TIGER WOODS PGA TOUR 13 TALK

As there is less than 1 month left until its release, and me being a huge fan of the series, I figured I'd start the anticipation for the game on the forum.

I'm looking forward most to the new swing control. All the other games are so easy (for the bulk that I've played them) and being able to control everything is awesome. Plus, I shelled the extra 10 bucks for the collectors edition that supposedly gives a celebration after you win the masters.

Game comes out in North America on March 27! Who's ready???

Not me. I'm kind of ready to play real golf again - with the clubs, balls, and grass and stuff

It comes out too close to playing season and have decided to not buy it anymore. While the Kinect part looks cool I'll be playing on the course by the time it releases and the last thing I'll want to do is go home and play it on a video game.

Although it does come out at the start of the real golf season, I'll at least discuss the topic of the thread.

Yes, I'm looking forward to this. I have a Kinect on loan just for this game. I'm really intrigued on how well the real swing will be perceived by the system. I'm remaining optimistically skeptical, only because I haven't bought a TW game since TW 10, and I know I have the controller fail safe. This will be great for those rainy days and when the cold season rolls back around. I've already thought to myself that if the game has any adverse effects on my real swing, then it's controller only going forward......sorry Kinect.

[quote name='nikemike' timestamp='1330366763' post='4388695']
Although it does come out at the start of the real golf season, I'll at least discuss the topic of the thread.

Yes, I'm looking forward to this. I have a Kinect on loan just for this game. I'm really intrigued on how well the real swing will be perceived by the system. I'm remaining optimistically skeptical, only because I haven't bought a TW game since TW 10, and I know I have the controller fail safe. This will be great for those rainy days and when the cold season rolls back around. I've already thought to myself that if the game has any adverse effects on my real swing, then it's controller only going forward......sorry Kinect.
[/quote]
Last year's was rock solid and brought it close to Links 2004 in terms of a golf sim and I would say finally surpasses the benchmark set way back then. I have no doubt the new one will be great but I'm not gonna shell out the money again. A friend is getting it so that will give me a chance to check out the Kinect aspect of it.

Fowler, I'm pretty well stoked for this game. I think the new tempo based, Total Swing Control mechanic is going to transform this game into more of a visceral experience, whether the motion contol interfaces (Kinect for the XBox 360 or Move for the PS3) are useable or not. I've read reports of several EA Sports "Game Changers" (actual community members whom EA Sports invites into Tiburon's studios in Orlando to test the game during development) that this new swing mechanic really makes the gamer feel infinitely more invested in the shot setup and execution, They also say the ball physics have been dramatically improved in terms of trajectory, bounce, and roll. Two Game Changers who are disciples of Tournament difficult play (the difficulty setting with the most realism) say that chip shots really look and behave like chip shots this year. Chip shots have been broken, IMO, in past games in this series.

I've got to admit that I'm very skeptical about the Kinect interface for Tiger 13. I just can't see how it's going to be able to accurately track your swing plane with the 'face on' address the interface requires, at least the way they've decided to implement it in this game. EA Sports says they had to do it this way to pick up more of your stroke length, hand position, and body movement. While I appreciate that they are tracking your body movements, I just wonder how much of that they're actually factoring into the shot result, particularly when the swing plane will be determined from a perpendicular Kinect camera angle?

Facing the screen when taking a 'Kinect' swing, rather than aligning my feet like I'm hitting an imaginary ball into the screen will take some immersion out of the experience. Every other golf simulator I've evey tried that used a real club or even motion control, allowed me to line-up as though I'm hitting the ball into the scene on the screen. Nature will take its course and I will look up from my swing after 'impact' around my left shoulder to follow the ball, only it will actually be 90 degrees to might right and I'll have to look stright in front of me. I think this will diminish the experience.

Finally, one think the Kinect in Tiger 13 has going for it is that you can actually swing a real club when using it. The Kinect doesn't "see" the club or your gripping of the club, but having the club in your hands will likely help you produce a better swing with the data it is tracking. It will certainly add oodles of sensual feedback for golfers and make it more useful in a training sense, provided the interface is programmed to produce believable results.

