I always get a kick out of playing the latest Tiger Woods game. I’ve always found that odd, since I absolutely detest playing golf in real life. (Maybe it’s because I suck? Nah.) With Tiger Woods 07, EA had a game that was on the cusp of being a great title, and it left me with very high hopes for 08. Unfortunately, it wasn’t to be. While Tiger Woods 08 is a fun game, it’s not quite The golf game.
Perhaps the biggest addition this go around is the addition of the three-click shot. People were frustrated with the analog swing (or so I’m told), but this "new" style of shooting allows you to click the button to start the meter, select your shot power, and finally stop on accuracy. (If you’ve played most golf games, you know how it works.) Unfortunately, it’s not very user-friendly. Often times you’ll end up wildly hitting the ball, because you couldn’t quite stop the meter in nearly the right spot, and overshooting on the power will lead to an almost guaranteed guess when it comes to stopping in accuracy.
This wouldn’t be much of a problem if it weren’t for the fact that analog swinging seems to be tweaked a little too much. For some reason, EA Sports made it extremely sensitive to mistakes (real or imagined) this time around. I can’t even keep count of the times I saw a seasoned Tiger player drive their first shot off straight into the OB two times in a row.
Another addition in this year’s Tiger is the Game Face. Using a photo of yourself (or a digital camera hooked up to your console) you can recreate your own glorious mug to partake in all of Tiger’s challenges. It’s the first time in Tiger this has been an option, and it’s amazing how well EA did in terms of making it work right. You really do have to try it to see for yourself just how nice everything ends up.
Mode-wise, there’s not much to speak of. When your biggest addition to gameplay modes is one match-type called "Bingo Bango Bongo," that’s not saying much. On the bright side, BBB is fun to play, and since it doesn’t really reward whomever is the better golfer, it’s a great way to frustrate your friends. How it works is simple: the first player to hit the ball onto the green is awarded Bingo; the player closest to the pin when arriving on the green is Bang; the player who wins the hole is Bongo. At the end of the match, the player with the most Bs wins, and the loser is often left cursing in frustration that they were robbed.
The last new feature is EA Sports’ GamerNet. This allows players to (theoretically) upload their best shots and complete challenges set by other gamers.
That brings me to the biggest problem in Tiger 08 (other than living up to the stereotype most gamers have about EA Sports titles): the glitches and bugs. While not quite on the level of, say, Two Worlds, Tiger 08 has plenty of things which are frustrating gamers left and right. Freezing bugs, inability to complete anything on Tiger Challenge, random glitches — let’s just say Tiger Woods 08 hasn’t exactly landed on the fairway.
EA Sports is working on fixing some of the issues via an update, however, so at least there’s that to look forward to. In the meantime, there’s really no need to purchase Tiger Woods 08. The analog stick is a little too touchy, the bugs and glitches are game-breaking (or match-breaking) when they occur, and there’s really not anything noteworthy added to the game to justify a purchase from gamers who had last year’s title.
If you don’t have Tiger Woods 07 and you don’t really care about the Game Face or GamerNet, you’d be better off getting the now-cheap 07 iteration. Tiger Woods 08 isn’t a horrible game; it just doesn’t offer enough to justify dropping $60 on it, and until (or if) they’re fixed the bugs will only cause frustration.
