‘Tiger Woods’ game gets adrenaline pumping
Here's how things go when I play my most addictive game so far in 2009, "Tiger Woods PGA Tour '10."
My ball is teed up. The game shows me a flyover of the rolling fairway and runaway greens. I can see the hungry sand bunkers, the overhanging trees that want to grab my ball, and the thirsty ponds. I see how hard the wind is blowing, and in which direction. The wind can really cause trouble.
My heart races in the tee box. I pull back my Xbox 360 thumbstick (that's my backswing), then push the thumbstick forward (the swing). If I don't pull off this swing exactly right, I'll end up in the sand, the trees, the rough, the water -- somewhere not good.
This exercise of nerves and prowess occurs in every shot -- the hard drive, the loopy iron, the wedge save, the killer putt.
Sometimes, when I go through this emotionally fulfilling yet wrenching process, I forget to breathe, and just after I strike the ball, I realize I need to gulp in air or spew out air.
This is what the best video games are all about: adrenaline and precision.
It's remarkable that I still get this eager feeling with every swing, even though I've been playing "Tiger Woods" games for years. It's not like I'm a newbie enraptured for the first time by the series' beauty, intuitive feel and exhilaration.
No, this game is just so good, so near perfect, it sucks me in. I have found myself, at 4 a.m., forcing myself to stop golfing so I can get four hours of sleep. In bed, I think of how I'll golf the next night.
I should mention "PGA Tour '10" ditches previous problems with the putting system in 2008's "Tiger '09." The putting now is back to awesomeness.
You can play as Tiger or other pro golfers. That's fine. But it's way more fun to start a character from scratch, dress him or her up however you like, then start your career in the PGA as a journeyman.
After a few rounds of good golfing, you can then buy supernatural attributes -- or boost those supernatural abilities through practice shots -- to make your golfer drive farther, pitch more accurately, and putt like a master.
You can play online tournaments daily and weekly, although you better be stellar. In my last online 18-hole game, I shot a dismal 14-under par, and came in a lousy 249th place for the day, way behind Hebbsy69, who shot a 25-under par.
But you don't have to be the best gamer or golfer to enjoy "PGA Tour '10." You just have to be ready for the rush, the joy, the disappointment, the excitement, the anger, the anticipation; just like golf in real life, but better.
("Tiger Woods PGA Tour '10" by EA retails for $60 for Xbox 360 and PS 3; $50 for Wii; $40 for PSP; $30 for PS 2 -- Plays very addictively fun. Looks terrific. Challenging. Rated "E." Four stars out of four.)
Contact Doug Elfman at 702-383-0391 or e-mail him at delfman@reviewjournal.com. He also blogs at reviewjournal.com/elfman.
NEW IN STORES
Here's a game, "Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood," in which you handle rifles, shotguns, dynamite and pistols from 1864, and if that's not varied enough for you, well then you can throw knives into people's backs as they run from you.
"Bound in Blood," a prequel to a Bible-toting six shooter, picks up on the Old West motif that's getting more and more popular in games. The setting starts with the Civil War era of burned-down Atlanta. But the look of the game is pure Western, with stagecoaches, little shantytowns of wooden saloons, and lots of horses and dust.
The protagonists are a couple of brothers on the hunt for riches. Like most Westerns, the bad guys hide behind barrels and windowsills and such. You must shoot many, many bad guys, often while riding. But this is not a big "sandbox" game, so it's not a totally open world for you to explore.
The game retails for $60 for Xbox 360 and PS 3; $50 for PC. It's rated "M" for blood, strong language, suggestive themes and violence.
"BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger" is a flat-looking "2-D" fighting game from Japan that looks like it should appeal to fans of that particular genre.
You play as one of any of a host of anime fighters. Some look slight. Some look like Transformer machines. They all look very Japanese artistically, with that anime hair on guys that shoots straight up, and those anime girls with size 10 waists and large chests exposed in bras.
But, of course, it's all about the game play, right? It moves fairly quickly, and comes with the usual assortment of special swords, magical powers to hurt rivals, and sometimes guns or music notes.
The game retails for $60 for Xbox 360 and PS 3. It's rated "T" for animated blood, language, partial nudity, suggestive themes and violence.
"The Bigs 2" tries to give you all kinds of baseball games in one.
You can play a regular season for a team.
Or you can play a Legend mode, where you start as a legendary player, and work him up the system from minor leagues back up through the majors.
Or you can play a version, including a multiplayer mode, where you just crank up your pitching and hitting to intense power.
The oddity, which is likely to thrill some gamers, is this: When you're pitching, the game will show you where the hitter's sweet spot is. If you pitch in that sweet spot and get a strike, you gain lots of pitching power. If hitters get their bats on your pitches in that sweet spot, you lose more pitching power than usual in a game. You may even lose the ability to throw that pitch, say a fastball, again for several innings.
The Tuesday release retails for $60 for PS 3 and Xbox 360; $50 for Wii; $30 for PSP; $20 for PS 2. It's rated "E 10+" for mild language and mild violence.
-- By DOUG ELFMAN
