Tiger Woods 360 ***Impressions****

DivotMaker · Post by **DivotMaker** » Mon Dec 19, 2005 11:59 am

HipE wrote:I turned off spin control and gamebreakers also, and had most of the conditions set at medium.

Turn off Swing Assist. That is why you are holing shots left and right.

HipE · Post by **HipE** » Mon Dec 19, 2005 12:02 pm

Actually, I turned off the swing assist also. Maybe I'm just lucky (or unlucky)?

Leebo33 · Post by **Leebo33** » Mon Dec 19, 2005 12:04 pm

HipE, I can't really disagree with what you are saying. There are things I like in Links more. It's entirely possible that you are just better at the game. I've put some shots OB even with a Pro. Although I wish the game was more difficult off the tee, I'm not hitting every shot straight (especially if I use the power boost). I'm defintely not seeing the ball drawn to the cup as much as you. I haven't increased my "luck" skills or "driving accuracy."

JRod · Post by **JRod** » Mon Dec 19, 2005 12:14 pm

Badgun wrote:OK, I've looked everywhere multiple times and I still can't find the option to change to tour difficulty. Maybe I'm just blind, but I only see one options menu and that is in the main screen. In that menu there are options for game play, but I don't see anything for tour difficulty. I have turned the gamebreaker crap off and swing assist, but I don't see a tour difficulty anywhere. LOL, what am I missing?

I never use Play Now because I don't think tour mode turns on if you use play now even if you have it set in user settings.

Go to game modes instead and you can turn it on there.

Game Mode > Character Select > Course Select > Settings > Play
That's how I turn it on for a round.

I agree with you HipE on the swing animations. To hit a shorter shot you have to take a rediculus short swing. Because Links had the 100% meter, I think you had more variance in distance. I don't know if Tiger does this.

Links and this game are about the same handling ball physics. That is on tour mode. You don't get the fantastic crazy bounces all the time.

In terms of putting I feel Tiger is as good as Links. Not better but as good. I miss a lot of putts fairly. I make them fairly. Nothing feels cheap.

Lastly I could hit it straight all the time in Links. It was a matter of getting the wind down and placing it on the green. Tiger is the same way. So it's a push on that front.

I've added house rules when I play a round. You have to shape your shots. This has really opened up the game for me. And if you said, you shouldn't have to do that you would be right. I like the way Tiger handles the ball flight for draws and fades.

Badgun · Post by **Badgun** » Mon Dec 19, 2005 5:37 pm

JRod wrote:
Badgun wrote:OK, I've looked everywhere multiple times and I still can't find the option to change to tour difficulty. Maybe I'm just blind, but I only see one options menu and that is in the main screen. In that menu there are options for game play, but I don't see anything for tour difficulty. I have turned the gamebreaker crap off and swing assist, but I don't see a tour difficulty anywhere. LOL, what am I missing?
I never use Play Now because I don't think tour mode turns on if you use play now even if you have it set in user settings.

Go to game modes instead and you can turn it on there.

Game Mode > Character Select > Course Select > Settings > Play
That's how I turn it on for a round.

Under game mode, all I have is the different types of games. Skins, alternate shot, best ball, stroke play, match play...I see nothing about character select. It's almost like we have two different games.

Spooky · Post by **Spooky** » Mon Dec 19, 2005 6:28 pm

Badgun wrote:
JRod wrote:
Badgun wrote:OK, I've looked everywhere multiple times and I still can't find the option to change to tour difficulty. Maybe I'm just blind, but I only see one options menu and that is in the main screen. In that menu there are options for game play, but I don't see anything for tour difficulty. I have turned the gamebreaker crap off and swing assist, but I don't see a tour difficulty anywhere. LOL, what am I missing?
I never use Play Now because I don't think tour mode turns on if you use play now even if you have it set in user settings.

Go to game modes instead and you can turn it on there.

Game Mode > Character Select > Course Select > Settings > Play
That's how I turn it on for a round.
Under game mode, all I have is the different types of games. Skins, alternate shot, best ball, stroke play, match play...I see nothing about character select. It's almost like we have two different games.

Badgun,

When you choose the course at which you are going to pay and there are all the options for tee's, greens, rough, wind, ect...there is also a difficulty option that is either default or Tour. There is also that same option settings under the regular game options for the 'play now' mode.

btmmayor · Post by **btmmayor** » Mon Dec 19, 2005 7:10 pm

I agree with HipE, but I also had many of the same complaints in Xbox Links as I do with 360 Tiger. I will very, very rarely not hit the ball dead straight. Swing assist is off, tour difficulty on, gamebreakers off, stats all extremely low and everything else I can see to make things more difficult. The only problems I ever had scoring in Links was when the wind was at some ridiculous level, and Tiger seems no different.

