Tiger Woods PGA Tour 13 Game Preview

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 13's release is almost here. As Tiger tries to regain his dominant form in real life, the virtual Tiger has remained the king of video game golf. 

This year EA Sports has a few new tricks in the bag to extend the success of one of its longest-running sports gaming franchises.

Here is the pre-release skinny:

Release Date:

March 27 or March 24 for EA Season Pass owners

Features:

Xbox 360 Kinect Integration—This is the first time a straight sports simulation has had full Kinect support.

Become a Masters Champion—Not much different than the inclusion of Augusta National from last year. It was the first time the historic venue had been included in the series.

14 Additional Championship Courses—New courses are always awesome. This year's crop will include St. Andrews Links, Pebble Beach Golf Links, TPC Sawgrass and many more.

Experience Tiger's Legacy—Mostly just the good parts. This is sort of a career mode where the gamer plays as Tiger throughout his legendary career.

It's a decent concept to explore and one of the first I'll check out on Season Pass.

Online Country Clubs—This is a huge addition to the franchise. This allows gamers to link up online after building their own club with customized specifications.

Tempo Swing Mechanics—A new meter system has been implemented to place emphasis on repeating a successful swing motion.

Demo Gameplay

As usual, Tiger Woods 13 plays very smooth in the demo, and I expect the retail version to play even smoother. The Tempo Swing Mechanics (TSM) system is a little more challenging, but for me that is a good thing.

It's golf. It's supposed to be challenging.

That said, I didn't find it so difficult that it became discouraging. There are always variable skill levels to tweak to find your comfort zone.

Difficulty level rises most in the short game. For veteran Tiger Woods gamers, it'll take a period of adjustment. Once you get used to it, it actually becomes an asset. The game offers a lot more control over every swing. I started to notice in my third spin of the demo.

In a sport like golf, where the rosters don't flip annually like other sports, game-play variations are very important. This is why TSM and Online Country Clubs are so important to the success of the game. The variety has to be there to encourage purchasing of the newest version each year.

Kinect Controls

Golf is the perfect sport to implement full Kinect controls. It's singular in regard to player and game interaction, and it requires the least amount of foot movement.

The Kinect sensors should be able to duplicate a golf swing motion as accurate as any other sports related motion.

The success of this mode will ultimately dictate how memorable this entry in the Tiger Woods series will be.

Demo is available now on XBOX LIVE and PSN.