Enough is enough, the putting is broken in this game!

[NEOPARADIGM]

Re: Enough is enough, the putting is broken in this game!

Putting is the most difficult golf shot to master and it is finally that way in the game.

Yeah, I've been thinking about that a lot lately, too. Anyone can hit the fairways and get to the greens in 2-3 shots, it's what you do on the green that distinguishes pros from amateurs in the first place. Refreshing that this is reflected in the game, but that doesn't make it any less frustrating.

[kerosene31]

Re: Enough is enough, the putting is broken in this game!

I've never had to take so much time reading greens in a TW game before and then determine the right amount of touch to put on the ball. It feels great and almost exactly like real life IMO. It is so rewarding when you do sink that 20 footer now that I actually jump and give myself a fist pump.

That touch is what doesn't translate at all for me, since you hit a 20 footer or a 40 footer the same on the thumbstick. The touch feels artificial for me with a controller just because the tiny movements of the stick can never match the movement of a real putter.

Like Seymour says, when you get the crazy expert pin placements things can get crazy. There are some 40 foot+ 2 foot uphill putts which I simply couldn't get enough power behind to get to the hole. You end up with a 15 footer still, which is a miss, and now you're looking at bogey.

Also, the pros do not hit every fairway and green. I rarely miss fairways anymore (oddly enough the only time I miss is when I listen to my caddy). Greens are tougher to hit and hold, but again not that tough.

[Seymour Scagnetti]

Re: Enough is enough, the putting is broken in this game!

That touch is what doesn't translate at all for me, since you hit a 20 footer or a 40 footer the same on the thumbstick. The touch feels artificial for me with a controller just because the tiny movements of the stick can never match the movement of a real putter.

Like Seymour says, when you get the crazy expert pin placements things can get crazy. There are some 40 foot+ 2 foot uphill putts which I simply couldn't get enough power behind to get to the hole. You end up with a 15 footer still, which is a miss, and now you're looking at bogey.

Also, the pros do not hit every fairway and green. I rarely miss fairways anymore (oddly enough the only time I miss is when I listen to my caddy). Greens are tougher to hit and hold, but again not that tough.

But at least you can lower your accuracy to make things tougher in hitting FIR and GIR. With the putting your simply at the mercy of the game and the cartoon pin placements. People are confusing difficult putting with the pin locations and even I fell victim to that. That is far from realistic.

When I can go -6 after 3 rounds and then have a 10% of breaking 80 in the 4th round then something is way off. They had problems like this last year but the illogical placements have increased tenfold for TW12. And of course the AI golfers are all shooting 68 so you are tied for the lead after 3 rounds and end up in 40th place after the 4th round.

If anybody says they can come close to going under par in tourney mode at Costa Novarino and several other courses in the 4th round then they are simply lying. It really can't be done. You miss a 10 foot putt by a foot with perfect speed and it rolls past the hole or back to your original position and you have a putt twice as long as you originally did. That happens rarely on the PGA tour. Here it happens every other hole on expert pins. You need to have a 10 shot lead going into the final round to have any hopes of winning the tourney on many of the courses. That they insituted this to make it more difficult on the supposed sim mode is mind boggling. They find new ways to make this unplayable year after year. It's like playing Madden and when you reach the playoffs then the game automatically shrinks your endzone to half the size to make it more difficult for you to score.

[kerosene31]

Re: Enough is enough, the putting is broken in this game!

EA loves the crazy pin placements. They use them all the time in live tournaments and it makes them almost unplayable.

[globalbeats7]

Re: Enough is enough, the putting is broken in this game!

Seymour....then the putting is NOT broken as your thread title states. its about the cartoonish 4th round pin placements, which i agree with. you went from yelling at the putting to the pin placement in this thread so its obvious you are frustrated with the game, which you are entitled to of course. but the thread is misleading and prob should be revised as a "i hate this game" rant/thread.

[rolltide1017]

Re: Enough is enough, the putting is broken in this game!

I definitely agree about the insane pin placements and it does get very frustrating. I guess EA has too many miniature golfers on staff vs real golfers. Although, you don't even see these kinds of pin placements on most miniature golf courses so, who knows where EA get these crazy concepts. It still all stems from the time when TW was super easy, they used crazy pins to manufacture difficulty, or tried. You, know back when there was only one difficulty and every putt, even 100ft putts, where almost gimmes. Problem is, they have finally made a game the past few years that doesn't need those gimmicks to be challenging but, they haven't changed or refuse to change their mentality towards pin placement.

AFAIK, it should be possible for them to code the game so that it sees if you are playing on Tour Pro or Tournament and, use realistic pins. If you are playing on the 2 easier settings, the AI could then select the arcade pins.

[Seymour Scagnetti]

Re: Enough is enough, the putting is broken in this game!

Seymour....then the putting is NOT broken as your thread title states. its about the cartoonish 4th round pin placements, which i agree with. you went from yelling at the putting to the pin placement in this thread so its obvious you are frustrated with the game, which you are entitled to of course. but the thread is misleading and prob should be revised as a "i hate this game" rant/thread.

At this point I really don't care as I won't be posting on this board after today and trading in the game this week. Honestly if the putting title is an eye catcher then I hope it is because if it prevents one person from buying this game and saving thier money who want it for a sim career offline (or online) then mission accomplished because it is really a complete failure on that level and will lead to nothing but frustration and a lighter wallet.

And it's not a rant, it's simply a fact that having mountaintop pin placements is a gamekiller for career mode. There's really no debating it. I'm usually fair with my game assessments but this game continues to go downhill every year. They might not have the clown suits anymore but they might as well have a big clown's mouth leading to the pin on expert because it's just a glorified mini putt.