The fun is just taken out of a golf game if I know I can hit the ball dead straight nearly every single time. That is the beauty of TrueSwing on Tiger PC and also the beauty of a rapid, 3-click interface. Even though I believe most people would disagree with me because it seems so 1990's, but if Tiger 360 had a fast moving, rapid 3-click interface to swing I would have an absolute blast with the game. A console Tiger game would be a dream if I could pick the exact right club, adjust perfectly for the wind but miss the green by 5 yards because I mis-hit the ball. That scenerio will almost never play itself out in Tiger 360, at least from my experience.

I'm certainly going to put more time in with the game and try and get some online play going as well. I really do think that Tiger 360 is a great looking, solid game. Certainly a far superior game than almost every print or on-line review would have you believe. I just don't know if I will be able to get past playing a golf game where there is next to no chance of ever mis-hitting a ball.

JRod · Post by **JRod** » Mon Dec 19, 2005 7:56 pm

btmmayor wrote:I agree with HipE, but I also had many of the same complaints in Xbox Links as I do with 360 Tiger. I will very, very rarely not hit the ball dead straight. Swing assist is off, tour difficulty on, gamebreakers off, stats all extremely low and everything else I can see to make things more difficult. The only problems I ever had scoring in Links was when the wind was at some ridiculous level, and Tiger seems no different.

The fun is just taken out of a golf game if I know I can hit the ball dead straight nearly every single time. That is the beauty of TrueSwing on Tiger PC and also the beauty of a rapid, 3-click interface. Even though I believe most people would disagree with me because it seems so 1990's, but if Tiger 360 had a fast moving, rapid 3-click interface to swing I would have an absolute blast with the game. A console Tiger game would be a dream if I could pick the exact right club, adjust perfectly for the wind but miss the green by 5 yards because I mis-hit the ball. That scenerio will almost never play itself out in Tiger 360, at least from my experience.

I'm certainly going to put more time in with the game and try and get some online play going as well. I really do think that Tiger 360 is a great looking, solid game. Certainly a far superior game than almost every print or on-line review would have you believe. I just don't know if I will be able to get past playing a golf game where there is next to no chance of ever mis-hitting a ball.

Not to defend Tiger for it's short comings but Links on the Xbox was the exact same way. It was very difficult to master the short game but the long game provided very little challange.

I made the game more difficult by using house rules.
- Can't press B button to see your landing area.
- Have to shape all drives and long iron shots.

I'm enjoying the game so far. Still no excuse for only 6 courses though!

TCrouch · Post by **TCrouch** » Tue Dec 20, 2005 4:08 am

Thanks for the tips on how to set it to tour difficulty (talk about a whack place to put the difficulty setting).

After doing that, I must have played this game for about 3 hours tonight. I already had the gamebreaker and power boost crap turned off, but the swing aid was new to me (I had already hit 3 hole in ones and wondered what was going on). After turning it off I had played a few more challenge sessions and then hit the Q School.

I proceeded to lay an egg of mammoth proportions.

I think I was +6 after 3 rounds, but still in the hunt. I shanked an approach, splashed another in the water, and basically crumbled under the pressure in round 4. I wasn't even close to making the top 5 to advance. I couldn't do anything right and ended up finishing something like +15. I held it together for 3 rounds with believable "new guy" scores of 75-74-75, but somewhere around the 5th or 6th hole in round 4 I came unglued.

It's official, I'm addicted

DivotMaker · Post by **DivotMaker** » Tue Dec 20, 2005 8:17 am

TCrouch wrote:
It's official, I'm addicted

I'll look for ya in rehab.....

James_E · Post by **James_E** » Tue Dec 20, 2005 10:12 am

Hi guys. No 360 here... does the Xbox version play the same as the 360 version as far as the difficulty you folks are talking about?

DivotMaker · Post by **DivotMaker** » Tue Dec 20, 2005 11:11 am

James_E wrote:Hi guys. No 360 here... does the Xbox version play the same as the 360 version as far as the difficulty you folks are talking about?

From what I have read on the boards, not at all.

I also do not recommend TW2006 for PS2/XBox especially due to the online interface having horrible lag and numerous complaints from end-users.

From what I have seen of the 360 version, it has none of the above at this point.

btmmayor · Post by **btmmayor** » Tue Dec 20, 2005 12:02 pm

TCrouch wrote:Thanks for the tips on how to set it to tour difficulty (talk about a whack place to put the difficulty setting).

After doing that, I must have played this game for about 3 hours tonight. I already had the gamebreaker and power boost crap turned off, but the swing aid was new to me (I had already hit 3 hole in ones and wondered what was going on). After turning it off I had played a few more challenge sessions and then hit the Q School.

