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Best of ATARI: Top Spin (PC)
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5/5 |
A.I. is very good, online play is smooth
(October 15, 2005) |
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The A.I. for this game is the first that I've played with in a tennis game that is actually genuinely intelligent. Most tennis games, you play against the best players and you can figure out their weakness and exploit it to win. Not with Top Spin. The best players can frequently be unpredictable with their shot selection which makes it much harder. You also get a great feeling when you win important points, especially in the Grand Slam tournaments. Online play is fine, you go into game spy, you create a room, someone joins and you launch the game, It's that simple. As long as you are playing with an opponent who is with a fairly low latency then the game will be nice and smooth. I'd just like to finish by noting that I play tennis in real life and this game is extremely realistic, the animation is spot on, much like seeing the tennis stars on TV. This may surprise you but after playing this game for a few days I actually had improved on the real courts. |
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1/5 |
AI sucks. Far too slow. Failed to get online gaming work.
(August 18, 2005) |
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First of all, this game is frustrating slow and I personally do not see how this game need that much CPU and video card. The problem is probably the background audience are rendered instead of plain 2D graphics, even so that is a bad decision. Clearly, there is something wrong with the game. Although my machine is a bit old (Dual Intel P3 866, 512 MB Ram, GeForce 4200), it runs Doom 3 smooth as anything, with better graphics and a lot more enjoyable. This game is not much fun to play due to incredible rubbish AI. Eg. Against Pete Sampras, the computer player comes up to net with a very slow second serve and plays volley. In real life, may be to put pressure to your opponent to make mistake. But on PC game, all I need is to press the safe shot key. Game play is far too easy. I can beat world number 2 player easily straight ahead. When your opponent serves the ball, it shows you the power bar or the risk shot bar. How ridiculous is that???? Why gives this away? You have 6 types of shots to choose. In the beginning, it confuses you a bit but the training sessions will help you to get better. However, I personally find these 6 types of shots are not well balanced. Eg The safe shot and the top spin can hardly make any difference during a match. The safe shot is as fast as the top spin without going out the court. The drop shot is as difficult as the risky shot which I don't really agree. Some graphic detail should be more accurate, such as there are tennis balls lying around under the umpire chair in a Grand Slam match. I also failed to get the online match to work. |
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