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EA Sports Grand Slam Tennis (Wii)

markatisu

Member
rabhw said:
How does the star rating for your custom character work? It seems to just arbitrarily add to my total. Does the difficulty I play at contribute to how often I get my star total increased?

If I remember correctly your star rating goes up as you increase your abilities, you increase your abilities when you learn new skills, and the more you play the more chances you have to learn those skills.

The difficulty level imo probably hinders your ability to gain skills at first because your opponent is going to be beating the crap out of you and not giving you a chance to try out new shots/skills
 

rabhw

Member
Has anyone had their M+ just completely freak out on them? To the point where calibrating it (by holding it steady for X seconds) does nothing? I've tried removing the batteries on the wii remote but that only fixes it for a short time. My characters arm is flickering and failing all over the place. And even when I'm serving, I am holding the remote still before I serve, and my character is vibrating between an up/down position.

This happened to me the day after I bought the game but I figured my M+ was defective so I got it exchanged, but now the new one is doing it also...I've tried giving it a light tap against a surface (I remember reading that as a fix for Wii Remote issues) but that doesn't work either haha. Batteries are full too. Maybe I should stop swinging so hard? :lol
 
rabhw said:
Has anyone had their M+ just completely freak out on them? To the point where calibrating it (by holding it steady for X seconds) does nothing? I've tried removing the batteries on the wii remote but that only fixes it for a short time. My characters arm is flickering and failing all over the place. And even when I'm serving, I am holding the remote still before I serve, and my character is vibrating between an up/down position.

This happened to me the day after I bought the game but I figured my M+ was defective so I got it exchanged, but now the new one is doing it also...I've tried giving it a light tap against a surface (I remember reading that as a fix for Wii Remote issues) but that doesn't work either haha. Batteries are full too. Maybe I should stop swinging so hard? :lol

Could it be a Wiimote sensor sensitivity issue? Maybe try messing with that and/or the sensor bar position in the options menu.
 

fabprems

Member
rabhw said:
Has anyone had their M+ just completely freak out on them? To the point where calibrating it (by holding it steady for X seconds) does nothing? I've tried removing the batteries on the wii remote but that only fixes it for a short time. My characters arm is flickering and failing all over the place. And even when I'm serving, I am holding the remote still before I serve, and my character is vibrating between an up/down position.

This happened to me the day after I bought the game but I figured my M+ was defective so I got it exchanged, but now the new one is doing it also...I've tried giving it a light tap against a surface (I remember reading that as a fix for Wii Remote issues) but that doesn't work either haha. Batteries are full too. Maybe I should stop swinging so hard? :lol
This just happened to me a few hours earlier... I reset the game and everything was back to normal.. strange
 
Great to see some tennis love on the gaf!

Should I pick up a wii for this and tiger?


I can be a graphics whore at times but to be honest I have been gaming on the pc so much lately even the 360 looks a little rough to me. So the wii might be retro enough to not bother me.
 

carlnunz

Member
popping in to give a thumbs up, I had some problems at first, but after watching that tutorial about moving back to center quickly a switched turned on, controlling your shots perfectly is so satisfying

Went from being 1-8 to winning Wimbledon
 
Had a quick run through practice mode and one singles match and I'm very impressed so far. Some initial awkwardness was quickly overcome by referring back to the advice here - returning the Wiimote to a neutral position after a swing, remembering which side of the remote was the "face" etc. - and I was quickly able to place shots where I wanted them, and with the desired force.

I need more time with it, but my initial feeling is that this is what I had expected from the Wii Remote when it was first unveiled. While I'm generally happy with the Wii library I've built up over the past two years, if this is the future of motion controls on the system then I'm going to be delighted.
 

BorkBork

The Legend of BorkBork: BorkBorkity Borking
weedlewalker said:
Great to see some tennis love on the gaf!

Should I pick up a wii for this and tiger?


I can be a graphics whore at times but to be honest I have been gaming on the pc so much lately even the 360 looks a little rough to me. So the wii might be retro enough to not bother me.

