Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07
Posted November 14, 2006
The 2006 version of Tiger Woods on the Xbox 360 was greeted with some lackluster reviews, nothing necessarily bad with the title but nothing groundbreaking either. The 2007 iteration of Tiger Woods does improve on the already solid title, and does some things a little differently than its little brother on the Xbox does. When it comes to golfing titles, I personally find little reason to upgrade year in year out – as the lineup of pro golfers changes are minimal, and new courses are a rarity as well. With this said, I don't think I've played a Tiger Woods game since 2005 on the GameCube, so making the high definition update to that series and the change from Links welcome ones.
Gameplay:
Tiger Woods PGA Tour takes a different approach to playing golf and managing your career this time around, so upon starting the game rather than throw you in a menu immediately you have the option of jumping right into the driving range to practice your skills. Sure, underneath this is a complex menu with a ton of options but the ability to jump right into some portion of the game is a welcome change for this reviewer.
Most people are going to skip over using a professional golfer and will opt to create their own rookie, and slog their way through the ranks. A plethora of customization options await the gamer; from the sex of your golfer to even tweaking the pitch of your voice for the inevitable "Be the club" shout that your character will yelp. Initially the clothing options seem a little limited, but as your progress through the career mode, more branded outfits are unlocked; and rather than just for aesthetic appeal the unlocked clothing options will add to your skills such as spin control or your putting skill.
When launching career mode some adaptive intelligence has been implemented to help guide you through your time in the game. As you play the game you will notice that the options under the Continue Career option seem to move around, and initially it may seem that they are jumping for no apparent reason; it's actually a suggestion by the game to improve your golfer in an organic fashion. Sure you can opt to ignore all suggestions and do what you wish, but taking the computer highlighted option will ensure that when you dive into the career you aren't going to be crushed by the competition. And be warned, should you choose a difficulty level that is way below your skill level, the game will ask you on occasion if you want to change it to a higher level – ensuring adequate challenge throughout the game.
A huge difference in this game to the last-gen title is that gone is the Team mode, and the tried and true Tiger Challenge is back in full effect. Make your way through five tiers of five different golfers to the final showdown with Tiger himself. Each challenge is essentially a Match Play format, so expect to play at least 10 holes if you are a good golfer, but sometimes the full 18 holes is necessary. Also included in the career mode is the option to train your golfer in many different mini games. Some will pit you against the clock in shot placement tasks, while others will be a one on one challenge with another professional golfer; both reward you handsomely with skill upgrades which make advancing through the PGA season much easier.
The season mode has both good and bad points. In keeping aligned with real world golf, this year the FedEx Cup is a fully integrated part of season mode. As you win or place well in tournaments, you earn points on the Cup circuit. Naturally, winning scores you more points and gives you a better shot at winning the FedEx Cup. Each tournament features the requisite qualifying rounds to see if you indeed make the cut before playing on Saturday and Sunday; both qualifying rounds include an option to simulate the rounds to help cut back on your time investment; beware doing this all the time as your golfer may have a bad day and miss the cut, or fall behind by a near insurmountable number of strokes. Another plus is the rolling season mode, where you can play multiple years of golf with the same character; similar to a dynasty mode in other EA sports titles. The biggest complaint about the season mode is the inability to skip over some tournaments, so even if you only want to play the PGA events you are forced to take part in smaller Pro/Am tournaments and other low money events.
The controls have been slightly tweaked this year and to keep in line with the rest of EA's titles, the right analog stick has been integrated into gameplay a little more than before. Now it can be used to set the pitch of your club face, allowing you to force a low shot under trees to try and catch a breeze way up high. While not groundbreaking, it does add some depth to the game and bring in a little more realism.
Rather than go over each of the game styles available to play, let's just leave it at the fact that if you want to play a variation of golf, chances are high that you can here. The best version I played in this game was a mode called One-ball. With this mode it's every player for themselves; with a single ball whoever puts the ball in the hole gets the point. But what's to stop you from totally screwing over your fellow gamer you might ask? Whoever is addressing the ball must cover a minimum distance with a shot, or when closer to the pin, be within a circle of trust – or sink the putt. If you undershoot or miss the circle of trust, you lose the right to take your next shot and possibly a shot at sinking the ball. This mode is a blast online, as it's fast paced and rather than wait for four players to take potentially a half dozen shots each, each hole moves by very quickly and it's always fun to try and trap your opponent while remaining within the limitations.
