Tiger Woods PGA Tour 13 Review (360/PS3)

[DivotMaker]

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While the omission of the three-click is puzzling,

Why is it puzzling? 3-click has been an afterthought for years with Tiger and with the new swing mechanic, it did not fit in the game.

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The one area of the downloadable space that isn't as cool are the unlockable/downloadable courses. Basically, the developers provide 16 courses “on the disc,” and the other 19 are unlockable (time, effort) or downloadable (pay money). While it's nice to have an option to unlock pay content for free, it's troubling that so much of it is locked up this way. You can spend your in-game currency to buy rounds at these courses, or you can master each course to unlock it permanently, but the rub is that these unlock procedures are so extensive and arduous that it makes the whole thing just seem kind of lame. I'm all for a bit of DLC behind a pay wall and some gear to be unlockable, but there's no reason that over 50 percent of the courses should be held for ransom in this way.

In TW09-12 you had to pay for DLC courses and the cost of those courses came down dramatically in 11 and 12. Now they give you a way to earn them for free and this is still unacceptable? Um, okay....

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The tournament play eliminates the ability to ask caddies for advice, which means that a baseline of skill is required in order to set up shots. You do get to use putt previews liberally, though.

If you are referring to Tournament difficulty, this is wrong. Putt Previews are OFF by default in Tournament mode, however, there are plenty of other tournaments that are of lesser skill requirements that PP's are enabled.

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In addition, there is a country club feature that allows you to group up with friends in order to gain "status," which allows you to earn more coins as well as participate in EA Sports special events.

That's it? The most appealing online feature to come to TW ever and this is all you can comment on? Just look at all the threads here and the participation in the Online Country Club threads. This is a serious oversight on your part, IMO.

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The margin for error is softened to accommodate for the odd bit of wackiness, which is probably for the best.

Not in the higher difficulty levels.....

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There are some stuttering animations on the backswing, and trying to set up your shot by menu navigation is way too finicky, but these are elements that could be easily iterated on and improved for a future release. Also, for what it's worth, the Kinect has the benefit of not risking you flinging a motion device out of your hands when swinging.

Agreed....Kinect needs some serious work to get it to play as well and as stable as the controller.

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Visuals: The presentation in this franchise could definitely use a new direction, but the courses, player models and depth-of-field effects all look good.

Agreed.

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Value: There's plenty to do offline and online, with career mode, legacy challenge, online matches, daily tournaments and lots of course mastery to unlock gear and courses. That said, the unlock structure (and DLC baiting) went too far.

Again, how are MORE options for users to acquire DLC content a bad thing? You DO realize that each of these courses carry a licensing fee that needs to be returned to EA. These are not like COD map packs that require no licensing, GPS mapping, laser mapping, etc. The fact that EA listened to users who complained about the cost of DLC in years past by giving them MORE options should be to their credit, not to their detriment, IMO.

Lastly, your score is low. 8.0-8.5 is what I would give this game right now. With a comprehensive patch to address the number of issues being reported by the community, I would give the game a solid 9.0 as this is by FAR the best console Tiger I have ever played. Presentation, Career Mode and the ball placement issues as well as freezing issues being reported do need attention, but from a gameplay perspective, the game gets a flat out 10 from me and my roots come from the more simulation oriented PC versions.

[kerosene31]

Are the DLC courses even on the disc? I know (at least on 360) when I bought the 11 DLC courses I had to download like 1.5 gigs of stuff. If they were on the disc the download would have been a tiny unlock code. Perhaps PS3 is different.

[DivotMaker]

Quote: Originally Posted by kerosene31

Are the DLC courses even on the disc? I know (at least on 360) when I bought the 11 DLC courses I had to download like 1.5 gigs of stuff. If they were on the disc the download would have been a tiny unlock code. Perhaps PS3 is different.

No, they are NOT on the disc, thanks for pointing that out!

