Tiger Woods 13 PGA TOUR and CE Info

[TCrouch]

I don't think I've ever had so much fun being horrible in a golf game before.

The only thing I couldn't take so far was the 7 or 8 holes I tried of the weekly with the putting grid off. I can't really get a feel for what the green is doing and I was 4-putting holes, even though I'd drop my approach shot within 10 feet of the hole. I'm glad we're not doing that going forward, because there's no way I'd play a bunch of rounds that way.

But in the dailies I've had fun stinking up the course. Every time I feel like I've got my swing down, I will absolutely butcher a hole and end up being totally mental. Suddenly I'm getting it off-center, trying to compensate, and getting worse. In my first Nationwide Tour round offline, I posted a -3 and felt really good. Then I go out in the 2nd round and start pulling my shots right consistently. It starts getting in my head, I tried to focus harder, and I got worse. I ended up finishing 4th despite leading the tournament by 5 shots heading into the back 9. It was a complete meltdown.

The fact that it remained so fun is a testament to this year's game, I think.

[webdanzer]

Schedule looks good, Dan. I may not be in for the non-CE DLC, but should be in for most of the rest.

I do have one request: can we make future weekly tournaments actually last about a week? I know I would personally appreciate more time to get those 4 rounds in on my schedule, around the dailies and such. Pretty often I don't have the time to play 2 rounds a day, so if the weekly deadlines are tight, I might have to skip either the multi-round weekly or one of the dailies. I just squeaked Pebble in, and I'm not sure if I'll be able to do the Masters...

Thanks!

[Leadfoot5]

If there is an open spot, I'd like to try to get in..

If a spot opens up I will PM you. Right now we have 1 open spot but a few people ahead of you on the wait list. I've sent the first person a PM to see if they are still interested.

Dan, did you catch my interest in the CC a few posts back?

[Edit] Nevermind, just saw your PM!!

[Spooky]

So - at risk of getting disciplined for not reading enough - I went back 4-5 pages and have yet to really read any substantial impression of the game. What's the consensus?

Some things I'm curious about:

-Graphics in comparison to previous versions?

-Are most of you playing with a controller or via Kinect?

-Character use - are you guys using real pro's or your own custom players?

-For custom players/characters, do you have to do the same old "build up your player via playing tons and tons or rounds" or have they finally given an option for distributing an allotment of points when you create your character?

[Danimal]

Schedule looks good, Dan. I may not be in for the non-CE DLC, but should be in for most of the rest.

I do have one request: can we make future weekly tournaments actually last about a week? I know I would personally appreciate more time to get those 4 rounds in on my schedule, around the dailies and such. Pretty often I don't have the time to play 2 rounds a day, so if the weekly deadlines are tight, I might have to skip either the multi-round weekly or one of the dailies. I just squeaked Pebble in, and I'm not sure if I'll be able to do the Masters...

Thanks!

There is no way to do that. A weekly you pick the start date and it schedules out the next 4 days. Really nothing I can do.

[TCrouch]

I didn't even play last year's, so I have no comparison for graphics.

I'm using a controller--I tried the connect and just hated the interface and for whatever reason my swing wouldn't recognize most of the time. My wife had no problems, though.

As far as I know, all of us are using our created golfers. Some guys started out with more powerful versions because of a surplus of experience points from playing last year's game a lot. I started with a newly created guy, and all of his stats were at 35. Every round I've played has been with a n00b golfer.

You still have to build up your character, but you have boost pins that give you 5x XP for the round, and refill pins that you use to refill that pin to use more. Not to mention playing round after round is actually fun for me this year. It only took a few rounds using the XP booster pin to get my power up to somewhere that I could routinely hit 250+ yard drives, and get my putting up high enough to flirt with birdies every hole.

In short, it's a fantastic game this year--and it's still got the grinding build-up-your-golfer gameplay, but I'm having fun doing it this year. The online Country Club tournaments add a lot to the desire to get better and build my character up, too.

[Spooky]

Thanks Terry!

One other thing I'm interested in regarding the created player is the individual attribute caps. Can you still max out a created player to where they shoot unrealistic scores? I hate the fact that we've had to self-impose a cap in previous versions just to keep things realistic.

[10spro]

@Spooky:

Graphics are good, not a jump over last year by any means, but the lightning is definitely better this year.

If you have the Kinect, you may find that putting is more natural, at least for me it is, but you may get tired of flipping the menus with your hand as it may not always respond according to your commands.

Personally, I've been using CAG since day 1. I am all about the XP's and if you owned TW 12, you can import some of your stats with up to 65.000 XP, so you don't have to start from scratch. I think now most of us are using the controller.

Game is damn fun, I probably never said so many 'F..K Me' in a game while being entertained and as you can see the interest in our CC is awesome. Get the CE version, there's a practice facility for you where you can f*** up with your shots as much as you'd like.

And Dan, again thanks for organizing the dailies, for most of the part I am OK with the schedule except when I travel of course. I did finish the weekly on time but just missed the daily yesterday.

[TCrouch]

That, I do not know. I know that my power is about 70 and my putting is 50 something and I'm nowhere near ready to hit unrealistic scores.

In our online CC matches, the same guys shoot the good scores--and those are usually anywhere between -3 and -9. I haven't seen anything ridiculous yet. With the settings we use (Expert Swing, no meter, etc) you can't really just get a boosted guy and knock down hole after hole. You have to really get a feel for how to play it this year, which is what keeps me coming back.

I can go for a chip and get my club halfway into my backswing and club forward. At the same exact distance, if my backswing is slow and my downswing is fast, I might hit it 40 yards and overshoot by a mile. I might keep an even tempo and only knock it 15, with a nice roll. Or I might pause too much on the downswing and end up duffing it 12 inches.

