Tiger Woods 14 thread, part II

[J_Cauthen]

There's quite a contrast between the way Tiger 14 is being received here versus Tiger 13. We were turning away DSP Country Club membership requests last year because we'd exceeded capacity, whereas this year, we've got seven members. I'm just curious as to what some of your thoughts are on why this is the case? I've made no secret about what's put a damper on my enthusiasm this year - the lack of a player perspective presentation camera (I stress player perspective because I don't want to suggest a strict limit to the stodgy True-Aim camera). I know my reasons are likely not very typical, but I'd really like to read some other thoughts on why Tiger 14 isn't playing to this audience very well.

[Danimal]

I'm reluctant to post my thoughts but it will all come down to the ST for me. If all this new difficulty feels artificially made to me then I will likely not buy it. I understand the inherent challenges in making a video game hard and if removing aids and information is a way to accomplish that I get it. But if it detracts from my enjoyment of the game then I probably won't want to play.

Case in point the altered swing planes in the demo felt like nothing more than a way to make it harder. The blog I read made it seem like there was much more involved there with swing types and swing paths etc. However in the demo I had no direct feedback to what was going on. When playing Tiger I would hit the line almost exactly to see the ball go 75+ yards of course to the right and at other times my path would look like a U and the ball would end up on the fairway.

I'm hoping the ST gives me a better feel but IMO this game could of really benefited from some developer videos demonstrating the swing planes etc. I mean the ST comes out tomorrow has there even been a good game play video?

[J_Cauthen]

You're right Dan, the game play videos haven't shown anything of real value to me, what few of them there have been. I'm a little surprised that something as drastic as the diagonal swing plane to achieve a good shot was required to make the scoring more difficult. Something happened to the swing interface between Tiger 10 and Tiger 13 that made it less sensitive on the Y axis. I know I can get all sorts of tracking errors on the Y axis with my swing plane in Tiger 10, resulting in proportional errors with the shot result. In Tiger 13, those same swings result in a perfectly traced Y axis.

I would rather they had done something to the sensitivity to make it as difficult, and maybe just a tad more, to track the Y axis in Tiger 14 as it is in Tiger 10. It wouldn't feel as "artificial" if they had done this, IMO. I'm hoping the Season Ticket trial will change my mind about this game in both a presentation and execution sense.

[dbdynsty25]

We were turning away DSP Country Club membership requests last year because we'd exceeded capacity, whereas this year, we've got seven members. I'm just curious as to what some of your thoughts are on why this is the case?

Pretty sure the main reason is because the game isn't even out yet. Wait a week to start counting membership numbers for 14. I refuse to play "old code" in a game that has to be tweaked so damn much by developers to find happy mediums. I'll wait until tomorrow to download the full game and make my determination.

[orthostud23]

Not sure what to tell you then. Saw a post on TW forum...went to amazon, added to cart. Showed $69 with a $10 deduction.

Sorry it's not working for you guys

I'll be the first to apologize to you. You're right and I'm wrong. I went and canceled my previous order, then reordered the Historic Edition and received the same $59.96 price. So Orthostud, I thank you, and my wallet thanks you, no since in not saving the ten bones.

No need to apologize dtrane... Glad you were able to get in on the amazon deal. We are also supposed to get Beth Page as a per order bonus .

[orthostud23]

I didnt get the ST this year but I still plan on joining the OCC. My biggest complaint is the lack of yardage inside he caddy book. I mean isn't that the point of a caddy book? I feel like I have a better grip on the swing angle and plan on going with a power fade player. Let me go get into my wife's ear about the ST

[DChaps]

