There is little doubt that darts as a pub game and sport used to be more popular than it is now, certainly as more pubs move away from their traditional role, the demise of the dart board was inevitable. That doesn’t mean that the game does not have a large fan base and what better way of celebrating your passion than to stand at the Oche with your PS3 for a few rounds.

PDC World Championship Darts: Pro Tour attempts to provide the gamer with the experience of playing with their friends, against giants of the game or to enter tournaments for greater glory. I say ‘attempts’ because it’s a tall order to make a game which by its very nature, the throwing of darts at a board, is extremely repetitive. To make up for this limitation, and it’s a big one, you would suppose that the game would distract the player away from the limitations of the game play with great visuals and competitive options.

Well the graphics are less than spectacular for a third generation machine; in fact both the menu system and the look of the game would not have been out of place on a PS2, at least the lack of graphic spectacle would have been more acceptable. The characters look suitably similar to their real like counterparts, including Phil Taylor, James Wade and Simon Whitlock to name just a few. To add to the atmosphere, commentary and hints are provided by Sid Waddell and John Gwynne, but honestly it took about tem minutes before I turned the sound off as it becomes repetitive and in some places curiously wrong.

The game does provide a number of game options. You can play on your own, engaging in individual matches or whole tournaments through a career mode, which includes the new Grand Slam of Darts, a new fixture for this year. You can play against real opponents on line, but this is only if you can find some as the on-line community is very small.

So does the game have anything going for it? Its strongest point is when it is played with the new Move; don’t get me started on the controller option of playing as this was next to useless, causing many hours of frustration. Learning from the Wii, the new slew of games for the Move are also intended to be quick to pick up, intuitive to use and fun to play, well as Meatloaf once said ‘two out of three aint bad’. Controlling the game with the Move feels more natural, even if the general level of control is poor, it’s better than using the controller, but not by much.

No doubt there are fans of the game who will want to put in the time and effort to master the controls, if only to beat the pants off their heroes, but ultimately the poor control and lacklustre presentation mean that it is unlikely to appeal to the casual gamer.

5

Charles Packer