Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 12: The Masters Demo Available Now, Post Impressions Here

[Seymour Scagnetti]

Re: Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 12: The Masters Demo Available Now, Post Impressions Here

In last years game, could you use true-aim for all your pre shot stuff but have the camera switch to the presentation cam once you hit the ball? I didn't buy last years version so, I'm not that familiar with true-aim. Loved how it felt in the demo and loved not having any aiming tools, makes it much more realistic but, I've always liked the presentation cam once the ball is hit. Just gives it that TV feel.

Unfortunately, I agree with Seymour, the caddie feature is horrible. I don't mind these type of dumbing down options being in the game but, to also apply them to the higher difficulty settings in the game just defeats the whole point of the higher difficulty. I hope the caddie feature is just forced on us for the demo and that you can completely remove him in the full game. If not then I will be taking another break from the TW series after this year. I'm almost to the point that I think EA needs to clean house with the Tiger team, they obviously do not understand the game of golf.

This is not how a caddie works in real life. In real life the golfer and caddie are a team, discussing each option together, not relying on a all knowing caddie to pin point the exact spot the ball is going to go. It works very similar to the way my dad and I interact when playing golf. My dad will give me suggestions on aiming spots and which club to use but I may decided to go a completely different route. My dad dose not know exactly where my ball will land if I swing with this percentage of my club. Now, a caddie and pro golfer are much more knowledgeable about the course but, the concept is the same. The game takes it too far, the caddie is doing all the work for you and that is just not realistic at all.

The presentation cam wasn't there last year, people kept saying they wanted it for true aim but of course it was ignored for TW12.

What's with EA's fascination of dumbing down thier products thinking every gamer is too stupid to think and wants everything done for them. They did this arcade crap for Madden with having the plays automatically called for you but at least you could turn that off. I see nothing in TW12 options to turn off the caddie and the way every screen begins with looking over the caddie's shoulder that looks like something that's hard coded in the game so there's no way of turning it off. How can you not have this as an option to turn off? Unbelievable.

Even if you press O to turn off his voice you still have his recommended shot staring at you right in the middle of the screen. He accounts for wind and whatever elevation changes there are. You're in the rough? That's Ok because the caddie automaitcally tells you what club you need to reach the green. ****ing stupid. You just have to sit there like a zombie and flick the stick. I could literally read a book while playing and not do any worse.

There is now no reason to use true aim in the game, it's been totally made redundent. This was my biggest fear when I heard about caddies this year. Congrats EA in treating your sim gamers like morons. Typical of this series. One step forward then 2 steps back. I guess I have to wait another year to see what they screw up next because they are not getting my money this year. They took all the fun out of the sim aspect of the game. It's unplayable to anyone who likes to play tourney difficulty with true aim.

[globalbeats7]

Re: Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 12: The Masters Demo Available Now, Post Impressions Here

In last years game, could you use true-aim for all your pre shot stuff but have the camera switch to the presentation cam once you hit the ball?

nope. the camera stayed in the same spot behind the golfer. it did pan in very slightly but not enough to know where your ball went most of the time.

[NorrinRadd12]

Re: Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 12: The Masters Demo Available Now, Post Impressions Here

Agree with Seymour, I think they blew it. Caddie would have been a nice feature to replace the green grid but that's about it. All the game really needed was follow cam for True-Aim and more sensitive results when you flick the stick.

[callmetaternuts]

Re: Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 12: The Masters Demo Available Now, Post Impressions Here

I played a little on the demo (PS3) yesterday. I haven't bought a TW game in 3 years so some of this is new, but overall I enjoyed it.

The caddie feature isn't what I expected, oh well.

What does True Aim do? Trying to figure out the different options.

[Seymour Scagnetti]

Re: Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 12: The Masters Demo Available Now, Post Impressions Here

I went to go bitch on the EA boards about this caddie debacle and someone posted that one of the devs said you can disable the caddie in the full game although I'm skeptical as to why that option isn't shown in the demo.

If you can do it that's fine but if they don't give you club distances then playing true aim is still pointess because you can't judge anything with carry distance and there's no flagstick yardage indicator. It's still becomes an exercise in just hitting the percentage you customize in that little box when aiming. Unless the carry distance yardages are shown for all your clubs then true aim is simply an exercise in frustration and is still ruined.

There have been some posters over there asking whether we have carry yardage indicators for your clubs like last year's true aim (it's the only way you can play true aim effectively) and not one dev has responded so it doesn't look good. It looks like they are forcing this caddie option down the user's throat. I hope I'm wrong.

[Seymour Scagnetti]

Re: Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 12: The Masters Demo Available Now, Post Impressions Here

The putting in the demo is weird too. My demo golfer is like a 97 putter but it's way too sensitive and a dev said it's more timing based than how far back you pull the putter. So if you have a 5 foot putt the faster you flick the stick the slower it goes and conversely if you pull back the stick back a little but do it slowly you get a harder putt. That makes no sense and is counter intuitive.

