
	Platform Xbox 360 Genre Sports Publisher Electronic Arts Developer EA Tiburon ESRB E (Everyone) Released August 28, 2007

- Franchise has refined itself into a nearly perfect-playing golf game - GamerNet expands the online opportunities beyond the usual Xbox Live golfing

- Supposedly improved putting controls don’t seem much different than previous games

Review: Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07 (Wii) Review: Tiger Woods PGA Tour 06 (360) Review: Outlaw Golf (GC)
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Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08

Score: 9.0 / 10

Simply the best there is – that’s who Tiger Woods is. Nobody in professional golf can touch the level of excellence that one Mr. Eldrick T. Woods possesses on the golf course. That could also be said once more of his latest videogame on the Xbox 360 from Electronic Arts, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08. There have been many good golf games to tee off over the years, but none have attained the level of overall quality of EA’s golfing franchise as exemplified in Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08.

There’s not too much new in the latest and greatest Tiger Woods PGA Tour title, but that’s because there wasn’t much of a need for the franchise to refine itself – it was already a stellar simulation golfing game (and arcade-style, for that matter) that didn’t need much fine-tuning.

However, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08 isn’t without some innovation and fresh content for gamers, including new golfers (most are from the ladies golf

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association, such as Paula Creamer to up-and-coming Natalie Gulbis) and yet more courses (from the new FexExCup Championship series, including East Lake and Westchester), and new gameplay advancement, although in the case of the new Shot Confidence, none but the totally hardcore Tiger Woods PGA Tour gamers will notice the upgrade.

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With Shot Confidence, the gamer’s past performance on the respective courses can determine how well they’ll do in the future. Using its Confidence Meter, Tiger Wood PGA Tour 08 accounts for the hole, shot type and other elements in earlier rounds on a particular course to establish a gamer’s confidence level that supposedly affects how well future rounds will go. But unless a gamer plays hours a day of Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08, most won’t experience noticeable gameplay variation from Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07.

Putt Preview refocuses Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08’s putting, giving gamers the ability to analyze every slope, break and line of a putt before taking the shot. I’m starting to sound like a broken record, but it’s hard to really notice much of a difference in putting from Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07. Again, as with many facets of the franchise, there wasn’t much of a need for a serious jump from already solid putting in previous renditions. Already possessing the stellar control that not many golf games can challenge, the Shot Confidence and Putt Preview allows Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08 to excel on the virtual course as well as Tiger Woods and his golfing skills do during the PGA season.

Once again, Tiger Woods PGA Tout 08 is outstanding online via Xbox Live, with another new feature added. GamerNet gives gamers the chance to upload their greatest moments on the course as challenges doled out to the entire Xbox Live nation. If others can match their feats or if they can conversely match the feats of others, online points are there to earn for those proven worthy of meeting the trials of gaming golf skills.

There’ some new golfers, courses and a few new features, but Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08 isn’t much different than its predecessor. But with the quality handicap it already owned, there wasn’t much need for the Tiger franchise to change its stripes. With a perfect balance of excellent simulation and arcade golf gaming and another round of good online play, EA’s flagship golfing game continues to dominate as the best around.

- Lee Cieniawa

lcieniawa@armchairempire.com

(September 28, 2007)