[kickingguru]

There is a serious lack of 'intuitiveness" to Tiger that EA does not do a good job of explaining. It seems only the most savvy of Tiger Players truly understand the game, how you play it, and all of its features and functions. Questions fielded in forums can always be a bit high on the "You just asked that, Really?" scale, but Tiger 13 have taken those to a whole new level. That is the fault of the dev team more than anything else as when people pop in the game and play, there is very little in information to gain some bearings. This more than anything else has effected the reviews as most reviewers pop in hundreds of games for brief periods of time and when information is lacking... You get the reviews this gets...

Bottom line.. It is the best Tiger since 04, but it takes effort to truly understand it and this "please me now" generation struggles with it...

My 2 cents...

The Guru

[Tomba]

Basically to not see the visual and graphical imporvement in the game is baffling. this game has gotten a MAJOR overhaul in the graphics department from lighting player models cloth movement and overall textures. Its a great looking game and is on par with MLb The Show

[RockitOldSchool]

Quote: Originally Posted by kickingguru

This isn't Russia... Is this Russia?.... This isn't Russia... Its called capitalism. I for one will likely spend about $150 total on the game and will get every dollars worth. This generation feels they should simply be given what they want for basically nothing. You deserve to get nothing in life. EA will charge a price and consumers will either pay for it, or not pay for it. EA will then decide to lower the price or quit making the game. They have even now given you a choice.. Pay or have patience... Lord knows you have to have it now... and its not fair you should have to pay... Seriously, stop complaining and put up or shut up... either pay for the game or do choose to keep your money... The constant whining on this is getting very old...

Don't worry. I will do just that. I have found myself buying fewer and fewer EA games. And if I shell out $60 for half a game then I deserve to whine as much as I want. No video game is worth over $100, and certainly not one that is released year after year. As I stated above, I would be OK with paying for the DLC if it rolled over into next year's Tiger Woods. Regardless I'm hardly alone in complaining about EA's tactics. People do need to vote with their wallets. It will catch up to EA sooner or later. Until then I'm not falling for it anymore.

[RockitOldSchool]

The more I think about the Tiger Woods series the more I wonder why it disappoints me so much year after year. Tiger Woods 04 was the best of the series. To this day Game Face back then is 10 times better than Game Face now. I seemed to have more fun playing back then. What it all comes down to is Tiger Woods is unique in this genre in that there isn't a major roster change year after year like most sports titles. Even if I wanted to skip The Show for a year I almost can't if I want the latest rosters. With Tiger Woods you can easily skip a year or two. EA knows it has to lure us in every year by adding new features.

I was hopeful some of the bugs from last year's TW would be addressed but they didn't touch the things that bothered me. Game Face as it stands right now is nearly broken. If you upload your real face your neck is black no matter what. This is the same as last year. Several years ago I uploaded my face in TW '08 and it was creepy how my real face was in the game. EA has taken a step backwards in this department. Even Fifa is plagued with problems with black necks and faces not coming out right. If you use the create a face feature it isn't much better.

I know some of you think TW 13 is an upgrade but for me it isn't worth $60. I could have skipped a year and been perfectly happy. I'll admit the clubhouse feature seemed cool but I didn't research it well and EA got me. It's a great concept. EA could have done a lot with it. I thought I would be able to create my own country club with courses and all. Really it isn't anything more than a way to keep track of your online stats and compare them with other users. I haven't spent a lot of time on it so maybe I'm wrong but so far I'm left feeling cheated.

[kerosene31]

Quote: Originally Posted by RockitOldSchool

To this day Game Face back then is 10 times better than Game Face now.

The game face is a bug this year. The last few years it worked great.

Quote: Originally Posted by RockitOldSchool

I'll admit the clubhouse feature seemed cool but I didn't research it well and EA got me. It's a great concept.

Who's fault is that? Perhaps you should spend less time going on about EA's supposed evil practices and educate yourself before you buy?

There were threads about all the major features right before release day as some people got the game early through the Season Ticket program. They were graciously answering questions all that weekend before.

There was also a thread discussing exactly which courses were DLC, on the main disc and on the special edition disc. I knew exactly what I was buying when I plunked down my $110.

In this day and age, there's no excuse not to be an educated consumer.