Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11 Review (X360)

• Publisher: EA
• Developer: Tiburon
• ESRB Rating: “E" for Everyone
• Genre: Golf
• Pros: Fun gameplay; nice presentation; Focus; Ryder Cup; Gamernet Challenges; Play the Pros; more challenging than previous entries; new XP system
• Cons: Features list mostly unchanged; occasional awkward camera angles; commentary; new 3-click swing system sucks

While the gameplay has seen some definite improvements (more on that below), the features list hasn't changed much from last year save for the big addition of the Ryder Cup. The Ryder Cup lets you choose to play as Europe or U.S.A. in a series of events to determine where the best golfers on Earth hail from. There is quite a bit of drama while playing the Ryder Cup, and it is generally a lot of fun. You have to watch the A.I. players in your foursome take their shots, unfortunately, but you can skip ahead as soon as they swing so it isn't too awful.

Another new feature is the ability to play 12 vs. 12 team matches online. This is sort of fun, but doesn't really add much to the core experience. The rest of the features are the same as the last couple of years. Career mode. Quick play. Play the Pros and Live Tournaments where you compete with the real pros on the same course they are playing that week. And a Challenge mode where you beat challenges set by the real golfers included in the game. Gamernet Challenges also appear on the course to encourage you to be just a little better to beat another player's score.

The core gameplay has seen a couple of other important improvements as well. First is True-Aim. True-Aim makes the game more realistic by taking away some of the crutches videogame golfers have come to rely on. You can't zoom in and get an accurate idea of where your shot is going to land anymore. Instead, you look at the course from your golfer's perspective and have to rely on yardage markers to figure out what shot to make. It is very tricky to get the hang of, to put it mildly. If you can learn how to use it, it makes the game very satisfying, but it is pretty crazy difficult actually getting to that point..

The other big change is the Focus system. Things like putting spin on the ball, adding power, or using the putt preview all use Focus. Your Focus recharges when you make good shots, but there is only a limited amount to begin with so you have to be careful you don't abuse it too much on your approach shots or you won't have any when you need it on the greens.

One thing we aren't too pleased with is the new version of the 3-click swing system. In the past we would switch back and forth between the full analog swings with the left stick to the 3-click button press swing depending on the situation. This year, though, the 3-click swing has an awkward new interface and is just plain hard to use. We're 100% analog swing, now.

Graphics

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11 looks nice overall. The lighting and weather effects are very nice, and character models generally look good. Some courses look better or worse than others, though, with some radically different textures for the grass. Also, courses closed in by trees generally look nicer than more open courses that are seriously lacking detail in the backgrounds.

Sound

There isn't much to talk about in regard to sound. Sound effects and music are pretty well par for the course (get it?). Commentary from Kelly Tillman and Scott Van Pelt is merely okay. It is better than last year since they aren't constantly making mistakes and stepping on each others' toes, but it is kind of annoying since about 90% of what they have to say is negative and trying too hard to be cute and funny.