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Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09

by Steve Wysowski September 17th 2008 9:19 PM CDT0 Comments

I have never played a Tiger Woods game before, and if I sat down and thought about it, I could come to the conclusion that I've never played a real golf game before either (excluding Wii Sports of course). To say I have a limited knowledge of golf titles would be an accurate assessment, so you can pencil me down as not only new to the franchise, but new to the entire system of how a golf game should be design. So I have ventured into Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09 completely oblivious to the series' past, and to the video game simulation of golf itself. The only virtue that I was really reviewing the game upon was how enjoyable it was to me, which in my opinion should the essence of any review to begin with.

For a newcomer, Tiger Woods 09 is very, very easy to pick up. I figured out how to play the game with all of its intricacies, in about two rounds of golf. When compared to most modern sports titles, this is an incredibly shallow learning curve. Don't let that throw you off though, because it was also one of the game's highest pros. Golf, in all reality, is a simple game. You're goal of getting the ball in a hole very far away from you is s less complicated than a majority of all sports. So naturally, a simulation of the physical game itself should be just as simple: and Tiger Woods 09 hits a four hundred yard drive in that department.


All of the controls are simple yet intuitive: to swing, use the left analogue stick. To aim at a specific target point, simply press B and guide your target with the right analogue stick. To switch clubs, press X or LT. Camera angles help your overall experience, giving you full angles of each individual hole before you tee off, and give you realistic television based views when you're about to swing. The simplicity of the game is unparalleled to most other titles and it is rather unprecedented

The only problem I have encountered with the game's control scheme is the handling of a shot's backspin, which is able to determined while the ball is in air, not during your backswing. I'm pretty sure not even Tiger Woods has the psychic powers to guide a ball mid-air. But besides that one hitch, everything works pretty seamlessly together, and as far as I can tell, the game controls work rather seamlessly. Sure, the 360 doesn't have the Wii-motion controls to make this a "true" golf-simulation, but it's still great none the less.

Thus far, you're reading this review thinking that everything is honky dory in the world of Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09, but that would be far from reality. Once you tee off, everything in the game runs smoothly (as stated before), but everything between holes and outside of the core gameplay is a flat out mess.

Presentation has always been something important to me as far as video games go, and Tiger Woods lacks a lot in that department. There is only one word that can be used to describe the game's visuals: ugly. Player models don't move smoothly, grass textures are bland, and the game's water effects are borderline-horrible. In fact, it's a bit of an eyesore just too look at some holes due to their rushed feel.


What's really shocking is the lack of detail and polish that has gone into the entire game. Bad crowd animations are running rampant, all available menus aren't too visually appealing, vocal work and commentating feels out of place, and the game's career mode feels a bit underdeveloped despite the amount of things that you can do in it. The most critical flaw the game possesses is the amount of load times present: there is a load time between each hole. Not only does this kill whatever flow the game has, but it's an absolute annoyance. There's a great online mode present which allows you to tee off simulataneously with you're opponents, but the same loading problems plague this experience as well but with loading times four times as long.

Still, if you can look past all of the game's presentation problems, you can easily find a solid and intuitive golf experience. As far as I can see, this is the best PGA game out on the market, and if you're into golf, then PGA Tour 2008 is definitely worth a purchase. However, if you're not a religious follower of the sport, then I suggest you that you should either rent the game or pass on it.