Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12: The Masters
The popular franchise finally returns to computer screens with the famed Augusta National Golf Club at the forefront
Golfing games have been around for personal computers about as long as personal computers have been sold. Back in the early days of Mac gaming I remember playing such titles as MacGolf and World Class Leaderboard. Then in the 1990s the Links series of golf games was the popular choice for most people including yours truly. But in 1998 Electronic Arts released the first Tiger Woods PGA Tour game and that series quickly evolved into the premier golfing simulation franchise on personal computers (and eventually video game consoles as well). The series didn’t make its first appearance on the Macintosh until 2003. It then appeared on the Macintosh again in 2005 and 2008. But it hasn’t been seen on the Macintosh or PC since 2008 - until now. So is the latest iteration of this popular franchise, entitled Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12: The Masters, worth it? And more importantly is it accessible to everybody? Read on to find out!
There’s a lot to do in Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12: The Masters (Tiger Woods 12 for short) and most of it links up with an online component for the game. In fact, it would seem that you need to have an account with Tiger Woods PGA Tour Online to experience most of what this game has to offer because upon launching the game a prompt appears asking you for your e-mail address and password. I already had an account (it’s free) and the password for that account worked here. After playing awhile I noticed that everything I did in the game was logged on my character’s account page on the Tiger Woods PGA Tour Online website. However the integration between the two goes much deeper than that. There’s numerous online tournaments or you can simply play a round with a group of real people that the game can find for you. Presumably these people can be from either Tiger Woods 12 or Tiger Woods Online. There’s also all sorts of gear, apparel, and other items you can purchase with points and virtual money your character earns playing the game from both places, although some of the really good stuff are paid extras. So basically both games are tightly tied together.
This tight integration is both a good thing and a bad thing. It’s good for some of the reasons I already alluded to above. I also kind of like the idea that you could also technically login and play from any computer that has a supported web browser on it. The bad is that Tiger Woods Online looks and plays identically to Tiger Woods 12 despite the fact that it’s free to play! I know Tiger Woods Online was created with the development tool called he Unity Engine and I’ve seen evidence that Tiger Woods 12 was created with the same engine so they are more or less literally identical. The only real differences that I can see are you can play an “exhibition round” off-line in Tiger Woods 12 and sort of a “DVD extras” menu that offers additional content related to The Masters such as video interviews with Tiger Woods and a bunch of “Masters Moments” challenges where you try to equal or surpass great individual moments from The Masters long and storied history. The latter is actually kind of a neat feature and perfectly suited for those times where you only have 5-10 minutes to play. There’s a “career mode” called “Road to The Masters” where you work your way up from amateur status all the way to the PGA tour and hopefully the Green Jacket at The Masters but I couldn’t tell if this is something unique to Tiger Woods 12. There’s been a fair amount of complaints about the similarities on the Electronic Arts forums but they haven’t been the only ones. Electronic Arts initially advertised a feature called the “Caddie Experience” for Tiger Woods 12 but the problem is that feature doesn’t exist in the PC or Mac versions of the game! It only exists in the console version. On top of that the console version apparently has better graphics and extra detail like crowds of spectators on each hole. When you finish reading this review you’ll see that I still like Tiger Woods 12 anyway but I felt it’s important to point these things out since the game is going to set you back $40. If you’re uncertain or curious about this game I suggest you first give Tiger Woods Online a try. It won’t cost you anything and since it’s so similar to Tiger Woods 12 you can essentially treat it like a demo.
Even with all that baggage I can’t deny that I’ve had a lot of fun with Tiger Woods 12. The Road to the Masters career mode is fun and pretty challenging (at least for me) even if it’s not entirely realistic. Despite my often less than stellar play I was able to advance out of the amateur stage but I really don’t see that as a problem because it should make the game less frustrating for any aspiring armchair golfers. It actually does get much harder later on (once again at least for me) but at least initially I was able to advance some. I also really enjoy the Masters Moments challenges even if I haven’t had much success with them (yet!). The online tournaments are also fun and there’s always at least one going on for different skill levels. However the downside to these online tournaments is that some people seem to post absolutely absurd scores that I can’t see anyone ever having any hope of catching. In both of the amateur tournaments I played in the winner posted scores of 22 and 23 under respectively. I’ve heard there’s a problem with expert players playing in these amateur tournaments and posting crazy scores so that’s probably what happened here but it didn’t really bother me and I still had fun. There’s also a pretty good variety of championship golf courses to keep you busy including, for the first time in the Tiger Woods PGA Tour franchise, the Augusta National Golf Club which is home to The Masters. Pebble Beach, a favorite of mine, is also included. There are fourteen championship golf courses in all. They even include three months of premium membership to Tiger Woods Online for free although after that expires you don’t have to renew to maintain the integration with Tiger Woods Online. You just don’t get access to all the extras it offers anymore.
