PDC World Championship Darts

If you grew up near a club, daytime bar and restaurant combo, or just had a dad who was the darts king in college and tells you about “the good ole days” when he would scam people with his dart tricks, then there is a good chance you have seen a few middle aged guys throwing darts at a board and somehow thought it was the most boring, yet most interesting thing you had seen done, and wanted to do it too. This is how most dart players feel and get involved, so you are not alone. The problem is that darts can be very hard and complex for starters, as well as not being widely available to play or easy to find a “beginners” league, as it feels like everyone is either mediocre or a professional. Luckily for you, PDC World Championship Darts allows you to be even better than your dad at the peak of his darts career, without ever having to practice a single day.

Visuals

The game does not have exciting visuals, but it is darts, it does not need high rendered explosions and fast, detailed car crashes. PDC World Championship Darts looks about like any other sports game from around 2006, with characters that vaguely look like their real-life counterparts, but blockier with sharp, undefined features. The main focus of the game’s rendering power is in the board and the darts, as that is where the important gameplay will be anyway. Aside from this, the game does place you in a nice dart arena that it takes into account of making look a little real to amplify the setting of the game and the feel of really being good at what seems like such a simple game.

Gameplay

PDC World Championship is available on PC and PlayStation 2, being an old console game. The controls are very simple, as there is not a lot to do with them anyway, just aim and throw for the most part. For those that like watching darts, you can play as some of the famed heroes from darts’ past, like Allan Warriner-Little, or even create their own player to triumph over those who thought their championship status was established. Offering different modes, the player can choose to play World Championship, World Grand Prix, UK Open, Holland Open, and Desert Classic. Each of these modes is modeled after a real-life event taking place in one of the three dart arenas it offers. If you get tired of beating AI, challenge your friends in the game’s Party Mode, having fifteen different party games that your friends can gather around and play with you.

Personal Rating

PDC World Championship Darts is a pretty unique game, since I do not think there is high demand for the virtual darts niche, but for those that do want it, this would be a good one to go for. Other bar sports games like AMF Bowling Pinbusters or Touch Darts would go great with PDC World Championship Darts to start a collection of these similar games.

Pros:

• Makes darts enjoyable for those who just could not go pro
• Allows famous characters to be met, played as, or beat by one’s own
• Solo or multiplayer available

Cons:

• Does not have modern champions
• Not on-line or even LAN for multiplayer

Ah, Darts, That most noble of sports, the princely pastirpe for fat, beer-swilling wannabe gangsters and pissed-up pub-goers still one pint short of engaging that beautiful woman at the bar in a meaningful conversation about her frequentation of the establishment Now don't get me wrong, I like a game of arrows as much as the next man (so long as the next man isn't Phil Taylor or Raymond van Barneveld, both of whom appear in this fully PDC-licenced title). However, the idea of playing it on my PC is, well, just wrong.

Instead of having to listen to the twat at the bar who dishes out useless advice before you take every shot you're forced to listen to Sid Waddell's excruciating banalities as you move your mouse backwards and forwards to take a shot Annoying and simplistic, now that's what 1 call a killer combination.

Sure, there are a myriad of options, including a career mode and a raft of wacky party games, including Killer and Round The Clock, and the visuals are fairly impressive. Ultimately though, there's about as much depth here as a baking tin.

Some fairly slick presentation and decent Al improve matters somewhat, but overall, PDC feels more like a mini-game than a piece of software worthy of 25 guid. Go down the boozer and play for free instead. You never know, you might even pull.