New TW11 Features Revealed for the Wii!
Today, ESPN released an article revealing some of the new features coming for Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2011. While most of the article focuses on the Xbox version of the game, the last paragraph talks about some features specific to the Wii system. As I mentioned two weeks ago, I had the privilege of play-testing the new TW11 game for the Wii, and I thought I’d give you some reactions to some of the things mentioned in that last paragraph.
First, let’s talk about the “Advanced Plus” swing mode. Advanced Plus (AP) is basically Advanced swing, but with some added sensitivity. As the article mentions, AP tracks not only the angle of the club head during your swing, but also your actual swing plane! This means that the dreaded “out-to-in” swing will ruin your golf fun once again. With an out-to-in swing plane comes, yep, you guessed it, SLICING. The system now knows whether or not you’re coming across the ball at an incorrect angle, meaning that slices and hooks are now a reality for your video game golf experience. In TW10, if you left the club head open at impact, you would get fade. Now, if you leave the club head open and you come across the ball on an out-to-in swing plane, you don’t just get fade, you get a shank.
Next up is the TourPro swing. TourPro (TP) is just like Advanced Plus, but it has an added point of sensitivity: point of contact. In this mode, the system will actually track where your club head strikes the ball in 3D space. This has everything to do with hitting the sweet spot and not the heel or toe of the club. As you can probably guess, if you swing out-to-in, open the club face, AND hit the ball off-center, you’re not going to get a good result. This was the mode that gave me the most difficulty at first. I spent about an hour trying not to shank the ball. I was eventually able to figure it out, however, and hit some decent-but-not-perfect shots.
The thing I liked most about this mode was that you were pretty much guaranteed to not hit a perfect shot. This meant that I couldn’t just line up my shot knowing exactly where to hit it and plan on sticking it, because there would undoubtedly be some small flaw in my swing or variation in power that would cause my shot to not quite go exactly where I was aiming it. I rarely got a 100% power swing, and this really affected my strategy, because I actually had to play for these variations, resulting in safer shots.
One last thing I want to touch on is the mention of TrueView. TrueView is a new perspective in the game which allows you to see your entire round from first-person. That means you won’t ever see your golfer standing on the grass. No, you see what YOUR GOLFER sees. I’m just going to leave it at that, because you really need to see some videos to truly appreciate this mode, and it’s not worth just explaining it. There are also some other features attached to this mode that weren’t mentioned in the article, so we’ll have to wait for EA to spill the beans on some of that new stuff before I can talk about it. But just know this: if you combine the TourPro swing mechanic with the TrueView perspective, you’re in for some VERY realistic video game golf, and it’s challenging, addicting, and fun!
I hope this gave you a good snapshot of what to expect in the new game. As you can see from the article, the Ryder Cup is a big focus of this year’s game. The Wii definitely won’t miss out on that either, and you can learn a lot about the Wii Ryder Cup experience by reading about the Xbox version in that article. Also, remember that Wii developer Eric Busch mentioned a while back on the EA Forums that we’ll get to force swing settings on our opponents in online play this year, so you can expect to have some interesting and fun matches ahead with the new AdvancedPlus and TourPro swing modes! But don’t worry, if you’re not up for a miserable golf experience (video games are for escaping reality, after all 
) standard swing will still be available.
That’s it for now, but I’ll certainly keep an eye on things as EA releases new info about the game. You can check back here once new features are released, and I’ll give my feedback and reactions to them so you can get a feel for how they play. As always, post questions and comments below, but also realize that I can’t release any information for features that haven’t been released by EA first, so I may not be able to answer ALL your questions. Also notice that I’ve added a new TW11 page at the top of the site. This is where I’ll keep links to articles like this, so you can keep up on all the info that is released from now until launch.
Thanks NCD for the info; this should quench our thirst for information..for a little while
Interesting stuff.I can see a lot of people re-vamping their swings this summer.
NCD:
All I can say is WOW!
This is looking like a simulation-style players dream come true!
