Customer Reviews

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08

5 star:		(40)
4 star:		(23)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

When I got my Wii, I eagerly awaited the release of TW07--it was good--using the wiimote as a club worked quite well, but the controls seemed a bit twitchy, both in menus and also rarely when swinging the 'club'.

TW08 is really what 07 should have been--yes the graphics are less than stellar, but they are significantly better than 07. The wiimote as golf club more than makes up for any missing graphical bliss--even my non-golfing friends that have seen this thought it would be fun. 08 also dropped the fantasy courses from 07 and added some more real courses--the missing fantasy ones are not a great loss to me, they were generally ridiculously difficult and a major obstacle for me completing the PGA tour portion of the game. I enjoy this game so much I'm thinking about taking up real golf again after 10 years of being away from the game--if only I could play as well as I do with the Wii......

Tiger Woods 08 is an excellent game for the Wii system. Using the remote as your golf club immerses you in the game. Even in the easy mode you have to pay attention to the lie, the wind, your club selection and your swing to be successful.

Creating your player is wonderful with an almost infinite amount of customization. As you play you earn money and can buy equipment: everything from clothing and jewelry to shafts and club heads. Very nice.

Tons of courses to choose from and lots of arcade and minigames to play means you'll never get bored with this game. It's also terrific with one player or four players.

I'm blown away that some people complain about the graphics: I love the graphics especially since the Wii is not a next gen, over-priced system. It is FUN and isn't that what you want from a system?

Tiger Woods '08 is a real winner. Video gaming doesn't get any better than this.

I've played Tiger Woods 05/06/07 on PS2, and I always enjoyed them. But, with the Wii system, Tiger Woods 08 is THE best golf game I have ever played. It basically puts Wii Sports: Golf to shame. It is amazingly easy to learn and fun to create your own player. You can even try out the new FedEx Cup Playoff format. They even have minigames for you to play, such as putt-putt. Overall, Tiger Woods 08 for the Wii very well may compete as the best game to come out for the Wii. It uses the Wii controller features at all times and actually requires you to tune your golf swing for different situations.

For the record, I am very new to this generation of video games. The last system I owned was a mid-90s SuperNES, but something about this new interactive element of the Wii interested me, especially the possibility of using real golfing motions to play TW08. So, even though I love the game, understand that I have no point of reference (this has been my only purchase) and can't really describe how it compares to other games.

What strikes me most about Tiger Woods 08 is the massive ambition to the "career" mode. Players start out as amateurs and must win a set amount of events and maintain a certain average score to even earn a PGA tour card. After that, players then have to do the same thing their first year on the tour to qualify for the majors. It's designed to replicate a golfer's career and really has no "end". At the end of each calendar year on the game, a next season begins, allowing the player to play the events again. I've had the game for two weeks and am just now earning my tour card (I average playing about an hour per day). Some of the goals set for my player include "winning every event" and "beating the record of 18 career majors". At the rate I play, I don't think it will be possible to complete all of my tasks in less than six months. I can remember buying NES and SNES games and beating them in one weekend, so a game like this really provides more enjoyment for your dollar.

Even if a person does everything that can be done on the career mode (which will take a long time), the game still provides an opportunity to play other players head to head in one-on-one match-ups. You can use regular or Stableford scoring, play match/skins games or play my favorite game, one-ball.

I've read a lot about flaws in the game and difficulty with shots, but I don't think it is a problem with the game. I have experienced the "quick shot" many talk about, where I hit the ball during what should be my backswing at only a fraction of the power, but each time I have done that, I have been in a hurry, changing clubs or position just before starting my swing. It's never happened when I have taken my time and played the shot properly. The game's biggest flaw is the ease at which you can get out of trouble. Rough and bunker landings don't ruin holes the way they should. The only difference between landing 130 yards away from the stick in the fairway and 130 yards away from the stick in the rough is the size of the club you need. Placing and spinning the ball is about the same from either. I routinely birdie and sometimes eagle holes when I have been in the rough and sand.

First let me start with the griping.

There are some rendering glitches -- hit it long and/or right on hole 2 at East Lake if you want a blatant example, one that thoroughly interferes with gameplay. The grass is suddenly so tall it consumes the entire screen, and the game grinds to a near halt. You can still hit it out from here, but you'll be doing it blind.

Second gripe involves false swings -- like the 07 version, it still has them. On many occasions, I find myself taking a backswing and having it mistaken for my real swing. This can blow an entire round, and it is not unusual for me to quit that entire round and start over.

Third gripe is nitpicky, but it's annoying and should have been caught -- you can't distinguish the difference between an 8 and a 9 in some of the screen fonts. The difference between a ball that's 80% up and 90% up is tremendous, but you wouldn't know which is which. One of them is a little bigger than the other, but after several weeks of daily play, I still can't keep them straight. This can be attributed to the general low-rezziness of the Wii overall, but it should have been accommodated by changing the font.

