After taking a year off, EA deems it safe to release Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12. It looks better than the last release, at least Tiger looks like Tiger, but they’ve gone for the safe play too many times to make for an exciting or innovative release.
The retina display gives the courses a nice look particularly at Pebble Beach and Predator, the fantasy course but unfortunately there is no Augusta. The other courses don’t look as interesting or as well-detailed. Real Golf 2011 looks much better as I find myself admiring the scenery and overall detail in Gameloft’s golf sim, especially as the sun sets.
The gesture controlled swing mechanic that Tiger developed is intact along with a power boost when you hold the swing at the top for an instant. Sadly, they’ve done away with the slow-mo replays you were given in Tiger Woods PGA Tour when you nailed a perfect drive. In fact, there are no replays at all.
You still have caddy tips when putting but adjusting your aim is a little cumbersome as you need to touch and drag your aim as opposed to Real Golf’s simpler touch to move mechanism. Often the camera doesn’t show the hole on your putts which takes all the excitement out of putting. Even on full shots the camera is pretty static as the only angle you get is behind the ball. Real Golf provides more variety in camera angles, sometimes regrettably so, as you don’t always know what type of spin to apply. The spin works well in TW 12 as it’s easy to move the ball and apply backspin.
“Drive for show, putt for dough” is an age-old axiom in golf and the ball physics in TW 12 leaves me short. These are championship courses which should have lightning fast greens with big breaks but the ball seems to stop as if you were putting on a shag carpet unless you pound it and there’s not as much movement when compared to RG. It’s also aggravating that your finger has to cover the optimum power line while putting. Overall, Real Golf’s putting is more enjoyable.
Although the AI of the computer controlled golfers in TW 12 is much better than in Real Golf, a glaring weakness of that game, there are many times your opponent will get stuck in a particular spot and continue to hit the same shot OB or into the water until they exceed the maximum stroke limit. I’ve seen Tiger hit 5 balls OB off the TEE! This leads me to believe Tiger Woods 12 was rushed out to beat the Masters deadline.
If you’ve played RG you’ll know that you had to be aware of the wind especially on your approach shots. Wind isn’t much of a factor in TW 12. Your lie is much more critical and it’s very difficult to hit a good shot out of the rough until you upgrade your equipment. In fact, the career difficulty is very high in TW 12 as you start as a lowly hacker until you upgrade, whereas in RG you could start as a tour pro and pound out 300 yard drives immediately.
The commentary is expectedly horrible but can be turned off. What’s worse is that the crowd applause only comes on while putting so what you end up with are golfers waving to a silent crowd. Pretty weird. There’s also very little music and while I wouldn’t expect Rodney Dangerfield dancing to “I’m All Right” a la Caddyshack, a little music to set the tone would be nice. Without announcers, it feels like playing in a morgue
There are 8 courses and four play modes along with lots of Tiger Challenges and multiplayer via Bluetooth and WiFi. You can also challenge your Facebook friends to a game of closest to the pin.
Tiger’s Woods PGA 12 feels a little tired. It goes through all the motions with a lack of inspiration. The game play is similar to the previous version with better graphics but it lacks the overall polish and attention to detail to distance itself from the pack. 3 Stars.
goyami@comcast.net