For the mountain of complaints about Electronic Arts and their expensive yearly sports game updates, Tiger Woods goes seemingly ignored by the mainstream. It’s a consistent, high quality performer, always ranking with the best the genre can offer. At least, until 2008 when quality control was tossed to the wayside.
It’s immediately apparent where time was dedicated this year. GamerNet is a radical new approach for not only Tiger Woods, but gaming in general. Players take their best, wackiest, or challenging shots, upload them to the in-game server, and challenge others to match them. It can be as brutal as a 400-yard hole-in-one or a massive cart path bounce that could end up in Guinness. Sadly, players are limited to three total uploads at a time and deleting previous shots is needlessly complex.
Another technical marvel is the evolved Game Face feature. Always an increasingly complex feature, this latest update allows for Xbox Live Vision or uploaded digital photos to be mapped onto the avatar in game. While it will take some time, proper lighting, and even a little luck, when this works, it’s an amazing feat.
In terms of game play, a new fade and draw system is far easier to perform. This is now mapped to the bumpers instead of being forced to use the analog swing system (which is also still available). Confidence plays a role, tracking every shot you take and determining if you have any advantage on the given hole. If you consistently take bad shots, the confidence will drop and it becomes harder to make accurate shots the next time around.
This was the wrong year to implement the latter addition though. Thanks to a hugely sensitive analog swing system, shanking shots is ridiculously easy. There’s little doubt that this franchise is screaming for a higher difficulty.
However, even when using the +3 club shaft of power — purchased from the expanded pro shop — be prepared to watch errant balls end up on another hole regularly. It’s ridiculous, even for Tiger veterans. The ease of the analog swing was not the core difficulty problem, and was hardly where the changes should have been made.
It’s almost feels like an apology from EA then that a 3-click swing system has been added, bringing back memories of Tiger’s predecessor PGA Tour. Aside from an achievement for playing an 18 hole round with it (and the ability to use it at any time with a press of the right analog stick), it’s a wasted effort for a feature that few will use.
Article comments
1 - Ken Edwards
Of all my complaints of Tiger 08, one of my biggest is this: why can't I chose "Concede" from the menu? When you have lost a hole, you are FORCED to play through it, including a non-shippable CPU.
2 - Matt Paprocki
"including a non-shippable CPU."
Yeah, those damn non-shippable CPUs. They make life miserable.
3 - Ken Edwards
Here is another major complaint. If you have to punch it out of the rough, the people in the gallery STAND RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU. EA, come on! I am sure you watch golf on TV, people get out of the way so that the golfer has a clear line of sight to the pin.