Tiger Woods '07 (XBox 360)

Review by -Hunter-

Overview
This is by far the best Tiger Woods golf game so far. There are new additions to the game that weren’t in the past years games. They have added more courses as well as a few things to aid you in your shot making. EA has improved the ability for you to make characters with more choices. It may take you some time but you can make your character look pretty much how you want it, or in your own likeness. There are several training challenges and different games that you can play to bring up your skill levels in different categories such as power, putting, recovery, ball striking, luck and a few others. I will tell you right now... don’t bother taking on the pros until you have spent a few days getting your golfers skill levels up or you will be wasting your time. Some of these are pretty tough and some are very easy. EA has also increased the amount of clothes, clubs, gloves balls etc... that you can unlock to increase your skill levels as well. There is a career mode where you work your way through a calendar playing in different tournaments. These qualify you for things like the masters. They have also enabled you to hit the “A” button to go through your opponents pre shot routine. You can hit the “Y” button after a player has finished his swing to put it into fast forward for quicker game play. If you like golf games I would recommend it. This isn’t one to rent because you won’t have time to get your skill levels up. The higher your skill levels the better shots you make, thus the game is a little more fun…. kind of like real golf.

Game Play 8/10
If you know anything about golf this shouldn’t be too difficult to pick up and start playing right away. It takes a little practice making shots because you use the left analog to make your shots. Bring it straight back to start the swing and move it up to finish the swing. If you don’t bring it exactly straight back then you will slice or hook the ball. This year EA also added the ability to increase or decrease the loft of your clubs to make them fly higher or go lower to fight the wind, pretty handy. Expected a little more from the game play. You can tell EA pretty much has a monopoly on golf games… To be fair, they have some new additions but seems like they should progress a little more as many years as they have been putting out the Tiger Woods series, especially on next gen. consoles.

Story Line 9/10
Not much to say here as it’s a sports game. You know the objective; beat your opponent by shooting a lower score than he or she. There are you usual games like stroke, best ball and skins but they have also added several other games. One that comes to mind is T-I-G-E-R. Basically it’s like HORSE in basketball. They have added enough so you shouldn’t get bored doing the same thing over and over.

Multiplayer 9/10
You can play multiplayer with up to four different golfers. It’s pretty much the same as any other sports game as far as that goes. As always, it’s a little more fun playing a real person instead of the computer players… obviously.

Online Play 9/10
Online play gets a thumbs up. You can make your own match or join someone else. I was surprised but the online play was pretty much the same as playing offline. I had trouble joining one game but had no other problems as far as game joining goes. The only lag I noticed was on the greens. Occasionally approach or putts would be rolling across the green only to stop somewhere it didn’t seem like they were going. Putting was also a little different online and took some getting used to. Other than that I had no problems and was pleasantly surprised. If you are one of those who like to try to unlock all the gaming achievements on Xbox Live then be prepared to spend some time playing online because several of them you have to do while online. Unless you intend to play someone you know, be prepared for some pretty stiff competition online. In all the matches I played my opponent had his skill levels maxed out and beat me pretty handily.

Graphics 8/10
Graphics are better than past years but that’s what you would expect from any next gen. game. The environments look very good as do the golfers. A few of the pros don’t look anything like the real players but the characters look much more realistic than before. The gallery moves around and looks pretty good. It’s hilarious when you hit one of them with the ball. I had a ball bounce and hit one of them in the groin. He grabbed his crotch and fell to the ground… pretty funny but doesn’t help your score much. Graphics are very good but honestly I expected a little better on the 360.

Sound 7/10
Not much to say here. It’s golf. There isn’t supposed to be much noise going on during golf. There is the occasional sound of a plane passing overhead or birds and such. The crowd celebrates your good shots with you and the sound of the clubs hitting the ball and going through grass or sand sounds realistic. Oh and you can’t forget... the commentators that have a tendency to get on your nerves because of their comments. Realistic though because they get on my nerves on TV as well.

Overall Rating 8.33