Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07 Review
06 December 2006 | By George Lester-Pearson
EA's built a solid golf game and a solid foundation for further games in the series to come
EA's built a solid golf game and a solid foundation for further games in the series to come.
Right from the beginning you will notice how impressive the general presentation is, the menu systems are slick, surprisingly innovative and easy to navigate. You are introduced to a cut scene of a beautiful golfing course, with particular attention to graphical detail. Everything just seems right, including the background music and character creation. There is only one thing which lets menus and navigation down in the game and that is small text, it can sometimes b e a little hard to read on a normal tv screen, craning your neck to read the screen is not an attractive feature in any game. The character creation system is being implemented in many sports games nowadays, but few implement it successfully. Tiger Woods happens to be one of those games that have implemented it successfully. There are a large range of different character options, which allow you to customize an original character with an appearance of your liking. The options are great and I must admit to spending a good few minutes trying to create the most amusing character properly, before I continued with the game. Your character has the potential for golfing greatness, but starts off pretty weak, only to progress through the game. This is handled in a typical rpg way, improving statistics in different areas including power and driving accuracy.
The game starts off with a tutorial mode, which allows you to learn and practice new and old techniques in the series. It is always a nice touch and saves having to read an instruction manual. The controls themselves are easy to pick up, they feel very natural. The golf swing in particular is quite good, you use the control pad to swing, or put respectively. It is a method I have never used in a golf game and I thought it was quite enjoyable and realistic. The rest of the controls are easy to control and master, nothing to complicated, you should be in the swing of things (pun intended) within 10 minutes of playing the game.
After the tutorial you are presented with plenty of options, different play modes, training, mini-games or simply the career mode. One of my favourite modes of play was the battle golf. While I must admit I was a little disappointed that battle golf was not the professional golfers battering each other with golf clubs, I was still pleased with what it turned out to be. Players challenge each other to play a course and remove a golf club from their opposition, it can get very amusing when you have taken there driver and they are forced to make long shots with an iron. All these features help extend the life-span of the game, which is already pretty long due to the career mode.
The training mode has pitch and put mode and a driving range. The driving range is not the standard driving range which features at most golf courses, it has a number of different targets to aim for, including one on a platform in the water. It is quite fun if you want to play casually and do not want to have to go on a course. The putting course is equally as fun an option, it is a different type of gameplay to the regular golf, combining control and perfect aiming. Again I found I played it a lot when I did not want to get into any serious gameplay. The mini-games are fun to play for the same reason, they all pose certain challenges which are both entertaining and challenging. Of course the main bit of the game is in the career mode, which is what you would expect, you play in tournaments while improving the statistics of your created golfer. I found the career mode was quite challenging, especially when played on the harder difficulty levels available.
The sound is some of the best I have ever heard in a sports game. It is often just a background jingle, not overbearing or annoying in the background. The sound effects are also quite realistic and crisp, obviously with the sound a lot of realism has been put into it, and it pays off. Equally the sounds in the menu are quite impressive, as is the thud of the ball on whatever surface it lands on.
The graphics are great, they don't push the console to the edge of its abilities, but nonetheless they are impressive. The texture of the grass is something you are going to notice in the game, it has a lot of detail. As does the texture of the water, which is something I was impressed with, although I felt a large splash would of looked good on a shot which goes into the water hazard. It is good to see that the effort has been made to make the graphics look good on the Xbox 360, as a lot of sport games on the 360 are usually just ports of the old games with a bit of polish. The game really stands out because of these graphics, it is quite possibly the best looking golf game to date and one of the best looking 360 sporting titles as well.
EA have simply created a great golf game. There is room for improvement in some places but the game has been excellently made of the xbox 360 platform, graphics, presentation and sound have undergone huge improvements for the console and the game looks fantastic because of it. The game has a range of features for when you eventually tire of the truly excellent career mode. It is worth a buy for any golf fan, as well as casual gamers just looking for a bit of fun.
