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IGN Review of Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08
As EA Sports moves most of its development horsepower to the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Wii, yearly updates of its biggest franchises for the PlayStation 2 are starting to stagnate. Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08 is a good example of this - there are a handful of new features, but if you already own last year's game there's not really anything new here that makes the update worthy of a purchase for most gamers.
By and large, this is the same Tiger that we've seen for the past couple years. Things like the newer shot meter, three-click system or GamerNet have been delegated to the new generation of consoles, while the PlayStation 2 game is left playing with the same handicap. It's still a fine golf title and if you don't own a copy from recent years or a newer gaming system, it's worthy of a look, but long-time fans will be disappointed in the new additions.
Though it doesn't have a separate meter in this version, there is also a bit of a risk chance involved. The safer your shot is, the higher your confidence will be. If you attempt to drive over or through a tree, over a river or something of this nature, your confidence will go down, thereby making a difficult shot even more tricky.
It's a decent idea, but for the most part it doesn't change the overall game all that much if you play a safe game. As you increase your skills as you normally would, you should expect that your confidence will slowly rise as you get lower and lower scores. However, it can punish you when attempting to take risky shots and make these shots more difficult than they should be, which we don't like.
The other main new addition is the ability to play in the FedExCup Playoffs. Located under the main My Career heading but separate from the regular PGA Tour (meaning that it's a different schedule but your stats and earnings will apply and increase from play), the FedExCup is simply a collection of tournaments that you can play. These consist of The Barclays, Deutsche Bank, the BMW Championship and The Tour Championship (presented by Coca Cola). While it's nice to have extra events like this, you get to play the same courses in other events during the PGA Tour, so they might as well have just been added to your overall calendar.
We're not fans of the putting system, however. While it's reasonably easy to read the green and set up a decent shot, the Putt Preview ability feels like cheating. After pressing the X button, you're allowed to take full practice shots that don't count until you run out of time. You're given a finite amount of time that has to last you the entire round of golf, but there's enough here that we generally didn't run out until about the 14th or 15th hole without rushing. The result is that you're able to make 70 foot putts without too much of an issue (even at the start), which basically breaks the putting game. You can of course turn it off, but it's on by default and everyone but purists who mess with the difficulty options will have access to it.
©2007-09-07, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved
By and large, this is the same Tiger that we've seen for the past couple years. Things like the newer shot meter, three-click system or GamerNet have been delegated to the new generation of consoles, while the PlayStation 2 game is left playing with the same handicap. It's still a fine golf title and if you don't own a copy from recent years or a newer gaming system, it's worthy of a look, but long-time fans will be disappointed in the new additions.
Though it doesn't have a separate meter in this version, there is also a bit of a risk chance involved. The safer your shot is, the higher your confidence will be. If you attempt to drive over or through a tree, over a river or something of this nature, your confidence will go down, thereby making a difficult shot even more tricky.
It's a decent idea, but for the most part it doesn't change the overall game all that much if you play a safe game. As you increase your skills as you normally would, you should expect that your confidence will slowly rise as you get lower and lower scores. However, it can punish you when attempting to take risky shots and make these shots more difficult than they should be, which we don't like.
The other main new addition is the ability to play in the FedExCup Playoffs. Located under the main My Career heading but separate from the regular PGA Tour (meaning that it's a different schedule but your stats and earnings will apply and increase from play), the FedExCup is simply a collection of tournaments that you can play. These consist of The Barclays, Deutsche Bank, the BMW Championship and The Tour Championship (presented by Coca Cola). While it's nice to have extra events like this, you get to play the same courses in other events during the PGA Tour, so they might as well have just been added to your overall calendar.
We're not fans of the putting system, however. While it's reasonably easy to read the green and set up a decent shot, the Putt Preview ability feels like cheating. After pressing the X button, you're allowed to take full practice shots that don't count until you run out of time. You're given a finite amount of time that has to last you the entire round of golf, but there's enough here that we generally didn't run out until about the 14th or 15th hole without rushing. The result is that you're able to make 70 foot putts without too much of an issue (even at the start), which basically breaks the putting game. You can of course turn it off, but it's on by default and everyone but purists who mess with the difficulty options will have access to it.
©2007-09-07, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved