Tiger Woods 2012 Review

Posted on by

Developer EA Sports

Publisher EA Sports

Platform PS3, Xbox360,Wii,PC

Release Date April 2011

Tiger Woods 12, or The Masters : Tiger Woods 2012, to give it its full title. EA clearly want to keep the Tiger Woods brand, but must have been spooked by Tiger’s recent “controversies”. So for this release Tiger has lost his prominence upon the box in favour of “The Masters” tournament but he still is featured heavily within the game.

The career goal is to eventually work your way through the amateur leagues, onto the pro tournaments ultimately seeking that Holy Grail in golfing circles, a Masters invite. This huge goal is set far off in the distance, so it does act to give the game a sense of longevity. It takes a long time to get to the competition but at the same time it’s such a prestigious event you will keep driving on until your do get there, and for the solo player this is the best use of the game.

Other game modes are included and also surround the Masters competition, you can choose to relive nine magical “Masters Moments” which are iconic events from the real life tournament from past years. You can also play as Tiger and take on his own real life Masters appearances. While all good fun they do take place on the one golf course (Augusta National).

Augusta is beautifully rendered in stunning detail, and while the other courses are also impressive it’s clear this course got the most attention. Augusta is a wonderful course but by the time you have played through all the game modes you will be a little bored with it. The commentating from Jim Nantz is a welcome addition, along with his co commentator they keep you company throughout your rounds of golf.

Technically the game hasn’t changed an awful lot since last year, for PS3 owners you now have the option of using the Move controller. For the first time the precision of the Move actually hampers your enjoyment of a game. Mainly because I’m a terrible golfer in real life and a lot of golf balls end up getting sliced into the shrubs.  The Wii version makes use of the balance board as well and the motion controller to keep an eye on the position of your feet (or yet another thing for me to get wrong).

Another new addition is the caddy, his job is to give you advice on what club to use and how to approach the shot. He can be a bit hit and miss, generally he plays a safe game but you are better off going with your gut on the greens. Your caddy is fully voiced so you don’t have extra menu’s or reading to click through, if you choose to take his advice your shot options are pre chosen but you can of course choose a custom shot if you think you know better and of course you can just turn him off (well not entirely as he will still keep on chipping in his 2 cent).

Masters 2012 comes with 14 full courses on the disk and a whopping 20 set for DLC releases, most of which can be then used in the career mode. If fact you will come across the DLC Courses while playing tournaments but when you try to play the course you are directed to a purchase or skip screen. Pretty shocking really, I’m not a huge fan of DLC in general and it really should only be used as extra content, not content to take away from progress within the main game.

Overall : Not a massive jump from last year in terms of game mechanics. You pretty much know what you will get. The Xbox360 not having any motion controlling options puts it at a disadvantage. The PS3 Move for the better player will be a joy but those who have only ever been armchair golfers it may prove too realistic

 

SCORE 7/10

Please Join us on your Social Platform of choice