Some other interesting things worth noting are some of the integration that EA and ESPN have done in the game. Selectable from the options screen is an option to play ESPN Radio over the game score, and not just one streamed from the disc – but that day's actual broadcast. Streaming scores are also selectable so even while gaming you can keep updated on the scores of your favorite team without having to switch over to the TV. Doing this does however take bandwidth from your Live Account so you cannot download items from the Marketplace and stream the radio or scores at the same time.
Graphics:
The game looks quite sharp; the golf courses are all quite detailed right down to the pot bunkers at St. Andrews and the high brush at the links style Bandon Dunes. Even the golfers have some great detail put into them, right down to the unique swings that they have. The responsive crowd generally looks good as they follow your golfer around the course, but still expect to see some synchronized clapping and cheering.
The biggest wow factor for me had to the be cloud rendering in the title, the clouds looked more than real to me right down to the way they moved in the wind. This small detail actually did more for me in terms of realism than the improved grass textures and clothing options for your golfer. Well done EA.
Audio:
As I've found with other EA Sports titles, the soundtrack seems to wax and wane from year to year. This year I found the soundtrack to be bland and quite dull resulting in streaming my own collection over the game. The commentary provided during play is about what one could expect from a golf title, with no major strides taken in improving the ultimately repetitive track.
Ambient sounds though were quite nice, during one particularly blustery day on Pebble Beach I could really hear the 20+ MPH winds blowing through the surrounds and swirling around the room.
Conclusion:
If you're the type of player who enjoys a golf game and hasn't picked one up in the last year or so, I do recommend this title thanks to the great play modes both online and off. The customization levels of each golfer are remarkably high; in one match I played online I was against a hippy guy with a long beard, sandals and a tie dye fashioned ball, and a clean cut yuppie wearing knickers and an argyle sweater vest; the limits are your imagination.
For players new to the game though this game is best suited as a rental because quite honestly the process of working through the career mode and training mini-games can become very tiresome dreadfully quickly.
Gameplay:
Tiger Woods PGA Tour takes a different approach to playing golf and managing your career this time around, so upon starting the game rather than throw you in a menu immediately you have the option of jumping right into the driving range to practice your skills. Sure, underneath this is a complex menu with a ton of options but the ability to jump right into some portion of the game is a welcome change for this reviewer.
Most people are going to skip over using a professional golfer and will opt to create their own rookie, and slog their way through the ranks. A plethora of customization options await the gamer; from the sex of your golfer to even tweaking the pitch of your voice for the inevitable "Be the club" shout that your character will yelp. Initially the clothing options seem a little limited, but as your progress through the career mode, more branded outfits are unlocked; and rather than just for aesthetic appeal the unlocked clothing options will add to your skills such as spin control or your putting skill.
When launching career mode some adaptive intelligence has been implemented to help guide you through your time in the game. As you play the game you will notice that the options under the Continue Career option seem to move around, and initially it may seem that they are jumping for no apparent reason; it's actually a suggestion by the game to improve your golfer in an organic fashion. Sure you can opt to ignore all suggestions and do what you wish, but taking the computer highlighted option will ensure that when you dive into the career you aren't going to be crushed by the competition. And be warned, should you choose a difficulty level that is way below your skill level, the game will ask you on occasion if you want to change it to a higher level – ensuring adequate challenge throughout the game.
A huge difference in this game to the last-gen title is that gone is the Team mode, and the tried and true Tiger Challenge is back in full effect. Make your way through five tiers of five different golfers to the final showdown with Tiger himself. Each challenge is essentially a Match Play format, so expect to play at least 10 holes if you are a good golfer, but sometimes the full 18 holes is necessary. Also included in the career mode is the option to train your golfer in many different mini games. Some will pit you against the clock in shot placement tasks, while others will be a one on one challenge with another professional golfer; both reward you handsomely with skill upgrades which make advancing through the PGA season much easier.
