ProStroke Golf: World Tour 2007 – PSP – Review

I’ve said this time and time
again, the only sport video game that I enjoy are golf games. I love to golf
in real life, but even playing 9 holes can take a few hours. All other sports
that I am interested in, I would just rather go play them in real life.
Basketball, baseball, racquetball and so on, but golf for me, has always
translated very well to the digital medium and what normally takes four hours
to play an 18-hole course in real life, takes about 45 minutes in a game. So
for that reason I am usually down for reviewing a golf game and in this
reviewers humble opinion, Hot Shots Golf Open Tee is still the best PSP
golfing game available.

Not that others don’t have other
interesting features that warrant a second look. And with that, the folks at
Oxygen Elite have released ProStroke Golf on the PSP, where it was played
before on the original Xbox, PC and PS2, only this time some subtle changes.
For one, the elimination of the first-person perspective when lining up a
drive or shot is a welcomed one, ProStroke on the Xbox (I reviewed it) was a
little to muddled in its controls with too much emphasis on foot positioning
and nuances of your stroke. In the PSP version, the foot positioning is still
there, but seemed to me that it did not make as large an impact to the overall
effectiveness of your shot. It is always something you want to consider when
playing on slopes and rougher terrain, but for the most part, the default foot
positioning seems to get the job done. But then it begs the question, why have
all these options for play if it doesn’t effect the game significantly? Well
the answer is it does and it doesn’t. You can get away with merely going
through the motions and doing alright, it’s when you really start tweaking
with things that you will find your score getting lower. I guess you could say
this golf game is as much as you want it to be.

"If a train traveling west at 70 mph
leaves Bangladesh at 3:42am,
how much does a bag of flour cost in Soldotna, Alaska?"

Now ProStroke doesn’t look as bad
as other PSP titles, the game has large courses and you can take a quick
bird’s eye view of your projected shot to get a lay of the land. An ample
amount of design went into the courses to make sure you know that it isn’t the
same thing over and over. I had a hard time with how quick the fairways could
be and how the greens felt like they were green-colored ice. The trees that
line the courses look pretty cool, but in all honesty there was nothing that
blew me away in terms of eye candy. This is pretty much a port of what
amounted to be an average title on the other consoles. I know, that may be
mean for me to say, but think of it this way, ProStroke Golf is a great
alternative for those golf players who would like to try something else other
then Hot Shots or Tiger Woods. If anything, I could not stand the constant
mini cutscenes that happened after each shot. For example, if you hit the
ball, the game switches to you walking to your ball, afterwards it switches to
you kneeling down behind your ball as if to line up the shot. Then it finally
comes back to you

The audio is more of the same, the
developers had real pro golf commentators come in and so some voice over work.
International voices like Ian Baker-Finch, Alan Green and Sam Torrance,
provide some gravitas to the gaming experience, but every once in a while it
seems like either the comment doesn’t quite fit with the shot that was just
made, or that the comment is missing that certain realism one comes to expect.
The thwack of the ball and the clapping of the people are somewhat reserved,
but this is the dignified sport of kings, so some reservation is almost
expected.

"Where’s the flag?"

Since this is a rival game to the
popular Tiger Woods franchise, the developers had to go with some other pro
golfers. Justin Rose, Ben Curtis and Mark O’ Meara. The big name is Sergio
Garcia though, as some of the other names are unrecognizable to the casual
player. Essentially you create a profile using the pre-made selections for
hat, shirt, body type, colors, you know, all the normal stuff. Playing against
these "Pro" golfers is what you do as you try and fill your schedule by either
playing in tournaments, accepting challenges from other golfers or creating
challenges yourself. Invitations will arrive asking you to play in events that
match your current ability, it’s up to you to determine whether or not you
will partake in the event. Doing so though is the only way to increase your
standings and your winnings (cash).

The game features multiplayer via
ad-hoc only, there appears to be no online capabilities but up to four players
can play this title in the same match. No other copy of the game was received
so the multiplayer portion was not tested.

Interestingly enough, there is a
course creator that allows you to make your own courses for later play. It’s
good to have a lot of memory on your memory stick as  you can put as much or
as little into designing the courses. It doesn’t take too long to be up and
playing on your own course, but like anything, a decent amount of effort needs
to be put forth if you want to make the most enjoyable course. And to be
honest, this provided me with some real enjoyment.

Gameplay: 6.5
I wasn’t too impressed with how
the game provides so many options that would effect the ball, but if you just
chose to ignore them the defaults are enough to get you by. I wished there was
a greater difference in the tweaking of your shot as opposed to just walking
up to the ball and hitting it. A percentage meter is always there telling you
how far on the power meter you should hit the ball.

Graphics: 6.7
Not too bad, but I found myself
looking at other titles and thinking how much cleaner and nicer the graphics
were.

Sound: 5.5
The commentators were clearly
"Phoning it in" on some of the dialogue. Sometimes the phrase wouldn’t quite
fit the situation.

Difficulty: Medium
Chances are you will get some challenge out of this title if golf is
your game of choice. Sometimes things can get pretty dicey when you start
accepting invitations to those elite tournaments. Don’t be surprised if you
get a couple of birdies the first time you play.

Concept: 7.0
I like the thought of another golf
franchise, and the developers are on to something when it comes to tweaking
your shots, foot placement and such, I think things will shape up a bit better
the next installment.

Overall: 6.2
Like I said before, there is room
for another golf franchise, and with some of the things this game is leaning
towards I think we may be on the verge of a real quality franchise, it’s just
not here quite yet. Here’s hoping I’m right.