Videogame review: Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12

Published Jun 25, 2011

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Game: Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12 – The Masters (PS3)

Review: Paul Hutchinson

Developer: EA Games

It has been a few years since I last whiled away a Sunday afternoon playing a round or two on EA’s field-leading golf simulator and quite a few changes have been made.

Easy Tiger: PGA 12 – The Masters is the game in the franchise that finally incorporates the legendary Augusta golf course.

It has taken EA a long time to convince the worthy gentlemen of Augusta to allow them to map the course, but it was worth the wait. The eponymous tournament is saved until the end of the career mode, the aptly titled “Road to The Masters”.

This means the traditional grind of building your golfer from scratch and painstakingly cultivating statistics and experience points on the amateur, national and PGA tours must be undertaken before you can challenge for the greatest honour of all.

A noteworthy addition is the caddy who accompanies you throughout the career mode.

Alongside the career mode are a couple of Augusta-based mini-games that enable you to take control of various golfing legends. The first of these is “Masters Moments”, where you get to try to equal 12 famous occasions from Georgia’s history, ranging from flashing brilliance like Phil Mickelson’s awesome 200-yard shot through the trees last year, to the sustained accuracy of Woods making seven straight birdies in 2005.

Then there is “Tiger At The Masters” where you try to equal or better Tiger’s scores from his four Masters victories. Certainly enough to keep you occupied.

Ally this to the obligatory online game mode and you have a comprehensive golfing experience with serious longevity.

Bugbears are minimal. The graphics are good but not outstanding – spectators have repetitive animations, and the background scenery is occasionally granular. - Sunday Tribune

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