First up, I do have a soft spot for Golf games... I think its the meditative serenity you can get from plodding from hole to hole... shot to shot... from the first Golf game I played proactivity Virtual Golf on the Archimedes, which had analogue swing using the mouse from left to right, controlling draw and fade, hook and slice with a sine wave type action... to the more PC based 3 click golf games and a few Nintendo'ified ones on the GB...
Anyways, Tiger Dix on the Wii come with the new fangled totally uncalled for Wii MotionPlus adding a total simulation of movement to your games... which could be considered pointless, or brilliant. I mean, the interpretive process, i.e. pressing A to do something and something happening and then various combinations of that, are what its all about right... I suppose its the same argument for and against a wheel, the wheel is more real, yet the game, depending on its construction might be more fun, with the d-pad say...
What Tiger X does is manage to make you COMPLETELY forget you have a controller in your hand, even a motion controller one... its totally surreal... its like, exactly like, back in the day when Wii Sports happened, then it all got a bit gestury... this kinda reboots that ideal.
The game itself is a content-gasm and completely and utterly overwhelming and almost all of it is going to be missed, or not even understood by any real human being, theres a whole series of menus and options before you even get to the menu to maybe even start the game.
I've been playing on the middle mode which might be a cross between dumbed down gesture golf and total max simulation mode, even then its totally entertaining to play, what is surreal in this quasi-mode is that the UI, although generally fantastic, and I mean that, get a little redundant because you can almost play totally on feel alone... the full sim mode might make that totally possible, I've yet to have the time to explore (or get the courage to find the right menu option).
For instance there are two puttin modes, classic and something else... I chose classic to get some perspective.. it appears to be more gesture based as you only have to do the back swing to up the meter then the down stroke is for determining the contact direction on the ball (which is a level of play detail that keeps escaping me)...
The oddness is that you want to and expect to have to hit the ball at a realistic speed, however as it determines the max hit as if it were a selection of clubs, full whack on a 3m putter is 3metres and no 20 miles as you might expect... this might be solved by changing the mode and might be a testament to the quality of the Wii MotionPlus dongle and the implementation of that in the game.
Anyways, the presentation is impressively conservative and has that horrible PS2 lighting model in the 3d environments, all the UI elements are AMAZINGLY well done and totally make sense, the mesh of Wii Pointer and onscreen bobbins is very impressive.
We'll see if this gets played.. first day I had it I did 5 rounds off golf and the next day I felt like I had been whacked with bamboo across my shoulders.
Is Ken in it?
... I doubt it, you could dress up as Ken in We Love Golf though... thats the capcompromise option.
Also keen on this, I had a little go on what was probably easy controls last week.
I liked the immediacy of the wrist twisting on taking a shot. Got it right here waiting for a game.
EA are freaking me out at the moment with their actually making good games and doing a good job of Wii versions - what is going on? This must be some sort of force re-balancing so that the galaxy can cope with Activision's Guitar Hero malevolence.
I swear if Acty had their way, the only controller anyone would own is a nasty plastic guitar, and we would all traipse down to GAME every Friday to buy the latest Guitar Hero. This week - Guitar Hero: Vagrant Busk, featuring 23 versions of Stairway to Heaven, 11 of which recorded by actual vagrants outside their favourite offy.
Hmm, initial impressions are that this is a bit arse/average, depending on your point of view.
MotionPlus - very nice, speed seems to be measured far more accurately, and response feels immediate. Disc Golf is the real show case for this though, and very impressive it is too.
Presentation - yeah, very slick, not quite Mario Golf or Minna no Golf territory, but then it is trying to be a little more golf serious.
Visual style - looks Wii specific to me, no nasty re-used PS2 effects that I could see, Tiger model and player customisation all present and correct, nothing earth shattering there.
Content - dull/complete career mode, lots of courses, again its fine. Disc Golf raises the bar.
Gameplay - just not sure. It feels like a lot of polish has been layered upon a very workman-like control mechanic, and it falls a little flat. For the most part realism is the defining decision maker on game design choices, which leads to generally poor visual feedback, primarily on back-swing length and shot strength. I think if I was coming to this unencumbered by other video game golfing I might be happier, but it doesn't really account for someone used to more arcade-ish golf games.
I'm never entirely clear which has greater effect, swing length or speed, and the wrist twisting is far too sensitive to get a good feel for easily. There seems to be a great big 'how your swing affects the game' tutorial missing that, without erasing all the video game golf experience I've already accumulated, is hard to do without. The simulation feels to be at around 50%, but without more feedback I can't tell which 50% I should be worrying about.
It might fall into place with experience, but that is asking for a lot without better visual feedback and guidance from the game itself. Overall: frustrating/10.
Indeed, the pretext to my genius is that I use to live within a 9 iron of a pitch and putt course so I have a natural affinity to head speed and impact gummage. I was useless in the real world mind you, completely terrible... but I could get round... eventually.
Its a bit like playing a violin, something I am sure everyone can relate too, once you've learned, practiced and understood the required action, its just a question of application and further practice.
Now I've not wondered into the career mode, and the advertised tune your swing is merely a screen in which you can practice swing until your shoulders drop off... and play with power vs accuracy with some awesome tron type light cycles trails to understand where the ball is going.
I suppose it is missing a, how to swing a golf stick thing... its the most simulationy golf game I have ever played, and could, you would imagine be more of a complete swine with the swing interpretation, there is definitly some hand holding, there would have to be, otherwise you'd need an actual ball to hit to get any more precise.