Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08 Review

One of the ongoing criticisms of EA's Tiger Woods PGA Tour series is that it changes so little from one year to the next. Critics argue, 'Why bother going out and spending 30 or 40 quid on the same game as you bought last year?' And, to be fair, critics have a point. But EA Sports do the same thing with a number of their titles, eeking out minor improvements to new versions year-on-year. What makes this acceptable with games like FIFA or Madden is that gamers will buy these games every year simply because they have updated rosters and strips. Who wants to be playing in Liverpool's 03/04 away strip with Michael Owen and Emile Heskey? More to the point, who wants to painstakingly update the databases to ensure that Fernando Torres is both at Liverpool and not an inexperienced teenager? No, I didn't think you would.

The problem with golf in this respect is that nothing changes from one year to the next. Golf players don't change teams, they have a remarkably long shelf life (e.g. Phil Mickelson), famous golf courses remain largely unchanged for years at a time and the major tournaments stay on the PGA Tour for decades. So, in fairness to the guys at EA Tiburon, finding ways to make Tiger Woods fresh every year must be a monumental challenge. Hence the fact that while they produce a pretty damn good golf game year after year, the Tiger Woods PGA Tour series has been dogged by some negative reactions from game critics in recent times.

In terms of it being the same old Tiger, this year's game is no exception. On all the main consoles, the new feature that's being stressed by EA the most is the "All New Shot Confidence". Basically, with each different stroke you'll see a varying confidence meter on your screen. This charts factors such as your previous success with the shot type and club you've selected, previous scores on the hole you're playing, your characters stats, how risky the shot your attempting is and how good your last few shots were on that round.

It's a feature that has considerably more depth on the Xbox 360 version than the Wii and PS2 titles, but it works fairly well on all three. The more your stats increase and the more consistent your play becomes, the more likely you are to have high confidence levels. With more confidence your accuracy marker will get smaller, your general attributes will improve and your chances of pulling-off a tricky shot will be considerably increased. The 'shot confidence' feature is a little bit gimmicky, but it's a nice little addition to the series at the end of the day.

Other than 'shot confidence', the game modes on PS2, Wii and Xbox 360 are still largely the same as last year. There's the usual PGA Tour career mode where you take an absolute nobody from rags to riches, upping their rather measly starting stats with each tournament. The Tiger Challenge allows you to play with your career golfer in a number of challenges, featuring the usual number of interesting and bizarre characters. Gamers can also take part in a wide range of game modes from Strokeplay, to Stableford and the new Bingo, Bango, Bongo on the Xbox 360 - there's also an array of mini-games to pass the time with.

As far as gameplay is concerned, it's much the same as last year once again. Speaking of gameplay, there are a couple of things which have really bugged us here at TVG about Tiger Woods over the last few years. What really gets our goat is that it has the potential to be such a good golf simulation on the consoles, but it has a couple of gameplay features which completely destroy the realistic feel of the game. Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08 boasts reams of official licenses, courses from all over the world and a realistic feel to the golf swing and general play across the fairways. Yet EA Tiburon still insists on allowing gamers to add spin as an aftertouch feature and actually include a 'luck' statistic. What's worse, you can gain 'luck' not only by increasing your stat bar, but by the clothes you wear! With a game that feels like such a good simulation, these two features stick out like a sore thumb and just seem a bit ridiculous. Why, Tiburon? Why?

Anyway, rant aside, there are definitely significant enough differences on all three console versions for them each to have a section of this review dedicated to them. Firstly, the Xbox 360 game: Visually, this game is very impressive - by far and away the most visually pleasing of EA Sports' next gen titles to date. There are also a couple of minor gameplay features which both the PS2 and Wii version don't have, that add so much to the Xbox 360 version. Firstly, the '3-Click Swing' system is nigh-on inspired. With a click of the right thumbstick at any point in-game you can go from the normal shot stick controls (using the left analogue stick), to a more conventional power meter. This really helps for players, such as yours truly, who have a problem judging the amount of power required for putts using the normal shot stick. The old-skool power meter makes for a more precise shot, even though most gamers will revert to the shot stick for drives and fairway shots as it feels so much more natural and enjoyable.

Secondly, the putt preview system is significantly better on the Xbox 360 than it is on the PS2/Wii. On the Xbox 360, once you've lined up your putt you can then check it's trajectory with the putt preview (this can only be done once per shot). Then you can change your putting angle and pace accordingly. This works much better than the putt preview system on Wii and PS2, which allows players an allotted amount of time per round to have a number of practice shots at the hole, before you take the final shot that counts. Now, you wouldn't be able to do that in a real game of golf, would you? Finally in terms of gameplay, there's a new fade/draw mechanic on the Xbox 360 that considerably betters those on offer on the PS2 and Wii.

The online features on the Xbox 360 are, as you'd expect, much more extensive than those on the PS2. A new addition for the Xbox 360 this year is GamerNet, which allows gamers to upload there best shots/holes/rounds to Xbox Live so other players can view them. There are also leader boards and challenges as well to keep you busy online. As if that wasn't enough for new features on the Xbox 360, you can also use the 'photo game face' feature to upload pictures of yourself onto a character in the game.

The PS2 is much the same as last year, apart from the previously aforementioned 'shot confidence'. It's so similar in fact that I can't think of anything else to say other than how it lacks the nice tweaks to gameplay that are on the Xbox 360 title. The Wii version is essentially the same game as can be found on the PS2, except that the shot stick controls have been replaced by an inspired Wii remote control system. Holding the Wii remote face-up, you point it towards the ground, hold down the trigger button and simply swing like you would a real golf club. Does it have a natural feel? You bet your pants it does. Actually, it's a little too natural if you ask me. I suffer from a horrendous slice in my real-life golf game and, of course, my bad golf swing was picked up by the Wii remote - knackers!