For me, it's the demo that turned me from being a pre-order to taking a wait and see approach. Despite all the freeze bugs and lack of online stat tracking, I really enjoyed the TW13 DSP CC experience. Even though I sucked, I was definitely interested in continuing what we started with TW13. Main my issues with TW 13 were how long it took me to even understand how to play the game properly in simulation mode, and the very frequent freezes. Many of my freezes were during our 4 round tournaments and it became very frustrating. I was one of the few DSP users who could not consistently shoot well under par, so I did not mind the difficutly so much as I just did not understand why certain things I did worked, and others didnt, what I should do when planning a shot and what I shouldn't. Fortunately I got a lot of help here and found some user made youtube videos that helped explain it a little better, but mostly these were not the simulation mode. Anyway, the TW14 demo had me even more confused as to what to do and I had several freezes in just a few days of play. Like Danimal mentioned, there really has not been enough actual information or videos on the simulation gameplay or how the CC tournaments/seasons are going to work. If all that ends up being cool, I will be back on board. I would just do the Season Pass thing, but last year the only thing I used it for was TW13, so it was not worth it for me. $30 for a weekend rental is too expensive for me these days.

Back in the old days, demos were what game companies released to get you hooked to buy a game. The original Doom comes to mind as the perfect demo. Now everyone demands demos, so many times companies release them when they are still buggy and/or do not appropriately represent the final product.

[TheTruth]

Just an FYI on the swing plane/path. It was confirmed by a dev on the ea forums that the only thing that matters on the swing are that you hit the two points, bottom right and top left, for accuracy. It doesn't matter what you do with the stick in between those two points. Just thought I would throw that out there.

[10spro]

I saw Divot earlier online playing the actual copy of the game. Care to share some quick impressions?

[orthostud23]

I got the ok from the wife to get the ST so I will be on at some point tomorrow night? Maybe we could geT an OCC chat up and running? Look forward to playing tomorrow night.

[Gangrel]

I'm going to wait and see about the ST too before deciding on the game. I just can't get a feel for the sim swing yet, and want to play final code before I decide if it's worth $60 for the new version or not. With the baby on the way, something like this would probably do me well, something I can save when I need to and pick up later. But if i'm going to be frustrated by it, then maybe not. However, I will say I think one of my ideas last year to improve the game was to force people to do draws and fades to make better shots (i.e. have the ball land soft on the green) but I wasn't exactly thinking of making folks do diaganol swings all the time.

I am glad they changed the chipping meter though. Still seems a tad easy to do however.

[J_Cauthen]

Pretty sure the main reason is because the game isn't even out yet. Wait a week to start counting membership numbers for 14.

Yeah, I'd say you're right about that. I went back and checked and we didn't fill the club up until a week after the game's release. However, I did see that we had at least twice as many people weighing in with opinions and impressions on the game at this point in Tiger 13's launch. Oh, and that wasn't just typical of DSP, the official forum was the same way.

I refuse to play "old code" in a game that has to be tweaked so damn much by developers to find happy mediums. I'll wait until tomorrow to download the full game and make my determination.

Especially when that old code compromise causes the game to actually regress in its presentation. I'll still give the release code a chance to change my mind later today, but I'm prepared to be underwhelmed by the hamstrung presentation.

[Naples39]

The biggest thing that gives me pause is whether or not this is worth running the player progression treadmill again. I SHOULD be happy with lower fairway accuracy, a less touchy short game, and no snap-to-spot aim, but the poor cameras and lack of yardage indicators just kill my enthusiasm.

[MERACE]

The biggest thing that gives me pause is whether or not this is worth running the player progression treadmill again.

cccgolfer08 posted on the EA TW Forum that you can import up to 75,000 XP from TW13 which equates to 75 attribute level out of 100 attribute levels.


-MERACE

[J_Cauthen]

Yep, the application of that 75,000 XP from Tiger 13 will work wonders for player creation. Just make sure you apply it on the screen where you're naming your player.

My Season Ticket counter is showing that the Tiger 14 download goes live at 1:00 PM EDT. I wasn't expecting it to be that soon

Oh, one other thing... Divot did confirm to me that the annoying 'zoom out' when the putt is struck bug has been remedied in the final version, at least when using Follow cam.

[J_Cauthen]

Downloading Season Ticket XBox 360 version now. An hour in and I'm 46% complete on the 5.71 GB file,

[Sudz]

How do I get a Country Club invite?

[Sudz]

Downloading Season Ticket XBox 360 version now. An hour in and I'm 46% complete on the 5.71 GB file,

Will be doing that tonight.