[Seymour Scagnetti]

Re: Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 12: The Masters Demo Available Now, Post Impressions Here

ARGHHH, the dev said you can disable caddie option by pressing O (which I already figured out so it sounds like you can't turn it totally off) with the PS3 version but you still have the caddie recommended shot staring at you in the middle of the screen beside your custom shot so it's pretty hard not to be influenced by his recommendation. **** fail.

There are alot of pissed off sim gamers on the EA boards right now about this arcadey debacle of a a game and how they totally screwed up true aim and tourney difficulty and making it appealing to 6 years olds.

[fsufan4423]

Wow! I'd never thought I would see the day when someone was showing this kind of passion in this forum. I thought the demo played great from the golfing aspect. Every game had some gimmick you have to deal with.

I'll probably get the game just for the over all visuals and the fact it actually presents a challenge.

[fishepa]

Re: Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 12: The Masters Demo Available Now, Post Impressions Here

Great...and I fully expected this too.

[wildinkc]

I am loving this demo. It will probably be a first day buy for me.

[rolltide1017]

Re: Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 12: The Masters Demo Available Now, Post Impressions Here

You know what scares me. With Augusta in the game, this will probably be one of the better selling years for the game and EA will take that as an overall approval of the dumbing down caddie system. It will take years to get tournament difficulty back to they way it should be. It took them 5 years to implement a decent sim difficulty level (I consider '10 to be the first decent attempt) but only 2 years to dumb it down, great job EA.



I have another question about the demo: didn't the description say something about skipping to the Nationwide tour when you complete the 5 hole challenge? Well, I've completed it a few times while also wininng it but all I ever get is an invite to the EA AM Tour so, how do you skip to the NW Tour?

[pskepsilon]

Re: Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 12: The Masters Demo Available Now, Post Impressions Here

ARGHHH, the dev said you can disable caddie option by pressing O (which I already figured out so it sounds like you can't turn it totally off) with the PS3 version but you still have the caddie recommended shot staring at you in the middle of the screen beside your custom shot so it's pretty hard not to be influenced by his recommendation. **** fail.

There are alot of pissed off sim gamers on the EA boards right now about this arcadey debacle of a a game and how they totally screwed up true aim and tourney difficulty and making it appealing to 6 years olds.

I think there's a decent chance that you'll be able to completely disable the caddy in the full game; it's pretty obvious that this demo was constructed heavily to highlight the new features. Considering the effort they went to implement that heavily scripted "Road to the Masters" playable vignette, I think it's fair to assume that this demo was a specifically constructed executable, probably based on older code, even more so than most demos are.

They probably should have anticipated this kind of backlash, but on some level, how much customizability do you normally expect from a demo? I was actually surprised that they pretty much gave you unfettered access to the menus at all. But I don't think it's fair to assume with 100% certainty that those menus are either complete or fully functional. I think the flaming should probably wait until retail copies are played.

[Seymour Scagnetti]

Re: Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 12: The Masters Demo Available Now, Post Impressions Here

Played the demo once more on tourney mode and just realized that not only do they not give you the pin distance but they don't even give you the green elevation like last year in true aim. They don't want you thinking about anything when you're on the hardest skill level. Even if you're able to totally turn off the caddie (which I doubt) the lack of pin distance and elevation is glaring and makes it pure arcade. This game is a complete joke and I thought Fight Night Champion was pathetic and a kick in the face to gamers. This crap tops it.

I was looking forward to 3 sports games this spring, TW12, FN Champion and Top Spin 4. The 1st 2 games crashed and burned. I hope TS4 delivers the goods.

[DivotMaker]

Re: Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 12: The Masters Demo Available Now, Post Impressions Here

I see nothing in TW12 options to turn off the caddie and the way every screen begins with looking over the caddie's shoulder that looks like something that's hard coded in the game so there's no way of turning it off. How can you not have this as an option to turn off? Unbelievable.

The Caddy will be able to be turned off in the full version.

Again, why you sit here and bitch and moan about the game when you don't even have EA's attention here? You are wasting your time posting your comments here (no offense Steve) if you truly want to get the Devs attention. Many others posting on the EA TW forums are expressing the same criticisms and they at least have the Devs attention. You don't here.

[DivotMaker]

Re: Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 12: The Masters Demo Available Now, Post Impressions Here

You know what scares me. With Augusta in the game, this will probably be one of the better selling years for the game and EA will take that as an overall approval of the dumbing down caddie system.

Hardly....they are getting hammered on the EA Tiger forums for including the caddy and the idiotic rumble feature into Tournament mode and rightfully so.