-MERACE
wow i cant wait! im almost bored…almost…with this years installment and i cant wait to see the new swing features. i hope it is like learning a new game with the old career and attribute setups. i notice you didnt say anything regarding the names of new courses and i understand if youre not permitted to do so, but please at least tell me there will be a few new courses and some of this years will be gone…if you can! looking forward to all the new updates my friend. as always keep up the good work!!
Sounds terrific- I just have my ongoing concern that if I couldn’t do a golf swing with TW10, I won’t be able to take advantage of the new features. At least standard swing will still be there, so I won’t have to give it up entirely!
G.
yay…virtual shanks! lol
I hope the wiimote vibrates like he** when you do that
YES!! I can’t wait …”combine the TourPro swing mechanic with the TrueView perspective, you’re in for some VERY realistic video game golf”
as mentioned in the espn article, is the wii getting the varaible wind and green grid for approaches? i dont expect us to get the dynamic clothing and animated sky. but has the alround visuall lool of the game improved? and finally are we getting the same ryder cup format/options in both on and offline as the other 2 or is it going to be like the live tourneys in tw10 where we get a diluted version?
not sure how much of this you can answer. but it has all been mentioned in the article. last year prior to release EA talked about features in depth without ever mentioning that many of them did not apply to the wii. hopefully as they release info this year it will be clearer.
Thanks for the info NoChinDeluxe. I can’t wait to try out the new swing options. I think I’m all for the less accurate types of swings as I’m getting fairly tired of usually hitting the ball where I want it to go.
I can’t wait to see if other various setting options are a bit more fine tunable as well. I think it might be fun for more varied settings instead of the few levels we have now for the various rough/speeds. I’m not sure why we don’t have more of a slider based system there already.
I just noticed that video is out on changes on the Wii for TW11: http://gdc.gamespot.com/video/6253270/
Things look great. Any additional comments on what is shown here?
Great find, Milo! I’m going to add this video to a new post.
@ MYG
check out this link that was posted on EA.
Read the info directly above the screen. It say ” one of the new courses…….”
http://gdc.gamespot.com/video/6253273/
The new features in TW11 sound awesome, I can’t wait to see my big feet and out to in swing path in the new “TrueView” perspective (I love playing from the right side of the fairway or rough 90% of the time…LOL). Another question that I have that I’m just to darn lazy to investigate on my own so I’ll ask it here, is: Will the online experience between platforms (Wii, XBox and PS3) be compatible? I think this feature would really be awesome (can you say “Platform Competitions”).
Waiting for the next gen Wii to show its face, hopefully the graphics will parellel the XBox & PS3. I read somewhere that the PS3 in coming out with a motion plus like controller (true?). Maybe I’ll have to jump ship and ditch my Wii for a PS3 somehwere down the road.
Disc Golf rocks!
Myers
You’ll never see cross-platform online competition. It just doesn’t work like that. The PS3 motion controller will be released later this year, and TW11 on PS3 is already slated to make use of it. It will be interesting to see how it compares to the Wii controls.
NoChin…
I have a small question. On of the difficulties that I have on TW10 is the swing power. It seems that a 50% shot is more like a chip and a I can ship a full shot from a 3 iron 220 yards. Did you notice a more accurate swing power rating in TW11 tourpro?
I guess what I am trying to ask is if I take back a PW to the half way point on my backswing and then swing and follow through will it give aprox. 50% power or will it go to full 100%?
It definitely doesn’t go 100% if you only pull your swing back halfway. A 50% shot with a 3 iron should behave very similar to a pitch shot, because that’s essentially what you are doing. You’re not going to get a full shot type effect with only half the distance. You’re going to get a low pitch-type shot instead. So you should either club down and hit a fuller shot, or loft in some power reduction.
Hi I am having problems with my “Advanced Plus” swing, I do not get any results on tiger woods tour 11, I do have a motion plus remote and it works on my other games but does not seem to work, I keep getting a “N/A” at my results. Is there a setting that I should change or is it under difficulty level?
Please assist
Do you have your swing mode set to Advanced Plus? You can’t just put the motion plus in, you actually have to change your swing type in the swing settings.