Tiger Woods PGA Tour 13 impressions
Now that the embargo has been lifted, I can post my early thoughts on the game.
Since one of the largest changes to the game has to be the user interface modification and inclusion of the Microsoft Kinect as a controller, I better tackle that first.
The Kinect controls for the game are very difficult to handle. I found myself having to repeat myself to the system multiple times every time I wanted to try and complete a specific task. The speech ability was one of the first things that I really wanted to dig into, because who wouldn't want to just say "3 iron" and have the game select it for you. Sadly, I just didn't have much luck getting the feature to work as it was intended. I found myself saying things, then saying them louder, then eventually almost yelling at my Xbox, but the audio detection was spotty at best.
One of the next things that I wanted to see was how well the reading of the green feature would work. That control has you crouch down as if you are actually getting a good look at the green surface. Every time I did this, the game seemed to be confused as to if I was standing or kneeling or moving my hand. As a result, the camera kept trying to zoom in, then going back to the original view, then zooming, then back to the original view. It was annoying... and frustrating.
Actually, if I had to choose two words to describe my experience with the Kinect controls.. it would be annoying and frustrating. After a few hours, I completely abandoned the Kinect and went back to the standard control mode. It just didn't work for me. Maybe it was the two rooms that I tried it in, but I just couldn't make it work as well as when you use the standard controls and decided to delve into the standard parts of the game with a controller in hand.
If you listened to the interview that I conducted with Mike DeVault, the lead producer for the game, you heard that there are ways for you to unlock the DLC courses in the game, without having to pay for them. It's a great concept... but boy, do you have to invest the time to unlock the courses. Each round at a downloadable course costs 6000 coins. To put that cost into perspective, just about each round that I have played in the game has given me about 450 to 600 coins to spend per round...that gives you an idea of how much time you'll put in... just to get 1 round from a DLC course.
You can fully unlock the DLC courses, by playing enough of those free rounds to "master" the course. Based on my early estimates... it would take about 5 or 6 "good" rounds to unlock a course. So, you can see, you will have to invest a serious amount of time to unlock just one of the various DLC courses... if you're a person that values time, rather than being frugal... you're just going to want to buy the coins needed to unlock the rounds. Oh, and just so you know... The best "deal" on buying coins is to buy 6,000 Microsoft Points which costs $30. That give you enough coins to purchase just a bit over 46 practice rounds on the various courses. That's a lot of cash to have to throw down, and not get to keep the DLC courses until you unlock all of the objectives for them. Picture a scenario where you have all of the objectives locked for a specific course mastery, but need just one thing (perhaps a 5th eagle on a course.) Think of how much fun it will be to have to spend those coins over and over again until you complete that one last objective... that could really suck.
Moving past the courses, another one of the large changes has to do with the Total Swing Control for the game. I know that Dan seemed to struggle with it (and think Bay Hill was a major...), but I have really come to enjoy the amount of control that you have over your shot. Having the ability to adjust your stance, whether you choose to have it be open or closed, moving the ball forward or backward in your stance, and being able to adjust where you will strike the ball when swinging, are long overdue options that we have wanted to see in the game for years. With those options in play, you have a tremendous amount of control over the types of shots you want to hit depending on where you are on the course and what the hole layout is.
What becomes more difficult is the fact that you have do adjust your swing stick motion depending on whether you want to fade or draw your shot. When you spend all of your time working on the perfect pacing of the back and forward swing on the swing stick, it becomes very challenging to be accurate when you're doing that same motion but slightly to the left when pulling back and up to the right when swinging forward. In time it may become much easier, but for now, it's easier to adjust the aim of my shot to the left or right and not pull it around the trees or other obstacles that might be in the way.
One other thing to note with the swing control is that you now have the ability to adjust where to strike the ball on your swing. Say the ball is half buried in the rough or in a bunker, you can adjust your swing to get under the ball in attempt to hit it flush or get under it to really pop it out of those tough lies. A nice added feature for the swing, and one that was long overdue.
As far as the gameplay elements are concerned, the big additions are the Country Club feature and the Tiger Legacy challenge. The Country Club feature will be soaking up a good bit of my time as it gives you the ability to play single player rounds in the game, and have them amount to rewards for the rest of the people in your group. Since most of the cool club names were already taken and locked down for Private mode (Bushwood being the biggest name out there,) I decided to dive into the public groups and have been enjoying playing in the club online tournaments and earning status points for my group (The19thhole.)
