Video game review: Tiger Woods '08 isn't worth the price
Platform: Xbox 360
Studio: EA Sports
Rating: E-for Everyone
Review score: 7.5 /10
THE REVIEW
GAME PLAY: If it ain't broke, don't fix it pertains to Tiger Woods golf, to a point. EA tweaked the 2008 version of Tiger Woods making it harder to hit the ball. That might be good for a few hard-core gamers out there, but not for my 10-year-old son and 6-year-old daughter. It's far too easy to slice the ball with the slightest arc of the thumb on the analog stick. Thankfully, the 3-button swing is back. The 3-button approach is the only way to play now that EA messed up the analog swing.
There are some tremendous additions. Putt preview is just as it sounds — the ability to preview the likely path of your putt. It's not perfect; that's why I said it's the likely path. It's still mostly a guessing game based upon the grid. If you are good at working the grid then the putt preview is just another helpful hint.
Another addition is Shot Confidence. It increases your confidence at certain holes and plays. If you knock down a 40-foot putt, it'll increase your confidence for long putts. And even if you get lucky smacking a shot out of a sand bunker and it goes in, you'll be all the better out of the sand next time.
Tiger Woods PGA Tour '08 is bursting with great play options. If you have the nerve and want to play as yourself then you can take your photo via the Xbox video camera and use the new Photo Face feature. You can also play as a young Tiger Woods and hit the greens as greenhorn. It can be very frustrating to be coming in last place over and over again. It seems like it takes forever to earn stats to get only gradually better. At one point a younger Tiger Woods hit a +21. It actually seems a little absurd during the first few matches because in real life you'd be out of the tournament lickety-split.
Still the most entertaining part of Tiger Woods PGA Tour '08 is multiplayer. Go two or four head-to-head and enjoy talking some trash. It might even be fun to watch Tiger or John Daly talk a little smack after sinking a putt.
GRAPHICS: Don't waste your money on '08 if you don't have an HDTV. Without hi-def you're going to miss what is one of the best looking sports games out there. Not only are the PGA pros dead-on accurate, but the courses are crisp right down to the grass and trees blowing in the wind. The interesting thing is how it never rains. Apparently, in Tiger's world it's always sunny.
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