With all that out of the way, the game is an absolute blast wherever it's not broken. There's a bit too much dumb luck -- I'm holing aces and par-5 double eagles far more often than is remotely plausible, and I've even hit two holes-in-one in a single round -- but it does not hamper the fun factor at all. The courses are great. I can't say if they're particularly faithful, except for Riviera which I've at least seen with my own eyes, but they are distinct and play like you'd expect a real golf course to play. There isn't a mechanism for handling unplayable lies, as most of the time whatever impediment you've put your ball next to just disappears when it's time for the next shot, or the ball has mysteriously moved three feet to the left without you taking a drop. Again, this really doesn't hamper playability or fun, but it is odd. I do wish it was clear where "out of bounds" is though -- there are no stakes to tell you.

I find that the medium difficulty settings have been incredibly easy to master, even with the swing setting at "advanced" (harder to control but more flexible). If you have played the real game, with clubs and balls and real water and real sand in your shoes, you will probably want to increase the difficulty level pretty early or succumb to yawns -- but since you CAN increase the difficulty, it's the player's fault if the game is too easy.

I have also found it does not work best to take a two-handed swing. Unlike Wii Sports golf, there is no real control advantage to doing so. You can only vary the power of full shots within a range of about 90 to 110%, not 0 to 100% like you might expect, so incredible precision is not really required there. You might want to putt and chip with both hands, though I don't.

The ability to spin the ball after you've hit it almost feels like cheating, and the putt preview function pretty much IS cheating (which is why you are limited in time per round), but there are justifiable reasons to use both in a "fair" manner. For example, if you hit a ball already knowing what spin you will apply, rather than taking a wait-and-see approach, I think that could reasonably be considered fair. Similarly, since you will find yourself in events on courses you have never seen before, you can justify running a few putt previews to gauge the speed of the greens before you commit to a real shot. I find that I do not use the putt preview much outside of those completely "alien situations", as it is more difficult to repeat a perfect shot than it is to just get it right in the first place. (Then again, my putts-per-hole average is 1.2.)

The rendering isn't great, as the Wii really isn't up to photorealistic rendering and could badly use a touch of anti-aliasing, but this is not the fault of EA Sports, and it doesn't make the game any less fun. Non-golf-related moving objects such as animals and facial expression changes can be downright hilarious for the way they rapidly jump from one position to another without transition.

Overall, grab a Wii-mote, and grip it and rip it. You won't be disappointed -- unless you hit it long on East Lake #2.

I'm a real life golfer and have been playing Tiger since PS1 all the way to 07 on P23. 08 is my first year playing Tiger on the Wii.

If you're a golfer and like a realistic video game experience, then this is a great game. While it's not exactly real golf, the Wii motion controls are definitely a refreshing change from the thumb flicking on PS3/XB360. Drives, iron shots and putting are pretty true to form; chip shots a little touchy.

The clear negative on this game is the graphics. I know the Wii isn't capable of PS3 level grahpics, but I've definitely seen better (e.g. Metroid, Zelda). This game looks about the same as my last PS2 versions (05, 06).

If EA can improve the graphics, but keep the same great game play, they may have the best Tiger yet in 09.

I have played golf video games for the past 20 years and none of them could really hold my attention more than a week or so. Then came the Wii with motion sensing capabilities and now I play this game every time I get a spare monument. If you like golf, get this game. It is the closet thing to actually playing that you can buy right now. Plus, you get to play top PGA courses, and feel like you are there.

I sold my Tiger Woods 08 and bought 09 then had to sell 09 and get 08 back because of so many glitches in 09. Really like the 08 it extremely good....not great but good solid and dependable. Fun for all ages and you are able to work up a sweat and actually get some physical exertion but only if you want to.
I like the game and consider it a good value.

This is one of the most fun games I've played on Wii. I loved the commentators constant comments on each golfer's strokes. Comments like, "Well, that's not going anyplace," or "If only he could dig his way out of this hole," or "Here's one for the history books."

Poor Tiger -- when I chose him as my avatar he ended up 30 over Par on the Pebble Beach course. There are many different courses to choose from, and it is important to listen to the comments about the courses because the commentators describe the lay of each hole.

There are many avatars -- all pro golfers -- from which to choose your avatar, and you can use one or multiple controllers. We were using one until we finally figured out how to add the other controllers so each member of the foursome could "have their own clubs."

It's very educational, and I can't wait to play with my brother who is an avid golfer while I know practically zip about the sport. However, I did enjoy it as a sport -- something I never thought possible. I watched each of the shots my opponents hit, and cheered when my 9 year old pal got a hole in one.

It's a game for the whole family! 5 stars all the way. As soon as I can get my own Wii, this will be the first game I buy. If you golf or if you don't -- it will be fun, and it is also a lot of fun for the kids.

Because of this game I have a new respect for golfers, and I think I might actually watch one of the tournaments on TV.

Victoria Tarrani

This is a lot of fun and takes some real thinking. It can be very frustrating at times but is very realistic. The graphics are excellent and I put my all into swinging the clubs. With the Wii system you can get a pretty good workout only missing the walking. I guess all I need now is a treadmill to complete the experience.