I called my local GameStop this morning, to see if they had GrandSlam Tennis and the WiiMotion Plus controls in yet (since today is the release date). They said no, they were due tomorrow. BUT, oddly enough, they had VirtuaTennis 2009 already, which isn't supposed to be out until TOMORROW.
I was going to wait until tomorrow and pick all of it up, but my patience failed and I went over at lunchtime and got VT09.
I've only been playing with it for about 40 min, but here are my initial impressions... first, as you may figure, it's NOTHING like WiiSports Tennis. And since I don't have a WiiMotion Plus yet, I'm limited to semi-accurate racket motions.
Anyway... I had to spend about 20 minutes using the coach. WiiSports Tennis is VERY forgiving. Swing the racket anywhere near the ball and you'll hit it. Serves are a complete no-brainer, but as you know, you never fault when serving.
Timing is much more important in VT09. I haven't quite gotten the hang of the little horizontal bar that appears when the ball comes near you. It has to do with how far away the ball is for you, so you can time your shots, like for cross-court or down-the-line.
For serving... you toss the ball by flicking the remote upward. Then that horizontal bar appears again. Based on when you swing again depends on where in the serving box the ball drops. It took a long time to get any serves in, and I have yet to figuring out HOW to place them. Maybe later tonight when I'm done with work.
I played one quick three-game "match" and of course got my butt kicked. I think I won all of two points. Mostly because I don't have the timing down on the shots yet.
Graphically, it's very good. It's very smooth, the courts look great, the players look very good, etc, etc. They're not photo-realistic, but I don't think that's possible on the Wii's modest CPU. I can't wait to rent the PS3 version, though, to compare the graphics. But I'm leary of how well the PS3 controls will work.
So tonight after work, I will play around more, and look forward to tomorrow when I can pick up the WiiMotion Plus controls and also Grand Slam Tennis. At least today I'm getting some quality time in with VT so I can better compare it to GST.
To prevent me from playing it for at least a few hours, I have the disc in my LG drive with Rawdump running. Now maybe I can get some work done.
Rob
I was going to wait until tomorrow and pick all of it up, but my patience failed and I went over at lunchtime and got VT09.
I've only been playing with it for about 40 min, but here are my initial impressions... first, as you may figure, it's NOTHING like WiiSports Tennis. And since I don't have a WiiMotion Plus yet, I'm limited to semi-accurate racket motions.
Anyway... I had to spend about 20 minutes using the coach. WiiSports Tennis is VERY forgiving. Swing the racket anywhere near the ball and you'll hit it. Serves are a complete no-brainer, but as you know, you never fault when serving.
Timing is much more important in VT09. I haven't quite gotten the hang of the little horizontal bar that appears when the ball comes near you. It has to do with how far away the ball is for you, so you can time your shots, like for cross-court or down-the-line.
For serving... you toss the ball by flicking the remote upward. Then that horizontal bar appears again. Based on when you swing again depends on where in the serving box the ball drops. It took a long time to get any serves in, and I have yet to figuring out HOW to place them. Maybe later tonight when I'm done with work.
I played one quick three-game "match" and of course got my butt kicked. I think I won all of two points. Mostly because I don't have the timing down on the shots yet.
Graphically, it's very good. It's very smooth, the courts look great, the players look very good, etc, etc. They're not photo-realistic, but I don't think that's possible on the Wii's modest CPU. I can't wait to rent the PS3 version, though, to compare the graphics. But I'm leary of how well the PS3 controls will work.
So tonight after work, I will play around more, and look forward to tomorrow when I can pick up the WiiMotion Plus controls and also Grand Slam Tennis. At least today I'm getting some quality time in with VT so I can better compare it to GST.
To prevent me from playing it for at least a few hours, I have the disc in my LG drive with Rawdump running. Now maybe I can get some work done.
Rob
