Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12: The Masters Demo Hits The Greens

Polish up your clubs, gather up your balls and prepare to yell fore! The latest instalment of the long-running Tiger Woods Golf franchise is on its way.

The Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 12: The Masters demo is now live for download on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. The Masters will include a playable version of the long awaited Augusta National Golf Club. The demo will provide players with the opportunity to jump into the “Play Now” game mode, and to play the deciding hole of the Championship – as you tee off on the Augusta National’s par-4 18th hole.

The game will feature all of the little elements required in order to recreate an authentic Masters Championship experience. This will include the iconic voice of long-time Masters commentator, Jim Nantz and regular series announcer David Feherty, who feature throughout the demo.  In the scenario set up in the game, Tiger Woods is looking for his fifth Masters title, and players will look to successfully conquer the final hole to clinch the championship.

Also playable in the demo, the “Road to the Masters” mode provides access to holes 1-5 at TPC San Antonio Oaks Course – another new course in the Tiger Woods PGA TOUR series. In a clever move, EA are making it possible so that players who pass the five holes in the demo will skip the EA SPORTS™ Amateur Tour that is mandatory in the full retail version of the game, which usually must be played before proceeding to the Nationwide Tour. Developers are looking into features like this more often in demos, trying harder to pull new gamers it with their first impressions of the game. Who wants to do all the hard work in a demo, only to have to do it all again in the full game? This is likely to become commonplace in game demos soon.

In total, 20 golfers will be playable and the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 release will feature 16 championship courses, whilst – in an unusual coup for Nintendo – the Wii edition will include 24 courses. The Masters and five additional courses will however be included in the Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 12 Collector’s Edition, which will be an exclusive on the PlayStation 3. The PlayStation 3 version also features Move support and a new view optimised for that control method – the first-person True View mode. So EA have tried to cram a lot of new features in this year after previous releases have been criticised for becoming stale and complacent. We shall see if these additions really make a difference.

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12 is due out for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii in North America on March 29 and worldwide on April 1. The PlayStation 3 version comes with support for the PlayStation Move controller.