You really have to putt a whole lot to understand the feel (I'm still coming to grips with it), so a huge boost in stats won't do you much good until you get a bunch of holes of experience. And by that time, a guy with stats 20 points lower than yours could probably hang with you just based on experience.

[Wilk5280]

you still have to build up your character, but you have boost pins that give you 5x XP for the round, and refill pins that you use to refill that pin to use more. Not to mention playing round after round is actually fun for me this year. It only took a few rounds using the XP booster pin to get my power up to somewhere that I could routinely hit 250+ yard drives, and get my putting up high enough to flirt with birdies every hole.

My advice is after the refill pins are used NOT to buy more refill pins. Instead buy the combo pin pack that has the XP pin included with it. The 2nd time you obtain the pin it becomes silver and gives you 7X XP. The third time you max it out at gold and received 10X XP.

[TCrouch]

Wait, what?

I haven't actually purchased any refills yet. But are you guaranteed to get the boost pin in the combo pack?

[Naples39]

Wait, what?

I haven't actually purchased any refills yet. But are you guaranteed to get the boost pin in the combo pack?

I bought some pin pack and didn't get another XP booster pin. I was going to buy a pack of refill pins, but saw it was 15k coins and said forget that. I'll start looking for more XP booster pins.

Btw, does prize money from playing online do anything for you?

[Wilk5280]

I've gotten an XP pin every time I've purchased the combo pack that has a picture of the XP pin on it. It's not cheap, mind you. 7,000 or 8,000 coins if I remember correctly.

I also sell back the pins I don't want to keep for about 220 coins.

Not sure about the prize money, but I don't think you do anything with it.

[Naples39]

If people are racking up XP, how long will it be before their CAG is better than most of the default pro's in the game? Should we worry about that?

[TCrouch]

If a month passes and a player's CAG is still in the 50's, personally I'd say that's not their fault. It will take me quite a while to rack up enough xp to boost everything up, and other than power, I'm not seeing a real huge boost to my play when kicking a stat up from 35 to 50 or so lol

[webdanzer]

Early on the stat difference doesn't seem to make a huge difference, Spooky.

I used a pro for my first couple of tourneys before switching to my CAG. Based on that and some stat mentions by everyone else, I think my guy's current levels are a good chunk below many others (I posted his numbers a couple of pages back), but I'm still finishing pretty well. Not sure if that will remain as we reach the high end of the spectrum, but it's pretty good for now.

Dan-- I didn't know the span for the weeklies was inflexible. Stinks, but thanks!

[Naples39]

Well I have my power and putting up to low-60s right now, other ratings lag behind.

I guess it's a question of the reason for the CAG-only rule. If it was to prevent people from just taking Tiger and his high ratings, sooner or later someone might have a 100 rated golfer and that purpose will have been entirely defeated.

I don't really care either way personally.

[dbdynsty25]

If people are racking up XP, how long will it be before their CAG is better than most of the default pro's in the game? Should we worry about that?

That is my problem. Outside of the daily rounds and tourneys, I probably won't be playing this game much (hell, I've barely touched it so far, been ridiculously busy)...so I'm going to get lapped by the field no doubt. Makes it really difficult to compete with a crappy CAG (but mine will for sure look the best, lol).

[Wilk5280]

My Driving and Putting are at 80 on the nose right now, with everything else well below. I intend to keep building him up so if that breaks any unknown rules or desires let me know and I'll bow out. No hard feelings either way

[webdanzer]

I personally don't care if folks want to use pros or cags, kinect or controller, or whatever. The game is wide open and pretty hard to enforce, and I don't want to limit folks too much in playing in ways that are fun for them.

That said, it might be good for our headspaces to do an 'attribute check-in' periodically so we see where everyone is. I know I won't feel as bad finishing behind Wilk, now, knowing he's a +30 on stats!

And I've said this before, but I also like the idea of setting up some occasional tourneys where everyone uses the same pro.

[Wilk5280]

for the record, you'd never know by looking at my scores (on Tournament difficulty) that my guy is stacked. It's not like I'm tearing up the leaderboards

[MUTTS]

Practice swings are helpful!

As far as draw and fade go. Even moving the stick diagonally, I dont tend to get anyware. Is this because my CAG workability is so poor at 36?

Tony

Just shot an 87 at Augusta and boy was it fun...the wind was up...Saturday pins. Game is hard.

[TCrouch]

for the record, you'd never know by looking at my scores (on Tournament difficulty) that my guy is stacked. It's not like I'm tearing up the leaderboards

This is exactly what I'm talking about. Even with a stacked guy, you still have to get a feel for the game. You always do very well, but not so well that it makes me believe that stats are all that matters. You really have to play hundreds (if not thousands) of holes to understand each shot type and how to maneuver the swing stick for the best results.

[orthostud23]

Thanks for setting up all the daily/weekly tourenys Danimal! I like how you have set them up using all the courses available. I will just use my coins to play the rounds.

My CAG is currently in the 70's for power, 60's for everything else except Accuracy which remains at 50.

I like the idea of getting together on Weds. as well and get 2 man teams out and get our matches in against other CC's. That would help us get to the gold level CC and get more coins.

I am not sure if the scores are going to get out of control in this TW game. I see some of the guys on the live dailys shooting some insane numbers with no green grid and am wondering how they are doing this. I feel I am decent at this game and these guys are 10+ strokes better than me per round. I am hoping to be able to play against them so I can see how they work their way around the course.

[Gurantsu]

I just want to add my support for making weekly tournaments last seven days if that's possible. I could certainly use that extra time to get in the four rounds. For example I'll be at the in-laws this weekend, so it may be tough for me to get all of the rounds of our Masters tournament in.