Quarantine Time Machine: Revisiting Career Modes in Past Golf Games

[donkey33]

Re: Quarantine Time Machine: Revisiting Career Modes in Past Golf Games

I've retested them all now with follow-cam, and here's what I see:

TW 10: Follow cam stays with the swing the shortest time of them all before following the ball. That could be a + or - depending on your tastes. As a True-Aim camera lover, naturally I'd prefer that it stay with the swing view camera longer. On putts it's an entirely different beast. It pretty much goes with the broadcast or presentation mode view. Sometimes the camera cuts don't give you a good angle, but when it's on - it does its job well.

TW 11: Pretty close to TW 10 in aspects. Again, no follow-cam while putting and perhaps cuts away to other angles a bit quicker, on average, than TW 10.

TW 12: Stays with the golfer swing view maybe a second longer than 10 and 11, which I think looks nicer, but again... this is down to personal preference. The putting presentation again doesn't use the putt follow cam at all. Once again it's like the broadcast presentation production of the putting in 10 and 11.

If you held a gun to my head and had me pick which Tiger from 10 - 14 had the best Follow-Cam, I'd go with 12, but if you're okay with the way the follow-cam putting is presented in 13 and 14 (the 4 foot in two dimensions perspective jump that it makes at impact).

One other note I'd like to add about TW 13 and 14's Follow-Cam presentation that I haven't in my previous posts - The camera stays with the golfer's swing camera view a second longer than TW 12, which I prefer. For me, the perspective shift that occurs on putt impact in both 13 and 14 offsets the advantage they have with the longer stay time with the golfer view on all other shots. My choice again overall is 12, but really, it's all down to personal preferences.

Thanks Onlooker, much appreciated. If I can get my hands on some of the older ones I might take a look although I'm pretty dedicated to TW14 regardless of the cameras.

[donkey33]

Re: Quarantine Time Machine: Revisiting Career Modes in Past Golf Games

This is so very accurate...it's amazing that this, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 14, is the only game in the series to feature the 4 majors. It's truly a, no pun intended, major selling point of career mode in TW 14.

As a side note... along with career mode, I've been really enjoying the Legends of the Majors mode in TW 14. Playing through golf history is quite fun, and the added touches like old timey club names (mashie, cleek, spoon, etc.), sepia tone graphics, and licensed legendary golfers really enhance the fact that this game features all four major championships.

It's actually really well done and the lure of unlocking the next kept me coming back. I can't remember which ones exactly but got stuck on a few at times.

[hort22]

Re: Quarantine Time Machine: Revisiting Career Modes in Past Golf Games

thanks for this thread fellas...after reading through i think i will fire up tw12 tonight and see how it plays.

[MrArlingtonBeach]

Re: Quarantine Time Machine: Revisiting Career Modes in Past Golf Games

After playing Tiger Woods PGA Tour 14 now for several days, I am fairly confident that it's my favorite game in the whole of the EA PGA Tour series, especially in terms of career mode. If only I could get all the DLC courses somehow to fill in the schedule...

Anyway, the next game I decided to take a look at is actually the last EA Sports entry in the PGA Tour series. It marked a shift to the current generation of consoles, as well as a shift in spokesman, coverboy, and in-game engine.

Rory McIlroy PGA Tour was released in July of 2015, after being hyped and teased since June 2014 with a presentation at E3 that year. The big feature that was marketed in the lead up to its release was the use of the Frostbite 3 engine which allowed a full course to be loaded at once, meaning no loading times between holes.

Aside from the game engine, not much else brought any sizzle to RMPGAT. The commentary team was changed, Golf Channel broadcast graphics were added, and the "Night Club Challenge" mode was included.

As for Career Mode...well, let's just say RMPGAT was a huge step back from TW 14. The mode began in the same way as previous games - create an avatar. Options for character creation are quite limited in RMPGAT - no Game Face is available and other face options are plain lousy, if not terrifying. You also get to choose your character's backstory, which does nothing but give the commentary team a few specific lines of dialogue during play - the three backstories include "Prodigy", "Collegiate", or "Instructor".

Another major difference in the RMPGAT career mode is how attributes and skills work. No longer can you decide what skills improve after each round. Instead, the game assigns skill improvement automatically, while you get to add various "Attribute Bonus" tags to your character that enhance your ability in certain areas. For example, the Power attribute bonus increases skill areas like strength, ball striking, driving, and long game. There are 24 attribute bonuses, and you unlock them as you progress thru the career. In a weird design decision, you can change and alter your attribute bonuses at any time, meaning you can have Power and Pitch and Putt bonuses in play for one round, then change to Finesse and Precision for the next round. Not sure how much sense that makes, but it is what it is.