If you are looking for a tennis SIM, I think this game is a system seller. The game will kick your ass in the beginning, and sometimes you'll get pissed off at the occasional point you lose because the control didn't pick it up, but it is extremely deep and rewarding when it finally clicks.

I can't speak for Tiger, but everything I've seen says that it's the best golf game on the market. So there ya go!
 

MercuryLS

Banned
Picked this up today and while I'm enjoying it, the calibration can get messed up too often in a match. I try my best to reset the remote between shots, but eventually the thing messes up some shots which usually costs me the match. I hope I can get the hand of it, cause when this game is working as it should it's amazing.
 

markatisu

Member
MercuryLS said:
Picked this up today and while I'm enjoying it, the calibration can get messed up too often in a match. I try my best to reset the remote between shots, but eventually the thing messes up some shots which usually costs me the match. I hope I can get the hand of it, cause when this game is working as it should it's amazing.

Time and practice, you will probably figure out how best to get it recalibrated (for me its setting it on my other wrist while I wait for the AI to return the ball)
 

BorkBork

The Legend of BorkBork: BorkBorkity Borking
Just defended my French Open title, really feeling it now.

The biggest thing for me now is that I'm improving on minimizing my unforced errors, (whether it be control spazzes or just bad timing), and improving my defensive game. I only had one unforced error against Federer, and allowed him no winners. So awesome!
 
weedlewalker said:
Great to see some tennis love on the gaf!

Should I pick up a wii for this and tiger?


I can be a graphics whore at times but to be honest I have been gaming on the pc so much lately even the 360 looks a little rough to me. So the wii might be retro enough to not bother me.

If the 360 looks rough to you the Wii will make you tear your eyes out unless you play it on a SDTV.
 

d+pad

Member
Rented this yesterday and because I don't (yet) have motion+ I've been playing it with the regular 'ol Wiimote. Still, I'm loving it. Chris Evert kicked my ass in three straight exhibition matches, and then something clicked. Beat her in my next exhibition match and then decided to give the Grand Slam mode a try. I've won (handily) all of my pre-tournie matches so far and I'm just about to play my first match.

Anyway, the game's great - even without motion+. Controls very similarly in this mode to Wii Sports tennis, which is a good thing - only GST offers the world tour mode and online play. Yes! So, I'll be picking up a copy of this shortly, along with motion+ :)
 
Bearillusion said:
If the 360 looks rough to you the Wii will make you tear your eyes out unless you play it on a SDTV.


Yea but the XBLA games do not bother me, cartoony games do not, 8-bit and 16-bit also.


Going from the PC playing 3d games at 2560x1600 with 2x AA makes the same TYPE of games on the 360 and ps3 look really rough.

The wii probably would not be too terrible because it is just different altogether.
 
d+pad said:
Anyway, the game's great - even without motion+. Controls very similarly in this mode to Wii Sports tennis, which is a good thing
I tried it without the M+ and noticed it plays almost exactly like Wii Sports tennis. It kind of makes sense to me now why the didn't bundle M+ with GST in the US since casual players would probably prefer it with the standard controls.
 
weedlewalker said:
Yea but the XBLA games do not bother me, cartoony games do not, 8-bit and 16-bit also.


Going from the PC playing 3d games at 2560x1600 with 2x AA makes the same TYPE of games on the 360 and ps3 look really rough.

The wii probably would not be too terrible because it is just different altogether.

Good luck with that.
 

Ollie Pooch

In a perfect world, we'd all be homersexual
weedlewalker said:
I can be a graphics whore at times but to be honest I have been gaming on the pc so much lately even the 360 looks a little rough to me. So the wii might be retro enough to not bother me.

probably wouldn't pick up a wii just for this, but i dont mind the graphics - they have a nice cartoony look and the animation is fantastic.
 

Shnookums

Member
Bearillusion said:
If the 360 looks rough to you the Wii will make you tear your eyes out unless you play it on a SDTV.

I'm not so sure about that. I think they did an incredible job designing this game to not reveal the Wii's graphical shortcomings in any glaring way. I'm playing on a plasma though so maybe that is helping smooth the rough edges a little.
 

