Remember 2015 - When Golf Gaming looked so bright?

[OnlookerDelay]

I tried to like Tiger Woods 14, but I couldn't get past my dislike for its only truly functional presentation mode: Follow Cam. I've never been a fan of Follow Cam - in any golf game - since its inception.

For some reason, EA Sports dropped what they'd called the "True-Aim" camera perspective, which had been great in Tiger Woods 12, and even better in Tiger Woods 13. I loved the way the True-Aim camera in Tiger 13 held the golfer's perspective view and then cut to a downrange camera about 90% of the ball's travel.

Tiger 14 offered what was called a "Broadcast Camera" option, but it was absolutely horrible... I really think it was broken as it would cut to a camera angle 40 yards away on a 12 yard chip shot, as soon as the ball was struck, often times at a camera height that you couldn't see the ball - period! That's just one example of the mucked up Broadcast camera work of this game. Rarely was there a cut that made any sense or approached real broadcast quality.

I also never bought into the diagonal swing path required to hit a shot straight using "Simulation" difficulty. It was tough... yes, but it seemed counter-intuitive to me and I just never came to grips with it. I did enjoy the difficulty level just below it (Tour Pro) that that used the conventional vertical swing path target, and had they offered Tiger 13's True-Aim camera quality with 14, I'd probably still be playing it today in Tour Pro difficulty.

I realize I'm in a small minority in my dislike of the follow camera presentation option, but that's just the way I'm wired.

[lowpaiddonkey10]

Tried Golfer Cam I think it's called not sure for a few holes but would have liked it a lot if they cut to the ball flight sooner. I like knowing where the ball is going earlier than this camera angle allowed you to see.


While not perfect I think the ball physics are better in Rory than TGC. The ball bounces too much in the rough in HB's version of golf.

[binga30]

Is there a statement from EA that says they will not return to a golf game anytime soon? I still drag out Tiger 05 or 06 on PS2 from time to time, to me it still holds up. Also TW12-14 are still fun to play with Augusta, I love the Augusta challenges on TW12 and the history challenges on TW14. Played TGC1 on xbox one, while it was a decent stab from an indie dev, it's just not smooth enough for my liking.

[Anthraticus]

Quote: Originally Posted by pietasterp

I think the troubles and bleak outlook for golf games reflects the overall down-market in sports gaming in general. This has been discussed elsewhere, but you could argue that it's never been worse across-the-board in the sports gaming market than it is right now. I don't see anything on the horizon that is likely to improve the situation, either. These are the dark ages of sports gaming (I mean, graphics aside).

I think the focus on graphics and presentation, first and foremost is a big part of the problem. They need to make the games more fun to play, not just prettier to look at. And that means better/tighter/more responsive player control and less cpu automation. (I know golf this really isn't too much of a factor cause you're basically only controlling the swing)



Presentation/graphics being the driving force isn't just a problem with sports games only, it pretty much permeates AAA gaming as a whole these days. That's why I'm primarily a AA/indie/retro gamer now.

[binga30]

I don't know figures, but I tend to agree that sports gaming feels like it's on the down slope. Too many other electronics for teens to get their fix. I remember being a teen and some of my mates who never played golf all enjoyed playing Tiger on the PS2/Xbox. It feels like the early 2000's were sports gaming's golden age, nowadays it's battle royale.

I'm sure the devs say the $$$ are not there to be made, but if there was a TW20 game out, assuming TW14 plus 6 years of improvements, I would pay over $100 for that.

[ncp10]

Quote: Originally Posted by binga30

I'm sure the devs say the $$$ are not there to be made, but if there was a TW20 game out, assuming TW14 plus 6 years of improvements, I would pay over $100 for that.

I think it's all about the business model. Considering the market for a sterling golf sim may be modest at best I think a model that would have the best chance of success is establishing up front how long that core game engine will function for: 5y is reasonable. Why do I say that? Because hardware processing power in either console or PC domains really has slowed down considerably over the past many years now. I've been an armchair pilot for decades now flying MSFS and now Prepar3D and the CPU in my PC now is just hitting 6y/o. It's been overclocked to 4.4Ghz for all of those years now. If I stack this 6-core CPU up against the latest I9-9900K we're looking at a grand total of a 44% increase in single-core performance is all we get and most games including flight sims especially don't multithread well so single-core performance is mostly what matters as far as the CPU goes.

So what makes the most sense is indeed to make the best possible core engine for golf and ANNOUNCE this core is going to stay afloat for the next 5y. Then of course announce plans for content each year: courses, new PGA players, and that's all that's required. No need to go in a make a whole new release! In the case of MSFS they left content to 3rd party developers, and this spawned a very long lived and robust 3rd part developer community--huge! Tons of ever-increasing quality content! And still going very strong. And MSFS now is 10y/o! Are there more pilots out there, or more golfers? It's a perhaps silly rhetorical question but I use it to illustrate the potential market for the right golf sim.

The CORE golf sim must address playability over anything else, assuming graphic splendor is a given. It's hard to say what kind of market potential exists because the demand is very tied to the product itself--with the right chemistry the market could increase significantly I feel. The developer of the core engine then can focus entirely on content for the next 5 years.

[binga30]

All valid points! Give us a core game with some DLC and an editor the community would go nuts.

Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk

[scagwi]

Hey EA!

Tiger is back!

Can we please dust off the Rory game and rebadge it?