We have all been affected by the ongoing global pandemic, be it in the form of health issues, economic hardships, increased stress levels, and a general disruption to our everyday lives. This has been a time of reflection, adjustment, and finding ways to pass the time until life gets back to "normal".
One way I have done this is by heading into storage and finding games of old, revisiting popular titles from my catalog and seeing what these retro entries still offer to the gamer of today. After recently purchasing The Golf Club 2019, and seeing the bare bones Career Mode offered in that game, I thought that a decade-old title couldn't possibly have a better single-player mode, right?...
The first game I revisited was Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12 on Xbox 360, the first in that series to feature Augusta National Golf Club and The Masters. Upon firing the game up for the first time in a long time, I was reminded at how much care and attention EA put in to honoring the "tradition unlike any other". From the menu colors to the background images of Augusta, TW 12 is a love letter to the year's (typical) first major.
I then headed to the career mode in TW 12, aptly named "Road to The Masters". You started by playing hole No. 18 at Augusta with Tiger Woods, learning new controls and the brand new caddie system. You then are taken to where you create your player (amazingly, I still had an EA Sports Game Face loaded in the system and used that). Then it's to the amateur tours, Nationwide Tour, Q-School, and finally off to the PGA Tour. Along they way, you work to earn sponsorships from golf's biggest brands like TaylorMade, Callaway, and Nike. Each sponsor offers four levels of gear to unlock, and you do so by completing goals given by the sponsorship company (for example, a level 1 Cleveland Golf goal was to sink a 10-foot or longer putt with a Cleveland Golf putter).
The ultimate goal of the mode, of course, is to earn and invitation to, and win, The Masters. And you only get that rare invite by reaching a certain point in the in-game "EA Sports World Rankings" - I believe it's the Top 100. There is a way you can get an invite without grinding for a few seasons, and that's by completing a handful of Masters Moments; iconic events that took place throughout the tournament's history. These include mimicking the 1935 "shot heard 'round the world" by Gene Sarazen or Phil Mickelson's pine straw escape in 2010.
There are other things to do in Road to The Masters Mode as well, including the usual customization of your character's outfit and equipment, the upgrading of attributes to increase your virtual golfer's skills, the ability to fine tune the sweet spot of your clubs in the club tuner, and more. You could also adjust AI scoring levels, allowing you to tweak the scores posted by the rest of the field in tournaments to give you better competition on the links.
The only knock on the TW 12 career mode is that it includes DLC courses/events on the calendar that you can only play if you paid for the courses and downloaded them. If you don't have the course in your collection, you are forced to skip the event, causing you to actually lose ground in your quest to reach the World No. 1 ranking. I'd imagine this is where some of the real anger against EA and their DLC model started, as incorporating DLC into career mode, when announced, was seen as a huge plus. Then, when customers saw its implementation, they were frustrated - and with good reason.
Despite this quite frustrating drawback, Road to The Masters mode in TW 12 stands up to this day as one of the best single-player pro golf simulation experiences in gaming. Having The Masters and Augusta National made this entry into the TW series one of the most anticipated. And it delivered for the most part. The sponsorship system was well implemented, the levels of customization and fine-tuning in the game allowed you to create a golf universe exactly set to your preferences, and much more.
Having not played it for years, I forgot about a lot of what TW 12 offered, and was very pleasantly surprised when I dug into it. And seeing this level of depth is a nearly 10-year-old game made me shake my head at seeing what current sim golf games offer in terms of PGA Tour career modes.
The next game I'm going to look into is another in the Tiger Woods series, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 14 (big thanks to OnlookerDelay for sending me a copy of the Historic Masters Edition of the game!). I also have a copy of Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07 laying around for OG Xbox, and it seems that it's backwards compatible on the 360, so I may give that a go as well.
One way I have done this is by heading into storage and finding games of old, revisiting popular titles from my catalog and seeing what these retro entries still offer to the gamer of today. After recently purchasing The Golf Club 2019, and seeing the bare bones Career Mode offered in that game, I thought that a decade-old title couldn't possibly have a better single-player mode, right?...
The first game I revisited was Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12 on Xbox 360, the first in that series to feature Augusta National Golf Club and The Masters. Upon firing the game up for the first time in a long time, I was reminded at how much care and attention EA put in to honoring the "tradition unlike any other". From the menu colors to the background images of Augusta, TW 12 is a love letter to the year's (typical) first major.
I then headed to the career mode in TW 12, aptly named "Road to The Masters". You started by playing hole No. 18 at Augusta with Tiger Woods, learning new controls and the brand new caddie system. You then are taken to where you create your player (amazingly, I still had an EA Sports Game Face loaded in the system and used that). Then it's to the amateur tours, Nationwide Tour, Q-School, and finally off to the PGA Tour. Along they way, you work to earn sponsorships from golf's biggest brands like TaylorMade, Callaway, and Nike. Each sponsor offers four levels of gear to unlock, and you do so by completing goals given by the sponsorship company (for example, a level 1 Cleveland Golf goal was to sink a 10-foot or longer putt with a Cleveland Golf putter).
The ultimate goal of the mode, of course, is to earn and invitation to, and win, The Masters. And you only get that rare invite by reaching a certain point in the in-game "EA Sports World Rankings" - I believe it's the Top 100. There is a way you can get an invite without grinding for a few seasons, and that's by completing a handful of Masters Moments; iconic events that took place throughout the tournament's history. These include mimicking the 1935 "shot heard 'round the world" by Gene Sarazen or Phil Mickelson's pine straw escape in 2010.
There are other things to do in Road to The Masters Mode as well, including the usual customization of your character's outfit and equipment, the upgrading of attributes to increase your virtual golfer's skills, the ability to fine tune the sweet spot of your clubs in the club tuner, and more. You could also adjust AI scoring levels, allowing you to tweak the scores posted by the rest of the field in tournaments to give you better competition on the links.
The only knock on the TW 12 career mode is that it includes DLC courses/events on the calendar that you can only play if you paid for the courses and downloaded them. If you don't have the course in your collection, you are forced to skip the event, causing you to actually lose ground in your quest to reach the World No. 1 ranking. I'd imagine this is where some of the real anger against EA and their DLC model started, as incorporating DLC into career mode, when announced, was seen as a huge plus. Then, when customers saw its implementation, they were frustrated - and with good reason.
Despite this quite frustrating drawback, Road to The Masters mode in TW 12 stands up to this day as one of the best single-player pro golf simulation experiences in gaming. Having The Masters and Augusta National made this entry into the TW series one of the most anticipated. And it delivered for the most part. The sponsorship system was well implemented, the levels of customization and fine-tuning in the game allowed you to create a golf universe exactly set to your preferences, and much more.
Having not played it for years, I forgot about a lot of what TW 12 offered, and was very pleasantly surprised when I dug into it. And seeing this level of depth is a nearly 10-year-old game made me shake my head at seeing what current sim golf games offer in terms of PGA Tour career modes.
The next game I'm going to look into is another in the Tiger Woods series, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 14 (big thanks to OnlookerDelay for sending me a copy of the Historic Masters Edition of the game!). I also have a copy of Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07 laying around for OG Xbox, and it seems that it's backwards compatible on the 360, so I may give that a go as well.
I tried to overcome my aversion to follow-cam in the time I spent playing it before I sent the game to you... it's still there, but I'm glad I tried it again because it helps me to appreciate what you're saying here.
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