winners, lots of unforced errors. Ralies last about 3-4 crosses on average.

I don't think it's that bad at all to be honest, at least what's shown on the vids. Lots of prediction involved though. Sort of a "live by the yomi, die by the yomi" tennis lol. Pacing reminds me of watching some professional table tennis matches (short points anyways).

The vids are currently only available via FTP, but you have to use FlashFXP it seems, to get the file (BPFTP wouldn't work for me anyhow).

Details on getting the files is at forums.xbox.com

I've also been looking at some of the community-sub-rules out there... I guess risk-whiners (well, people that hate the risk shot button) like to call their rules "sim rules." For the most part, it's a limit or an exclusion of risk shots (but risk serves are okay, of course). The scary part, the annoying ruleset, is the "Pure Sim" rules. At least I find those rules annoying because under Pure Sim, they really don't want you doing much at all.... No Risk Shots, No Drop Shots (huh?!), No Kick Serves (geez), No Zero Power Serves (I can understand this, especially if you don't want to allow risk shot returns, I still think it's fine though, if not annoying)....

Here are a few Topspin related sites:
X-Box Forums - There is a Topspin forum in there (Have to have a passport/hotmail account)

Global Topspin - A "Sim" Rules community of Topspin players.

European Topspin Tour - European players only (sigh). A series of tournaments that mirror the ATP Tour events (ie. they're playing a Monte Carlo tournament this week)

-Chanchai

 

Thanks for the links, never knew the Topspin had such an active community. Interesting takes on what different players think is legitimate play style. At the end of the day I guess you have to just accept the game as it is.

I'm looking forward to the new live update with support for in-game tournaments. Not sure if we'll have to wait until topspin 2 to access them however.

Anyways, name a time and date so I can get my revenge for the last match.... /versus/images/graemlins/cool.gif