My advice to the sim guys who are frustrated with this. It's not gonna get any better putting. My guy is nearly maxed and it's no help. Why waste all this time being frustrated with attempted workarounds unless you like playing 3 rounds and then simming the 4th round every time to get a decent score. Take your lumps with the money wasted on DLC and trade it in while it still has value. And it will be the same thing next year just like it has been for the past years. The devs aren't golf fans, they're mini putt fans.

[Seymour Scagnetti]

Re: Enough is enough, the putting is broken in this game!

I definitely agree about the insane pin placements and it does get very frustrating. I guess EA has too many miniature golfers on staff vs real golfers. Although, you don't even see these kinds of pin placements on most miniature golf courses so, who knows where EA get these crazy concepts. It still all stems from the time when TW was super easy, they used crazy pins to manufacture difficulty, or tried. You, know back when there was only one difficulty and every putt, even 100ft putts, where almost gimmes. Problem is, they have finally made a game the past few years that doesn't need those gimmicks to be challenging but, they haven't changed or refuse to change their mentality towards pin placement.

AFAIK, it should be possible for them to code the game so that it sees if you are playing on Tour Pro or Tournament and, use realistic pins. If you are playing on the 2 easier settings, the AI could then select the arcade pins.

Trust me they won't patch it. You underestimate the stupidity of these devs and they really just don't care. They have your money. People were complaining about this last year and what did they do? They put in even more, and alot more.

The most fun in playing a golf game is the final round in contention. The fact that you know you can't shoot a 67 to win it because of pin placements and hope and pray you shoot par and don't triple bogey 3 or 4 carnival holes takes all the fun out of it especially when you know the other AI golfers are gonna shoot 65-70.

If I'm playing Madden and I know that my AI receivers are programmed to drop almost every pass in the last 2 minutes and I know I have little chance of winning then what's the point of playing it. That's how I feel about this game.

[peigone]

Re: Enough is enough, the putting is broken in this game!

And it's not a rant, it's simply a fact that having mountaintop pin placements is a gamekiller for career mode.

Which is why I have repeatedly called for EA to add customization features to career mode. I've tried playing career mode in past TW games and came up against this same career mode-killing issue. Let us determine pin placements, weather, and course conditions in career mode. The PC version of TW allowed all that back in the day, why not introduce it to the console version?

[kerosene31]

Re: Enough is enough, the putting is broken in this game!

If I'm playing Madden and I know that my AI receivers are programmed to drop almost every pass in the last 2 minutes and I know I have little chance of winning then what's the point of playing it. That's how I feel about this game.

The problem for years has been that EA designs the game so it can't be mastered online. I checked out the tournament difficulty live tournaments where the conditions were gusty winds, lighting fast greens and expert pins, and people were still shooting -10. -10 doesn't sound that bad, but those of us with human appendages would shoot well above par. I saw one friend on the leaderboard at +2 which must have been one heck of a round (and still 12 back).

They made it even harder than last year because last year people would still shoot -22 in horrible conditions. (sadly it is the same few people on top each time)

[Hunkerdown]

Re: Enough is enough, the putting is broken in this game!

This is definitely an issue, I hope gets looked at. Just payed a pga tour tourney where I was a relistic -3 after 2 rounds, than on weekend I end up at +5 overall. This was at sheshan. Not because of bad shots to green, but ofcourse silly pin placements that caused alot of 3 putts.

[Koolie G]

Re: Enough is enough, the putting is broken in this game!

I just made it to the PGA Tour last night. So I will play my first PGA event tonight. I'm interested to see how the pin placements differ from the Amatuer Tour and Nationwide. I still haven't won a tourney, but I finished in the top 5 in the last two Nationwide tourneys to get my card.

[rolltide1017]

Re: Enough is enough, the putting is broken in this game!

This is an issue I'd like to see further looked into.

I was playing a round last night with 3 other guys who you regularly see in the top 10 if not winning daily tournaments. We had a good competitive tournament mode round going and hit a hole with a carnival pin. (Can't for the life of me recall which course/hole right now, played a bunch of rounds last night). Anyways, 2 of us walked away with lucky birdies and 2 carded +4....all due to the pin placement and luck and nothing to do whatsoever with any skill. It was a total buzzkill for the match.

[Obs edit: Pin placements are currently under consideration]

That was posted by Oblong, one of the moderators over on the EA TW forums. His edit is what is most interesting. Sounds like pin placements have a chance of being addressed in a patch.

[Lieutenant Dan]

Re: Enough is enough, the putting is broken in this game!

That was posted by Oblong, one of the moderators over on the EA TW forums. His edit is what is most interesting. Sounds like pin placements have a chance of being addressed in a patch.

THanks for posting that, Tide....makes me feel better knowing that they are aware of it and at least looking into it. Such a simple thing to address, it seems...and can make a helluva difference in the factor of TW12's career mode. I know it would save me from Sunday meltdowns lol.

[ajaxab]

Re: Enough is enough, the putting is broken in this game!

If anybody says they can come close to going under par in tourney mode at Costa Novarino and several other courses in the 4th round then they are simply lying. It really can't be done. You miss a 10 foot putt by a foot with perfect speed and it rolls past the hole or back to your original position and you have a putt twice as long as you originally did. That happens rarely on the PGA tour. Here it happens every other hole on expert pins. You need to have a 10 shot lead going into the final round to have any hopes of winning the tourney on many of the courses.

I just experienced this at Costa Novarino. I've saved and quit at hole #5 about 10 times in a row after continually getting the carnival pin placement on the left side middle of the green. Any shot to the right of that pin invariably ends up in at least one inverted v-shaped putt where the ball rolls up at or near hole high and then rolls back to your feet. There is no way to get it close except by sheer fluke.