Tiger 13 News Post

Tiger Woods 13: Country Clubs Online Feature Details, Demo Date Announced

12:06 PM - February 22, 2012 by RaychelSnr

Got this in our inbox from EA today:

Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 13 introduces some new online features, most notably a key social feature called Online Country Clubs and a coins-based economy.

The coins-based economy will enable players to earn coins through regular gameplay. With coins, players will be able to purchase Pin Packs as well as individual rounds on PDLC courses. The player�s ultimate goal will be to unlock unlimited play on PDLC courses via either collecting all the pins for that course (players collect pins by purchasing �Pin Packs� with their earned coins), or by completing course mastery on that course by purchasing individual rounds with coins.

Country clubs will enable players to create or join an exclusive country club with friends and will also accelerate a players� coins earnings. Friends will gather together in clubs, create tournaments and compete against club members for the coveted Club Championship. As players� country clubs grow and level up, they�ll be awarded with increased coins payouts.

The virtual economy and country clubs simplified: Connect, Compete and Collect. The more you play, the more coins you earn, the more coins you earn the more pins you can collect, the more pins you have, the faster you�ll earn additional coins, which leads to unlocking unlimited play on PDLC courses. Participation in a Country Club will accelerate the rate at which all the above occur, so make sure to get into a Country Club starting March 6 at www.easports.com/countryclubs.

In addition, the Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 13 demo will go live on March 6 for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

For more info on the online country clubs, click here.

So what do you think about the Tiger Woods Online modes? Are you going to check out the demo?

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Member Comments

# 1 OnlookerDelay @ 02/22/12 12:22 PM

One of the blogs deals with online coins, course mastery, and boost pins. I'm not sure how that fits into online country clubs, but it appears the accumulation of them all somehow ups the status points of your country club.

The club itself seems to have a lot of depth aside from the power-up fluff though. You can set up custom daily and weekly tournaments for your club, via web access to your clubs exclusive website.

Check this out from Christian Brandt's blog:

Custom Club Live Tournaments - Web Integration

We have also extended the Country Clubs experience onto the web. It�s a free to use site that will allow you to setup or join a Country Club before the game ships. Look for the website to launch around the demo date. Also for the first time ever, gamers will be able to create their very own Custom Club Live Tournaments to compete against teammates. You will be able to schedule Daily and Weekly tournaments with any settings you like. You will be provided with all the same tools we use to create live tournaments such as course, difficulty settings, and conditions.

I think this is going to open up a new world of online competitive options!

I'll be anxiously awaiting the demo with the hope that this new swing mechanic will transform the game into something that feels more alive, especially in Tournament difficulty!

# 2 huntt26 @ 02/22/12 01:57 PM

Hopefully we can try out the Kinect integration in the demo. If it is solid, I'll definitely get this game

# 3 kickingguru @ 02/22/12 03:28 PM

Now this excites me..... In the Immortal words of Jake Blues... Were gettin the Band back together.....

# 4 kickingguru @ 02/22/12 05:23 PM

One big complaint over the last few years is that you have to pay for the DLC each year.. This year, through play only, you can earn the DLC... likely will take time, but if your a die hard... This one alone is awesome...

The system is like the Freemium games on Ipad Apps.. You can purchase coins or earn them through play.. You use the coins to get the content.. I like it....

# 5 jyoung @ 02/22/12 06:23 PM

It'd be cool if they'd bring the "club tournament" idea into Madden's online communities.

# 6 lnin0 @ 02/22/12 06:29 PM

The coins sound like a good idea for DLC. Even if you don't want to slog through all the course objectives to get it for free you can use your coins to get a few preview rounds in before spending money.

Boost pins on the other hand, sound like another dumb gimmick to add to a sports game that has a long history of stupid gimmicks. I hope there is a way to block them from tournaments.

# 7 DivotMaker @ 02/22/12 07:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lnin0


	Boost pins on the other hand, sound like another dumb gimmick to add to a sports game that has a long history of stupid gimmicks. I hope there is a way to block them from tournaments.

If you read the EA Tiger forums, you would find out they can be disabled for online play, even in Online Country Clubs...

# 8 kickingguru @ 02/22/12 07:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lnin0


	Boost pins on the other hand, sound like another dumb gimmick to add to a sports game that has a long history of stupid gimmicks. I hope there is a way to block them from tournaments.

In my mind.. no different than the boosts associated with clubs and clothes of previous games... In essence getting a maxed out CAG....

What I like is that there will be a long term playability to the online...

# 9 MERACE @ 02/23/12 12:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by misterkrabz


	Someone notify me when they figured out how to prevent people from shooting -30 on any given round.

Setting up a round with at least breezy winds, gusts on, caddie off, black tees, hard tees, Tournament difficulty, Expert swing, Putt Preview off, Back Swing Meter off, green grid off, Pins off, True View on, Spin Control will just about guarantee to prevent "-30 on any given round".

That's what is so good about the Country Clubs this year. You can create or join a Country Club that uses the above tournament settings and compete within your own club with like minded players.

-MERACE

# 10 ctulb @ 02/23/12 10:13 AM

Very much looking forward to this feature. Any information yet on the type of tournaments that can be created for your Country Club? Is it stroke play only? Is handicapping available?

# 11 OnlookerDelay @ 02/23/12 12:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ctulb


	Very much looking forward to this feature. Any information yet on the type of tournaments that can be created for your Country Club? Is it stroke play only? Is handicapping available?