[TheTruth]

First hole @ murfield with my created golfer on Sim difficulty 2ft birdie! Will see how rest of round goes.

[Danimal]

First hole @ murfield with my created golfer on Sim difficulty 2ft birdie! Will see how rest of round goes.

Let us know your end of round score.

[TheTruth]

First hole @ murfield with my created golfer on Sim difficulty 2ft birdie! Will see how rest of round goes.

Let us know your end of round score.

At the turn I'm -1. Went bird, bird, bogey, bogey, bird, bogey, par, par, bird.

[TheTruth]

Finished one under. Had a terrible last hole, should have finished -2. I played with no grids and default course conditions. Had a couple instances where having no yardages to water, bunkers was really frustrating. Tough flying blind if you don't know the courses.

Had a couples wedge shots that I left way short as well. Clean those up and I could of had a couple more strokes. Below are my round stats:

Avg putts- 1.4
FIR - 57%
GIR- 61%
7 birds, 5 pars, 6 bogeys
Avg drive - 268
Longest drive - 306
Longest putt - 26ft

Also, set my golfer up as control fade swing. Had fun playing, Load times seemed much quicker as well.

[Danimal]

Just for compassion do you know what your typical first round out of the gate was with Tiger 13 or earlier?

[TheTruth]

Just for compassion do you know what your typical first round out of the gate was with Tiger 13 or earlier?

Last year it seemed I was hitting -6 to -8 right off the bat. That was with grids though.

[J_Cauthen]

I took my 75,000 XP credits from Tiger 13 and created a control/draw/medium trajectory golfer and played a bit now. These are quick impressions, but ones that are already pretty obvious.

Positives:

The graphics are improved from the demo. Pinehurst has the most natural look I've ever seen in the series. The natural areas don't have a homogeneous look of years past. The courses look less post cardie and more organic.

A control golfer remedies a lot of the control problems I was having with either golfer in the demo. My CAG with the XP I was able to apply and the Season Ticket clubs can carry a drive 250 yards, and that's enough right now to have a fighting chance off the black tees.

The pitching, chipping and putting games are as pure as I can remember, from a control and interface standpoint, the presentation of each not withstanding (see Negatives).

I'm playing career mode in "Tournament" difficulty and find the control interface to be judiciously punitive in modeling swing errors.

The audio ambiance of the course environment is natural and varied.

Negatives

I can't come up with a gentle way to put this, but I find both presentation options - Follow Cam and Broadcast Cam - to be a disorienting mess from a player standpoint. Broadcast Cam totally takes the player out of game and turns them into a TV spectator, from tee to green, on the majority of most shots. Follow Cam at least tracks the ball on most shots of 45 yards or more, but often breaks down and follows the Broadcast Camera presentation technique of zooming the player out of the action, at line obscuring angles that give the player no opportunity to gauge what happened with the roll of longer putts in real time.

Follow Cam putting coverage also takes an annoying jump to the right on the putts of roughly 15 feet or less, at the moment of impact. It stays sort of behind the golfer, allowing you to have a better look at how the putt is following the slope, but the sudden teleport to this new perspective shatters the immersion that could have been preserved by simply holding the putt camera view through the finish. I'm truly astonished at how much this not only spoils any chance of a player perspective, spatially immersive experience, but it has an unfair impact on the gameplay as it blinds the player to data that they should be able to observe in real time!

Broadcast camera is more of a perspective destroying experience than I thought it would be. Quite often it's hard to tell where your ball is going because of the angles the overly abrupt camera cuts are taking. Its camera coverage of putting is even more deleterious than that of Follow cam, as you are more often zoomed out to such distant camera positions that it's difficult to see the ball, let alone discern anything about how it's breaking....

I don't really have any other negatives at this point, but I'm so devastated by how much the presentation options spoil the game aesthetically and functionally that they would pale in comparison anyway. The bottom line is that Tiger 14's presentation options are a game killer for me. This will be the first time in the current generation's series that I'll be sitting one of its iterations out.