Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12: The Masters

Posted 2 years ago By - Marko Djordjevic

The Tiger Woods series has seen a lot of changes over the past few years, with different modes and interesting additions, among other modifications. This year, the guys over at EA Tiburon have shifted the focus from Tiger Woods himself to The Augusta National Golf Course, better known to the masses as the home of The Masters, golf’s most important event on the calendar. That’s not the only change made this year, and while the introductions are welcomed, it does also show that other things still need to be addressed in the series.

The focus for Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12 is all about The Masters and that fact is clear from the moment you start playing. The newly modified career mode, which now implements a progression setting, is all about taking your created golfer from Amateur status and moving up the ranks to golfing super-stardom. You begin taking part in EA’s Amateur Tour, which then pushes you to the Nationwide Tour, PGA’s development circuit. After accomplishing the necessary goals, you’ll be invited to the Q-School, a one-round tournament where the top 25 golfers are then invited onto the regular tour.

Even after reaching the PGA tour, the journey doesn’t end. Unlike many golfing tournaments, The Masters is an invite-only event and even if you are a PGA Tour member, you aren’t necessarily eligible to take part. You’ll need to improve your Ranking and hope that when the time comes, you’re ranked high enough to take part.

The progression system is welcomed since the reward at the end of stick is always within reason. The Career mode also incorporates sponsorship challenges to unlock additional items and there are even training games that can be played to help improve your golfer’s skill.

Each of the 16 courses have different objective levels that need to be completed in order to master them. They begin with simple requirements such as sinking a birdie on a par-5, but they do get progressively more difficult. The course mastery actually comes into place with another one of the game’s new features, the introduction of caddies.

Caddies are a golfer’s assistant. They can offer suggestions as to what your next shot should be and this implementation is a welcomed addition for those players who enjoy the sport, but may not necessarily know the best course of action on each shot. The Caddie’s tips vary; sometimes he will have a couple of suggestions but in other situations, he may have nothing at all and it will be up to you to make the decision. Clearly, his presence is there to assist new players, but even more seasoned golfers will appreciate the help in certain situations. Their suggestions connect to the Course Objectives because as you complete a course level (Bronze, Silver or Gold), his knowledge and tips improve.

The Masters is the focus not only in your career mode but in the options as well. One of the other modes available for your created player is Masters Moments. They are a series of nine different memorable moments from past Masters Tournaments, dating as far back as 1935. Your objective is to recreate these moments using your created golfer. They vary from landing the ball within five feet of the cup to beating Tiger Wood’s course record he set back in 1997. The challenge also varies as the first few are relatively easy to accomplish but mastering them all will take both time and skill.

Additionally, there’s another mode called Tiger at the Masters. Here you’ll play as Tiger in the four different events he has previously won. You’ll start back during his first win in 1997 and progress to his latest victory in 2005. Lastly, for those fans of last year’s Ryder Cup, this year’s inclusion is the President Cup, which pits the best of the best US golfers against the best the rest of the world has to offer.

Augusta National is recreated with a great degree of detail but unfortunately, it also shows that the Tiger Woods engine is in dire need of a face-lift. There is a lot of detail put into each of the 18 holes at Augusta and even extra features - including course information - has been added. But the rest of the game suffers from relatively weak visuals. The graphics engine hasn’t improved much over the last few years and this it is clear that the engine is getting a bit long in the tooth. Landscapes are missing details, as evident by the commentary talking about seeing a city, although no city actually appears. The gallery of spectators is equally unimpressive and even some of the pro golfers, including Tiger Woods, failing to live up to their real-life counterparts.

Also still in need of a refresh is the sound, specifically the commentary. Introduced this year is CBS’ Jim Vance and his partner is returning favorite, Jim Feherty. While the new commentary team is a welcomed change over the last few years, their delivery is still way too stiff and unnatural. Never once does it actually sound like Vance and Feherty are communicating with each other. Feherty does make reference to Vance on the rare occasion, but when it happens, it feels disjointed. The only saving grace comes from your caddie, who delivers his lines of dialogue really well, although he does begin to repeat the same suggestions and comments after a short period of time.

Conclusion

The Tiger Woods franchise has seen a lot of changes over the last few years and the improved Career mode, along with the inclusion of The Masters, are welcomed additions. Even with these improvements, the graphical and audio engines are clearly showing their age and are in desperate need of something new. Hopefully, next year’s edition address those concerns and we get a truly complete golfing experience.