Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2007 for Xbox 360 Review

Summary: Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2007 offers many improvements over last years version, such as double the courses and ramped up difficulty. It should provide enough challenge to get you through until next years version is released.


Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2006 for the Xbox 360 left quite a bit to be disired. EA took the same route as they did with their other sports franchises. Dress up the graphics a bit and cut out most of the extra features to rush it to the stores. Well this year they devoted a little more time to the franchise than last year, but the 360 version is still lagging behind it's little brother in a few key areas. Most notably is the lack of courses in the 360 version. The Xbox game shipped with a whopping 29 courses, while 360 owners only get 12. Still that's twice more than last year, but one has to wonder why EA decided to do this. They had well over a year to work on the game so to come up 17 courses short is in my opinion inexcusable. I thought the 360 was the next gen console! Another feature left out was the difficulty sliders, which lets you tailor the game to your liking. This one isn't that big of a deal, since the 360 provides plenty of challenge even for the most seasoned Tiger Woods player.

Graphics & Presentation 8/10
Most of the graphic resources were spent on the player models, particulary Tiger Woods. If you have a High Definition tv your jaw will drop when you see how well they were able to render his likeness, as it's simply amazing. Using new technology called "Universal Capture" or UCAP. I'm not going to go into great detail about this other than to say that it uses lots of sensors on the models face to get a more accurate rendering of facial animation and bone structure. In short Tiger looks great. The other golfers? Well they didn't fair as well. They look good, and in fact better than they did last year, but compared to TW they look somewhat out of place. The animations for some of the swings aren't as smooth as they are in real life. This has been a trade mark of the Tiger Woods series for as long as I can remember. Any shot that requires less than a full swing looks horrible, and nothing like a real golfer. The putting animation also looks unrealistic. How hard is it to mo-cap a putting stroke? The courses themselves look great. If you look closely at the ground you can see the shadows of the clouds rolling by. Nice touch! My only gripe with the on course graphics are the fairways. They just don't look like they're made up of real golf turf. I think what's missing is the texture, and maybe this is a limitation of the hardware. The fairways look like that photo realistic crap we used to see in a lot of the old PC games. Mind you this is a minor gripe and in no way affects the gameplay or my overall enjoyment of the game. But if we're going to do next gen, let's do it right! The create a player feature returns and is better than ever, but its going to take some time to create that "virtual you" accurately. It took me about a half an hour and I'm still not totally happy with the results. My biggest complaint is that the black characters skin has that CG shiny look to them, as though they're made of plastic. It looks pretty creepy.

TV style presentation was promised in this years version, but I personally don't see it. They've added picture in picture after a shot, and that's about it. Some of the camera angles they switch to after a shot are totally disruptive and ruin the gameplay exeperience. Especially when putting. Too bad we don't get presentation sliders to change camera views. The commentary is rehashed from 3 years ago, which is pretty disappointing. How hard is it to get these guys back in the studio at least once very two years? Lame.

Gameplay 9.5/10
This is why we buy the game every year, right? Let's face it. Tiger Woods golf games "used" to be a push over. You "used" to be able to take your golf shots without giving much thought to where the ball eventually landed because you knew you would sink a 46' put with your eyes closed. Well not anymore! The difficulty has finally been ramped up and the game actually provides considerable challenge. There are still a few annoying aspects to the gameplay, but I will get to those later. With the new "true aiming system" the size of your target marker is based on your golfers experience level. No longer can a player just starting out take dead aim at every flag stick. The aiming circle changes in size as you change clubs and as your player gains more experience. The scoring clubs such as the SW, LW and PW have smaller circles, while the Driver and fairway woods are noticeably larger. This automatically makes the game harder and more life real golf. I watch a lot of golf on tv and I know that you can't take dead aim on every hole. You have to consider the "risk/reward" factor before taking your shot and this new aiming system makes you do just that. So even if your timing on your swing is perfect there's still no guarantee your shot will make it to within 10 feet of the hole. Just like in real golf. Yes! I'm playing my career on the "Hard" difficulty setting and it is providing just the right amount of challenge. In last years version you had the option to max out your power or accuracy stats anytime you wanted, which made the game unbalanced and too easy. In this years version you have to practice and even then the computer decides at what pace you increase your abilities. It was an ingenious way to make the game more challenging, while also giving it more replay value. Other than the True Aiming system, the next biggest change to gameplay has to be in the putting. No longer is there a 2 foot vaccum surrounding the hole. You will have to earn every putt that you make, and the greens are flat out murder! Be extra careful with those downhill putts!!!! Thank God they got rid of that stupid "Game Breaker" feature, that was essentially a gimme on any putt at any length. It really made the game feel cheap last year. While I refuse to use the A button for a power boost or spin control, it does make a return in this years game. I don't know of any golfer that's able to shape their shot by imparting spin to the ball in mid-air. This a cheesy gimmick and I wouldn't be upset if it was removed from future versions.

I do have a few gripes about the gameplay. First of all some of the shots off the tee are inconsistent. I know in real life, shots can go anywhere off the tee but distance shouldn't vary by 60 to 70 yards per shot. My golfer's driver power is a 250. Some drives go 259, and some go 202! Very frustrating when you're trying to win a tiger challenge against an opponent that consistently nails 269 yard drives. My other gripe is the "catch up" AI. I'm on my third match in the Tiger Woods Challenge, playing against Tenanaka the Japanese guy. The first time I played him he was missing putts left and right. Before the next match I upgraded my equipment, and increased my stats a little. Wouldn't you know that now he's sinking puts like Chevy Chase in Caddy Shack! It makes the game challenging but in a cheap sort of way. My last gripe is with the putting stats. It seems to me that this is a stat that shouldn't be upgraded. If you read the greens correctly you should make the putt. You should not be aided by the computer by increasing your stats. It kind of takes the fun out of it for me. Either you can putt or you can't, but it shouldn't be left up to the computer.

Overall 9/10
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2007 is still be the best golf game out there on any system even with 17 fewer courses than the current gen version. Providing more challenge than years past you will be playing Tiger 07' for months to come. Daily tournaments on Xbox Live is also a major plus! With only a few issues in presentation and graphics keeping it from getting a perfect score this one is a sure fire hit. Go pick it up today, and I'll see on the first tee!

DT