The season mode has both good and bad points. In keeping aligned with real world golf, this year the FedEx Cup is a fully integrated part of season mode. As you win or place well in tournaments, you earn points on the Cup circuit. Naturally, winning scores you more points and gives you a better shot at winning the FedEx Cup. Each tournament features the requisite qualifying rounds to see if you indeed make the cut before playing on Saturday and Sunday; both qualifying rounds include an option to simulate the rounds to help cut back on your time investment; beware doing this all the time as your golfer may have a bad day and miss the cut, or fall behind by a near insurmountable number of strokes. Another plus is the rolling season mode, where you can play multiple years of golf with the same character; similar to a dynasty mode in other EA sports titles. The biggest complaint about the season mode is the inability to skip over some tournaments, so even if you only want to play the PGA events you are forced to take part in smaller Pro/Am tournaments and other low money events.
The controls have been slightly tweaked this year and to keep in line with the rest of EA's titles, the right analog stick has been integrated into gameplay a little more than before. Now it can be used to set the pitch of your club face, allowing you to force a low shot under trees to try and catch a breeze way up high. While not groundbreaking, it does add some depth to the game and bring in a little more realism.
Rather than go over each of the game styles available to play, let's just leave it at the fact that if you want to play a variation of golf, chances are high that you can here. The best version I played in this game was a mode called One-ball. With this mode it's every player for themselves; with a single ball whoever puts the ball in the hole gets the point. But what's to stop you from totally screwing over your fellow gamer you might ask? Whoever is addressing the ball must cover a minimum distance with a shot, or when closer to the pin, be within a circle of trust – or sink the putt. If you undershoot or miss the circle of trust, you lose the right to take your next shot and possibly a shot at sinking the ball. This mode is a blast online, as it's fast paced and rather than wait for four players to take potentially a half dozen shots each, each hole moves by very quickly and it's always fun to try and trap your opponent while remaining within the limitations.
Some other interesting things worth noting are some of the integration that EA and ESPN have done in the game. Selectable from the options screen is an option to play ESPN Radio over the game score, and not just one streamed from the disc – but that day's actual broadcast. Streaming scores are also selectable so even while gaming you can keep updated on the scores of your favorite team without having to switch over to the TV. Doing this does however take bandwidth from your Live Account so you cannot download items from the Marketplace and stream the radio or scores at the same time.
Graphics:
The game looks quite sharp; the golf courses are all quite detailed right down to the pot bunkers at St. Andrews and the high brush at the links style Bandon Dunes. Even the golfers have some great detail put into them, right down to the unique swings that they have. The responsive crowd generally looks good as they follow your golfer around the course, but still expect to see some synchronized clapping and cheering.
The biggest wow factor for me had to the be cloud rendering in the title, the clouds looked more than real to me right down to the way they moved in the wind. This small detail actually did more for me in terms of realism than the improved grass textures and clothing options for your golfer. Well done EA.
Audio:
As I've found with other EA Sports titles, the soundtrack seems to wax and wane from year to year. This year I found the soundtrack to be bland and quite dull resulting in streaming my own collection over the game. The commentary provided during play is about what one could expect from a golf title, with no major strides taken in improving the ultimately repetitive track.
Ambient sounds though were quite nice, during one particularly blustery day on Pebble Beach I could really hear the 20+ MPH winds blowing through the surrounds and swirling around the room.
Conclusion:
If you're the type of player who enjoys a golf game and hasn't picked one up in the last year or so, I do recommend this title thanks to the great play modes both online and off. The customization levels of each golfer are remarkably high; in one match I played online I was against a hippy guy with a long beard, sandals and a tie dye fashioned ball, and a clean cut yuppie wearing knickers and an argyle sweater vest; the limits are your imagination.
For players new to the game though this game is best suited as a rental because quite honestly the process of working through the career mode and training mini-games can become very tiresome dreadfully quickly.