The Move implementation on the PS3 version of Tiger 12 was horrible. I bought it and gave up on it in two weeks. The putting was poorly scaled; it was akin to putting underwater. I understand that SKLZ Golf has manufactured a golf club accessory for the Move for Tiger 13, called the "SimStix". It has a real golf grip which is attached to a cylindrical chassis that holds the Move. There's a 'trigger' mechanism at the bottom of the grip that allows it to operate the Move button from the grip, once you've addressed the ball. With the Move attached, the weight and feel of the SimStix and Move is said to replicate that of a real golf club. This will help a lot with the problems I had with the Move last year. It had no feel and I couldn't put both hands around it like I was gripping a real golf club. Then again, if the putting is as poorly tuned as it was last year, it will be all for naught.

Having said all of the above, I still think Tiger 13 is going to be worth owning, even if it only flies properly with the wireless controller interface! I trust these Game Changers I'm getting reports from. One of them has been involved in testing for 5 years now and I've never seen him as plussed as he is for Tigeer 13 right now.... not by a long shot!

I buy them all. Plus my kid loves it, so one copy will be purchased for his PS3.

[quote name='tbowles411' timestamp='1330368930' post='4389035']
I buy them all. Plus my kid loves it, so one copy will be purchased for his PS3.
[/quote]

Did you try Tiger 12 with the Move last year? If so, I'd like to read what you thought of it.

I can't stinking wait!!! 12 was awesome!!!

Does anyone know what the pre-order deals are yet?

Last year, I pre-ordered through Gamestop and they gave you a free downloadable course; Turnberry for the PS3.

The pre-order deals are posted on EA's website. You have 5 choices I think and they all give you a different bonus item.

As already posted, the new swing dynamics look very promising so I'll likely buy this but the fact that I'll be spending money at Augusta the week after may deter me for a while. I may wait to see what others say.

Last year's game was a big step up from any year previous but the random landings has pretty much ruined it for me. IMO there is nothing worse than setting up everything correctly and putting a good swing on a ball and watching it go 20yds right or left.

Someone else said it best...Links 2004 for the Xbox. It's still the king of golf games in my book. If they would just redo that for the 360 with today's technology that game would be perfection.

I think 12 is the last one I will own for the sole reason being you have to buy additional content to play the whole thing.

--kC

the collectors addition comes with 4 or 5 of the DLC courses as well so it is worth it. that is what i will be purchasing. not sure where i will pre order yet as i always use amazon but their bonus is celeb characters which i could care less about.

also the demo comes out march 6th on xbox (probably all platforms)

I wasn't going to buy it this year until I heard about the new swing system. My favorite was '05 because of the controls. If you moved the stick in to out, you got a draw, out to in a fade, etc. You could really hit some cool shots, and control the ball. Not just trying to move it as down and up and shot shape being determined by various setup menus. I hope it lives up to my expectations.

Had TW2012 for the Wii last year, and I couldn't up the difficulty past the amateur setting because you had to have a vertical swing plane for the shot to go straight in the game. I'm a plus on the real course, couldn't break 100 in the game on the pro setting. Stupid Wii...

[quote name='DevilGolfer' timestamp='1330364095' post='4388395']
It comes out too close to playing season and have decided to not buy it anymore. While the Kinect part looks cool I'll be playing on the course by the time it releases and the last thing I'll want to do is go home and play it on a video game.
[/quote]

Good point. I wonder if a Thanksgiving - x-mas release might be better as we wait out the colder months. Atleast those of us who have a winter season.

I know it would for me. Maybe I'll pick it up in December if the Kinect implementation is good.

Agreed on the later in the year delivery. Oct/Nov would be perfect. That's when I picked up 12. Heck, I didn't touch my PS3 from April-Oct.

--kC
(Has gained 8 lbs since I did, but, you should see my THUMBS!)

they need to put titleist back in the game....hopefully tiger changes putters lol

[quote name='shotmaker86' timestamp='1330386333' post='4391013']
I wasn't going to buy it this year until I heard about the new swing system. My favorite was '05 because of the controls. If you moved the stick in to out, you got a draw, out to in a fade, etc. You could really hit some cool shots, and control the ball. Not just trying to move it as down and up and shot shape being determined by various setup menus. I hope it lives up to my expectations.
[/quote]

I think gamers will see more of the benefits of Total Swing Control the higher they go in difficulty. You have to alter your swingpath to execute draws and fades in Pro, Tour Pro, and Tournament difficulty. The higher the level of difficulty, the less forgiving swingpath errors become. The only mode where you can shape shots strictly via setup is Amateur. I hope it also lives up to my expectations. At least with the advent of Total Swing Control, EA Sports has admitted that their swing interface has been lacking in the past.

hopefully they put an emphasis on the tournament difficulty online tourneys. its sickening seeing all the top ranked players shooting -31 on 18 holes on amateur. tournament difficulty needs to be a much higher purse.