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| Tiger subtly lets one off | A man in the crowd challenges him to a golf battle |
Right from the beginning you will notice how impressive the general presentation is, the menu systems are slick, surprisingly innovative and easy to navigate. You are introduced to a cut scene of a beautiful golfing course, with particular attention to graphical detail. Everything just seems right, including the background music and character creation. There is only one thing which lets menus and navigation down in the game and that is small text, it can sometimes b e a little hard to read on a normal tv screen, craning your neck to read the screen is not an attractive feature in any game. The character creation system is being implemented in many sports games nowadays, but few implement it successfully. Tiger Woods happens to be one of those games that have implemented it successfully. There are a large range of different character options, which allow you to customize an original character with an appearance of your liking. The options are great and I must admit to spending a good few minutes trying to create the most amusing character properly, before I continued with the game. Your character has the potential for golfing greatness, but starts off pretty weak, only to progress through the game. This is handled in a typical rpg way, improving statistics in different areas including power and driving accuracy.
The game starts off with a tutorial mode, which allows you to learn and practice new and old techniques in the series. It is always a nice touch and saves having to read an instruction manual. The controls themselves are easy to pick up, they feel very natural. The golf swing in particular is quite good, you use the control pad to swing, or put respectively. It is a method I have never used in a golf game and I thought it was quite enjoyable and realistic. The rest of the controls are easy to control and master, nothing to complicated, you should be in the swing of things (pun intended) within 10 minutes of playing the game.
After the tutorial you are presented with plenty of options, different play modes, training, mini-games or simply the career mode. One of my favourite modes of play was the battle golf. While I must admit I was a little disappointed that battle golf was not the professional golfers battering each other with golf clubs, I was still pleased with what it turned out to be. Players challenge each other to play a course and remove a golf club from their opposition, it can get very amusing when you have taken there driver and they are forced to make long shots with an iron. All these features help extend the life-span of the game, which is already pretty long due to the career mode.
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| Your character has the ability to look rather smug | EA obviously employ a good lawnmower |
The training mode has pitch and put mode and a driving range. The driving range is not the standard driving range which features at most golf courses, it has a number of different targets to aim for, including one on a platform in the water. It is quite fun if you want to play casually and do not want to have to go on a course. The putting course is equally as fun an option, it is a different type of gameplay to the regular golf, combining control and perfect aiming. Again I found I played it a lot when I did not want to get into any serious gameplay. The mini-games are fun to play for the same reason, they all pose certain challenges which are both entertaining and challenging. Of course the main bit of the game is in the career mode, which is what you would expect, you play in tournaments while improving the statistics of your created golfer. I found the career mode was quite challenging, especially when played on the harder difficulty levels available.
The sound is some of the best I have ever heard in a sports game. It is often just a background jingle, not overbearing or annoying in the background. The sound effects are also quite realistic and crisp, obviously with the sound a lot of realism has been put into it, and it pays off. Equally the sounds in the menu are quite impressive, as is the thud of the ball on whatever surface it lands on.
The graphics are great, they don't push the console to the edge of its abilities, but nonetheless they are impressive. The texture of the grass is something you are going to notice in the game, it has a lot of detail. As does the texture of the water, which is something I was impressed with, although I felt a large splash would of looked good on a shot which goes into the water hazard. It is good to see that the effort has been made to make the graphics look good on the Xbox 360, as a lot of sport games on the 360 are usually just ports of the old games with a bit of polish. The game really stands out because of these graphics, it is quite possibly the best looking golf game to date and one of the best looking 360 sporting titles as well.
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| Pretending he actually knows where the ball went | the crowd get very close to the course |
EA have simply created a great golf game. There is room for improvement in some places but the game has been excellently made of the xbox 360 platform, graphics, presentation and sound have undergone huge improvements for the console and the game looks fantastic because of it. The game has a range of features for when you eventually tire of the truly excellent career mode. It is worth a buy for any golf fan, as well as casual gamers just looking for a bit of fun.
TOP GAME MOMENT
The character creation system is one of the best in any games, even allowing you to control the pitch of your character’s voice.
