TENNIS AO Tennis

beechcroft

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Ross said in a recent article that Big Ant are coming out with a tennis game next year. Very exciting for tennis fans.

"We're going to do tennis, and we're going to do tennis because no one else is doing tennis. And the thing is, we can own it if we do it well enough. We pretty much own cricket. No one else in their right mind would do cricket now. So, it would be extremely difficult, even for EA. Because, we planted that flag and we own that space.

Tennis is our next target. We actually did five console games last year. This year we have four console games. It's amazing the output – it's a lot of games. You don't see a lot of them Stateside because it is cricket, rugby, things like that. But you'll certainly see tennis. They're be another lacrosse in March next year, and tennis toward the middle of the year."
 
D

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Indeed, I'm a big tennis fan (probably even more than cricket/football) and was delighted to hear about this! It's been so long since there was a AAA tennis game, over 5 years since TS4 which I find crazy really considering how good the current era of tennis is and the worldwide fanbase.

For PC there's TE which I'm still playing, imo the best tennis game out there right now with active online multiplayer, but I've played it for years and look forward to something fresh. I'm sure Big Ant will deliver :). I wonder if 'middle of the year' means that the French Open/Wimbledon period is being targeted, I think that could be a good strategy but maybe I'm reading too much into that quote.

We know next to nothing about it right now - I guess we'll hear more when BA's focus shifts from DBC after it's released in December, but this is right up there at the top of my most anticipated games and I'll be keeping an eye on any news for sure :).
 

Alexei.

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Yeah! Tennis. Tennis Court Creator,Career,Competitions Yay.Was looking for tennis games some days ago.
 

beechcroft

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TS4 is Top Spin 4, and TE is Tennis Elbow.

I've been a PC games player since the 80's, and have played all the tennis games. Generally, a pretty sorry bunch. I like Tennis Elbow, but, for me, Full Ace is the best of the PC games. It does have a steep learning curve, though, IMHO, and hasn't been updated in ages.

If Big Ant can do for tennis what DBC did for cricket, then it'll be something special. Can't wait to hear more about it.
 
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TS4 is Top Spin 4, and TE is Tennis Elbow.

I've been a PC games player since the 80's, and have played all the tennis games. Generally, a pretty sorry bunch. I like Tennis Elbow, but, for me, Full Ace is the best of the PC games. It does have a steep learning curve, though, IMHO, and hasn't been updated in ages.

If Big Ant can do for tennis what DBC did for cricket, then it'll be something special. Can't wait to hear more about it.
Full Ace could have been fantastic, and I understand why you think it's the best. I've played the demo for years, gave it another go today after seeing your post, I enjoyed playing but it is so rough and feels unfinished. I wish they'd continued to work on it but it's dead now by the looks of it...

IMO it has the best controls and gameplay mechanics out there, let down by the seriously ugly animations. I can usually look past visuals if the gameplay is there, but it just looks so odd... That plus the fact there's pretty much zero online multiplayer due to the lack of players means I never bought the game. In TE I can go on it any evening, host a match and be playing within 5 minutes... And the tour at ITST adds that competitive edge to the online with their tour.

If I only played single player though, I probably would have tried to persist with Full Ace.

Dream Match Tennis is another I used to play years ago which had some nice gameplay mechanics - I liked the way the timing affected the direction of the shot. It looks extremely dated now though...
 

beechcroft

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Good conversation, Madman.

I'm not an online player, so I have different requirements from a game. I know that people really like TE's online mode. The problem I had with TE was that I was winning everything at beginning level, but couldn't win a game at club level, even after using the intermediate levels, so I dropped it. I'm sure that was just me, though. I'll probably give it another try when the next version comes out next year.

I agree that Full Ace has the best controls and mechanics, which is why I like it. I picked it up again a few months ago, after getting nowhere with it earlier, and slowly started to get better at winning points, and the occasional game. I like that it rewards hard work, and I think the tutorial is very good. As you say, it has a lot of potential. I hope the developer comes back to it, but it's just one guy, and he had other commitments. He was very responsive to his customers, though.

I'd forgotten about Dream Match Tennis. I haven't spent much time with it, but I liked what I saw. I might give it another go.

Did you ever play Tennis Masters? I played the heck out of that, and really enjoyed it. There have been others, but they've all been terrible. I hate to think of the amount of money I've wasted over the years :-)

I have high hopes for Big Ant's tennis. I hope they do a DBC-style academy and demo.

Now, if only they'd do a rugby union game. That's desperately needed. I know they have a League game, but I'm a Union man.

Cheers.
 
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I see what you mean about TE vs the CPU, you can up the difficulty until it destroys you but it doesn't feel fair or that you could do anything better with the controls (the controls are very simple). It's much better against human opponents though and the ITST mod has a roster with player attributes tailored to produce balanced online gameplay. The custom animations made by modders are excellent too, many of the players have a full set of custom anims for their strokes. If online isn't your thing then it's maybe not got much to offer... Some of the mods focus on the single player world tour mode but I wouldn't play TE if I didn't play online.

Tennis Masters Series 2003? Never played that one... I've played some of the tennis games that didn't come to PC too like Top Spin 3 and Smash Court Tennis - tried the demo of Top Spin 4 and thought it was garbage so didn't buy it, same goes for EA's tragic effort "Grand Slam Tennis"... Really not a good time for tennis gaming, when the best we have are a couple of indie games put together by a single person (TE/FA).