Unlocking gear and apparel is done similar to TW 14. There are no sponsorships or goals, just items that get unlocked as you level up. You do get a small news snippet when you change clubs, balls, etc., which say you're now playing that brand's items, but it's not the same as the sponsor system in TW 12.

When you are ready to hit the links and actually begin your career, you take part in the Web.com Tour Championships at TPC Sawgrass. There is no amateur tour or event like in previous TW games. Once you finish the Web.com Tour Finals, you earn your PGA Tour card and start playing in the top tier.

Within the career mode hub, you also start to notice some other differences and issues that this game mode has. First off, there is no event schedule. You cannot see what tour stops are up next, or how long you have until your next major. Oh, and by the way, only 3 of the 4 majors are represented in RMPGAT - Augusta and The Masters are no more. Another annoying thing to me is that you auto qualify for all majors in your first season. There's no requirement you have to reach to be able to play in these important events. In TW 14, to play at The Masters, you needed to either have one career major win, or be ranked in the Top 50 in the world. In RMPGAT, you're allowed to play right away in the "Spring Invitational" at Wolf Creek (UGH).

Another negative is the removal of different weather in-game. You basically play on ideal conditions all the time, with only wind speed and direction changing from round to round. Also missing are career goals of any kind - no chasing Jack's major record or winning rookie of the year or topping the money list.

It was well documented that RMPGAT was released with an insanely low number of courses - only 8 real-world courses were included on the disc, along with a couple fantasy ones (for comparison sake, TW 14's regular edition had 20 real courses on-disc). Thankfully, EA added free DLC in the months after release that brought that total to 14 real courses. And, to their credit, EA added each one into career mode, too. However, this still means the season schedule was greatly reduced - 25 total events are on it, and courses repeat often. A certain scenario exists that could mean you play Royal Troon three times in one in-game season, if that course is also the host of the Open Championship that year (on a positive note, majors do rotate like they did in TW 14: the US Open can be at Chambers Bay or Oakmont, the Open at Royal Troon or St. Andrews, and the PGA at Whistling Straits or Quail Hollow).

There are a few positives to the Career Mode in RMPGAT, including the ability to play quick rounds instead of a full 18 holes. Quick rounds allow you to play a stretch of anywhere from 4 to 9 holes, while the CPU simulates the rest of your round. I enjoy this feature quite a bit, as it allows you to play all events in a season pretty quickly. Typically, I played quick rounds for non-major events, then played full 18-hole rounds for the majors.

Another positive I like is the ability to compose daily outfits for your created character. You can set up a look for Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. No longer do you need to adjust your ensemble after each and every round if you like to change it up.

That said, the Career Mode in RMPGAT can't overcome its biggest weakness...it just feels shallow and soulless. With no schedule, money list, career goals, etc., along with a small roster of courses to play on, the proceedings in RMPGAT career mode just get stale after a very short time. With Augusta gone, the season's arguably most popular event is missing, dragging the excitement of reaching The Masters right along with it. You have very minimal control over your golfer's progression. All of these things add up to a ho-hum experience that has occasional moments of enjoyment, but ones that quickly lose their luster.

[mwfid24]

Re: Quarantine Time Machine: Revisiting Career Modes in Past Golf Games

I 100% agree that TW14 is the best, most comprehensive offering from that series. It's definitely my favorite golf game ever, and I'm in the same boat as you trying to find a way to get the DLC to fill out the schedule. I played through the career when I first got the game and started a new one not long after. I hadn't played in awhile, but I always break it out for a little while when the Masters starts just to play Augusta. This year was obviously different, and in lieu of any golf whatsoever, I've gotten immersed in it all over again.

[lowpaiddonkey10]

Re: Quarantine Time Machine: Revisiting Career Modes in Past Golf Games

Arlington give 3 click a try in Rory.

[MrArlingtonBeach]

Re: Quarantine Time Machine: Revisiting Career Modes in Past Golf Games

Arlington give 3 click a try in Rory.

I actually do already use 3-click in RMPGAT...it's really one of the only things that keeps it in my rotation, as it's different than the analog controls I enjoy in the TW games and even in TGC 2019.

The gameplay itself in RMPGAT isn't bad at all. The graphics are pretty great, too. It's just that the game has such little else to bring me back, especially when TW 14 has so much more in the way of content and career mode depth.

[scagwi]

Re: Quarantine Time Machine: Revisiting Career Modes in Past Golf Games

My personal fantasy would be "everything about TW14" but in the visual package of Rory

Such a bummer what reality dealt us instead..

(a totally dead modern golf game landscape)

[bigkev]

Re: Quarantine Time Machine: Revisiting Career Modes in Past Golf Games

Such a bummer what reality dealt us instead..

(a totally dead modern golf game landscape)

I don't think it's totally dead, but it's more divided than ever.

1. The sim crowd wanting to play as many golf courses as they can. TGC is perfect for them, the course creators are giving them limitless golf course to play every day. They're not really interested to a company giving them real life golf courses and paying for them, they got it all already.

