Amazon.com: Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09: Xbox 360: Video Games

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4.5 out of 5 stars (30 customer reviews)

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26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars EA Sports, "Its in the cup!", August 27, 2008

David P. Castellani "Casty" (Hyde Park, NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

= Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars

This review is from: Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09 (Video Game)

The first thing you'll notice is the complete graphics overhaul from 08 that completely immerses you a truly Hi-def golfing realm with the most detailed and beautiful courses you'll ever witness designed down to a "Tee" to their real-life counterparts. I was blown away by the 08 to 09 screen-shot comparison, needless to say 09 blows 08 out of the water hazard. And when I say overhaul, EA really went out of their way to make this a Golf Graphical masterpiece and that's not even touching upon Tiger's rep for uncanny ability to produce drug-like addictive game play that can only be subsided with therapy.

As typical to recent Tiger tradition, this game uses the thumb-stick to simulate your swing; pull back and push forward as straight as you can to take a flawless swing. The further and longer you pull back on your backswing, the higher percentage of power will be applied to your shot. If you pull or push slightly to the right or left with your thumb-stick motion, you will end up slicing or hooking your shot in varying degrees depending on how bad you shanked one. Last year's gameplay suffered because it was so finely tailored to your thumb-stick motion that you had to be insanely precise and accurate with your swing in order to have a decent day on the golf course often leaving your blood boiling in frustration. Holes-in-ones and chip-ins were a rare-breed. 09 relaxed a bit and is more forgiving with the thumb-stick swing and accuracy. What I really like this year is that it displays your thumb-stick motion with lines (one for backstroke & one for follow-through) on the ball icon at the bottom left to show you exactly what you are doing right or wrong which allows you to re-adjust if needed for your next shot. Brilliant. This same ball icon also shows you how much extra power you put on your swing (Tap A during you backswing to add power to your shot), the percentage power of your shot (how far you took your backswing) and the spin on your ball (Tap A while ball is flight and a direction).

For the first time since Tiger's debut, you do not have to start from the bottom of the attributes barrel; no more starting at the beginner level and move your way up from scratch. Depending on how well you perform in the intro-training mode with Coach Haney will determine your initial skill level. If you played Tiger before (which I'm sure most of reading this have), your skill should be nowhere near the "Beginner" level. If you are Tiger vet like myself, you should start the game at somewhere in the "Pro" or "Master" level. If you are new to the game, don't panic as this game teaches everything you need to know with Tutorials with Coach Haney and, trust me, leaves plenty of room for improvement. What is also new, and you may dislike or like this feature, is the fact each attribute (four total) and your overall skill level can increase or decrease (*new) depending on how well you played the previous course. In previous versions, you could only improve upon attributes. This year, if you play crappy, expect your attributes, where you executed poorly, to go down. Further to boot, Coach evaluates your performance at end of a course or play and gives you the appropriate attribute training sessions on areas where he feels you need improvement. Choose to train or not, it's up to you -- Coach is just trying to further improve your game. This new skill concept certainly draws this game closer to real golf (even Tiger has bad days) and makes for almost an endless challenge.

The four attribute levels, compressed from previous versions, are: Power, Accuracy, Short Game and Putting. Also, you will have an Average Skill (an average of all four attribute skill levels) rated zero to ten (0-10). If you are smashing drives straight, look for your power and accuracy to increase. If you're shanking drives into the woods, look to botch your power and accuracy skill.

Also for the first time (I love new features), you can tune your clubs. Not happy with your accuracy, increase the sweet spot of the club ultimately giving you more control but sacrificing power or vice versa. You can also tweak loft, spin, fade and draw. Tune club mode puts you on a driving range, allowing you to tune the club in question and then immediately test it out on the range. Too much draw, no problema -- tweak it until that baby is hitting straight. Do you need to counteract your slice with a slight draw - here's the spot to do it. More power less control, yup. Do you want more loft on your short game irons to place the ball dead accurate near the cup, you got it -- tweak and tune your clubs to match your style.

Character creation and customization: One of Tiger's strong suits lie with player progression and customization. Nothing new, with tiger this year as last, you have an infinite number of options to create a character so that your avatar in the game almost identically matches your real life counterpart right down to the mole on your forehead. You can use the infamous Gamernet to upload your picture and face-capture your mug in a 3D rendering onto the game. Further customize your mug and player by inputting style of hair, clothes, height, weight etc. Game play, depending on how you play, will give you credits towards accessories, clubs and clothes to purchase to further develop your character .

Commentary: With a new face comes a new voice, 09 has changed a long tradition by switching commentators. The hilarious mockumentary and savviness offered by McCord and Faherty are out and will certainly be missed. Their refreshing, witty dry humor made you laugh and shone light even if you were having a bad day on the course. I won't deduct too many points though because it seems those guys were around Tiger for a long time and hearing different voices, at least at first, is refreshing but obviously not as humorous. Kelly Tillman and Sam Torrance are up to bat now and although uber-savvy in the world of golf lack in adding any new depth, excitement and humor. All is not lost, they offer great commentary, history, advice and still let you know when you are awful.