I proceeded to lay an egg of mammoth proportions.

I think I was +6 after 3 rounds, but still in the hunt. I shanked an approach, splashed another in the water, and basically crumbled under the pressure in round 4. I wasn't even close to making the top 5 to advance. I couldn't do anything right and ended up finishing something like +15. I held it together for 3 rounds with believable "new guy" scores of 75-74-75, but somewhere around the 5th or 6th hole in round 4 I came unglued.

It's official, I'm addicted

Ok, I must have a different game here. I see no option in any menu to set career mode to tour difficulty. I can set tour difficulty for my single rounds or for the play now rounds, but cannot do it for my career. For my career I can turn off swing aid, power boost, spin control, gamebreaker but I cannot get rid of the ideal putt line option or set it to tour difficulty.

Those of you that are saying you have tour mode enabled for your career, are you still able to see the ideal putt line by pressing A when playing in tournaments or challenges?

I have all of the above options off for my career, including swing aid, and I still shot in the -40's for Q school (with cpu opponents artificially keeping it close by shooting every round in the 50's.......retarded). I aced 17 in both rounds 3 and 4, again with every aid and option off that I can find. I just don't believe it is possible to set career mode to tour difficulty as you can for a single round. I hope someone here can tell me that I'm wrong as I've just about had it with this game.

AcemanPR · Post by **AcemanPR** » Tue Dec 20, 2005 12:33 pm

While I certainly don't hit every fairway, it is pretty simple to drive accurately.

I think Tiger 2007 should incorporate this in their next golf game:

- Have an exclusive "Tour" difficulty online portion. Eliminate all swing aids and Gamebreaker crap. Entice players to play that part of the game buy awarding more online points for tournaments.

- I could be wrong, but I think there are 128 radiuses on the analog control stick. If you are dead straight, obviously the ball will go completely straight. Off by a little, the ball will fade or draw more. Of by alot, hook or slice. Really mishit it, either whiff or duck hook it.

- Assign more player attributes. Many players have a natural fade or draw. This will force you to aim on one side of the fairway more than another. If you are playing a dogleg right with a player that has a natural draw, it is going to be a much more difficult tee shot for this player vs. one that has a natural slice. If this player tries to fade the ball, the margin for error should be zero.

- Hot and cold "zones", similar to baseball. Confidence is a huge aspect in golf. Some weeks, you can't miss with the driver, other weeks, you couldn't hit the fairway to save your life. If your player is losing confidence with the driver, this forces you to make a decision to hit a fairway wood or iron off the tee. You give up distance for accuaracy. Same with putting. Maybe using a different putter will build confidence.

Of course you don't want to turn this into a frustrating game to play. But I'd love to see this turn into a game where shooting a 59 is extremely rare, and shooting 80 isn't out of the ordinary as well. If EA can pull this off, they will have an incredible franchise on their hands.

JRod · Post by **JRod** » Tue Dec 20, 2005 1:12 pm

Ace:
Great ideas!

DivotMaker · Post by **DivotMaker** » Tue Dec 20, 2005 1:44 pm

btmmayor wrote:
Ok, I must have a different game here. I see no option in any menu to set career mode to tour difficulty. I can set tour difficulty for my single rounds or for the play now rounds, but cannot do it for my career. For my career I can turn off swing aid, power boost, spin control, gamebreaker but I cannot get rid of the ideal putt line option or set it to tour difficulty.

I believe the TOUR difficulty is set for all play in the Play Now settings in the Options menu. When you go online, I believe there is also an option to set Default/TOUR difficulty.

I cannot get rid of ideal putt line offline. I just refuse to use it.

btmmayor wrote:Those of you that are saying you have tour mode enabled for your career, are you still able to see the ideal putt line by pressing A when playing in tournaments or challenges?

See above. I believe this can be disabled for online play.

btmmayor wrote:I have all of the above options off for my career, including swing aid, and I still shot in the -40's for Q school (with cpu opponents artificially keeping it close by shooting every round in the 50's.......retarded). I aced 17 in both rounds 3 and 4, again with every aid and option off that I can find. I just don't believe it is possible to set career mode to tour difficulty as you can for a single round. I hope someone here can tell me that I'm wrong as I've just about had it with this game.

I have 6 total aces in 120 hours of gameplay. You must either be very good or very lucky if I compare your results to mine. Since I turned Default difficulty OFF as soon as I finished the very first 3 holes I played of this game, I am convinced that by setting Play Now settings to TOUR mode, it becomes universal for all offline modes. While I do not think the game is as challenging as it could be, I am getting such varied results with each round, that I am still working hard to master this game. I can only speak to my skills and certainly not the individual skills of others.