The graphics actually look quite good to me and some of the courses are really visually stunning. There’s not an overabundance of sound effects but all the absolutely necessary ones, like the swoosh of your club hitting the ball and the splash of your ball landing in the water, are present. There’s also pleasant–sounding music during loading screens and hole flyovers. The flyovers before each hole are really nice and most of them contain voiceovers describing the hole and what the best approach to take might be. Perhaps the coolest addition to the game is something called “photo game face”. This gives you the option to actually upload a picture of yourself and have your face modeled directly onto your golfer’s face! You set this up through an online web application and while you have to do a fair amount of tweaking the end result is pretty impressive. It’s also a blast to do! And since you can purchase all sorts of clothing items for your golfer with your earnings you can really customize your golfer to look exactly the way you want, and with your own face!
Golfing games have always been some of the most accessible sports games. The game of golf is really perfectly suited for computer interfaces and Tiger Woods 12 is no exception. If you can left–click a mouse then you can play this game. Aside from clicking through menus and clicking on various buttons for club selection and the like the only other type of clicking you have to worry about is when you swing. Electronic Arts offers two methods of swinging the golf club. There is the venerable 3–click method which you’ve probably seen before if you’ve ever played a computer golf game before. There’s a big arc shaped like a “C” at the bottom center of the screen. You click once to start the meter, then click again when the meter reaches the desired amount of power, and then once more as the meter is working its way back down to the bottom center of the arc. You want that last click to be as close to the bottom center position as possible to hit the ball straight. Clicking too early before that bottom center line will make you hook the ball while clicking too late will make you slice the ball. Each time you swing a line on the arc indicates how much power you should put into your swing. So the 3–click method is all about timing. Basically clicking three times quickly in succession. It takes some getting use to, and it’s easy to mess up, but it works well and is perfectly doable. The other method is called "TrueSwing" and this involves literally dragging the mouse backward to start your golfer’s backswing and then quickly moving your mouse forward, hopefully as straight as possible, to make your golfer swing. This is described to be a more natural method because it makes you feel like you’re actually swinging but it’s not particularly easy when using a head–operated mouse like I do. Your mileage may vary. After launching the game for the first time I did not need to use KeyStrokes at all. As I’ve already explained left–clicking is all you have to worry about. However you might find that using the arrow keys on your keyboard are a better way to fine-tune your aim for various shots. And if you’re a SwitchXS user you’re going to need access to that regardless. The good news is windowed mode is actually built-in to Tiger Woods 12. You can find this setting both in the “Settings and Extras" menu and the menu strip across the top left-hand corner of the screen while you’re playing. There’s a bunch of buttons in this menu strip for opening and closing the chat window, bringing up the main menu, and so forth. There’s also a button for switching between full screen and windowed mode on-the-fly. It works seamlessly. The game is also largely filled with big, bright text and buttons which for the most part makes the game pretty accessible for the visually impaired. However it’s sometimes difficult to read the putting grid and see the ball or even the hole itself, depending on the surface color.
So should you buy this game? If you’re really a hard-core golfing fan you’re not going to find a better and more complete golfing simulation for the Mac (and probably the PC as well). Even so it still probably wouldn’t hurt to check out Tiger Woods Online first. If you only have a casual interest in golf I would definitely recommend checking out Tiger Woods Online first. Like I said I’ve had a lot of fun with this game. Perhaps it’s partially because I just haven’t played a golfing simulation game for years because the Mac hasn’t had one for awhile. But the bottom line is I’ve had fun. I may not be the best computer golfer in the world but Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12: The Masters with all its achievements, customizations, and variety makes even a less than average golfer such as myself feel like I’m accomplishing something and having fun. Fore!
Note: The Macintosh version can be purchased as a digital download from GameTree Mac. For information on purchasing the PC digital download version or PC/MAC DVD click here.
Macintosh System Requirements:
- OS: Mac OS X 10.6 or higher
- Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo (1.8 GHz) (*Game will not run on a PowerPC Macintosh)
- RAM: 1 GB or more
- Disc Drive - 4x or faster DVD ROM
- Hard Drive Space: 6 GB or more
- Video Card - ATI Radeon x1600 128 MB; NVIDIA Geforce FX 5200 64 MB or better
- Internet: Broadband Internet connection required for online features
- Controls: Keyboard and mouse
Windows PC System Requirements:
- OS: Windows XP, Vista or 7
- Processor: Intel Pentium 4 (or equivalent) running @ 2.8 GHz or greater
- RAM: 1 GB or more
- Disc Drive - 4x or faster DVD ROM
- Hard Drive Space: 6 GB or more
- Video Card - ATI Radeon 9500 Pro 128 MB; NVidia Geforce 6200 128 MB
- DirectX: DirectX 9.0c compatible
- Internet: Broadband Internet connection required for online features
- Input Controls: Keyboard and mouse
Paul Natsch
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