Question: When a “new” version of a game comes out a mere six months after the “old” version, how much can you expect it to have changed? Answer: Not much. Case in point: Tiger Woods PGA Tour ’08 for the Nintendo Wii, EA’s newest entry into the series. Tiger Woods ‘08 feels, not surprisingly, almost exactly like Tiger Woods ’07, with some small exceptions, none of which make the game any better.
There’s certainly plenty to do in the game with nine traditional game modes, eighteen courses, twenty-three pros to play against, dozens of Tiger Challenge events, five mini games and five arcade games. Oh, and don’t forget a little something called the Fed Ex cup. EA certainly didn’t slouch in the content area, however given that so many of these events were present in last year’s game, there’s not a whole lot that’s new to do, nor does the game make it much easier to do any of it.
Tiger Woods ‘08 touts improved motion controls with the ability to set three different standing control options (basic, standard and advanced) as well as two alternate control schemes (sitting and nunchuck). There’s no difference between the standing controls, other than the standard and advanced brings a few more draws and fades into the mix when driving. All modes allow you to draw and fade by turning your wrist as you swing; however basic mode has decidedly less accidental hooks and slices. Unfortunately, the game protects you from errant slices a bit too much with intentional draws and fades requiring you to hold the Wiimote almost upside down to register anything other than arrow straight.
Despite the new controls being almost 1:1 between yours and your digital duffer’s movements, all standing swing modes suffer from occasional glitches where your golfer will start and complete his or her downswing before you even start to bring your arm down. Invariably this will cause a loss of power, and a trip to the sandy beaches of Lake Hazard. Alternatively, you’ll have swings where your golfer won’t start their downswing even though you’ve done four or five of them, and instead holds the club aloft while you look like you’re windmilling your way through a Manchester pub brawl.
Putting has been revamped in this version, in this case “revamped” meaning “made horribly awful”, by removing the caddy tips and replacing it with the putt preview mode. Putt preview mode allows you to take a practice putt and show where the ball would have gone. The track of the ball then remains, allowing you to make adjustments to your aim. Putt preview mode comes with a finite amount of usage time, so you can’t use it on every hole, however once you get the hang of quickly lining up and swinging, you should be able to use it on almost half the course.
The problems lie with the swing mechanic itself. Once you point your Wiimote downwards and press the B button, you’ll go into swing mode and a meter will appear on the left side of the screen. This meter represents your power and goes from zero to one hundred and twenty feet. This is great for when you’re sixty feet from the hole, but not so useful when you’re trying to keep a five foot putt from sailing wildly past the hole. Learning how to bring back your putter enough, but not too much, is an exercise in frustration much like in real golf, just without the valuable tactile feedback.
Despite the problems with the standing swing mode, it’s by far the best of the three. The sitting mode, which requires a flick of the wrist for swinging, is very sensitive, thereby making it impossible to hit anything with less than 100% power, and makes putting even more frustrating. The nunchuck mode returns you to the Tiger Woods control scheme of the series’ previous GameCube outings, and while it provides the best control for driving and approach shots, it provides the least amount of control over putting. For some reason, the putting meter is removed from the nunchuck control scheme, making the only indicator of how hard you’re going to hit the ball the amount of backswing portrayed on the screen. This is hardly ideal.