[quote name='MIgolfpro' timestamp='1330549613' post='4404991']
hopefully they put an emphasis on the tournament difficulty online tourneys. its sickening seeing all the top ranked players shooting -31 on 18 holes on amateur. tournament difficulty needs to be a much higher purse.
[/quote]

With the ability to create Custom Live Tournaments, from within an Online Country Club's club page, I think the users will drive the creation of more Tournament difficulty mode events. There are more Tournament difficulty players on the map than evidenced by what you see in EA multiplayer lobbies and Live Tournaments. A lot of them play in private games which are coordinated through independent league pages. The ability to compete in credited Live Tournaments and multplayer matches within the club with like-minded tournament difficulty players will build on itself. Tournament mode players will want to compete in team play matches against Tournament mode teams from other clubs. Ultimately, they'll want to send their club champion to the VIP Tournaments, although I regret that these VIP tournaments will be covering all difficulty levels. The only ones I'm interested in are Tournament and to a lesser extent, Tour Pro.

We still have a lot to learn about the way Online Country Clubs function, particularly with this fleeting mention of club team play, but overall these clubs are going to give more relevance to the game, IMO.

[quote name='JCat04' timestamp='1330552429' post='4405367']
[quote name='MIgolfpro' timestamp='1330549613' post='4404991']
hopefully they put an emphasis on the tournament difficulty online tourneys. its sickening seeing all the top ranked players shooting -31 on 18 holes on amateur. tournament difficulty needs to be a much higher purse.
[/quote]

With the ability to create Custom Live Tournaments, from within an Online Country Club's club page, I think the users will drive the creation of more Tournament difficulty mode events. There are more Tournament difficulty players on the map than evidenced by what you see in EA multiplayer lobbies and Live Tournaments. A lot of them play in private games which are coordinated through independent league pages. The ability to compete in credited Live Tournaments and multplayer matches within the club with like-minded tournament difficulty players will build on itself. Tournament mode players will want to compete in team play matches against Tournament mode teams from other clubs. Ultimately, they'll want to send their club champion to the VIP Tournaments, although I regret that these VIP tournaments will be covering all difficulty levels. The only ones I'm interested in are Tournament and to a lesser extent, Tour Pro.

We still have a lot to learn about the way Online Country Clubs function, particularly with this fleeting mention of club team play, but overall these clubs are going to give more relevance to the game, IMO.



[/quote]

but the multiplayer tourneys is how you improve world ranking, and the top ranked guys were getting there by being good at the easy difficulties, which makes no sense. hopefully your right about the online CC, but i foresee more cheesing of ranking by getting good at amateur/pro and spinning everything in.

An EA Sports Game Changer, who also plays golf in real life, was invited to play a near complete version of Tiger 13 today in Orlando. This guy plays exclusively in tournament difficulty, like I'm sure many of us here do, so his comments are geared for us. Here's a snip of what he posted in the official Tiger Woods forum:

