John Daly's ProStroke Golf

8th September 2010 – Wellingborough, UK/… John Daly’s ProStroke Golf from O Games tees off on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Windows PC from 8th October 2010. The PlayStation 3 version of the game is the only golf game to have been developed for the PlayStation Move motion controller from the ground up, offering an unrivalled video game golf experience.

Gusto Games’ Derek Hartin, the designer behind John Daly’s ProStroke Golf, takes you behind-the-scenes on how the implementation of this new motion control technology will bring video gamers closer than ever to the real thing:

“A good swing is probably the single most important component in the entire game of golf. Professional golfers spend most of their lives trying to generate the perfect motion and the big challenge at Gusto Games over the course of developing John Daly’s ProStroke Golf has been to translate this key mechanic into something the end user can play with.

“That’s where PlayStation and the Move motion controller came in. But let’s start with a bit of background to the problem.

“Video games have always had a problem translating the swing, a fluid, analogue motion, into something a gamer can work with. Three-click systems create a disconnect between the player and their avatar; they’re never really taking the shot. In fact, all they’re doing is setting up what will happen BEFORE their golfer takes a swing. Using an analogue stick bridged a gap but it’s still nothing like actually swinging a club. Golf games have been crying out for a way of letting gamers actually feel like they’re swinging a club and Move has become that solution.

“From booming drives off the tee to delicate approach chips, Move has allowed us to see actual golf swings translated directly into the game. If your swing pulls to the right, that’s what will happen. If you don’t swing hard enough, you’ll drop short. The level of accuracy we can achieve just wouldn’t have been possible without the swing information we can pull from the Move. It allows a player to take direct control of the club and combining it with ProStroke view then puts them right into the game.

“ProStroke view is something that’s been around at Gusto since the original ProStroke Golf: World Tour 2007. Looking down the club is just the most natural thing in the world to anyone who’s played golf before. It’s where you can see the path of the club as it swings, connects and follows through. When we first got hold of the prototype for Move, it was almost as if it had been made with the ProStroke system in mind. The two concepts were just so compatible! Of course, then we actually had to pair the software to this new hardware. We’ve worked with multiple iterations of the peripheral since then, tweaking and refining the system to get the most out of it. We’re almost there!

“We’ve had plenty of positive feedback from the game’s outing to E3 2010. Gamers who picked it up loved the feeling of control it gave them and some of them even said it was the closest they’d come to feeling like they were actually swinging a club. High praise! Probably the biggest boost for us, however, was getting John himself to play with it. Having a professional golfer pick up your game and within moments being able to drive a ball 300 yards down the centre of the fairway, using the same type of motion he’d use on a real course, is pretty incredible.

“Who’d have thought that in the world of golf video games it’d be a tiny white ball that solved the swing problem?”

Derek Hartin – Designer | Gusto Games

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For more information on O Games, please visit www.og-international.net

Follow John Daly’s ProStroke Golf on:

www.twitter.com/JohnDalyPSGolf

www.facebook.com/JohnDalysProStrokeGolf

To arrange a game demo, enquire about interview opportunities with John Daly or Gusto Games, or request a review copy, contact Stu Taylor or Ramona De Souza on: ogames@lunchpr.com

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About O GamesTM

O GamesTM is a publisher of sports and lifestyle video gaming entertainment for all the major console platforms including the Nintendo DS, Nintendo Wii, Microsoft XBox 360, Sony PlayStation 3 and Sony PlayStation ^® Portable. We offer a broad range of sports, fun and sociable video game titles designed to capture the imagination of the emerging lifestyle gaming audiences. Our games are based on mainstream lifestyles and interests, with content featuring lifestyle interests, sports, music and well-known personalities.

About Gusto Games

Since the formation of Gusto Games in 2003, the company has gone from strength to strength by building on its original goals to deliver quality gaming titles on time, within budget and across all leading gaming platforms. Gusto Games originally brought Eidos’ hugely successful Championship Manager franchise to the console and PSP platforms with all selling through at retail in impressive numbers.

Gusto Games has become one of Europe’s most respected development studios and this fact was underlined in 2005 when, amongst others, the studio was nominated for the “Best New European Studio of the Year” at the Develop’s Industry Excellence Awards. Building on that success Gusto also featured within Intent Media’s ‘Develop 100’ in 2007.

Gusto has continued to evolve with the successful launch of the Global Play Golf simulator and skill-based game UTour golf that keeps the company at the forefront of the industry. Over the last 12 months, there has been a focus on developing family products such as the Nintendo Wii exclusive Ultimate I Spy, while also continuing its proven record of accomplishment in developing games within the sporting genre, with the recent chart topping success of Ashes Cricket 2009 for the Nintendo Wii.