Kamis, 21 April 2011

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12: The Masters (Wii)

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12: The Masters remains the top golf sim for virtual swingers. Even though the series embraces the Move motion controller in its PlayStation 3 edition this year, superior controls in the Wii version of the game still make it the best way to play video game golf. This year's sequel builds on the outstanding Wii remote controls from the last two years, which show the MotionPlus attachment at its best, making for lifelike drives for show and putts for dough. The new game also refashions everything around trying to earn an illustrious green jacket at the famous Masters tournament, which lends the proceedings a gravitas that golf fans can't help but appreciate.
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12: The Mastersscreenshot
Set to tee off thanks to mostly great caddie advice on your shots.
What you notice when firing up Tiger Woods 12 for the first time is how much the game has been reskinned to take advantage of its Masters theme. This isn't so much a Tiger and PGA game as it is a Masters game, since golf's biggest star and its biggest professional organization take a backseat to the annual tournament hosted by Augusta National Golf Club. The opening cinematic is all about the Masters. The menu screens are loaded with photos of Augusta National. The game opens with a playable intro that walks you through the final shots of Tiger Woods winning a green jacket. And, most importantly, the career mode has been renamed Road to the Masters, with the focus switched from simply progressing from the amateur ranks to the PGA Tour, to doing all of the above plus earning an invitation to this prestigious tournament. As a result, career play is more focused, with a concrete goal behind all of your efforts. Just as the Madden games wrap with a Super Bowl every season and NHL hockey games close with the Stanley Cup final, now you have a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
There are other Masters-related frills, too. Along with being able to play Augusta National in one-off rounds, you visit its hallowed links in two other modes. Neither is wildly innovative, but each serves to further place the tournament at the heart of the game and offer tough diversions from single matches and developing a pro career. Masters Moments is a series of nine challenges where you step into the shoes of pros from tourneys past and try to come close to their achievements. These range from back in 1935 all the way to 2010 and include a wide selection of memorable moments such as Jack Nicklaus' eagle and two birdies in 1986, an Arnold Palmer eagle in 1958, and Tiger Woods' incredible seven birdies in a row in 2005. Each challenge can be beaten by getting close to the pro's achievement or mastered by matching or bettering it. This can be extremely hard in spots, because you're called upon to make a couple of unbelievable approach shots to within a few feet from the pin and do things like finish a run of seven grueling holes at four under par. Tiger at the Masters is the other main Masters-related game. It sees you playing as the great one during each of his four Masters victories, with the goal of keeping pace with every round. Fall behind by a single stroke on even one round, and it's back to the drawing board.
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12: The Mastersscreenshot
The holes of Amen Corner. So beautiful. So deadly.
Even with the glitz of the Masters, controls are the standout feature of the Wii version of Tiger Woods 12. As in both last year's game and its predecessor, the Wii MotionPlus-enhanced swing mechanics are stellar. Control sensitivity is spot on. Angle the remote even slightly, and the club face moves with it, letting you manually hit fades and draws with relative ease (or slice, with relative annoyance at your incompetence). Drives have real weight to them so that you often find yourself standing back and admiring the ball in flight. Approach shots allow you to feel them out for distance, letting you put a little touch on the ball just as you would in real life. Putting is also dead-on, with just the right amount of effort required whether you're tapping one in or launching lengthy lag putts across the carpet.
With all that said, Wii swinging in Tiger Woods 12 is pretty much the same as it was in Tiger Woods 11. It does feel more lifelike than the similar PS3 Move controls, however. Here, your shots feel realistic no matter where you are on a hole. With the PS3 Move, approach shots are tough to address when you need to play with distance, and putts typically require a great deal of effort, more akin to rowing a canoe against a current than swinging a putter against a little white ball. The Move controls feel a lot like the Wii remote controls did three years ago, before the release of the MotionPlus add-on. So the PS3 has a way to go before catching up to the Wii, at least when it comes to the accuracy of the motion-tracking controls.



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