Common Sense Media Review
By Chad Sapieha
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Free golf sim offers upgrades, improved access via payments.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 13+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Play
Videos and Photos
Tiger Woods PGA Tour Online
Parent and Kid Reviews
What's It About?
TIGER WOODS PGA TOUR ONLINE, a free web-based golf simulator, looks and feels vaguely like the online modes of boxed Tiger Woods games available for consoles and computers. Players start by creating an avatar, then head online to play a variety of courses and tournaments. Along the way they’ll complete challenges for each course (such as sinking a putt of a certain length) and earn both virtual cash and experience points. The former can be used in the swing trainer to improve your character’s power, touch, and recovery abilities, while the latter affects your online rank. At the time of this writing, one course was free to play each day, with others costing between $1.00 and $1.50 to play. Similarly, some of the tournaments were free and some required paid entry. Clothing and equipment upgrades in the pro shop, some of which offer limited time performance enhancements, could be purchased with virtual cash won through playing or real cash. Monthly and annual memberships that provide unlimited access to tournaments and courses exist as well.
Is It Any Good?
As free online golf games go, Tiger Woods PGA Tour Online isn’t too shabby. It uses a 3D graphics engine to create beautiful golf environments complete with dynamic cameras and visual aids that show the ball paths of other players. It also offers a surprisingly deep, role-playing game-like system for upgrading your golfer, and provides a wealth of courses to play and daily and weekly tournaments to enter.
What’s more, it’s conceivable that many players could be satisfied with the free experience. You can build up a powerful golfer simply by earning virtual cash while playing and then spending it in the swing trainer. It’s possible to purchase equipment upgrades that provide a shortcut to performance improvements, but they are by no means mandatory to score well. The only thing that might leech away a few of your dollars is the urge to play courses or tournaments other than those that are free each day. However, the free course changes regularly. Assuming you don’t feel the need to play a dozen rounds a day, it ought not to become too repetitive.
Online interaction: Players can chat in a text window with other players and see their balls flying and rolling around the course. The chat system is open to the public. A filtering system is in place to weed out offensive words, but it won’t stop the sharing of personal information. Common Sense Media does not recommend open online play for children under 12 years of age.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about whether the so-called “velvet rope” system in place in this game makes it worthwhile to spend money (the game offers you a velvet rope = free play, but then pulls you into spending by offering tempting upgrades that cost real money). Are the enhancements, which typically last only a set number of rounds, worth it? Did you feel the need to play courses and tournaments to which you didn’t have free access?
Families can also discuss whether there is any meaningful difference between open text and open voice chat. Do you feel that one is safer than the other? Is one easier to monitor and/or moderate?
Game Details
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