Borman

Member
Shnookums said:
I'm not so sure about that. I think they did an incredible job designing this game to not reveal the Wii's graphical shortcomings in any glaring way. I'm playing on a plasma though so maybe that is helping smooth the rough edges a little.


I totally agree. A lot of the games Ive been playing recently have similar graphical styles, and it just looks great.
 
Anybody playing the online extensively? I've played about 20 matches and have won over half, with all being competitive. Most of my losses came the first day the game was out, but I've been on a pretty good streak today.

Lag has suprisingly not been a factor, with it only being slightly annoying in one match I had against a guy from Spain.

I've played against people in the top 20 a couple of times and did pretty well, winning half. The most popular strategy seems to be rushing the net, but countering with lobs works pretty well if you sit back and pick your shots properly. One guy I beat with a high ranking didn't seem that good, so I'm not sure if he had a bad match or just grinded out points the first few days to get near the top.

I do wish there was some kind of built in tournament function (unless I missed it)? I'm surprised there isn't a thread in the matchup forum for this game, we could get some pretty epic GAF tournaments going.

Also, my elbow is killing me...
 

fresquito

Member
I've been playing with M+ for some days now, after the initial M+-less experience. The difference is night and day. Some points:

- Learning curve is really step because you have to learn how to stop the M+ from going crazy. There's some bad coding in this game, that's the truth. I wish we could see some sort of patch, but it's not happening. You can prevent crashes of M+ being very carefull, but it's something you shouldn't be doing all the time. All in all, now I don't have many problems with the calibration, but when they come, they're very infuriating.
- Depth of control is great. While without M+ the experience was fun, but very linear. You'd have to wait to hit open balls, etc. Now not anymore. It's great and very intuitive. I have never played tennis, but the motions come second nature for me. I don't think "I'm gonna do a slice here".
- I always play six games, three sets. It's awesome, really awesome. I mean, I've felt some sensations I've never felt before while playing a tennis game. For istance, it never mattered if I had to spend more or less time with a match. All that it mattered was that I had to be playing just more time. Now it's different. When you play against these back defensive players, your arm gets tired, and you certainly change your play style because your arm eventually gets tire of swinging left and right to battle each point. So you change your game, go more direct sometimes, because you want to have some fast games here and there rto rest your arm. It's awesome how beliable the experience becomes at this point.
- There're some things that can be bettered easily, and they shine because there's really no competition, but to me it's clear: this game is ahead of every other tennis game on the market. New or old. It's simply put, the best tennis experience simulator.

My veredict is that M+ can feel like a crazy bitch at times. You have to learn how to tame it before enjoying it, but it's well worth it. This is the tennis game we all have been waiting for, more or less.
 

Dash Kappei

Not actually that important
Finally got it, I fuckin had to buy seperately the M+ and GST since the bundles weren't out here in Italy, some made their way in some cities but are really really scarce.


My "I'm a former circuit's tennis player" :)lol ) impressions of GST With Motion Plus:

First of all, thanks a lot to all of you guys, especially markatisu.
If it wasn't thanks to the posts I've read here on how to "tame" M+ on GST and how to play the game I could see easily how some occasional player could just ditch the game after half an hour and label the controls (and thus, sadly, M+) as completely broken.

Not including a video tutorial was a criminal mistake on EA's part and Nintendo took it too lightly to leave it to EA to promote the add-on and it's early success just with their games: even that one video released with John Singleton (producer) playing with M+ would have done a whole lot of difference on how to move and hold the remote correctly, not to mention to give the newbs a tangible example on how it deeply differs playing with M+.

The first half an hour I went straight to do the "create a player" option and started a quick match against Becker, using just the Wii remote with M+.
The controls were all over the place, sometimes the player would sweep the racket without me giving the imput, and even if it indeed recognised top-spins and such, the ball took some strange effects and was rarely inside the court's playing area: Most infuriating was seeing the player very often standing in the way of the ball, hitting straights back-handed instead of right-handed and such.
I was really really disappointed, but not even close to give up because I had read this thread carefully before buying the game.