Not all has been perfect with this mode though, on Sunday I played a round and found that by Monday evening I had been kicked from the group by the organizer. No rhyme or reason to it, just kicked out. After exchanging a few messages with the admin, I was put back into the group... but this is one of the things that you'll have to be aware of when picking a public group. You can just be booted and lose all of the time and benefits(coins being the biggest benefit that you acquire from your time in the group) that you put into it.
The Tiger Legacy mode plays itself out like most of the "Madden Moments" or "Masters Moments" from other games in the past, whereas the game gives you the chance to play out some of the more memorable moments from Tiger's past as well as playing through some future events, such as him winning Tiger's 19th major championship. What is fun about this mode is that when you finish the Toddler Years challenge, you unlock the Toddler version of Tiger to play with in events (there is even an achievement/trophy for playing in an online foursome(no bad jokes here...) of all toddler Tiger's.)
Where Dan was finding the new version of Tiger Woods PGA Tour to be a bit of a disappointment, I have been enjoying it a great deal. I've already played through the entirety of the Amateur section of the Be-A-Pro mode as well as playing multiple rounds for my country club. The "coins" that you earn are a real driving factor in playing the game more and more, so that you can unlock rounds on the downloadable courses and status boosting pins.
The game isn't perfect (still no moving the ball inside the tee box, not as many pro's to pick from as you might like, and no transferable downloadable courses from previous years,) but it is a great game of golf and it's been a lot of fun to play.
Fantasy Baseball league is ready.
Let me know if you want to get in. We have a few spots open yet, so feel free to jump on in. No cost involved, just have a good time with it.
Sunday night notes
- Before I get into sports, I have to get something off my chest... and that is regarding Mass Effect 3.
- Mass Effect 3 is a complete turd, in my opinion. To IGN'isize the review of the game, "If you love Gears of War and want that to be how you finish Mass Effect, then you will love Mass Effect 3."
I spent 4 hours on the game and couldn't have hated the game more. The original Mass Effect was a terrific RPG, presented to a console crowd.
Mass Effect 3, on the other hand, is complete mess that tries certain RPG elements but just ends up being a poor 3rd person shooter.
Over the past few days, I've read about the disappointment of how the ending of the game is handled... but what is funny to me is the fact that, in my opinion, the whole of the game is terrible.
Spoiler alert:
Within the first few minutes of the game, you see that Earth is about to be destroyed by an alien race... so what do you do when you escape this moment? You skip around the galaxy trying to find people to help you go back to fight the battle on earth. The problem is, there is no real time pressure. While you're out looking to find allies, you have the chance to scan alien solar systems for resources to benefit your ship. To hell with the idiots back on Earth... I have to search planets to see if they have gas that I can use to refill my ship.
It irritates the hell out of me that there is absolutely no sense of urgency placed on you, especially because of the fact that your home world is about to be ravaged and destroyed by an alien race.
What kills me is that I spend 40 to 50 hours playing through the first 2 games and have absolutely no interest in seeing how the series finishes. Usually I would think of myself as being "pot-committed" at that point and would try to stick it out, but after 4 hours in the game... bah. I have other things to spend my time on.
- Here's a funny notion. Dan, who subscribes to the season pass for EA can talk about Tiger Woods PGA Tour 13... but I, who got a reviewable copy... cannot because of an embargo. Crazy, huh?
- As far as the Blog Bracket standings go, there are quite a few guys with a good chance to win it. Last year it was pretty much down to 2 or 3 people at this point, but we have at least 5 or 6 guys with a legit shot of winning. Thankfully, none of them are Howie... .I'm sick of sending him games...
- Still working on the iTunes issues with the podcast. For some reason, they are not accepting the feed updates that are being put out by Feedburner any more.... even though the feed passes a validation test.
I'd love to just re-do the feed, but I have no idea if that will actually fix the issue. Very frustrating...
- Have a great week everyone.
Riding the Pines – Tiger Woods PGA Tour 13 interview
On today's show I was joined by Mike DeVault, the lead producer for Tiger Woods PGA Tour 13.
In the interview here were a few of the topics that we covered.
- The challenges of incorporating the Microsoft Kinect in the game and the changes that needed to be made to the UI to make everything work with it.
- The new Country Club feature and some of the first names taken in that feature
- Why we're still not able to move the ball around inside of the tee box when teeing off.
- The new Total Swing Control and how the depth that the new control adds to the game
- How you can unlock DLC, without paying for it.
You can find the show on iTunes or via direct download via MP3 file.
Enjoy!