"New Courses and Golfers-Test your skills on new courses, including Gary Player Country Club in South Africa, Wentworth Country Club in England, and more, while international stars Se Ri Pak, Darren Clarke, and others join the competition." Amazon.com. Yes Yes and Yes!

Update: After Coach Haney's initial evaluation (one for every attribute: Driving, Accuracy, Short Game and Putting), he will give you an initial rating with a maximum rating of 4 (out of 10). No, you won't be able to be a perfect 10 at the start the game regardless of how well you perform in training. After all, what fun would that be. It leaves room to truly master your game. Play a round in a tournament or take on the Tiger Challenge to increase your attributes. If you've played Tiger before, it won't be long before you reach an average skill of 8 or 9. If you are close to 10, you've mastered and had a flawless streak. The challenge is to be within a certain distance on consistent basis. Even if you are scoring low, if you're not target, your rating will indeed suffer. If your game needs some work, you'll be a 7 and if are a rookie to the series, you be at the 6 or below. The great thing about Tiger, whether new to it or not, it gives plenty of opportunities to improve and more importantly makes you keep coming back for more.

Tiger Challenge has been overhauled and its welcomed change. Instead of a going through a Dynamic Challenge Tree where you select which direction to go in, this time you have to earn enough points to face the boss (PGA Star) of that stage. Each stage as 8+ challenges that you can play to earn points to face the boss. Once the boss of that stage is beaten, you move onto the next level until you ultimately reach Tiger Woods himself. This makes it more linear than the previous versions but it still fun and challenging nonetheless. If anything, Tiger Challenge is a fast way to earn cash to purchase new clothes and equipment.

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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A worthy purchase even if you have Tiger Woods 08, August 30, 2008

Bacchus (Boston, MA USA) - See all my reviews

= Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars

Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)

This review is from: Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09 (Video Game)

First, I must say that I am a HUGE fan of the Tiger Woods games. I have always enjoyed each years release and have never been disappointed with any version save for the number of courses included (more on that later).

-The new dynamic ability system is fantastic. I have good days and bad days on the course in real life and it does impact my overall ability so it is nice to see this included in the game. Some people will hate this though as it does punish you if you have a really bad round and forces you to place importance on EVERY shot regardless of whether you are in the hunt or not.

-Graphics- there is definitely a noticeable improvement in the graphics. The course textures are more detailed and varied and the lighting has been improved 10 fold which gives the whole course a real nice look and casts some really gorgeous shadows from the trees. The water is insanely beautiful. The only downside is the trees. While they are much improved over last years version there are times when some of them are downright ugly. What makes them look worse is that the rest of the course is so beautifully rendered.

-The sound effects are great as always with a plethora of diverse environmental sounds on every hole. The cheers from the crowd sound good as well. As stated in another review on Amazon, it would have been nice to be able to turn off the crowd and just listen to the course sounds so it feels more authentic to when you go out in real life. The commentary is awful as always so I just turn it off.

-Club tuning is now a feature in Tiger Woods and I like it quite a bit. It feels very authentic going to the range and tweaking how your clubs work and it definitely has an impact on the game, at least it does for me.

-Courses - I believe there are 16 in this year's game which is the same number as last year. There are some great new additions like Wolf Creek and the Gary Player Country Club but there should have been at LEAST another 4 courses included. I am certain that EA will dress up some of the older courses from years past and sell them to us for 400 ms points which is just plain wrong. How about this EA? For each brand new course you want to sell to us on the marketplace include one of the older courses for free. 2 courses for 400 points sounds perfect to me.

There is also an option to actually PURCHASE items in the pro shop with ms points. A clever idea but the prices are so high that it is just not worth it because you can still just earn in game money and purchase them. I tested it out and they wanted 200 ms points for a polo shirt that provided NO bonus skill at all. Insane. They should have made these items 20-30 ms points each at most.

So there you have it, a quick rundown of my opinions on Tiger Woods 09. I am sure there is more I should have said but I want to go play now :)

Overall I highly recommend this game to anyone that remotely likes video game golf. I am VERY happy with my purchase!!

PS- Hey EA, leave Take Two alone. You already own too much and have ruined countless games. Bioshock and GTA do not need your unrealistic corporate deadlines interfering with product quality!!

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars What exactly is the Co-op portion of the game, April 4, 2009

Mr. Matthew R. Matzkvich "hammertime" (hammertime) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

= Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars

This review is from: Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09 (Video Game)

There is no doubt Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09 has beautiful graphics and great game play but it's pretty much been that way since 06. My main beef is the fact that the game case clearly says co-op 2 for regular and online play, but I see no difference from past Tiger Woods PGA Tour's!!! The game should include co-op in regards to the career mode so my buddies and I can play the tour together... Playing mini-games against one another gets old quick! But playing on the same tourney or tour with a friend gaining career attributes etc against the computer is more constructive and full filling! Again great game but I recall co-op tour play on Fox Sports Golf circa 99' PS1 so being that Tiger Woods has a monopoly on golf games for the Xbox 360 I guess I'll just have to accept it and hope they wise up and include co-op tour play.

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