So I went back to the game open minded, and this time began with the practice court, choosing John McEnroe. I slowly learnt my way to how to properly play the game and it took me 30 good minutes of practice to grasp the way this advanced controls worked. Now, after just six hours of playing, I have no problem leaving Roddick, Becker, Serena and many others at 0 games, hitting the ball how I want, how fast I want and wherever I want. It's fucking AWESOME.
It's really REALLY rare for me to have an opinion on a game change that much.

my Little TIPS for Motion Plus Controls:

Whenever I can and it's no impediment, aftert I take a shot I stand with the remote steady in neutral position (pointing at the TV with the D-Pad facing *UP*), that way the M+ will NEVER EVER "go crazy".
Using the nunchuck changed everything for me, even if I am now a better player also without it, but really with the nuchuck combo I never have any problem facing and hitting the right direction: to help this matter, like you would playing real tennis, when the opponent hits the ball you should open your arm in the direction the ball is going to land (left ot right) and you feel it's correct (back-hand or straight) when anticipating a serve's response; if you take notice you'll see that your player too is switching the racket between your left or right sides, only THEN you should take your shot.
After having taken the shot, just go back with the controller at the centre of your body, possibly facing the TV with the D-pad looking up. 2 seconds staying still are enough for the motion plus to recalibrate perfectly. It's not actually needed every time you take a shot, but it's really second nature for me now and since it doesn't bother me in the slightest I do it anyway.

Threat the remote as the racket's handle!
That means that when you're hitting a top-spin, the semi-circle movement will have you hitting mid-air a "virtual" ball with the B button of the remote going towards the TV and facing it by 3/4 (so the remote itself is laying horizontally just by 3/4 when you swing and not perfectly flat)! Hopefully I made myself clear.

So there, hopefully it'll help someone graspin' the controls better. :)


Conclusions:

In the end, as a gamer enthusiast and former circuit tennis player I am amazed by M+ and it really is everything I've ever wanted the Wii to be, and it makes me smile that this is just the first game to use it so good times are coming as devs learn to do better with it.
But, while I could never see myself going back to M+ less controls now, my gf, a Mario-Kart/Wii Sports/and such crazy-fan, couldn't really enjoy the new controls nor had the patience/skills to learn them for more than the 20 minutes it gave to the game, and so she was more than happy to go back to the basic Wii remote controls and just leave it at that... and she's loving GST now.

GST with M+ controls is NOT for everyone, maybe the next iteration will change that, but for now it's not something I could recommend to my non-gaming friends.
As much as I hate the word I'd say that it's the "hardcore" version of Wii's motion controls.
That is good for me, at least for this game, maybe not so much for others... but at least there's time to improve on that and Sports Resorts is just around the corner.
 

Glass Joe

Member
I'm liking this game... :) I'm not a "tennis pro," but it is something that I've played a lot of in real life with friends and consider my self good at.

I can see why it has mixed reviews, though. Motion Plus works, but you have to know how to use it. It's still a game, and it's the first attempt with new technology. My first several sets were awkward and I didn't understand why my guy would ALWAYS run to backhand the ball (which is my weak side). I tried the nunchuck to offset this, but there in my opinion is a bit too much going on with all that. Now that I understand, I have no need for the 'chuck.

That video demo from the EA guy taught me a lot and should have been a manditory video for the game when Motion + is connected (even though that also could have been clearer). Regardless, the tech works and is programmed decently for a first go, they just did a shit job at explaining how to use it. Now that I "get it," I suspect my controller was always 90 degrees to the right of what the game considers "natural," and resetting to the neutral position should have been explained as well.

For those having trouble with the game, having the Wii Remote facing "up" means that the buttons & control pad are facing the ceiling, NOT the pointer (that was a mistake I had made after reading here on the board, heh). Then, after every swing, do your best to have the remote immediately placed to the center of your body (and "pointing" at your TV).

I went from having my ass kicked to winning the French Open. My guy will still fuck up once in a while (swing when I do not intend him to, or occasionally not swing after I make a forehand motion) but this happens FAR less frequently now that I know how to play.

