World Tour Golf first look

With World Tour Golf, developer Gusto Games wants to create a game that real golfers would want to play - something they intend to do by taking a uniquely realistic approach to the game.

Eschewing the simple, arcade-style swinging of Tiger Woods PGA Tour and other similar series, World Tour enables players to control the power and trajectory of their shots directly. This system, called "Pro Stroke," allows players to set up their swing by making minute adjustments to their golfer's stance, the position of the ball and the angle of the club. Smacking the ball - or just taking practice swings - is then a matter of moving the analog stick like you would a club.

While it looks complicated, the developers say their system will appeal more to mainstream gamers - i.e. anyone who's used to doing all that stuff in real life. Whatever the case, it should give players much more shot control than the more traditional "stop a moving meter with a button press" approach used by other golf games.

Mikel Reparaz
After graduating from college in 2000 with a BA in journalism, I worked for five years as a copy editor, page designer and videogame-review columnist at a couple of mid-sized newspapers you've never heard of. My column eventually got me a freelancing gig with GMR magazine, which folded a few months later. I was hired on full-time by GamesRadar in late 2005, and have since been paid actual money to write silly articles about lovable blobs.