Pro Fishing Challenge review (Xbox)

Ironically, despite the big tutorial, Pro Fishing Challenge still leaves you to figure out a few of the fundamentals, such as where in the water to look for fish, how to read the indispensable sonar feature, or how to choose the best spots to find the types of fish you're looking for. It can add to the realism of the experience, sure, but if you're an inexperienced player, it can make the expansive open water seem mighty intimidating.

If you want a little company out on the water, Pro Fishing Challenge also features Xbox Live support. You can choose to compete with other faux fishermen with customizable rules, which lets you compete by the length, weight, or quantity of fish you catch, or, like the single-player game, there's a non-competitive multiplayer option as well. The game's multiplayer works well, though the addition of other fishermen into the mix doesn't really make the game more exciting.

Rather than obsess over rendering out the most vividly lifelike bass, Pro Fishing Challenge is more concerned with the big picture. The most obviously impressive part of the graphics is the water, which ripples nicely and is extremely reflective. This effect goes a long way toward selling the experience, though the game invests in a few nice, subtle touches to help maintain the feel. The arc of your line as you cast it out into the water looks varied enough to look real, and the way the lure will skip across the water a little bit when it's close to the boat is a nice touch, too. The camera never dips below the waterline, so until you actually get it into the boat, the most you'll see of the fish is a little glimpse as it breaks the surface while you reel it in. As the day progresses, the lighting changes, and the game uses a soft glow effect to give a great sense of the weather--a blue-tinted haze in the early morning or a red-orange glare off the water do wonders for giving you a sense of the chilly, dewy morning air, or the muggy humidity of a summer afternoon, accordingly. With most of its attention focused on atmosphere, the game cuts a few corners here and there. The land that surrounds the water looks pretty chunky, the wake that comes off the back of your boat doesn't look particularly convincing, and the reeds you'll see peppered along the water's edge look badly pixelated when up close.

During the actual game, Pro Fishing Challenge pretty much nails the sound. It's quiet out on the water, save for the sound of your reel and the thrashing of a fish that's on the other end of your line. The harshest sound you'll hear when you're out on the water is that of your boat's engine, which has an appropriately throaty, gurgling sound to it. Once you leave the water and go back to the menu system, the game is filled with a weird hybrid of squealing rock guitars and stuttering drum and bass beats. It's not bad, but it's way too extreme sports for this game and it ultimately just doesn't fit.

Pro Fishing Challenge is unapologetically designed for people with a standing passion for the pastime of freshwater fishing. If that's you, Pro Fishing Challenge is probably right up your alley, though at best it will probably just leave you aching to go out and actually fish. Barring such special interest groups, though, Pro Fishing Challenge is a bit too archaic to be terribly appealing.