I hope they turn this into a franchise and make a sequel, with the EA team perfecting the system. It almost seems to me that the glitches are caused by EA choosing to put the game on training wheels to make it easier for people who don't play in real life (it is a hard sport to learn). An "advanced" option along with a better serving system would be awesome. But I'm happy with my purchase. I almost even want to check out Tiger Woods now, though I'm not a golfer.
 

BorkBork

The Legend of BorkBork: BorkBorkity Borking
Does anyone find that there are some really weird discrepancies for online opponents? I just got owned by 2 guys twice (both Nadals) with ridiculous speed serves and forehands. I whip the controller as hard as anyone, but I've never reached that type of speed. It's crazy.
 

fabprems

Member
BorkBork said:
Does anyone find that there are some really weird discrepancies for online opponents? I just got owned by 2 guys twice (both Nadals) with ridiculous speed serves and forehands. I whip the controller as hard as anyone, but I've never reached that type of speed. It's crazy.
No, I didn't see that for the moment. But I played vs. a player (n°70 or something like that) and he ONLY played lobs, it just drove me crazy and I lose something like 70pts against him. Now, I want to find that bastard and have my revenge :lol
 

BorkBork

The Legend of BorkBork: BorkBorkity Borking
fabprems said:
No, I didn't see that for the moment. But I played vs. a player (n°70 or something like that) and he ONLY played lobs, it just drove me crazy and I lose something like 70pts against him. Now, I want to find that bastard and have my revenge :lol
Yeah I think I played him too. It seemed like my game slowed playing him, but I beat him. Everyone is using Nadal, quite annoying.
 

Batongen

Banned
Played three matches yesterday online with the same guy. I beat him the third time around, the fucker :lol , but it feels nice with some great competition. Although, my wrist was sour after playing against him.
 

Roelatie

Member
fabprems said:
No, I didn't see that for the moment. But I played vs. a player (n°70 or something like that) and he ONLY played lobs, it just drove me crazy and I lose something like 70pts against him. Now, I want to find that bastard and have my revenge :lol
Yeah lobs are pretty lame. I was playing against gmoney3 and he kicked my ass the first 2 sets. suddenly i had a huge comeback. We had some beautiful rallys and i came back to 2-2. Then he just started to lob every ball, quite annoying! he won because i made alot of errors but still, this game is AWESOME!
 
Dash Kappei said:
GST with M+ controls is NOT for everyone, maybe the next iteration will change that, but for now it's not something I could recommend to my non-gaming friends.
As much as I hate the word I'd say that it's the "hardcore" version of Wii's motion controls.
That is good for me, at least for this game, maybe not so much for others... but at least there's time to improve on that and Sports Resorts is just around the corner.

Nice impressions - I'm certainly not a former tennis player (I was always terrible at it... :lol ) but I enjoy watching the sport from time to time and have picked up the controls on this game really quickly - It almost certainly helps that I've had people buy it a few days before me to 'figure it out' so to speak, but I'm at the stage now that it kind of irks me that a lot of professional reviewers haven't really attempted to get to grips with MotionPlus when playing this game and have marked it down accordingly.

Fact is, it may have an average of 70 at MetaCritic but the game is very obviously much better than that if you're willing to take into account the learning curve of the controls. I expect the average gamer to express some frustration but I want reviewers to offer a balanced viewpoint, not throw it down and call it broken at the first sign of trouble. For instance, I cannot play with a mouse and keyboard - I think it's an unimmersive and dull control method - but I wouldn't downgrade a PC FPS due to my own ineptitude.
 

rabhw

Member
Does anyone else find the M+ detection for hitting flat shots to be quite tricky? The "gap" seems to be very small between top spin and slice.
 

Model 500

Member
Yep, I find it hard to hit flat shots. But damn, 6 and a half hours game time, and the only reason I stopped is because I'm afraid my arm is falling off :lol Starting to feel familiar with the controls. Nunchuck and M+ is my preferred combo. I would pay a lot for M+ compatible wireless nunchuck right now. Online is a blast, wish more people played with their own characters though, really enjoying this!
 

