With the exception of the first release, the Tiger Woods series have always been high quality, enthralling games that keep you entertained for months.I'm so disappointed with this release - it's as if minimal effort has been put into its conception. The courses are identical to previous games, making it ridiculously easy to get into. Birdies and eagles are achieved very early in the game making the game much less challenging. Totally original courses could have been designed to offer whole new challenges - ok, maybe this is governed by the PGA franchise but I don't remember anything about time travel in the US Masters....
The game is lacking atmosphere. Golf game it may be, but it is a video game, designed to entertained. Playing in total silence really isn't any fun and even the corny comments seem to have been produced with minimal effort.
I only gave the game two stars because of the nice graphics. Here's hoping they get back on the right track in 2007...
If you already own a relatively recent version of Tiger Woods golf then you will know broadly what to expect from this new release. The changes from 2005 are readily summarised:1. online XBox Live play has now come to Europe, but I should say that so far I have never seen anyone else available to challenge when I have logged on. There is a daily tournament that occurs online where you play a specific course to get the best score you can and you see your rankings along with the 15-20 other players who have entered. This works strangely well and is addictive but I would still like to play other people live as well.
2. the old putting system has been totally revamped and the annoying "perfect aim" instructions replaced by an intuitive more easily read green with "crawling ants" on a grid to show contours and a pull-back/push-forward putting action which is harder but far more satisfying when you master it.
3. the legends tour has been altered so that it has a strange "time travelling theme", I'm not sure this is an improvement but underneath the new interface the challenges and games are the same.
And if you don't own a previous version or want to know what has stayed the same...
- this is a very slick golf game which allows you to fully customise the appearance of a player and then take them out onto a wide range of real and fantasy golf courses to play all the possible variants of golf you could imagine as well as simulating an entire season of PGA tournaments
- shot control is wonderfully intuitive but rewards experience and the understanding of the more subtle shot types, options and how to direct the ball in the air
And the downsides...
- I have to mention the lack of online community again, perhaps this review will inspire a few more competitors (my tag is ElectricElvis).
- occassionally it can seem rather easy to chonk around in 18 under par but I don't find the level of difficulty as irritating as some reviewers and I haven't moved up to "tour" difficulty yet
- sometimes the AI is very annoying in tournament play, especially when you score -15 on the easy St. Andrews course against the leading AI player with -7 on round one and then the XBox decides to put in a -18 on the second round on the very, very hard Greek Isles course where I struggle to make par on a bad day.
In summary, if you like golf games (and let's face it this is a bit of a "love em"/"hate em" marmite) type issue then you'll love this golf game and keep coming back for more.
I have owned the past two Tiger Woods games on the X-Box so I am well versed in the franchise. The biggest bug bear I had with the last version (2005) was that it wasn’t different enough from the previous version. It is tough for a golf game to change too much, I mean it is a golf game right? Well yes, but it isn’t enough to churn out the same old game with bells on, thankfully this time EA Sports has avoided this.The game is similar to its predecessors but in a way that one would expect, there are enough changes (specifically the duel stick swing and the improvement in putting) and there are also the normal sprinklings of improvements in veneer – the legends challenge is the best example of this.
This is a real improvement on the past incantations and one that even a hardened gamer of the first 2 can get their teeth into. It also offers a real pathway for a new gamer to get to grips with the vagaries of the controls. The challenges at the beginning are relatively simple and once you have cracked these there are some simple match play events you can really cut your teeth. This is an addictive and impressive reincarnation of a classic, enjoy!