Quick Friday notes
-I will be setting up a Yahoo fantasy baseball league in the next few days and sending out invites so people can sign up. Let me know if you want onto the list, if you haven't already.
-I will be posting an interview with Tiger Woods 13's lead producer later tonight. Some of the issues Dan mentioned are addressed in it, so it will be worth a listen.
-Pisser that the Badgers lost last night. They played a hell of a game but couldn't ever stop the high screen pick and roll. That killed them.
Still, Jordan Taylor had a sensational career and it will be tough to see someone else running the point next year.
-More later.
Tuesday notes
- So, I'm going to start up the fantasy baseball league again. Anyone have preferences for the league site? We used CBSsports last year, but I'm open for anything.. that is free. heh.
- Over the weekend I took the opportunity to try out Star Wars: The Old Republic as they had a free trial for the weekend. What did I find out? I like MMORPG's for the first 10 to 15 levels. What did I remember after that? That I hate being forced to play games with other people.
For me games are an outlet where I escape and just get away from dealing with everything... so why would I want to HAVE to deal with other people?
The game is terrific though. I've never played a game like that where they handled the story aspect of the game that well. So, the game was impressive, but I know for a fact that I won't be picking up the full version.
- Yesterday I started playing Mass Effect 3 and I'm amazed at how they took a somewhat tactical 3rd person RPG and turned it into a 3rd person shooter... with RPG elements. The game better grab me in the next few hours, because otherwise I'll be happy to send it back to Gamefly and be done with the whole series.
- Lastly, I spent a bit more time with MLB 12: The Show and started to wonder... is there anyone here that has ever finished a career in the Road to the Show mode? I've gotten my player to the bigs in years past, but I can't imagine playing the game out for years and years... just on the off chance that my player becomes a superstar.
That's why I always like playing the MLB2K series more, I think. It's just a more fun game to play for a longer period of time.
Just my opinion.
- Later, taters.
Monday night notes
- As Madtowner was quick to call me on, I didn't think that the Badgers would make it past the 2nd round a few months ago. Then when I filled out my bracket, I put them in the Final Four. This is how I consider myself to be completely full of crap almost all of the time. I change my opinion about things almost constantly. It's why I'm a fun person to have a political discussion with... you just never know what I'll say. (Kidding, of course... on many issues I'm completely steadfast in my beliefs... as most of you are... but all we all hate the Dutch and that's what unites us as a people.)
Still, it was a fun Badger game to watch on Saturday night as they really controlled the tempo and got the shots that they wanted. I commented to my wife during the game that I thought it was odd that they never really tried to take the ball inside, but focused almost entirely on having the ball around the 3 point line and never really trying to post up. They must have decided well before the game that Vandy's interior D was just going to be too much for them. Credit to the coaching staff for whatever decisions they made... as they worked.
- On another basketball note, congrats to the UW-Whitewater Warhawks for winning the Division 3 basketball title over the weekend. Winning the national championship in football and basketball is pretty damn impressive.
- On a music note... I hadn't seen anything about this site, but it's kind of cool to see Daryl Hall and Cee-Lo Green singing "F- You" together.
- Manning to Denver? Um, ok. Dan will be happy to see the Manning face again, but this time in Orange and Blue.
- Does anyone really want to put together another Fantasy Baseball season? I got crushed last year as I attempted to learn what in the hell I was doing. Let me know either via comment or email and we can maybe try to put something together relatively quickly.
- Have a good week.
This is what we watch the tournament for….
Norfolk State and Lehigh beating two number 2 seeds in less than 3 hours. Absolutely amazing.
Still not as good as this moment in sports... but these were sure a hell of a lot of fun to watch.
Bracket contest prizes
I forgot to mention it before, but the prizes this year will be as follows.
1st place - $50 amazon gift card
2nd place - $20 amazon gift card
Keep on passing those invites out to your friends.
Tuesday notes
- So, I'm back from New York and I had a sensational time. Spent a day in the city, saw a broadway show, and got to go to my first Islanders game.
The show, Once, was amazingly good. A great balance between a sensational musical and amazing music. So glad that my sister and I got a chance to see it.
Also, another great part was the fact that they let you buy a drink on the stage before the show started and the performers came out and sang while you were having your drink... being on a broadway stage was pretty damn cool in my opinion.
As for the Islanders game, they took a 1-0 lead in the 3rd and then gave up 2 late goals in the 3rd to lose the game. Disappointing finish, but it was fun to be at the game. Oh, and Nassau is a dump. Holy crap. That place is like an old college hockey arena at this point. I completely understand why half of the free agents wouldn't want to go there. Ugh.