Bottom line: this game could be much more challenging, but like AcemanPR stated above, you have to be very careful not to make the game frustrating to play. I had an experience with that very phenomena first hand this past summer beta testing Custom Play Golf for the PC. While the developer did a masterful job of listening to the beta testers and implementing those ideas, the game sold VERY poorly and was received in such a way that the developer could not secure a publishing agreement with any software company to distribute to the US. My feedback to the developer was that they did a great job of listening and implementing, but they limited their audience to the hardcore simulation audience and the game fell flat on its face. If they want CPG 2 to succeed, they better listen to a broader audience. I think Tiger 07 should be more challenging from a simulation perspective by implementing the kind of challenge that is seen in TW PC Advanced/Expert modes. With their new Associate Producer (D.J. Powers, a college teammate of Tiger's at Stanford), I think they will try their best to give the arcade audience what they want and the simulation audience what they want. For the first time in my relationship with EA, I am going to become involved in the console development. With Headgate Studios becoming more involved in the consoles, EA is moving in the right direction.

Last thing to keep in mind, Sam Player has been the Sr. Producer for TW consoles for the past 4 versions. He has since moved on and I believe DJ will be taking on more influence on gameplay for TW. I am not 100% sure, but I think you can thank Sam for the arcade-like nature of TW console for the past several years.....

AcemanPR · Post by **AcemanPR** » Tue Dec 20, 2005 2:31 pm

Thanks for the insight Divot! If Tiger 06 on the 360 is any indication of where this game is going, EA is heading down the right path.

Tiger is a successful golf game. Those people will still want to play "Arcade" Tiger for whatever reason. But, it is obvious there are alot of people that want to see a much more challenging and realistic game of golf as well. If EA can satisfy both players, sales will probably double easily. Divot, since you are going to have a hand in the next game, definitely throw some of the ideas we've said here out of the table. Even if only half get implemented, it would be a great start.

Played a quick round at lunch. Shot a 73 (+2) at Riviera. Played today's online leaderboard challenge. My driving accuracy was in the neighborhood of 50%.

btmmayor · Post by **btmmayor** » Tue Dec 20, 2005 5:48 pm

AcemanPR wrote:Thanks for the insight Divot! If Tiger 06 on the 360 is any indication of where this game is going, EA is heading down the right path.

I can absolutely agree with that.

Leebo33 · Post by **Leebo33** » Wed Dec 21, 2005 1:24 pm

I'm off work tomorrow so I'll be able to stay up later. Anyone want to play tonight at 10:30 EST?

TCrouch · Post by **TCrouch** » Wed Dec 21, 2005 1:26 pm

Leebo33 · Post by **Leebo33** » Wed Dec 21, 2005 2:23 pm

Cool. Outside of a couple daily tourneys, I haven't played online.

Is there anything I need to do prior to playing to make it harder (Tour play, swing aid off, etc.) or is that all setup when someone creates a game? I noticed the daily tournament had "medium" difficulty. Not sure that that means...

HipE · Post by **HipE** » Wed Dec 21, 2005 2:30 pm

I should be able to play then as well.

btmmayor · Post by **btmmayor** » Wed Dec 21, 2005 3:41 pm

Leebo33 wrote:I'm off work tomorrow so I'll be able to stay up later. Anyone want to play tonight at 10:30 EST?

I would love to play as well, although I will be silent as for some reason my headset is broken (came that way).

DivotMaker · Post by **DivotMaker** » Wed Dec 21, 2005 3:44 pm

If I am still awake and not having to battle my son for the 360, I might join you guys if I can.

JackDiggity · Post by **JackDiggity** » Wed Dec 21, 2005 7:40 pm

TCrouch wrote:Thanks for the tips on how to set it to tour difficulty (talk about a whack place to put the difficulty setting).

After doing that, I must have played this game for about 3 hours tonight. I already had the gamebreaker and power boost crap turned off, but the swing aid was new to me (I had already hit 3 hole in ones and wondered what was going on). After turning it off I had played a few more challenge sessions and then hit the Q School.

I proceeded to lay an egg of mammoth proportions.

I think I was +6 after 3 rounds, but still in the hunt. I shanked an approach, splashed another in the water, and basically crumbled under the pressure in round 4. I wasn't even close to making the top 5 to advance. I couldn't do anything right and ended up finishing something like +15. I held it together for 3 rounds with believable "new guy" scores of 75-74-75, but somewhere around the 5th or 6th hole in round 4 I came unglued.

It's official, I'm addicted

I hear ya brother! I have played after re-hab all week. Same four guys. Same great game. I really don't mind just having 6 courses at all. I am very tempted to pull an OP4 and liberate the 360 and TW game from the VA.

Digital Sportspage

Tiger Woods 360 *Impressions**