Kilrogg

paid requisite penance
So I tried the game today, with and without M+. How am I supposed to hold the Wiimote again? With the face on the left, right? I'm right-handed by the way.

The presentation is solid from what I could tell. It shows that EA Sports put some effort in the game. While I like the visual style in Wii Sports better, GST's kinda cool in its own way. The game certainly isn't ugly to look at. The loading times are a bit long though. The commentaries are sparse and useless, but I don't play sports games for the commentaries.

As for the controls, I couldn't play long enough with WM+ to become good at it, so it still felt a little random/imprecise, but overall not too shabby. I couldn't manage to change the direction of the ball as I wanted though. The Wiimote controls work roughly as well as those in Wii Sports, and I quickly got used to controlling my character with the analog stick.

I can't judge the features, as I only played a few games with a friend who went over and brought the game.
 
Kilrogg said:
So I tried the game today, with and without M+. How am I supposed to hold the Wiimote again? With the face on the left, right? I'm right-handed by the way.
Hold the controller so that the face buttons are facing up. Then your swing leads with the side that your thumb is touching (left side).

I've had a little more luck with getting the right types of hits (top spin, straight, slice) if I twist the wiimote just slighty past flat in my hand. Its something to mess with depending on your grip and swing.
 

Easy_D

never left the stone age
Damn you GAF, I for some reason love tennis games, and WiiSports Tennis only lasts so long, I'm gonna have to buy this when I can afford it :D
 

ksamedi

Member
Controls are ok, not great. Sometimes it doesn't recognize my backhand correctly but overall, its pretty precise. I haven't lost a single match yet on easy and won the Australian open. You guys made it look like the game is impossible for beginners but thats not true at all. If you exaggerate the movements its pretty easy to hit where you want. Also, serve and volley works best against the AI. They almost always fall for it. I have a pretty hard time against serve and volley players though. Sampras is a pain in the ass to beat.
 

CoolS

Member
rabhw said:
Does anyone else find the M+ detection for hitting flat shots to be quite tricky? The "gap" seems to be very small between top spin and slice.

The gap is a bit scmall, but it certainly is doable. My problem is that in the ehat of the battle I often just don't pay enough attention to the way i swing.

Cross-court topsin shot are the bets thing ever though :)
 

Model 500

Member
I was struggling with the ball placement at first too, I just couldn't hit the ball where I wanted to with enough reliability. After spending over an hour in the practise court I can now hit the ball confidently where I want to, the final precision (or lack of) is because of me. I love that the direction is dependent of the motion rather than strictly timing. There are definitely some unnecessary obstacles to conquer before getting the hang of things properly (mainly the awkward auto-movement of the character, fortunately the nunchuk counters this effectively). I still have much to learn, next step is to keep it cool during matches :)

Btw. I don't think it matters whether you hold the Wiimote buttons facing up or buttons facing R/L. I found it most natural to hold it buttons facing right and the side of the Wiimote up. This was one of the keys for nailing the ball placement for me (along with the nunchuck movement). Makes it a bit harder to reach the buttons, but this definitely seems to suit my style better. Try it out and find your own grip.

I want to get back to the game but my hand thinks otherwise :lol
 

Dash Kappei

Not actually that important
So, again I was playin' it tonight with my non'gaming friends and I have to reiterate that the lack of any tutorial whatsoever is killing the game for them, thank god I was there to help but damn, not even in-game or video-tutorial to tell you how to correctly hit and hold the remote, for both simple or advanced/M+ controls.

Another thing that they ALL made me realise while I was in another room talkin' with other friends, is that the game doesn't tell you that it is in fact "recognising" you're using M+, and it's not like the thing lit up or anything... "Hey, are you sure the thing it's working right? Feel the same to me!". :lol

Damn, those are some pretty big fuck-ups on Nintendo's part (Tutorial and M+ detection should be requirements imo).
 