- After putting in a 16 hour day at work last night, I actually got a chance to get some gaming in tonight and spent a few hours with The Show. I still don't care for the pitching interface, but the game is still entertaining to play. For the life of me though, I have no idea why people would want to play more than a season or two in RttS mode. What variety do we actually see after playing it for a while? Sure you keep making your player better, but man... it's going to be hard for me to stick with this for a very long time.
Oh, and I did get the online roster. Thanks for getting that right Sony.
- Regarding the iTunes issues with the podcast, I have absolutely no idea what is going on there. If you click on the link for the XML file, you can see the episode there. iTunes just isn't updating it. About 2 years ago they took away the ability to force an update to your iTunes podcast status and ever since then... it's a mystery as to when it gets updated.
Maybe when Dan and I do another show it'll show up. Got me.
- If you have a blog bracket email, go ahead and forward it to anyone you know who might like to join... or have them send me an email. Either one works since they'll get the password for the site that way. The more the merrier and that way more people have a chance at winning a game. Co-workers, friends, family, neighbors, bring 'em all. Show them how bad Dan is at this sort of thing.
- Back tomorrow with more nuggets of wisdom.
Sportsgamerblog Bracket Challenge
Drop me an email if you'd like to join in and I'll send you an invite. If you were in it last year, you should be seeing a group message in your mailbox letting you know all of the details.
Good luck!
Riding the Pines – Episode 77
Dan and Glen get together to talk about tons of recent events in sports and gaming... including....
- Grand Slam Tennis 2
- Playstation Vita
- The SuperBowl
and much much more...
You can find the show in the following places...
Wednesday night notes
- Well, I'm just finishing getting ready for my trip out east and wanted to post a few more things.
- Just donated $50 to the Kickstarter for Gridiron Heroes. If you're an old school Tecmo fan, think about dropping the guys a few bucks to make this game happen. It looks to be so much more than Tecmo's most recent efforts with the franchise. Can't wait to see what they can do if they get their funding.
- I played a few hours of MLB12: The Show on the PS3 tonight (thanks for eliminating roster downloads without your online pass Sony!) As I do every season, I create a reliever and try to start a Road to the Show career. The obvious major difference between The Show and 2K12 is how much better the graphics are in The Show. Outside of that, I still like the analog pitching controls more in 2K12 than the weird pulsating circle that they're using this time around in MLB12.
I'll give it some more time when I get back to see how the franchise plays out and see how much fun it will be to putz with all of the aspects that I can play with without purchasing the online component.
- Ice Cream Sandwich on my Asus tablet is absolutely terrific. Sensational speed and when you add in the new Chrome browser that is in beta on ICS for phones and tablets, you have an awesome experience. I'm sure Dan will be talking about buying 3 new iPads when they come out, but this tablet is absolutely perfect for everything that I want to do.
- Have a great weekend all. I'll try to make a few posts from NYC and Nassau.
Attempting to return to normalcy… notes
Work is finally starting to settle down and after next Monday, I should start to see my schedule returning back to normal. Hopefully that will mean more posting on the site. Spare time just isn't something I've had a lot of lately.... but here's what I've been up to.
- Over the weekend I had a chance to play some of an upcoming beta... in fact I played it for about 8 hours during the late night hours on Friday and Sunday... so it's safe to say that I really like what they've done with the beta to this point. No idea when it will get released, but I can say that it isn't a sports game... and it will eat up a ton of my gaming time once it is released.
- I got my copy of MLB2K12 last night, and as I was working until near midnight, I'm just diving into it tonight.
Some of the early impressions that I've seen for the game have been remarkably negative, but based on my time with the demo and my first few games tonight, I am enjoying it as much as I did with last years game. Now, I can say that after time last years game started to show some of it's warts and made me dislike it more and more as time went on... but I'm trying to remember a sports game that didn't make me feel that way lately. I'll try to spend as much time as I can with it tonight and tomorrow and post some more thoughts then.
- As for the rest of the week, I'll be heading to New York to catch an Islanders game with my sister on Saturday night. It's my first chance to see an NHL game (actually, I've had offers to see games in the past, but I always wanted to see a home game for my favorite team first, hence the trip to L.I.) and I couldn't be more excited about it. The Isles are 7 points out of a playoff spot with 16 games, and while I don't think the odds are good that they'll make the post season, I just can't wait to see them play. I've been an Isles fan since I was 5 or 6 years old and found out that my mom was from NY, and I just can't wait to finally get to a game.
