PDC World Championship Darts 2008
Wide of the mark
A few years back when work was a bit of an off and on thing for me there was a television program that caught my attention when previously I had thought it impossible to do so. I am, of course, talking about the World Darts Championship. Darts for me is sometimes an amusing subject, not least because these beer guzzling, sometimes large chaps are considered to be athletes by some people; I'm not too sure they could win a race against Usain Bolt but they could probably win an arm-wrestle quite easily.
When you first load up the game you are greeted with the usual smattering of game modes that you would come to expect from any decent sports title. On offer we have: Exhibition, Tournament, Career, Party Games and Network. Of all the modes the one I personally found most amusing (despite it having to be played with two human players) was the Party Games mode, but more on that later. Next up you have to choose your player from a list of well known faces in the darting world, sorry to be a bit behind the times in this respect but I am pretty sure that all the 2008 competitors are here, especially as this game is an official product.
PDC Darts is a game that is true to its source material, playing the game in single player mode will have you battling your way through the ranks in order to hopefully reach the final and win the top prize. Getting used to how the darts are thrown can be a bit tricky. Moving the analogue stick allows you to aim a small reticule at your desired location whilst the left and right bumpers zoom out and in respectively. Once you are happy with your choice the next step is to hold the 'B' button whilst gently pulling back on the analogue stick and then pushing it forward once the power bar reaches a helpful 'sweet spot'. Skewing the analogue stick left or right during this motion can send your dart off in a random direction much like in golf games. However, sometimes you will feel as though you have taken a perfect 'swing' with the dart only to be made to take your shot again, very frustrating three times in a row. Really, the act of throwing your rocket should have been the most intuitive aspect of the game, but for me it felt like the clumsiest and least thought out aspect.
The pacing is pretty slow as once you have taken your turn you then have to watch the CPU take his shot. After much button hammering whilst watching their shots I was still unsuccessful in finding a way to skip their turns. Let's face it, watching darts on TV can be a little boring at times so being forced to watch a computerised player taking shots is a little annoying, especially if you turned on your PSP for a quick hit of Rockets.
Graphically the game isn't too bad, although to be fair there isn't exactly too much for it to deal with apart from your sweaty, darting superstars. The crowd is comprise of flat two-dimensional people, also quite amusingly when you see a shot from behind the crowd you will occasionally spot some disembodied arms waving franticly in the air with a cupped hand motion! Certainly made me chuckle. The crowd also emits a constant chatter whilst you play the game, just like on TV. No music accompanies your game though, which is probably just as well as the main title music grates after the third play-through. Thankfully all these noises can be turned up or down in the options menu, so I chose the latter.
To be honest there really isn't much more to say on how the game actually plays. Its darts! It is slow, repetitive and frustrating. The only plus side to the game is the Party Games mode, although as I said earlier you'll need two human opponents. I think that this time I wouldn't have minded watching the computer take their turn just as long as the AI had been implemented for this mode. Anyway, I chose to play two player games on my own whilst travelling on the train and was happy to see some of my favourite games in the list. Not only do you have the classic 501 but also a couple of my all time favourite pub darts variations; Killer and Around the Clock. The only difference here is the change of scenery to a pub and added chatter from pub-goers.
My final thought about the game is this; if you are a big fan of darts and watch it religiously then I can see this game being right up your street, especially during the months when it's not on the television. But for those of you out there that occasionally have a session with your pals down the pub then I suggest you stick with the traditional way of playing darts and avoid this title.
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