texasnightowl
CAGiversary!
Here's the review I just left on Amazon about this offering:
Needs a happy medium
Note 1: This review does not include Move functionality...played using standard SixAxis controller.
Note 2: Primary play type was Career mode.
Normal difficulty is too easy and Hard is too hard.
I played for several hours yesterday and that is my conclusion. I started with the normal (default) difficulty. I created a female character to play career mode. I played 6 tournaments and each tourney consists of 3 possible "matches". So that is 18 "matches" I played and won all of them very easily. So then I switched to "Hard" difficulty and proceeded to lose the next 8 matches I played. So in Normal mode I easily defeated players at higher "levels" than my player (ie. while I was a level "4" I was beating level "10" and "12" players) and then on Hard difficulty, I was losing badly to players at lower levels (ie. I was up to a level "12" and was losing to level "4" players).
So, personally, I believe the AI is really screwy when it comes to difficulty.
On other notes, the constant saving is tiresome and slow. Even with autosave supposedly turned off it saves *all* the time. Especially in the Player Evolution/My Player areas. And load times also seem extended.
It is also a bit frustrating that you are only allowed 1 "preparation" event and 1 "tournament" per month. Some of the preparation events are 2 weeks of yoga or attending a club opening! (though there are practice/sparring matches also available). I'd rather have had the option of 2 events per month total...up to the player whether to play a practice event or not (I did not) or play 2 tournaments per month.
Actual play is decent with respect to button usage to hit the ball and type of shots. But sometimes it feels like it is unresponsive in terms of movement - in particular after hitting a ball and trying to recover to center of court - it just sometimes seems like it is ignoring your input to move.
I also played one "Exhibition" mode match. I played as Agassi with the AI as Becker. I won easily...but the AI as Becker only approached the net once. Yes, Becker had some respectable groundstrokes...but to only approach the net *ONCE* in a match? No. Just no.
So to sum up...I find this a flawed game. Yes, decent playability re: strokes, especially as compared to TS3, but this is definitely flawed. Of TS4, TS3, or VT3, my favorite to date is VT3. I'm anxious to see how the new VT turns out.
Needs a happy medium
Note 1: This review does not include Move functionality...played using standard SixAxis controller.
Note 2: Primary play type was Career mode.
Normal difficulty is too easy and Hard is too hard.
I played for several hours yesterday and that is my conclusion. I started with the normal (default) difficulty. I created a female character to play career mode. I played 6 tournaments and each tourney consists of 3 possible "matches". So that is 18 "matches" I played and won all of them very easily. So then I switched to "Hard" difficulty and proceeded to lose the next 8 matches I played. So in Normal mode I easily defeated players at higher "levels" than my player (ie. while I was a level "4" I was beating level "10" and "12" players) and then on Hard difficulty, I was losing badly to players at lower levels (ie. I was up to a level "12" and was losing to level "4" players).
So, personally, I believe the AI is really screwy when it comes to difficulty.
On other notes, the constant saving is tiresome and slow. Even with autosave supposedly turned off it saves *all* the time. Especially in the Player Evolution/My Player areas. And load times also seem extended.
It is also a bit frustrating that you are only allowed 1 "preparation" event and 1 "tournament" per month. Some of the preparation events are 2 weeks of yoga or attending a club opening! (though there are practice/sparring matches also available). I'd rather have had the option of 2 events per month total...up to the player whether to play a practice event or not (I did not) or play 2 tournaments per month.
Actual play is decent with respect to button usage to hit the ball and type of shots. But sometimes it feels like it is unresponsive in terms of movement - in particular after hitting a ball and trying to recover to center of court - it just sometimes seems like it is ignoring your input to move.
I also played one "Exhibition" mode match. I played as Agassi with the AI as Becker. I won easily...but the AI as Becker only approached the net once. Yes, Becker had some respectable groundstrokes...but to only approach the net *ONCE* in a match? No. Just no.
So to sum up...I find this a flawed game. Yes, decent playability re: strokes, especially as compared to TS3, but this is definitely flawed. Of TS4, TS3, or VT3, my favorite to date is VT3. I'm anxious to see how the new VT turns out.