I'll try to post some pics during or after the game, but I'm sure I'll be the only one really excited about being there. heh.
- Lastly, Dan and I recorded a podcast last Friday night and I should be able to post it tomorrow. I'm sure you'll all be anxious for that.
Grand Slam Tennis 2 impressions
Well, after playing a considerable amount of Grand Slam Tennis 2, there is one thing that is very clear... EA Sports want you to excel right off the bat.
What strikes me as odd is that the gameplay is so damn good and so much fun that they really didn't need to make it so easy on you in the beginning to keep you interested.
What becomes so frustrating is how the difficulty goes from laughably easy to soul crushingly difficult in a few seasons, and that's exactly the opposite way that you've seen sports games handle difficulty in the past. Usually, the game will be hard in the beginning, so hard that you almost want to quit, but you'll stick with it and improve your player and find the difficulty start to level off. In Grand Slam Tennis 2, they went the other way and it's clearly to the game's detriment that they did so.
When you look at the game itself, as far as the game engine is concerned, it's a fun game of tennis... as long as you're not using the Playstation Move motion controls.
One of the first things that I jumped into was the 'Tennis School.' In that game mode, you are instructed by John McEnroe and are taught how to hit certain types of shots and how to direct them with your racquet, but with the Move controls it's an exercise in extreme frustration. I consider myself a pretty savvy gamer who is able to pick up complex controls in a relatively quick time frame, but the Move controls are just not intuitive in any way. I found myself getting more and more annoyed as I attempted to use them, and after an hour or so, I just gave them up and went to the analog stick controls, and I was glad that I did.
The analog controls, on the other hand, are an absolute dream. It's very easy to pick up the control system and find yourself placing your shots exactly where you want them to be. That is one thing that EA Sports really nailed with this game, as they are probably the best controls for a tennis game in recent memory.
Moving on to the presentation of the game, the commentary is fresh for about 5 minutes. I've lost track of how many times I've heard McEnroe say, "The pro's and con's of hitting a shot deep...." Seriously, by the time the first tournament is done, you've probably heard everything they have to say at least 2 times already. It's very repetitive and rarely covers what is actually happening on the court just because of the fact that the length of some of their canned comments go on for 2 or 3 points.
Along with the commentary, the audio for the game seems to have a hard time keeping up with what is going on during the game. There have been more than a few quickly played points where the crowd never reacts with applause when a winning shot is played and it just feels weird when that happens.
Considering the fact that one of the ball boys at the Australian Open made one of the most memorable moments of this years tournament, I was hoping to see some sort of movement out of them, but the only thing you will ever see any of the ball boys/girls do is to move their heads... they will never move from their positions. In fact, the judges never actually move their feet either, but will occasionally shift from one side to another, and while those are not things that really detract from the actual gameplay, they are a constant reminder that you are playing a game that wasn't focused on the "total realism" of any particular tournament.
One of the last items that I want to talk about from the gameplay revolves around the replay system. As soon as a point is over, you're allowed to see a replay of the last few shots of the most recent point... but there is no actual built in Instant Replay system that will allow you to move the camera around and actually watch any great point that takes place. In this day and age of next-gen sports games, this is a pretty big feature to be missing. I just can't imagine a game being made without that feature anymore and when you see it is missing, it is quite disappointing.
Going back to one of my original points, part of what makes the game so frustrating is that you'll see your player, who is rated in the 40's beating players (both legends and current) who are ranked in the mid 70's or higher in straight sets. Hell, not even straight sets.... I've beaten some of the best players in the world with my created player without letting them score a single point... and that just stinks. Add that to the fact that winning tournaments and championships don't give you any of the ability points (that you can use to improve your player) as a bonus for winning any events and you can see how the gameplay balance will get so far out of whack over time.
The only places that the single player gameplay really balances out are in ESPN Grand Slam Classic events that you can choose to replay beginning with some of the classic matches of the 2000's, 1990's and 1980's. But the thing that I found in those, along with the career mode was the fact that net play will rule the day. If you can get to the net and get a decent angle, it's really hard to lose, especially when you have a player with a terrific amount of speed and hitting power. Also, there are a finite number of those events, so you can only really dive into them for a certain amount of time.
Overall, I found that Grand Slam Tennis 2 is a game with absolutely terrific controls, but made some bad decisions with the career mode that really takes away any long term fun you can have with the game when playing via single player, and that's too bad... because the game does show potential, but it loses it's long term playability far too quickly.
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