Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09 Preview

When Nintendo announced its Wii MotionPlus add-on for the Wii Remote at E3, and then we got to play Wii Sports Resort using it hours later, we couldn't help but imagine the best Star Wars game ever made. But, after we got back from sunny LA and took a trip to EA's UK HQ for some hands on with its upcoming sports titles, heady thoughts of real time lightsabers melted away in favour of golf swings and putting. We're talking, or course, about the Tiger Woods PGA Tour series and how the new MotionPlus add-on will revolutionise golf games. We tracked down associate producer Greg Rinaldi, EA Tiburon, to find out why he thinks Microsoft will follow suit, his thoughts on an EA console what a gyroscope means for your virtual golf swing.

VideoGamer.com: In the past PS3 owners have felt that they've got the short end of the stick when it comes to EA sports games. How does Tiger 09 compare on PS3 to the 360 this year?

Greg Rinaldi: There's no difference this year. We took great pains to really work on PS3 and work with Sony. Visually, I've seen the two side by side and I couldn't tell the difference. I know there were some issues last year on some of the titles, frame rates being different, but that's not the case with Tiger Woods. Tiger has always been consistent on both platforms. It's especially important with stuff like GamerNet, you know where we're exploiting the power of the PlayStation Network, allowing users to be constantly online, constantly able to connect to GamerNet and their friends. I think, European gamers especially, will appreciate that. The fact that we've taken the time and really looked at PlayStation and 360.

VideoGamer.com: Why do you think there has been this problem in the past? I was speaking to David Rutter and he said it's down to the fact that developers got hold of Xbox 360 before PS3.

GR: That's the case, I think, with all of the developers. I know at Tiburon, we developed Madden 06 on 360 and it gave us a lot. The fact that Microsoft was first gave us a lot of insight into the hardware. We kind of hit the ground running on that. When the PS3 came out, for the first iteration of the titles that we were doing on PS3, I think we had a lot going on at the time. We still had to ship a 360 title and we had to get up to speed on the hardware for PS3. I think it's taken us a cycle or two, but at this point we're really at the same level on both and that's what people need to see. I'd recommend picking up a Wii if you're going to get two consoles. Pick up a PS3 or a 360 and then get a Wii. I think the Wii is a great platform.

VideoGamer.com: You guys are talking about the 1:1 motion on the swing in Tiger Woods 09 on Wii. Were you aware of Nintendo's MotionPlus before it was announced at E3?

GR: No, we wish we were. It's interesting. I'm a big fan of Nintendo. I have a lot of respect for those guys. I think they've done amazing things for the industry. If it wasn't for Nintendo there would be no games industry. So I think the fact that they were able to take a risk that they took on something like the Wii was huge. They showed they weren't willing to go with the flow. They showed that they were going to go in their own direction, and a lot of people doubted them, but they kinda... I think they prevailed in the end. Microsoft and Sony are holding their own, but Nintendo is showing, hey look, we're still in the game, and we're still the ones that are going to...

VideoGamer.com: Well, they're winning.

GR: They are winning in a sense. I know in Europe I think they're doing a lot better now. About the controller, I think the hardware now is a good balance. I think with Wii MotionPlus, I think what that's going to allow us to do... with what we have now all that's driving the motion is an accelerometer. From that we can get speed. We can't get 3D positional data. That's something that's really important for a golf swing. Right now the swing is really based mainly on speed. Twisting the controller in 3D space, we can read some of that, but it's a lot of software trickery for us to do that. We spent a lot of time on that because it's not in the hardware. The current hardware is focused mainly on velocity and speed. So what the MotionPlus does is actually allow you to get that 3D positional data. Adding that to something like Tiger next year, which is something we're 100% on board with, we're hoping that people get the add-on, because it allows us to get as close to a realistic golf swing as possible on commercial hardware like this. I think we've done a lot with it this year. I think we've done a lot with being able to read exactly how fast you're swinging the controller. What we can't get is where you are in three dimensions of space, but that's what the MotionPlus is going to do. It actually has a gyroscope in it, which is what they use in helicopters for positional information to figure out where the helicopter is oriented. So something as advanced as that in the Wii Remote is going to be huge for us.

It's coming out after Tiger. I don't know if Nintendo has given a ship date on it, but we haven't been able to get our hands on the hardware anyway, so we haven't been able to start development on it.