John Daly's Pro Stroke Golf Hands-On

Tiger Woods isn't the only golfer with a PlayStation 3 Move game coming later this year. Two-time major winner John Daly now has that claim to fame, thanks to the upcoming John Daly's Pro Stroke Golf for the PlayStation 3 later this year. Earlier today, we had a chance to check out the game. What did we learn? That our pervasive real-life slice carries over pretty well inside a video game.

Here's how it works: Holding the Move controller straight down as you would a traditional golf club, you can initiate a practice swing by pressing the top button (which sits in the middle of the four traditional PlayStation controller buttons). While you can play Pro Stroke from a third-person camera, you can also play from a first-person view, featuring a top-down view of the ball and your club. From here, you can swing the virtual club as many times as you like without worrying about shanking the ball in any direction. Onscreen footprints will give you an idea of how your foot positioning is during your swing (presumably based on the arc of your swing with the Move controller), and you'll be able to position the ball up or back in your stance to change the flight of the ball upon contact.

Once you're feeling comfortable with your swing, you can press the top button once more, and you'll be ready to try a full swing (the plastic bulb at the tip of the Move controller will change from red to green). From there, the Move controller will register every aspect of your backswing and follow-through, from the angle your arm takes on the follow-through to the position of your wrists at the moment of contact with the ball. There's practically zero lag between how you move your hands and what appears onscreen before you make contact with the ball; once you swing, there's a slight delay as the game shifts from the top-down first-person view to the third-person camera showing the flight of the ball.

Pro Stroke isn't exactly like the real thing (the light weight of the Move controller doesn't compare to holding a real club in your hand), but the fidelity of the Move's sensors meant that our real-life swing flaws were letting themselves be known when we took to the virtual course--namely, a wicked slice that had us blasting the ball off the tee and into the trees on the right-hand side of a hole on a consistent basis.

We could cycle through the various clubs in our bag by pressing the X and square buttons and look at the distance of our shot with the triangle button. To aim our shot left or right we simply shifted the Move controller left or right. The aiming system wasn't perfect and would often reset to the suggested club even after we had chosen a different club for our shot, which is a clear sign that the game is still in development.

John Daly's Pro Stroke Golf will of course feature John Daly, complete with his trademark bombed drives off the tee and his outlandish clothing. You'll be able to customize your created golfer in Daly's colorful outfits. The game will also feature 16 courses to play, including real-life tracks like The Belfy, The Shire, Dale Hill, and Mystic Rock, among others. The game will include online play for up to four players, as well as career, tournament, and practice modes. Look for more on John Daly's Pro Stroke Golf coming soon.