Eye of the tiger

by ERIK LEIJON

Not unlike the title’s marketable star, the Tiger Woods golf games can be painfully reliable. What separates the real Tiger from the digitized one, however, is that the latter never exceeds expectations, but always provides enough new content and solid gameplay to ensure another successful year (kinda like the Rory Sabbatini of games), while the Buick-hocking, Swedish-nanny-shacking record-breaker tends to obliterate the field at will.

With only a cartoony (although still recommended) Hot Shots Golf to compete with, EA finds itself in an enviable position, one that usually spells the end for innovation—thankfully that isn’t the case. Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08 (Multi/EA, EA Tiburon) plays, and seems, no different from previous versions—parts are even unplayable—but the new GamerNet mode (an online community where players challenge each other) comes shining through like a sand save on the 18th at Augusta.

The Tiger Woods series has been littered with bugs in the past, and frustrated gamers have been venting on message boards about connection problems, specifically the 360 version. I haven’t experienced any, beyond a few lost connections and a nagging problem where players frequently take drops when they shouldn’t. For instance, I would slice my drive only slightly in the rough, and my character would automatically take a drop in the middle of the woods.

Like a monster drive over the hazard, the new GamerNet mode avoids these problems and is an ingenious way to deliver user-based content and golf together. At any point during the game (either online or offline), if you make a lucky sand shot or long putt, it can be saved and posted online for all to see. Other players can attempt to recreate your lucky shot and will even receive points in the process. Golf is very much a social game, and partaking in wind-assisted, long-drive challenges with a huge online community easily trumps the lack of new courses and horrible in-game animations (poor Paula Creamer looks more like a jellyfish than the “Pink Panther”).

Of great fun are the freestyle challenges, which basically amount to trick bank shots, à la Michael Jordan/Larry Bird McDonald’s commercials. Perhaps the best part is that GamerNet is the rare golf club that doesn’t care about your race or lack of funds.

The main feature is a well-conceived but horribly executed series of mini-games called the Tiger Challenge. Players can either create their own avatar or play as a skill-reduced Tiger Woods, and take on a series of contests such as Bingo-Bango-Bongo (first on green, closest to pin and first in hole) or best score. It’s partially necessary to struggle through this abomination in order to join the online Buick challenges, but your built-from-scratch character is so terrible and unforgiving for beginners that even the simple challenges seem unnecessarily hard. A minor gust of wind could hit your gaming room and send your thumb slightly off the analog stick during your wind-up, causing massive hooks and slices. It’s more fun to take a pro golfer (including a surprisingly svelte John Daly) to grip and rip with friends.

You’ll enjoy Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08, provided you stick with GamerNet.

Madden mini-review

The plan was to do a full review of Madden 08 (Multi/EA, EA Tiburon) but there wasn’t enough new content to warrant a complete article. The Madden series has always been pretty decent, so the inclusion of an online season mode might be enough to convince even fair-weather fans to stick with the Big Man for another year. Stay away from the PS3 version if you can—the animation is choppy.