[Smallberries]

I'm going to be THAT guy who rates it a little lower at 7. It's good but not great, due to the fact that it WANTS to be a sports sim but its "franchise" or career mode is lacking. The best sports games mirror their real games as much as possible with dynamic gameplay that makes you feel as if you're up against real competion bent on winning the title. That's where TS4 comes up short. There are WAY too few players (80 is a joke), way too small tournaments (8, 16, 32), and AI players that are fairly static when off the court in career mode (i.e. they don't progress or evolve, their stats never change, several of them only play one or two tournaments a year). Add in no injuries and very light stat tracking, and I can see the career mode becoming stale after a few weeks.

On the flip side, the actual gameplay is fantastic, except for the serving which needs more risk/reward. The various players, both real and fictitious, all have their own "style" and play unique enough to pose different challenges. If all you care about is gameplay and online, this game is easily a 9. I'm more of a single-player fan, hence the 7. Good. Probably the best tennis game ever made, but plenty of room for improvement. And for the sake of comparison, I'd have given TS3 a 5 .