So, Tiger Woods video game sales have been slacking off as of late, the highly public spat between him and his wife (and a whole lotta others) hardly keeping the image of the name clean. However, maybe fans of this series are flat out tired of being taken advantage of, Tiger 12 so overloaded with downloadable content, you cannot even play the entire career mode without it.
“What?” you say, “That’s impossible. Even EA isn’t that bold.” Ah, but they are my friend, as specific challenges in the career mode are simply unplayable unless you’re willing to fork over the cash. Now, you don’t need to buy all 18 courses, and you can skip right over those events in question. I mean, there are only 16 on the disc so none of those could be substituted… Oh, and on a side note, buying all of the DLC courses individually would actually cost more than the game disc itself (although, in respect to fairness, you can buy them in two bundles for 4000 MS Points total).
But poor, poor EA. They have fork over money for online servers, many seemingly forgetting that was a decision they made themselves back in the early of days of Xbox Live after loads of whining. All of that cost is now being forced onto you oh grand consumer. EA’s selling power and your overwhelming purchasing power now means you can buy an online pass, every single item in the pro shop, and a fully powered up golfer with actual, real money. Of course, none of that is actually new, and also to EA’s minimal credit, they have dropped the non-stop bombardment of menu ads. At least some things change for the better.
Apparently, they’re making that funding gap up elsewhere, because $60 for a product, one updated yearly mind you, just isn’t enough… and you don’t even get a manual anymore. That’s ’cause they’re going “green,” as in sleeping on additional piles of “green” they save by not printing them.
Of course, you could hop on over to the PlayStation 3 version which contains a slew of those 18 DLC courses on the disc (but not all), probably a way for EA to prove it’s a space issue, when in reality you can put two discs in the box or (*gasp*) offer those courses as free downloads to 360 users.
That’s asking too much these days as we slowly near a DLC apocalypse, and who knows, maybe we’re in the midst of it already. In the case of the upcoming Mortal Kombat reboot, DLC characters are being hyped before the game is even released. Surely that month prior to release wouldn’t allow for their inclusion on the disc, right? Then again, maybe they’re pulling a Capcom and simply shoving out supposed unlock keys online for a few bucks so you can see Ken don a cowboy outfit in Street Fighter IV. That’s gaming in 2011. Isn’t it grand?
