Big Ant Studios has made improvements to AO Tennis with constant patch updates

When AO Tennis came out in January for Kiwi and Ozzie gamers, it was very buggy at best although some parts of it were still playable. Thanks to all of the feedback, Big Ant Studios has somewhat improved the game with constant updates coming out this month.

I have played the game on PS4 ever since I bought it back in January. Before February, I was pretty much the only person able to play the single matches as everyone else struggled to even play the game at all.

While single player matches were playable for me, doubles was horribly broken and playing at the net also had several issues. Thankfully starting in February, Big Ant Studios has released patches 1.09 to 1.12 and lots of improvements have been made so far.

Before patch 1.09, my older brother was absolutely horrible at playing AO Tennis. He was unable to even beat the AI at its most easiest difficulty setting. That all changed when patch 1.09 dropped as the physics of the game changed for the better.

Now my brother is an expert at it and can even beat me now. This is thanks to a better physics engine that makes hitting the ball much smoother and more fluid than before. Net play has also improved as balls don't spray wildly like they used to.  Doubles have also been improved as it's not as buggy as before. It's still not 100 percent perfect from my experience, but far better than before patch 1.09 came along.

The two player camera has also been fixed. When the game launched, player 2 was always at a disadvantage playing further away from the camera at all times, but now players can swap sides.

The animation is better too as players now somewhat slide (a little bit) on clay courts and players like Rafael Nadal look more lifelike when they're moving around the court.

Big Ant Studios said that it improved the player visuals with patch 1.11. I noticed character models look a bit shinier, although the change is not really a big one. The graphics are still not up to current PS4/Xbox One standards yet...

Speaking of players, sadly people wanting to see big stars like Roger Federer or The Williams Sisters will still be disappointed about the small roster. No other big names have been added since launch despite Big Ant Studios saying more players are to be released in the future.  Going up to patches 1.11 and 1.12, there are now more options for you to play on different courts. Aside from a new London and Paris court, you can now even create your own stadium. You can change the colour of the court to purple or yellow if you really want to!

Big Ant Studios has also added a custom competition mode with patch 1.12 so you get to play a tournament other than the Australian Open. The game also added more options in terms of the number of games and sets you want to do.

Despite all of the new improvements and changes, criminally the game still not has any type of tutorial or practice mode to speak of whatsoever. Hopefully a practice mode is added later for beginners to do as this is not an easy game to just pick up and play.

AO Tennis is out now in Australia and New Zealand for PS4 and Xbox One. By the time the game is out in other countries, you guys will have a more complete experience thanks to the numerous updates that have been released thus far.

AO Tennis is still not a perfect tennis game, but it's far more enjoyable than it was at launch. It's a nice distraction until Tennis World Tour releases worldwide sometime later this year.