Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11 Review

Publisher – EA Sports – Developer – EA Tiburon – Genre – Sports – Players – 1-2 – Age Rating – 3+ – Other console/handheld formats – PS3, Wii

It’s all too easy for us to moralise with regards to Tiger Woods. His ‘situation’ has been pored over by seemingly every journalist with even a semblance of interest in a touch of sensationalism. Which means all of them essentially. Each of them damning his sorry behind as he corrupts our poor children. After all, us working parents have been such excellent role models. Now when little Johnny and Susie grow up, they’ll be out gallivanting each and every evening, instead of being the kind of wonderful human beings we all are. Honest above all. Whiter than white. Never done a single bad turn.

Anyway. The much criticised Tiger Woods has once again lent his name to EA’s brand of golfing brilliance, with the usual handful of inclusions and tweaks included to try and force our wallets open.

The big one this year is something known as the true-aim control system. This essentially strips away all those handy help and tips that the series has developed over the years, and dumps you at the tee with barely a hint of interference. All you get are a few basic markers on the fairway, and a camera angle wishing to replicate watching you shank your shot way to the right and plop right into an unfortunately placed pond.

It's time for club to meet ball.

It’s a lovely addition, particularly for long time fans who may have found things a touch easy going in the past. Taking away all those markers and bars and helping hands makes for a much more intriguing experience. Now you do have to be an excellent judge of both what your golfer is capable of, and the nuances of each course. It’s a mode that you’ll undoubtedly spend the majority of your time with, particularly once you’ve built up your created golfer.

You’re encouraged to create a specific avatar to control throughout your Tiger Woods 11 career as soon as you load the game up. Though physically there’s quite a hefty scope for tweaks and changes, the pitiful number of audible nicknames the crowd will fling towards you is quite awful. If anyone in ‘real life’ wished to shout “Eagle Eye” at me every 2 minutes, they’d certainly be top candidates for a really stern glare.

The problem is, this created player is so blooming awful that your first dozen rounds are pretty dull. As you ‘achieve’ various things throughout your career, you’ll earn XP to spend on a variety of boosts to your golfers stats. But since you’re straight away lumped in with some of the best golfers in the world, you’ll be lagging way behind the standard required to even make par. Which means that instead of crafting the golfer you’ve always dreamed of being, you’ll be lumping all your XP into smacking longer drives along the fairway to try and swiftly catch up. Which means gone are all those dreams of being a deft, expansive golfer until you’ve lumped in a good few dozen hours of play.

Loads of courses are included, making this a greater overall package for true golfing fantatics. And the newly included Ryder Cup mode is a major selling point that the game is eager to show off. Not only is this years Ryder Cup included at the correct course, but you can try your hand at any varieties from the past too. Perfect for those evenings when you really find yourself wishing to wallop the Americans/Europeans.

Little has changed since last year on the visuals front, with the same old high EA standards flooding forth. Players are well animated, and those tiny little white balls act as you’d expect. Everything could be easily undone by a gravity defying ball bounce, but thankfully all seems as solid as the proverbial rock.

Courses are typically detailed. Just watch that water!

Online, it’s the usual vaiety of single and team player match ups. The new addition is Team Play, allowing you to play with up to 23 other online gamers in a big East vs West match up. It’s a nice addition for fans of showing off their skills, but trying to get 24 people all online together is about as easy as driving your car down your own driveway. If you’re a famous golfer.

Whether Tiger Woods 11 is worth shelling out yet another £40 is a tricky one to say really. Obviously hardcore fans will snap this right up, but if you’re the kind of gamer who doesn’t necessarily need to own the latest version none of the additions are really worth all that cash.

Essentially, if you’re a hardcore Tiger Woods fan, or someone happy to splash the cash on the latest and greatest version, then snap this right up. If not, trim a good two or three points off the score below and then make up your mind.

8/10

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