If you’re any kind of golf fan, you’ll know that Tiger Woods has been in a steep decline since his marital problems hit the headlines. Previously the winner of an incredible 14 majors titles between 1997 and 2008 – Tiger hasn’t won one since.
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Woods (pictured left) has been a staple of PGA Tour games, although that chapter is now drawing to a close.
Perhaps the market is the best place to look to map the greatest golfer of the modern era’s fall from greatness. The golf betting market with the gambling exchange Betfair for the next Major, the Masters next April, has Rory McIlroy installed as firm favourite at around 9/2 at the time of writing. McIlroy is of course, the latest version of Tiger Woods having won two of the four possible majors during 2014. Tiger himself, meanwhile, is still second favourite to win, but his odds are as high as 12-1. And what the market already knows so does the next generation of golf gamers out there.
And 14 is a special number for gamers because it seems the excellent Tiger Woods PGA Tour series is drawing to its close with, you’ve guessed it, number 14; Tiger Woods PGA Tour 14. This was announced to disappointed golf gamer fans all around the world last October. It’s very much a sign of the times.
Tiger’s agent Mark Steinberg said at the time the end of the relationship was announced that he was in negotiations with a different company over the golfer’s video gaming rights – whilst publisher Electronic Arts (EA) said it would still use “PGA Tour” on the game.
In their official version of events, EA stated that Tiger’s highly publicised extra-marital affairs didn’t cause the end of the deal – but they’d still had him sharing the game cover in more recent versions with a number of golfers including the afore-mentioned young pretender to the throne, Rory McIlroy, along with young US hopeful Rickie Fowler and the legendary star of yesteryear, Arnold Palmer.
So who’ll be the new face or faces of the newer versions remains to be seen – but until we see that, let’s just remind ourselves exactly what’s hot and what’s not about Tiger Woods PGA Tour 14…
Developed at EA Tiburon, Electronic Arts first published the latest version 14 of the game for PS3 and Xbox 360 in March 2013.
What marks the whole series out as different from most other major sports series is that each version feels quite different from the last – and 14 is no different. This has both good and bad points, though, as there are features you like that get dropped from newer versions – and vice-versa. For 14, only a few relatively small features were given the boot – whilst a whole host of new material was included. In particular, version 14 goes right back into golf history in a way that fans of the real game love. This also helps explain the presence of Arnold Palmer on the cover.
Crucially, the realistic shot-shaping feature introduced for the 13 version remains. To angle your shot effectively, you need to physically angle your golf swing via the control sticks, which get it a whole lot closer to the real thing. This has become a “love it or hate it” kind of thing.
The historical aspect that told the story of Tiger Woods’ development for 13 is back again – but this time considers the wider world of golf history. It features eight “Legends of the Masters” going right back to the 1930s. In this mode, you follow golf’s chronological history from that time. You need to complete each challenge (via stuff like avoiding bunkers in high winds, dropping match-winning long putts etc.) and in the process, you get to unlock great golfers from the past including Arnold Palmer, Sam Snead, Gary Player and the great Jack Nicklaus.
These golf challenges are very well-paced and suitably challenging. Your player simply has to become a skilled golfer in the end. Beating the legends of the game as your own skill level increases is hugely satisfying and the graphics depicting the time are excellent.
Meanwhile, a new feature sees “Quick Tournaments” available for all four majors. This feature enables you to jump straight into a Major without having to play minor tournaments to qualify.
Overall, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 14 is highly popular with older fans of the real game for obvious reasons – and slightly less so with the youngsters for whom it’s all about golf today. It’s very good technically and very streamlined – and this will surely be put to good use in future versions by EA – though not with Mr Woods of course!
But perhaps Tiger Woods himself isn’t really “today” anymore – hence the end of an era with EA which has been ridiculously successful – and deservedly so. The series took golf gaming to a whole new level; most of us bought at least a couple of versions and this did nothing to harm the immense wealth of Tiger – so no complaints on either side of the fence.
by Doug Kline
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