Dash Kappei

Not actually that important
fabprems said:
No, I didn't see that for the moment. But I played vs. a player (n°70 or something like that) and he ONLY played lobs, it just drove me crazy and I lose something like 70pts against him. Now, I want to find that bastard and have my revenge :lol

Yeah, the only problem I have with the game controls right now is that for whatever reason I'm much less prone to hit flat shots than I was until yesterday :lol
The range between flat shots and topspin/backs it is pretty small, and it doesn't help that as a tennis player my game's always been 80% topsins, so it's kinda hard for me to adjust and against lobs it's difficult to give the ball the right speed to close the point with topspins like you would do with a crosscourt flat shot.

Any tips here?

Also about service:
The game must have been changed because in the video tutorial John Singleton (producer) showed last month you could move up and down flexing your knee and seeing the character do the same, firstly, the perspective changed completely in matches and you don't move at all, and secondly when you try that in practice mode the detection is wokky as shit, doesn't work at all (and it's pointless, I know that but still...).


Btw, novice players, do you really want to improve your game and hit detection and never have positions' fuck-ups?
Play the game like real tennis, as in "move your body to the left to hit a backhand and move your body to your right to hit right handed". Playing like that is fucking AWESOME :D

(I'm bolding/underlining some parts of my posts ITT just 'cause they're all pretty long and maybe someone want just to have a quick look at 'em).
 

Model 500

Member
So, it took me about 7 hours to find the things that I needed to correct in my approach to the game before really (REALLY) feeling the M+ controls. Damn, that was a steep learning curve, and in many ways so unnecessary, your bad EA. My game time for today is just under 4 hours and I just don't want to stop....but I will die at work tomorrow if I don't go to bed now. Anyways, at this point, the game is absolutely amazing! I will post some tips and details that helped me feel the controls on a different level as soon as I have more time on my hands.

Btw. whoever decided that you can't skip the three "exhibitions" before entering a tournament in Grand Slam mode needs to get fired now.
 

CaVaYeRo

Member
Dash Kappei said:
Finally got it, I fuckin had to buy seperately the M+ and GST since the bundles weren't out here in Italy, some made their way in some cities but are really really scarce.


My "I'm a former circuit's tennis player" :)lol ) impressions of GST With Motion Plus:

First of all, thanks a lot to all of you guys, especially markatisu.
If it wasn't thanks to the posts I've read here on how to "tame" M+ on GST and how to play the game I could see easily how some occasional player could just ditch the game after half an hour and label the controls (and thus, sadly, M+) as completely broken.

Not including a video tutorial was a criminal mistake on EA's part and Nintendo took it too lightly to leave it to EA to promote the add-on and it's early success just with their games: even that one video released with John Singleton (producer) playing with M+ would have done a whole lot of difference on how to move and hold the remote correctly, not to mention to give the newbs a tangible example on how it deeply differs playing with M+.

The first half an hour I went straight to do the "create a player" option and started a quick match against Becker, using just the Wii remote with M+.
The controls were all over the place, sometimes the player would sweep the racket without me giving the imput, and even if it indeed recognised top-spins and such, the ball took some strange effects and was rarely inside the court's playing area: Most infuriating was seeing the player very often standing in the way of the ball, hitting straights back-handed instead of right-handed and such.
I was really really disappointed, but not even close to give up because I had read this thread carefully before buying the game.

So I went back to the game open minded, and this time began with the practice court, choosing John McEnroe. I slowly learnt my way to how to properly play the game and it took me 30 good minutes of practice to grasp the way this advanced controls worked. Now, after just six hours of playing, I have no problem leaving Roddick, Becker, Serena and many others at 0 games, hitting the ball how I want, how fast I want and wherever I want. It's fucking AWESOME.
It's really REALLY rare for me to have an opinion on a game change that much.

my Little TIPS for Motion Plus Controls:

Whenever I can and it's no impediment, aftert I take a shot I stand with the remote steady in neutral position (pointing at the TV with the D-Pad facing *UP*), that way the M+ will NEVER EVER "go crazy".
Using the nunchuck changed everything for me, even if I am now a better player also without it, but really with the nuchuck combo I never have any problem facing and hitting the right direction: to help this matter, like you would playing real tennis, when the opponent hits the ball you should open your arm in the direction the ball is going to land (left ot right) and you feel it's correct (back-hand or straight) when anticipating a serve's response; if you take notice you'll see that your player too is switching the racket between your left or right sides, only THEN you should take your shot.
After having taken the shot, just go back with the controller at the centre of your body, possibly facing the TV with the D-pad looking up. 2 seconds staying still are enough for the motion plus to recalibrate perfectly. It's not actually needed every time you take a shot, but it's really second nature for me now and since it doesn't bother me in the slightest I do it anyway.

