Top Spin for Xbox

[Kodos]

This game got really good reviews. Has anyone played it?

[rjolley]

My roommate tried it. She liked Visual Consepts' Tennis sim on Dreamcast a lot, and was looking for one on the XBox.

She was extremely disappointed. Not as much fun. Too much load time.

She played it for an hour and moved on to another game.

Maybe VC's was easier, but from watching her, I got the feeling Top Spin just wasn't the much fun

[SirFozzie]

Top Spin is very good.

I'm waiting for a couple of my friends and I to be on at the same time for some online game

[mgadfly]

I've owned it for a few weeks now. I'll give it a mixed review. Load times are bit annoying, but a lot of games are like that now days.

For me, the in-game play is excellent, allowing a player to hit with a variety of spins, control the depths of the hits, etc... The computer players use a variety of strategies depending on their skills (Serve and Volley, etc...). Playing against a friend is equally fun (I had a blast over Christmas break playing against my wife's uncle, who had never played XBox before).

But then there is the career mode. It S-U-C-K-S. It would have been a great game if you played through seasons as your cyber-self aged, balancing time spent in training, doing commercials, and playing in major tournaments. Instead it is the more arcade like style where you can play and beat tournaments, buy new rackets and clothes. Improve your skills by beating training levels, and junk like that. In no time I'd worked my way up into the top-15, and was winning tournaments against the pros.

So, IF you have friends that you plan to play, or subscribe to XBox Live, I'd recommend the game. IF you are looking forward to a tennis game with career play, this game doesn't do it (at least for me).

[ahbrady]

I hate to hear that about the career mode, but I am glad that you warned me about it, mgadfly. I have thought several times about buying this game, but the main reason I have considered it was for the career mode. I still may rent it some time, but every time I've looked for it at my local store they haven't had it.

[Kodos]

Cool. Sounds like I just saved $50.

[rjolley]

Sorry, should've mentioned that she played in Career mode and not on-line. I don't even think about XBox Live...haven't put the XBox online yet.

[Pumpy Tudors]

Although I still have it from GameFly, I'm disappointed with the loading times. I don't like the concept of its career mode, but I could stomach it for the sole purpose of improving my character. Unfortunately, the load times kill it. I'm not exactly the guru of all Xbox games, but of the games I've played, I've never been more frustrated with loading times. Another thing that's annoying is that you can't save mid-tournament in career mode (as far as I can tell). So if you start a tournament, you'd better be ready to play all three or four rounds. If you back out of a tournament once you've played one match, the game treats it as a loss. Urrrgh.