Tiger Woods PGA Tour Updated Hands-On

LAS VEGAS--EA Sports is supporting the forthcoming PlayStation Portable in a big way, with handheld versions of nearly every major franchise currently in development for the new machine. One of these is Tiger Woods PGA Tour, which we got to check out at a recent PSP event at the Consumer Electronics Show. After playing a couple of rounds and absorbing some new information on the design and features of the game, it looks like this will be the definitive portable golf game for some time to come.

With a game as established and immutable as golf, a developer needs to find creative ways to keep things interesting. EA is going to great lengths to make sure Tiger Woods takes full advantage of the PSP's unique and advanced feature set. Chief among these features is the system's wireless multiplayer capability, which the game will support with a variety of game modes that can be played by multiple people. Many of the game modes will allow one or more golfers to play for just a few minutes at a time, such as the "Bingo Bango Bongo" mode, which is a form of speed golf that has players literally golfing on the same hole at the same time, competing to be the first one on the green, the first to sink the ball, the one to achieve the longest drive, and so on. There are also less extreme head-to-head modes available, such as regular match play, skins, stroke, and long drive competitions.

The game will also offer single-system, multiplayer game types, since not everyone will have a PSP right after it comes out. The party play mode will have you passing the PSP to the next player when you finish your turn, and you'll find three game types available here: three-hole skins, a long drive shoot-out, and the playoff round, which drops you onto a single hole and eliminates the player with the worst standing at the end of each round until a winner has been determined.

While Tiger Woods on the PSP is being designed with the system's specific features in mind, EA wants the game to be familiar and playable for people who are used to playing the popular franchise on the big consoles. You'll find a fully featured legends tour mode, of course, along with per-character stat-tracking that will also be useful in comparing your skills to those of others in multiplayer play. Alongside the career mode, Tiger Woods will have a full character-customization system, including the vaunted Game Face system, (seen in the last couple of console versions of the series), which gives you a huge amount of control over the physical characteristics of your virtual golfer. The legends tour proceeds through three stages: Rookie, which has you playing against fictional opponents; pro, which pits you against modern greats like Tiger and Vijay Singh; and legends, which has you squaring off against the all-time greats of golf.

Tiger Woods on the PSP will offer legend challenges, which are specific golf scenarios that correspond to the strengths of the historical greats of the sport who are included in the game, like Gary Player, Arnold Palmer, and Jack Nicklaus. There will be six challenges in each category, with themes like power shots, recovery shots, accuracy, and short game. You'll be able to practice on the lesser scenarios to hone a particular skill, and then you'll move on to challenge the legend himself to successfully complete the entire category.

Mechanically, the game is easy to get a handle on, as we found out when we tried to come in under par on a couple of holes in a work-in-progress version. You can move the camera from the default behind-the-golfer view down toward the hole to aim your shot, and the game will suggest the best club to use to achieve the distance you want. Swinging is as easy as pulling back the analog stick and then quickly moving it forward; your onscreen golfer will mirror your movements, giving the swing a nice, tactile feel. And if you get stuck, you can pull up the handy Pocket Caddy window to receive advice about the particular hole you're on, view a map of the terrain, and check up on other useful data.

EA Sports is going to great lengths to make sure Tiger Woods on the PSP is as streamlined as possible for handheld gamers who don't have a lot of time to play. Thus, the game has been made more efficient in a lot of minor but still significant respects. For instance, when starting a quick-play game, all the options have been condensed into one menu screen that you can get through quickly so you can start playing. Another example is simultaneous multiplayer play, which will allow you and your opponents to play a hole at the same time in the interest of completing a game more quickly (though you can still opt to watch each other's shots, if you want). Finally, you'll be able to bypass the AI players' shots entirely when playing in single-player; the game will simply show you a marker indicating where your opponent's ball ended up before you take your next shot.

Tiger Woods PGA Tour is looking like the most complete package of handheld golf to date, thanks in equal part to the PSP's advanced features and EA Sports' effort to exploit them. Graphically, the game is looking solid, with a realistic 3D model of the famous golfer himself and fairly detailed courses. Amusingly, an EA rep told us the graphics had been reined in while the team was working purely on development systems, in the event that the PSP's screen couldn't display sufficient detail. Once the team got a hold of the final hardware, though, they felt confident enough to significantly bump up certain graphical elements, such as texture resolution. The developer has also implemented a few subtle effects to make the game more playable on the small screen, such as an optional trail on the ball, which makes it easier to see, and shading on raised and lowered areas of the terrain to make them more obvious.

Tiger Woods PGA Tour looks like it will pack in a ton of golfing content for the golf fan on the go. The game has 12 courses and 20 golfers in all. Tiger Woods is currently slated for a March 2005 release alongside the hardware itself, and we'll bring you more information before that time.