An embattled golfing servant, the most coveted tournament in the golfing universe and the ability to take on the world. Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 13 is fantastic.
It’s all in the wrist. The swing, this year’s EA Sports Golfing outing is all about the swing. The total swing control system is going to have you in two camps; camp A, namely the “OMG THIS IS SO AWESOME” camp, or camp B, the “WTF WERE EA SPORTS THINKING” camp.
Putting from the rough
You finally have complete control of your swing, the impact of this can only be paralleled to the impact that 360 degree dribbling had on the FIFA system.
Allow me to outline the absolute epicness of this.
For the first time You determine how accurate your swing will be; whether the ball will travel over or into that water hazard/bunker/crowd – not a nice pretty little power/timing bar where you just have to press a button which can be easily banked in your muscle memory.
No sir, you now have to get each swing timed perfectly your analogue stick has to be moved in a straight line and the distance you pull back your club determines how powerful your shot will be.
It is a golfing game revelation! The most fantastic part of this is that, for once, you can actually not play the perfect round; if you don’t concentrate through the entire match, your game starts to deteariate. It is finally a golfing simulator.
Heading online
The bulk of the Tigar Woods PGA 13 player experience is modelled around online multiplayer. Even though you are online, fortunately all you see from your online opponents are their shot projections; they are identical to the hawk eye umpiring system.
Due to this act of genius, gamers playing on 3G or a slow dsl connection can have a pretty much lag-free experience. I conducted a few great conversations during my many online rounds and loved the low-lag environment.
Although the bulk of the content is only available online, all of our offline gamers – fear not – there are many offline modes from which you can choose. The career mode is highly entertaining and allows for you to build a custom golfer from the ground up; your golfer is fully customisable from their clothing through to their kit and sponsors.
As you compete in different challenges you gain xp which can be used to improve your golfer’s over-all attributes as you see fit. The better you get, the bigger the sponsor offers become, the harder the challenge unfolds, and the more enjoyable the game becomes.
Many modes
Outside of the career and online modes there are 11 different “quick game” modes, ranging from the usual ‘stroke-play’ through to the likes of ‘Bingo, Bango bongo’ and ‘battle golf’.
One of the most notable new features is the Tiger Legacy Challenge. In this mode you follow a young Tiger Woods form his golfing genius through to future.
In each of the 9 modes you have to complete a set amount of challenges, ranging from hitting golf balls into the plastic pool as a 4-year-old through, to shattering Jack Nicklaus’ all-time records. The range of years includes: Toddler years; early years; junior years; amateur years; rookie years; tiger slam pro years; present day; future; and finally the record books.
A nice “for the fans” feature is a voice-guided walkthrough of the legendary Augusta course, with Tiger Woods detailing his strategy for the worlds toughest and most prolific course. I would only suggest this if you are a hardcore fan of golf as its just a simple first person ghost hover through the course.
A matter of course
There are 22 Standard courses to choose from in custom games, and an additional 15 are available through free download. The courses are very well-detailed and the crowds interactions are also rather impressive and responsive.
I did get the feeling that our current gen consoles are heading towards the retirement stage as I wasn’t blown away by the graphics and felt that more detail could have been squeezed out of my 360, and I’m sure that the PS3 could handle a much more detail-orientated game.
The games sound suffers from the same thing that every other EA title suffers from – commentator déjà vu. After 4 rounds of competitive golf you’ve pretty much heard everything that they have to say. The sound track is tranquil and calming, though.
The usual suspect sounds are spot on with the grunts; swishes; thuds and twangs all playing along nicely.
Two above Par
In conclusion, this game really is a must-have for any sports fan; I might moan about the fact that it could have looked better – but don’t get me wrong, it is still quite a looker, and you will be playing this game for a few months before you get bored and start moaning about the graphics.
In short buy the game; connect online, tee off and enjoy the ultimate golf game experience.
Loading ...
I’m still hooked on master 2012, cant wait for 2013