You can create the same variety of tournaments in Custom Club Live Tournaments that EA currently creates in their Live Tournaments in Tiger 12. The only difference is that you'll be able to tailor the difficulty a bit more intricately. You'll also be able to force "True View", which we're not exactly sure what that means at this point.

The tournaments will be stroke play only, but I did see that there's a "Head to Head" play menu in the clubhouse's main menu page. I'm thinking that you would have the option for stroke play, match play, four ball, best ball, alternate shot, skins under that menu. I've got a question on the official website forum about that right now, but so far, no official response to it.

I think a club could use that facility to structure their own match play tournament, if match play is available in the head to head menu, as I suspect. You could seed the tournament according to club rankings and everyone could arrange their matches as needed.

As for handicapping... I've seen no mention of it anywhere. I doubt it's there, but this is the first time out of the chute with this new feature. It's really bitten off quite a bit for its maiden voyage, IMO. Maybe this is something we'll see in the future if the club function proves to be as popular as I think it will be.

# 12 kickingguru @ 02/23/12 01:23 PM

One interesting thing I gathered is that playing any mode will boost the status of your Country Club as long as you are connected to the servers.. This will make playing all modes and options beneficial. I like the sound of this whole system as it will be a huge tool in creating long term playability....

# 13 OnlookerDelay @ 02/23/12 01:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kickingguru


	One interesting thing I gathered is that playing any mode will boost the status of your Country Club as long as you are connected to the servers.. This will make playing all modes and options beneficial. I like the sound of this whole system as it will be a huge tool in creating long term playability....

Excellent point Guru! It will definitely add to the significance of what you're doing while playing the game, as long as you're connected. For whatever reason, EA Sports is trying to encourage online connection in this year's game. I'm sure there's got to be a marketing angle in it for them that we're not seeing, but so be it... that's what makes capitalism work - the buyer and the seller benefit.

# 14 kickingguru @ 02/23/12 03:35 PM

The benefit is the same concept of the Freemium games on Ipads... You will have people buying Coins with real money... The more connected means the more people may choose to buy... Make a little extra Coin (pardon the pun)... I love the concept as if i want to be patient and play my way through... I can... If I am impatient and have $50 bucks burning a hole in my pocket... Bang.. It is in my hands and I am not forced to miss out on features if I do not want to pay... This whole online concept may end up being one of the best online experiences in sports video games.... It is however EA and if any one can screw up a good idea... they can....

# 15 kerosene31 @ 02/24/12 10:21 AM

One question, do you still have to buy the DLC packs and then earn coins to play? I can't believe they would allow you a way to not pay for DLC.

The online sounds interesting. It would be neat to have an OS country club to compete against instead of having to deal with the freaks who can shoot -30 anywhere.

Looking forward to the demo.

# 16 kickingguru @ 02/24/12 10:33 AM

Actually if you purchase the DLC... It would be unlimited play... So no worries there.....

# 17 DivotMaker @ 02/24/12 10:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kerosene31


	One question, do you still have to buy the DLC packs and then earn coins to play? I can't believe they would allow you a way to not pay for DLC.

No. You can earn coins to get free play of DLC courses. However, the DLC courses for free are not enabled for offline career mode. According to EA, there were a number of issues with enabling the free DLC courses for play offline. I am going to buy all of the DLC courses so I do not run into any limitations playing online or offline. There also should be some discounts on the DLC courses for those who have their EA Sports Season Ticket.

# 18 jbd345 @ 02/24/12 12:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DivotMaker


	No. You can earn coins to get free play of DLC courses. However, the DLC courses for free are not enabled for offline career mode. According to EA, there were a number of issues with enabling the free DLC courses for play offline. I am going to buy all of the DLC courses so I do not run into any limitations playing online or offline. There also should be some discounts on the DLC courses for those who have their EA Sports Season Ticket.

Wasn't that the whole point of season ticket, getting reduced prices on DLC?
I believe we should be able download the whole game the weekend for free before release, or has EA abandoned that?

# 19 DivotMaker @ 02/24/12 02:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jbd345


	Wasn't that the whole point of season ticket, getting reduced prices on DLC? I believe we should be able download the whole game the weekend for free before release, or has EA abandoned that?

Among other things yes and the game will be available for DL 3 days prior to release. I was simply responding to the DLC question that was asked.

# 20 stormjr @ 02/24/12 09:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DivotMaker


	No. You can earn coins to get free play of DLC courses. However, the DLC courses for free are not enabled for offline career mode. According to EA, there were a number of issues with enabling the free DLC courses for play offline. I am going to buy all of the DLC courses so I do not run into any limitations playing online or offline. There also should be some discounts on the DLC courses for those who have their EA Sports Season Ticket.

I don't think this is entirely true, Divot. The way I read the Dev response to my question was that you cannot use a RENTED course in the offline career. However, once they are Gold Mastered they behave like normal DLC.

Here's the comment from the dev:

Quote:


	You have to be connected to purchase the rounds. You have to be connected to start playing a purchased round. The round consumes as soon as you start it, so you can lose connection after you begin playing and it is no big deal. You can still finish your round without any issue. If you quit your round for any reason, you have already consumed your round, so you won't get it back if you quit. You can't use the rounds in career. Only Play Now, Live Tournaments, and H2H. There were too many complications with career. Mainly, if you started a tournament that was 4 rounds and you only had 1 round, you would be stuck until you made another purchase. So you can only use a DLC course in career if you have unlimited rounds to the course. Once you have unlimited rounds, you are no longer required to be connected to use the course. The entitlement to the course is downloaded to your console and you have the same access to it that you had in the past with DLC courses.

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