Game Reviews

It has been an eventful year for Tiger Woods, but while his personal life and his golf game have suffered, the good news is that his video game has not. Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11 introduces a number of new features to the long-running golf series that not only make it more realistic, but also add some much-needed challenge to the proceedings. You can still set the game up in such a way that birdies and eagles are easy to attain, but if you prefer a realistic challenge, you'll find that new features such as the focus system, the variable wind, and the optional true-aim control setup more than have you covered. Not all of the changes and additions to this year's game are as significant, but the vast majority of them are welcome, and given that Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 was so great, it's impressive that this year's game is easy to recommend as an upgrade. There are more than 25 professional golfers and a handful of novelty characters on the PGA Tour 11 roster, but while Tiger's near-perfect ratings for power, accuracy, control, and putting make him an obvious choice, it's far more rewarding to play as a custom golfer. That's not only because digital camera support makes it easy to put your face in the game, but also because whereas the stats for other golfers are fixed, custom golfers improve as you earn experience points across several different modes and spend them on stat increases and better equipment. The only downside to playing as a custom character is that, as part of the creation process, you have to choose one of 20 mostly dumb nicknames for spectators to use when they feel the need to yell words of encouragement in your general direction. Nothing detracts from the sense of occasion as you sink a winner on the 18th hole at St. Andrews quite like hearing some moron cheering for Big Dog, Blammo, or Playa. After creating your custom golfer, you're encouraged to play through an eight-step tutorial that does a great job of introducing you to some of this year's most significant gameplay changes while also rewarding you with a decent number of experience points. The most significant new feature, which comes into play in a number of the tutorial steps, is the concept of player focus: an ingenious system that adds a layer of strategy to just about every shot you play by limiting the use of powerful player aids. You start each round with a finite amount of focus, and you spend a portion of it anytime you hit a ball at more than 100 percent strength, apply spin to a ball while it's in the air, temporarily reduce the size of your targeting circle with the new accuracy boost feature, or use the putt preview. The only way to replenish your focus, which doesn't happen quickly, is to play shots without using any of these things. It's a superb setup, because it forces you to take advantage of these arguably overpowered aids only when you feel you really need them, rather than using them as crutches on every hole.