Gameplay
At the outset, it appears that John Daly’s ProStroke Golf is like any other golf simulator
available. You get 12 courses total from around the globe with six needing to be unlocked. Places like La Gomera, Harpers Lake, and Edwards National are among the available choices. There are several modes to choose from including a quick play option for those that want to jump right in and swing away, a career mode, tutorials, online multiplayer, and an extras feature that doubles as the games options section. Quick play offers local play for up to four human or computer controlled players with the ability to share the same Move controller locally, making four player parties easy to pick up.
Most of your time will be spent in the career mode which offers challenges, tournaments
and a profile section. Initially you’ll do plenty of challenges in order to unlock more courses and tournament options. You complete in events like putting, driving distance, and hazard manipulation as you aim for best score or best distance. With over 100 challenges, you’ll be at it for a while. From there, tournaments open up with much stronger AI competition. Here you’ll actually play through the courses against pro players like Daly himself. This is the most rewarding portion of the game and is the reason you’ll keep playing.
Players can take a default character or customize the look and feel with several facial options along with different haircuts, shirts, gloves, pants and shoes. Characters can also be named and given a left or right handed play style. You’ll use this character for every mode the game offers including local and online multiplayer. From the same menu, you’re able to view your online and offline stats or restart from scratch with your created character. Once you learn the basics, you’ll want to restart your career. Your score card will look atrocious until you learn how to hit the ball properly.
Unlike Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11, Daly comes complete with full Playstation Move support right out of the box. This is easily the best part of the game and the real reason to pick this one up. Players can choose to use the standard PS3 control but why bother? The Playstation Move option is the closest thing I’ve played to real golf on any console. Players can grab the Move controller like a real club with the orb guiding your shot and, as the box claims, “grip it and rip it.” The move controller is so responsive it even caught the slight turning of my wrists with every stroke I took. I quickly learned how to perfect my stroke in order to continue unlocking courses.
Upon first firing up the game and using the Move controls, I was worried that the realism
present here would make it hard to make it anywhere, but the addition of different setting
swing skill levels really helps. For me, I had to choose the green level for some time before I decided to advance. Each level above the amateur one forces you to perform without the assistance of the computer in getting a better shot rating. Regardless, there is no way to spin the ball or perform a super shot here. It’s just golf and it’s great because of it.
Despite its release in proximity to the Playstation Move launch as well as the holidays, I couldn’t find a strong online community for this game. Rarely did I find anyone online to play with and when I did, they usually dropped out after a few holes. As a matter of fact, I was unable to play through an entire tournament online with anyone. I hope that the addition of upcoming Christmas sales improves the chances of finding other players online.
Graphics/Video
Although the core gameplay behind John Daly’s ProStroke Golf is top notch, the graphics are more of a mixed bag. The courses look superb and appear to be a faithful representation of their actual counterparts with great looking grass and sand. On the other hand, the water hazards effects and the character models look very poor compared to the models EA’s game offers. I could hardly guess that it was John Daly who was swinging away without the game telling me so. His in-game representation looks more like a blonde Ken doll than the real deal. They’re still functional, just not pretty.
Audio/Sound Effects
The games soundtrack doesn’t offer a whole lot in the way of music. The menus offer
some upbeat drum beats and base lines, but during play, you’ll primarily hear sound effects associated with a real golf course. With that said, normally golf courses are pretty quiet affairs. You’ll hear the claps on a good shot and boos or Daly making fun of you on the bad ones. His voice work is spot on, but other than that, there’s not much else present.
Overall
With the addition of the Playstation Move controls, John Daly’s ProStroke Golf offers the most realistic golfing experience on any console to date. Golf fans shouldn’t pass this one up. For everyone else, it’s worth a rental to try out the Playstation Move’s capabilities.
ComicsOnline gives John Daly’s ProStroke Golf on PS3 3 out of 5 sand traps.
Buy your copy on Amazon today!
Keep it here at ComicsOnline for more video game reviews and Everything Geek Pop Culture.
