Tiger Woods PGA Tour Online Beta Review

[RaychelSnr]

It has been about 10 years since I last played a golf game on the PC. Ever since Tiger Woods arrived on the original Playstation in 1998, I have been enthralled by the idea of console golf with my family and college roommates. Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2002 further solidified the series as the golf game of choice for me because of the intuitive analog-swing mechanics on the Playstation 2.

Unfortunately, the years have not been so kind to the TW franchise, with each console iteration released since 2005 feeling more and more stale and archaic -- the only saving grace being the exceptional motion controls in Tiger Woods 10 Wii.

Thankfully, EA Sports has started an open beta for Tiger Woods Online -- a free to play, browser-based PGA experience that hearkens back to the days of the PGA Tour series on the PC. The game is a breath of fresh air for a jaded golf-gaming veteran such as myself, perfectly blending old-school game mechanics with innovative online and community features.

So is the TW Online beta worth your time? Read on and find out.

Read More - Tiger Woods PGA Tour Online Beta Review

[IceNHL]

Ive been playing for a couple of months. VERY ADDICTING.

As far as the gameface thing, I am assuming they will add some of those options down the road. I still click the Pro Shop everyday to see if it is open.

[shigogouhou]

The only flaw I've found is the same flaw in every Tiger game: power is incredibly overrated. With only a week or so of buildup you easily drive 300+ yards off the tee, and once you're driving that far it starts to snowball (you get money for long drives, for greens in regulation, for birdies/eagles, all of which are pretty much gimmes when you're driving 80%+ of the hole; as of now the only thing you can spend money on is improving your player, so it gets even easier.)

It looks great, it plays great (I'm on DSL & I rarely have more than a 5 second wait between holes, usually in the 2-3 second range on max settings with a computer I built in December for $300.

[Fetter21]

Re: Tiger Woods PGA Tour Online Beta Review

The only flaw I've found is the same flaw in every Tiger game: power is incredibly overrated. With only a week or so of buildup you easily drive 300+ yards off the tee, and once you're driving that far it starts to snowball (you get money for long drives, for greens in regulation, for birdies/eagles, all of which are pretty much gimmes when you're driving 80%+ of the hole; as of now the only thing you can spend money on is improving your player, so it gets even easier.)

It looks great, it plays great (I'm on DSL & I rarely have more than a 5 second wait between holes, usually in the 2-3 second range on max settings with a computer I built in December for $300.

Which isn't that usually the problem with golf games, you build your character up too much and then a great deal of the challenge is gone. I like the fact that they seem to be looking to address that with more challenging game modes, hopefully that will keep the scores down. Seems like they could also set up tournaments for just base golfers, no building up their stats at all, but I suppose that'd kill many people's motivation to continue to play the game.

[orthostud23]

Good write up. Like some of the other posters have mentioned is that once you start driving the ball 290+ the game gets easy. Yesterdays leaderboards for Tour Pro (which should easily be the hardest mode) the leader was at -22 for 1 round. Where is the challenge??? I'm hoping that the FULL version will have some sort of challenging mode.

[DivotMaker]

Re: Tiger Woods PGA Tour Online Beta Review

Good write up. Like some of the other posters have mentioned is that once you start driving the ball 290+ the game gets easy. Yesterdays leaderboards for Tour Pro (which should easily be the hardest mode) the leader was at -22 for 1 round. Where is the challenge??? I'm hoping that the FULL version will have some sort of challenging mode.

There are currently no distinct difficulty modes in the game. Currently, on any tournament level, the game is like shooting fish in a barrel, hence why it is still beta. When you consider users can enter a tournament as many times as they like and the game is so easy, you can expect scores like this, especially when they allow you to change back and forth between TrueSwing and 3-click any time in the round. This is how most users are submitting ridiculous scores. Look for these things to go away in the near future as the TWO Beta Community has been pretty vocal about removing such features.

EA has announced they plan to add distinct difficulty levels soon in a beta update.

[orthostud23]

Re: Tiger Woods PGA Tour Online Beta Review

There are currently no distinct difficulty modes in the game. Currently, on any tournament level, the game is like shooting fish in a barrel, hence why it is still beta. When you consider users can enter a tournament as many times as they like and the game is so easy, you can expect scores like this, especially when they allow you to change back and forth between TrueSwing and 3-click any time in the round. This is how most users are submitting ridiculous scores. Look for these things to go away in the near future as the TWO Beta Community has been pretty vocal about removing such features.

EA has announced they plan to add distinct difficulty levels soon in a beta update.

good info Divot. Look forward to seeing what they can do to up the difficulty.

[kccaz01]

The generation gap is showing itself here. This is an update to the Jack Nicklaus Golf game released in the late 80's. At leat the three click version is. More courses, sure but basically the same game.

I guess everyone is bonkers about it because it's online and not a stand alone game. That and they can't remember the game this is based on. Probably don't even know who Jack is anyway.

[DivotMaker]

Re: Tiger Woods PGA Tour Online Beta Review

The generation gap is showing itself here. This is an update to the Jack Nicklaus Golf game released in the late 80's. At leat the three click version is. More courses, sure but basically the same game.

I guess everyone is bonkers about it because it's online and not a stand alone game. That and they can't remember the game this is based on. Probably don't even know who Jack is anyway.

Huh? What does TW Online have to do with Jack Nicklaus?

[starship]

Re: Tiger Woods PGA Tour Online Beta Review

The game went public today (I had been a beta tester). I tried to purchase a year's membership (it will only take a credit card for memberships--no Paypal) and every time I enter my CC and try to continue I get the message "The credit card cannot be verified". I have tried 4 regular credit cards and a debit card; have tried signing up from both my desktop with Windows 7 and my laptop with Win XP, have tried both Firefox and IE, and have tried two separate accounts. It fails totally on all of them. I'm 55 years old and have worked with computers since the 1970s, have written programs for my personal use & have built systems for myself and others, and I have never been so frustrated with anything computer-related as this.

Imagine--a computer company so completely inept and incompetent that, after demanding money, refuses to take it!

I think I'll steer clear of these turkeys.

[Brophog]

The generation gap is showing itself here. This is an update to the Jack Nicklaus Golf game released in the late 80's. At leat the three click version is. More courses, sure but basically the same game.

I guess everyone is bonkers about it because it's online and not a stand alone game. That and they can't remember the game this is based on. Probably don't even know who Jack is anyway.

Yeah, but in Tiger Woods Online you can't make silly bitmaps or impossible courses and then let the computer version of Jack try to play them.

There were so many ways those early games were entertaining without even playing them. You are right though.........the mechanisms in the online version of Tiger Woods feel like an HD version of those games. I don't know if that says more about Tiger Woods Online, or how great those games were...........

[jimrandolph990]

This game is great! I came across this awesome site the sells USB trackball controllers and arcade cabinets that work perfect for this game. I ordered the Xtension arcade pedestal version and i must say, the game blows Golden Tee out of the water and when my friends come over, they cant seem to get enough of it.
http://www.recroommasters.com/Xtension_Arcade_Pedestal_Arcade_Cabinet_p/rm-xt-ped.htm
Hands down, my new favorite game!