Thanks for the segue Steve; here's a quickie (excuse the lack of coherence, I'm coming off a 12 hour night shift!):
Just gave the demo a runthrough of all its play options... first let me say - Congratulations EA Sports; this is the way you put a demo together!
You give the gamer the opportunity to play the game in the difficulty level of their choice, which I think is a huge positive! Secondly, you give us camera options, video feature options, audio feature options. Thirdly (and certainly not last in significance) is your packing one of your key new features - True Aim - into the demo.
My thoughts here are based on about 35 minutes of gameplay, but here goes. I started out by opting for Tour Pro, precision putting meter off, big hit cameras and pressure moments off, ball trails and putt trails off (but they were on in game anyway... I know it's a demo, so no panic button pushing yet) and of course, I had True Aim on.
I was a bit disappointed when I got to the camera options only to find Follow and Presentation cameras available, just like last year. I was expecting to find a "True View" camera in that menu, but after playing a round with True Aim on and then with it off, I see what you did with this you sly devils
You use what resembles the TWO True View camera with Presentation Camera selected along with True Aim, but if you're
not using True Aim, the Presentation camera is similar to like it was in TW 10, although I've got to see more of it to say it hasn't had some tweaking done to it.
After this brief taste of True Aim, I already know I'll be hooked on it henceforth... especially with the more player perspective view of the shots, from tee to green.
One of the key things I was looking for, particularly in Tour Pro difficulty, was the swing tempo requirement. There's something there that feels different. I'm having more difficulty hitting consistent power with the generic 50/50/50/50 golfer, but I did markedly better with Tiger in the Ryder Cup. I did do a fast paced, almost frenetic swing and pulled off a pretty straight 98% drive. However, I did my normal, more relaxed natural looking tempo from TW 10 using Tiger, and pulled off my normal 97% drive. I need more time with this to form an opinion that's worth anything though.
I like the way the randomness felt in Tour Pro. I didn't feel randomly punitive in my play this morning, but I also knew that the shot wasn't going exactly where I had aimed, even with what appeared to be a perfect swingpath.
A major tip of the hat for the ball striking sound effects for both irons and woods... they are so immersively convincing that it adds a new level of realism to the game!
I guess the only aspect I can cite as being a question mark is the putting. Granted, I'm using meterless precision putting, but I have been for all of TW 10. I've gotten pretty good with the touch that way. The precision putting in TW 11's demo is a lot touchier that TW 10. I 7-putted the first hole from 32 feet because I kept running the ball by the hole. I watch the putter stroke animation as a guide, and the putter was barely having to move to produce a 10 foot putt, with slow greens.
I started getting better at regulating putts, particularly with Tiger, but the putting stroke animation just seems to be far less proportional to the power than TW 10. Here again, I've got to spend a lot more time with that to get a better handle on it. I'll be curious to hear other impressions on this.
Finally, the course graphics are clearly a step up, as are the player models. I can't wait to get my hands on the final game now. I'm still curious as to whether True View will be a presentation option in the final game. I know the PS3 version will have to have it by the time the Move is released.