[i]The game is drop-dead gorgeous. The lighting and textures were amazing along with the dynamic weather. The trees animated beautifulloy and VERY realistically. I played 18 holes on PGA National on Tournament difficulty (sorry about that AM users).[/i]
[i] [/i]
[i]The new swing mechanic is all it is cracked up to be and I can tell you that scoring will be challenging on Tournament mode, especially with the strike meter needing to be manipulated during the swing. I had several shots from the rough that I must have taken a yard of turf with me when I hit the shot as they only went about 25% of the distance they should have. Shot a +10 for 18 holes.[/i]
[i] [/i]
[i]The swing was great and after playing a couple of holes with the meter on, I turned it off and the swing felt even more intuitive, especially while putting. There are 5-6 new cameras at address which should help when playing in the trees.[/i]
[i] [/i]
[i]TrueAim is back for TW13 and as far as I could tell, it was just like TW11. Did not have alot of time to compare with 11, but it felt so right. Another goodie.....1st Person perspective is in for Kinect. More on that later.[/i]
[i] [/i]
[i]Played a few holes using Kinect and it felt pretty good, but the Kinect I was using was not calibrated properly, so there were some issues with it that I have been assured are not in the final build. The 5-6 shots I did hit (using Tournament mode) felt great and I was all over the course, but my swing caused this from what I could tell. I hit one helluva recovery shot from the pine straw in the woods at Augusta #2 the par 5 and actually made par.[/i]
[i] [/i]
[i]Spent some time with Christian Brandt (TW Dev) seeing the Online Country Club interface and it is going to blow many online users away with the depth of this feature. OMG, the stats....wow! [/i][i]
[/i]
[i]My overall impression (taking the short time I had playing the game into prespective) is very positive and they have spent a great deal of time bringing new features that the community has asked for. They are listening and will be listening intently to the feedback for TW13. Can't wait to see the demo and spend some time with Kinect and the 1st person view. [/i][i]
[/i]
I wasn't expecting him to be as plussed by the Kinect as he was, so maybe there's hope for it.. It does sound like we're going to have a game that at least in tournament difficulty requires more golf intuition and feel. I'm really looking forward to the demo even more now, having read Tim's comments!

Did he happen to mention whether or not the camera follows the ball on tournament difficulty? I know it's supposed to be real life simulation but I hate sitting there while my ball does who knows what and all I can do is wait for my next shot to see where it ended up.

[quote name='troysbama1' timestamp='1330638353' post='4413759']
Did he happen to mention whether or not the camera follows the ball on tournament difficulty? I know it's supposed to be real life simulation but I hate sitting there while my ball does who knows what and all I can do is wait for my next shot to see where it ended up.
[/quote]

He didn't mention that. I asked him yesterday in a follow up post about camera cut options specifically. I like the True-Aim camera for the shot execution and watching the ball until it starts disappearing from the golfer's viewpoint, but I wanted the option to be able to cut a downrange camera that would follow the ball to its destination. He didn't have such an option active when he was playing it, but admitted that he didn't ask if there was an option. I still have a little hope that there is based on what one of the developers responded to me with back in January. EA Sports is a little bit evasive about answering questions about cameras and career mode in their forum... not sure why really.

[quote name='JCat04' timestamp='1330667943' post='4417189']
[quote name='troysbama1' timestamp='1330638353' post='4413759']
Did he happen to mention whether or not the camera follows the ball on tournament difficulty? I know it's supposed to be real life simulation but I hate sitting there while my ball does who knows what and all I can do is wait for my next shot to see where it ended up.
[/quote]

He didn't mention that. I asked him yesterday in a follow up post about camera cut options specifically. I like the True-Aim camera for the shot execution and watching the ball until it starts disappearing from the golfer's viewpoint, but I wanted the option to be able to cut a downrange camera that would follow the ball to its destination. He didn't have such an option active when he was playing it, but admitted that he didn't ask if there was an option. I still have a little hope that there is based on what one of the developers responded to me with back in January. EA Sports is a little bit evasive about answering questions about cameras and career mode in their forum... not sure why really.
[/quote]

I hear ya. I've spent a fair amount of time reading the EA boards (but not lately) and you're definitely right. Thanks for the response.

I wish they would have the amount of quality courses that tiger 10 had, there were so many on there and since then the number decreased, I miss Harbour Town, Dural, Bay Hill, Torrey, Pinehurst, Oakmont... It would be a stellar game if they would just keep adding to the courses and have 25 courses.

[quote name='daniel32293' timestamp='1330715447' post='4420419']
I wish they would have the amount of quality courses that tiger 10 had, there were so many on there and since then the number decreased, I miss Harbour Town, Dural, Bay Hill, Torrey, Pinehurst, Oakmont... It would be a stellar game if they would just keep adding to the courses and have 25 courses.
[/quote]

All of the courses you mentioned, besides Bay Hill, were in last years game. You had to buy the Collectors Edition, or the add-on packs, but they were playable.

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgdxA15upXM[/media]