BusinessDay: THE Tiger Woods golf-simulation franchise has come a long way. The latest instalment was released last week, just in time for the 2012 Masters Golf tournament in Augusta. I was a little reserved when I heard I would be reviewing Tiger Woods PGA Tour 13. It’s a golf simulation — how exciting could it be? How wrong I was. EA Games has created one of the best golf-simulator games yet. In the first Tiger Woods game I played, many years ago, you had to control the player’s swing with the X button. Not any more; you now have to use the left analogue stick to determine how hard you hit the ball. This, however, is not as easy as it seems. If you don’t swing the stick the right way, the ball will go in the opposite direction. This game is like smoking. The first time you think, ‘How good can it be?’, but then it swallows you, and soon you can’t get enough of it. One interesting feature in the game mode is called "Legacy Challenge", where you take control of Woods in the various stages of his career (but no, not during his recent media debacle). This will keep you busy for a while. However, the main feature is the career mode. You create your own player and start your career as a professional golfer. You then need to play well in all the tournaments to get better sponsors for your character. Two problems with this game: one, the loading time is extremely long. This will get tiresome. Also, while you are playing in a tournament, the loading time between the holes is also long. As soon as you’re getting into the swing of things, you have to wait for the next hole to load. Second, the character’s face isn’t as changeable as you would like it to be, so all players will basically have the same character. On the plus side, the game play and graphics are fantastic. EA put a lot of effort into creating the courses to resemble the real thing as closely as possible. Also, you get to play as any of a group of real-life professionals, including Tiger Woods, Rory Mcllroy, Jim Furyk and all the South African pros. Plus, you get to compete in all the main tournaments — except those in South Africa. Overall, this is a fantastic game that will keep you occupied for hours. RATING: 8,5 out of 10, FORMATS: PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PRICE: R529, downingr@bdfm.co.za, Twitter: @RoyDowning, Source: BusinessDay