Threat the remote as the racket's handle!
That means that when you're hitting a top-spin, the semi-circle movement will have you hitting mid-air a "virtual" ball with the B button of the remote going towards the TV and facing it by 3/4 (so the remote itself is laying horizontally just by 3/4 when you swing and not perfectly flat)! Hopefully I made myself clear.

So there, hopefully it'll help someone graspin' the controls better. :)


Conclusions:

In the end, as a gamer enthusiast and former circuit tennis player I am amazed by M+ and it really is everything I've ever wanted the Wii to be, and it makes me smile that this is just the first game to use it so good times are coming as devs learn to do better with it.
But, while I could never see myself going back to M+ less controls now, my gf, a Mario-Kart/Wii Sports/and such crazy-fan, couldn't really enjoy the new controls nor had the patience/skills to learn them for more than the 20 minutes it gave to the game, and so she was more than happy to go back to the basic Wii remote controls and just leave it at that... and she's loving GST now.

GST with M+ controls is NOT for everyone, maybe the next iteration will change that, but for now it's not something I could recommend to my non-gaming friends.
As much as I hate the word I'd say that it's the "hardcore" version of Wii's motion controls.
That is good for me, at least for this game, maybe not so much for others... but at least there's time to improve on that and Sports Resorts is just around the corner.


this man speaks the truth! I told a friend the same "hardcore motion controls" sentence yesterday, before we got to play WSR :lol

I gave this a 8.5/10 score in my review, just for how much different and physical and controlled and sensitive fun I'm having since Thursday :)

now, can you translate it into Spanish and past it over every Spanish multiplatform site? (they've just spent 15 minutes with the game because they're still busy praising Natal and bitching about how arcaic is this)

oh, you could do the same with Eurogamer's completely wrong review.

I'm soooo sad about the people whho's not going to enjoy this :(

Again: this is advanced, "hardcore" motion controls. I also found WSR more specific to fully understand WM+, and I really liked table tennis and swordfighting :D

BTW, CaVaYeRo is mi nickname, if you want to beat my one and a half stars rookie :p
 

Dash Kappei

Not actually that important
CaVaYeRo said:
this man speaks the truth! I told a friend the same "hardcore motion controls" sentence yesterday, before we got to play WSR :lol

now, can you translate it into Spanish and past it over every Spanish multiplatform site?

Sorry mate, I'm Italian :lol

Listen, going OT here, is it true that Bowling and Tennis (besides Table Tennis) are all making a comeback in Resort? I thought it was only Golf the one from Wii Sports to be there for Resort as well.

Do we have a thread to exchange friendcodes/nick for this game?
 

Model 500

Member
Zzoram said:
For people who have both, which is more fun, and pick-up-and-play, this or Tiger Woods?

This is pick-up-and-play, but it's also quite frustrating pick-up-and-play. I would guess Tiger Woods is easier to come to grips with at first. Haven't played it yet so it's difficult to say which is ultimately more rewarding to me, but this has raised the bar in Tennis games for a long time to come. I guess Natal is the next chance to bring tennis games to the next level. Until then, I hope EA will keep updating this every year.
 

dannie

Member
Dash Kappei said:
Listen, going OT here, is it true that Bowling and Tennis (besides Table Tennis) are all making a comeback in Resort? I thought it was only Golf the one from Wii Sports to be there for Resort as well.
Bowling is back,not tennis
 

dk_

Member
The game is still wowing me. The last couple of days I explored the online mode and I'm blown away by the precision M+ adds. More people need to play this game!
 
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