Tiger Woods PGA Tour 14 Xbox360 Review

Two Steps Forward. One Step Back.
by Josh Engen

There probably isn't much debate about which audience of gamers has been most neglected by developers over the past few years. Though, no one has actually studied the phenomenon, so we'll just have to assume that the distinction belongs to sports game devotees. In the 90s, games like Tecmo Super Bowl, NHL 94, and Madden would instantly increase the social status of any standoffish sports nerd. And the industrial revolution of sports gaming really peaked in the early 2000s when franchises like Tiger Woods, NHL, and MVP Baseball finally got their mechanics squared away. But recently it seems like developers are going through some kind of self-induced sports game recession.

Even when a title actually finds its way onto the market, it almost always misses the point. It's like publishers have completely forgotten what type of person wants to play a baseball, football, or basketball game. The titles certainly aren't designed for people who love sports; most games have become far too technical and esoteric for that crowd. But they're also not designed for people who love video games; if they were, they wouldn't be about sports. Publishers seem content to keep blindly churning out more repetitive garbage than Coldplay, and this year's collection isn't any different (especially if your name is 2K Sports).

So, in a universe where sports titles represent the very worst form of developer apathy, it's nice to see that EA isn't completely disregarding the Tiger Woods franchise this year. But that wasn't always the case.

For a several years following Tiger's infidelity scandal, it started to look like EA was trying to phase Tiger out of his own franchise. In 2011, the publisher started distancing the series from its figurehead by adding a second golfer, Rory Mcllory, to the cover, and Tiger was entirely absent the following year. Though, to be fair, these years also correspond with a heavy slump in Tiger's tournament performance, so it wasn't entirely surprising when he made his way back onto the cover, accompanied by Rickie Fowler, for the 13th edition.

But Tiger's scandal faded from the front page a long time ago, and he's back at the top of the PGA standings, which means that EA has once again plastered his moneymaking mug on the front of this year's edition of Tiger Woods PGA Tour. And, just like Tiger, the game itself is in rare form.

Now, I'm sure that there are a handful of Tiger obsessives out there who would probably say that the 2012 edition of Tiger Woods PGA Tour was among the best in the franchise. And even though it certainly had its share of fans, it never really felt like it was meant for golf lovers. In fact, it felt like it was actually produced for a weird collection of dexterous video game loving accountants. Until last year, the controls in Tiger titles played like some kind of rote memorization game for your fingers. Often referred to as the three-click method, the franchise's swing mechanic was based on a strength meter that was clicked when a quickly moving bar would cross the desired meter point. Obviously, this has nothing to do with golf, but for some reason this WarioWare-style mini-game was the standard for swing mechanics until 2012.

It's probably not surprising, then, that many golfers were so disconnected from the franchise. After all this power-meter mechanic is more adapted to those mathematical whiz kids that are constantly beating Super Mario Bros. 3 in ten minutes or less. It never quite captured the minutia of an actual golf swing. It was about technical wizardry.

But last year, EA devised a thumbstick-based mechanic that measured the subtleties of one's swing. The update drew a much-needed physical connection between the sport and the video game, and they've heavily refined the system for this year's release.

However, even though the swing mechanic itself is a huge improvement for the series, it's not without its drawbacks. I can't help but feel like there's a collection of randomized problems that are rotating like a slot machine whenever I pull the thumbstick down. Often, even if my swing is perfect, and the weathervane is quiet, the ball will overshoot or undershoot the target for no apparent reason. The clubs themselves obviously play a role in the ball's placement, and as you level up you can unlock more accurate clubs, but it's not unusual for this slot machine of bogeys to add several strokes to the end of your game. And it can be frustrating to play a perfect round of golf and lose due to random chance. If I wanted to do that, I'd play Mario party.

This year's interface is undeniably influenced by last year's edition of Tiger Woods PGA Tour. In fact, the entire game is more of a refinement than a redesign. The stance meter allows you to fade or draw the ball depending on your placement preferences, but the shot's accuracy isn't so heavily tied to the action of your thumb. EA has also added more depth to the swing mechanic by including a collection of customization options to the character setup system. Now, for example, if you're the type of player who prefers to draw the ball, your character can specialize in the appropriate stance. This will allow you to draw the ball with more accuracy, but will make fading more difficult. Plus, players who have a penchant for power have the ability to sacrifice their character’s control and vice versa.

However, the controls aren't the only thing being refined. This year, the franchise has moved away from the Tiger-centric hero worship that's been going on in the franchise since it was introduced in 1998 (aside from those two scandalous years, obviously). Tiger himself has been downplayed in favor of a small collection of historic players and courses.

When you fire up the game's Legends of the Majors mode, you'll take control of players like Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus or check out some of history's more infamous courses. EA's advertising insists that this is an homage to "golf's rich history," but it feels more like a video diary of history's poorest fashion choices. Either way, it's fun.

For all of its clever perks, though, Tiger 14 certainly isn't the polished product that EA would like us to believe it is. The audio on my copy, for instance, never worked correctly. Color commentators and the background music continuously stuttered throughout my experience. And even though I'm willing to wager that this isn't some kind of systemic problem, I'd imagine that I'm not the only person with an issue.

Plus, the graphics are a little embarrassing from time to time. They often have the type of polygonal tearing issues that were commonplace on the PlayStation 2, but have no excuse on this generation of consoles. It often feels like EA took one step backward in the visuals before taking two steps forward with the gameplay.

Now, I'm a huge proponent of gameplay over graphics, so this kind of problem is normally pretty easy for me to ignore. But considering how close we are to the end of this console generation it's difficult to avoid critiquing the title based on its placement in video game history. This will undoubtedly be the last PGA title whose primary platform is the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360. And since it's acting as the punctuation mark for such a popular series, it feels a little unfinished—more like a semicolon than an exclamation point.

Source: http://www.cheatcc.com