The academy stuff seems to be a staple feature of Big Ant games which is great, hopefully the logo and stadium creators will make their way over to tennis, and a demo/beta could work like DBC's nets where you can just practice with a ball machine. I could talk about what I'd like to see in a tennis game all day, but I think I'll leave that discussion/wishlist stuff until a bit further down the line, hopefully BA will get involved somewhere for tennis like they have here with cricket :).
 

beechcroft

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Okay, you've validated my issues with TE. Now I don't feel that it's just me.

I've tried the versions of Top Spin and Virtua Tennis that were released for the PC, but discarded them in short order. Some of the really early ones back in the DOS days tried hard, but the PCs weren't really powerful enough for a decent tennis game.

I have an iPad Mini, so I've been playing some of the iOS tennis games. The idea of using the touch screen as a racquet is intriguing. The games are not bad, and fun to play, but there isn't a definitive one.

Writing this as I'm watching the third Eng v Pak ODI. The day/night matches are ideal for me as an ex-pat living in San Francisco, enjoying my retirement :-)
 
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I've never really played a tennis game on my tablet or phone (both Android) although I did buy Table Tennis Touch where you use the touch screen as the bat. That's one of the better mobile games I've played lately! Again that's another sport where there hasn't been a decent game for a long time - Rockstar made one for 360 a decade ago, I had this one for PC even longer ago and there's been a few motion control/VR attempts more recently. That said, and I don't normally like this response when talking about sports games, I think table tennis is one where you might as well just join a club and play for real, though it would be nice to see a good video game of it.

Here's a thread with more info about the next TE game;
Tennis Elbow - Previsional "Tennis Elbow 4" Planning

Steam Early Access planned for June-December and will be built in Unity engine... Not too much else known about it yet. I'll probably buy both Big Ant's and TE4.
 

beechcroft

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I have TTPro, but I haven't played it in years. Pretty good for it's time. I'll bet Big Ant could do a really table tennis game, but I doubt there's much demand for it. Same goes for squash. It's not big here in the States, but I played a lot of squash before I moved here. I'd love to see a good squash video game.

Thanks for the link to TE4. It looks really promising. Lots of changes.
 

DN4ngel23

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I see what you mean about TE vs the CPU, you can up the difficulty until it destroys you but it doesn't feel fair or that you could do anything better with the controls (the controls are very simple). It's much better against human opponents though and the ITST mod has a roster with player attributes tailored to produce balanced online gameplay. The custom animations made by modders are excellent too, many of the players have a full set of custom anims for their strokes. If online isn't your thing then it's maybe not got much to offer... Some of the mods focus on the single player world tour mode but I wouldn't play TE if I didn't play online.

Tennis Masters Series 2003? Never played that one... I've played some of the tennis games that didn't come to PC too like Top Spin 3 and Smash Court Tennis - tried the demo of Top Spin 4 and thought it was garbage so didn't buy it, same goes for EA's tragic effort "Grand Slam Tennis"... Really not a good time for tennis gaming, when the best we have are a couple of indie games put together by a single person (TE/FA).

The academy stuff seems to be a staple feature of Big Ant games which is great, hopefully the logo and stadium creators will make their way over to tennis, and a demo/beta could work like DBC's nets where you can just practice with a ball machine. I could talk about what I'd like to see in a tennis game all day, but I think I'll leave that discussion/wishlist stuff until a bit further down the line, hopefully BA will get involved somewhere for tennis like they have here with cricket :).

Oh really? I thought Top Spin 4 was amazing, imo the best tennis game I've played and am really hoping for a next-gen Top Spin game.
 
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Oh really? I thought Top Spin 4 was amazing, imo the best tennis game I've played and am really hoping for a next-gen Top Spin game.
There are far more people around who think it's great than people like me who don't like it... To me it felt really odd and nothing like tennis.

The speed of the ball, the physics, few unforced errors, scripted feel... It's been years since I played TS4 so I can't remember it too well, but I'd already started playing TE before it and if felt like a huge downgrade gameplay-wise.

A couple of videos from high level online matches (ITST finals);



TS4 is nicer visually with more variety in animations, but TE looks and feels more like tennis overall IMO. The pace of it, patterns of play, physics, court positioning etc.

It'd still be nice to see another Top Spin game, even Virtua Tennis! I quite like VT's silly mini-games and I think it's the only game to do 2v2 online doubles (would love that feature in Big Ant's if possible!).
 

Targaryen

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Ah! Tennis! I have a game of tennis installed in my pc and when I play other games again and again and it feels some sort of repetitive and boring... This tennis game makes me refreshed.

I'm talking about Virtua Tennis. A great game series by SEGA during those times (when it was developed & released) when there were very less games with visually enhanced and well built AI. It was considered to be a complete game a decade ago. The career mode in the game was really fantastic. It can still give a tight competition in the market for rival developers. With no doubt, the way BA (@BigAntStudios) are develping the current gen games, it seems that Tennis game will also make a mark and will reach out to many audience considering the fact that there are equal no. of supporters out there for both soccer and tennis. Lacrosse nailed it with its graphics and I'm damn sure they'll do something similar or more than that.
 

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