2. The course creators crowd only interested in making golf courses, TGC is perfect for them.

3. The arcade crowd, which are the one we kind of chased out of EA thru the years. HB can forget about this crowd, they will never like their games. They're the one making just about every arcade golf games selling better than anything TGC will do.

4. The career mode crowd, basically the guys in this thread. Boys are we ever getting the short end of the stick without EA. That's why I'm still playing TW14 even without all the DLC. Like you said... bummer.

[scagwi]

Re: Quarantine Time Machine: Revisiting Career Modes in Past Golf Games

I don't think it's totally dead, but it's more divided than ever.

Good points bigkev

I guess by "dead" I more meant just that it appears, at least on the outside, that there is essentially no major investment and/or development being put into TGC, PG or anything from EA at this time.

If there is, we of course know nothing about it, and it's a been a long time for anything even from HB.

Re: TGC/HB/2K in particular - those sim people you mention might find themselves in a pickle also if 2k really grabs the reigns and tries to do a more "EA style" release of a new (hopefully next generation) TGC at some point.

I could see them rebooting things with a renewed focus on marketshare and the mainstream, which could be good for us wanting a career/progression mode, but it might be awful for those who desire niche connectivity (like Simulators) or even those of us on PC (never know if they might focus on console only at some point, particularly if trying to build around next-gen upcoming consoles).

All in all - it's just such a far far cry from those halcyon days of annual mainstream EA Tiger releases. Man -- we never knew how good we had it.

[donkey33]

Re: Quarantine Time Machine: Revisiting Career Modes in Past Golf Games

I definitely feel for you guys without the DLC courses. It really fleshes out the mode some.

Can't help but to think what a TW14 career mode could have looked like 4-5 years down the track had it kept rolling. Then again, with every new console release, for some reason devs like to tear down what was already built so imagine RMPGAT is basically it anyway. A shame devs can't just continue on, system wise, with a game.

[mwjr]

Re: Quarantine Time Machine: Revisiting Career Modes in Past Golf Games

The only knock on the TW 12 career mode is that it includes DLC courses/events on the calendar that you can only play if you paid for the courses and downloaded them. If you don't have the course in your collection, you are forced to skip the event, causing you to actually lose ground in your quest to reach the World No. 1 ranking. I'd imagine this is where some of the real anger against EA and their DLC model started, as incorporating DLC into career mode, when announced, was seen as a huge plus. Then, when customers saw its implementation, they were frustrated - and with good reason.

I think I held out until TW 14. Then I impulsively paid like $100 (or whatever they cost) for all of the DLC courses.

I’m not proud of it.

[OnlookerDelay]

Re: Quarantine Time Machine: Revisiting Career Modes in Past Golf Games

I've been having a go at the career mode in TW 13. I lost the flash drive that had my TW 13 player, stats, credits, and DLC courses on it, so I had to start from scratch. Unfortunately, TW 13 is no longer supported by EA's servers and the only option I have for leveling up my player is within the career mode events themselves. All the other more efficient methods aren't available to me because they require server support

It took my gutted player 8 or 9 attempts to beat Ricky Fowler in the opening 3 hole skins match at Crooked Stick, just to be able to play in the qualifying challenge (play the last four holes at Crooked Stick in +1, or lower... which also took me about 8 or 9 attempts) for the first Amateur tournament. I finished tied for second in that first tournament, which finally netted me some significant experience points.

Moral of the story: treat your flash drives like gold and keep them in a place from which you can retrieve them!

[bigkev]

Re: Quarantine Time Machine: Revisiting Career Modes in Past Golf Games

Unfortunately, TW 13 is no longer supported by EA's servers and the only option I have for leveling up my player is within the career mode events themselves. All the other more efficient methods aren't available to me because they require server support

It took my gutted player 8 or 9 attempts to beat Ricky Fowler in the opening 3 hole skins match at Crooked Stick, just to be able to play in the qualifying challenge (play the last four holes at Crooked Stick in +1, or lower... which also took me about 8 or 9 attempts) for the first Amateur tournament.

If not for the server, TW13 would be my game to go as I do have all the courses and I prefer the setup of that career mode. As an aside, the AI is brutal for TW13. From what I remember, the top of the tournament leader on expert was around -24 for one round. It was obviously made that way for the arcade guys. And the tougher the AI, the more it's difficult to go thru the training games before the tournament. These guys will make just about everything.

[bigkev]

Re: Quarantine Time Machine: Revisiting Career Modes in Past Golf Games

I think I held out until TW 14. Then I impulsively paid like $100 (or whatever they cost) for all of the DLC courses.

I’m not proud of it.

lol,I'm pretty sure just about everybody would gladly pay the $100 to get those DLC right now.