I’ve been a big fan of the Tiger Woods series for years. I’m an avid golfer, both in real life and in the video game realm. There’s been times when I’ve been known to play Tiger Woods for 36 hours straight. This year delivers a solid gameplay experience, but falls short of expectations. Here is a breakdown of some of the facets of Tiger Woods 08 for the PS3:

Presentation and Graphics: Tiger Woods 08 is not much of an improvement over the 07 iteration. In fact, minus some minor character model tweaks, I don’t see much different from last year’s title in terms of graphics. I understand this is a yearly title, but I expected a bit more refining done in this area. The overall presentation of the game has been changed dramatically, which is a plus. When you first start up the game, you’re taken to a lobby with giant screens, similar to EA’s offerings for other sports games this year. It would have been cool if each area of the game brought you into a different room, as there’s no much there in the main menus. Contrary to other EA titles, the giant room and screen are just for show. In NBA Live and FIFA games, you can run around and practice. This isn’t the case in Tiger Woods 08. Hopefully these small presentation tweaks are incorporated next year. The last big new feature is the Photo Game Face, where you can take your picture with a USB camera and map it onto your character’s face. In multiple attempts both on the console and EA’s website, I have little luck in getting my Game Face to look anything like me. The process takes a good 10-15 minutes to complete, and sitting for that time and getting poor results on multiple occasions is very disheartening. It’s a great concept, but doesn’t deliver how it should. 3.5 of 5

Sound and Music: The sound effects were slightly improved in Tiger Woods 08 over last year’s game. Drivers now sound like they do in real life. Last year, all of the drivers sounded like they were made of carbon fiber instead of titanium faces. EA got it right this year, but didn’t make changes to any of the other clubs. Fairway woods could use a bit of work in the sound department, as they now get the carbon fiber sound for whatever reason. Most of these clubs have a stainless steel club head, which should give a distinctive pinging sound. What would be really cool for next year is giving each club it’s own distinctive real world sound. Shouldn’t be too hard to do. The music in the game is the standard EA Trax fare, which I never understood in Tiger Woods games. Golf doesn’t need thumping hip hop or banging rock music. 3.5 of 5

Gameplay: Tiger Woods games have always shined in the gameplay department, and the 08 iteration is no different. You start the game off by creating a character with minimal skills which you have to built up through the Tiger Challenge and PGA Tour Season. The Tiger Challenge has always been and continues to be the meat and potatoes of the game. This year it has been enhanced to give much more depth. In previous games, you would just go through opponents one by one to unlock characters, courses, and increase your skills. This year, the Tiger Challenge is mapped into an octagon made up on various challenges. To face off against a main competitor, you first have to complete 8 entry challenges. These range from long drive contests to small skins matches. Once you complete these, you can take on one of the main characters in the game. Defeating these characters will increase your character’s potential. You then have to train your golfer’s skills to live up the potential you have received.

A new addition to the gameplay this year is the ability to shape your shots with the L1 and R1 buttons. If you want to draw or fade the ball, you can apply those settings before your shot and see where it will end up. There’s no more need to move the analog stick in different directions and hope for the best. This turns down the degree of difficulty slightly, but adds more depth by allowing all players to shape shots as needed. 4 of 5

Multiplayer: The GamerNet feature of Tiger Woods 08 is an amazing concept. If you have a great shot, you can save it and post it online as a challenge for anyone in the world to complete. The problem is that it doesn’t work a lot of the time. The servers are down a lot, especially when trying to post new challenges. Server stability seems to be a general EA problem, so hopefully that gets resolved soon. Playing matches online though was very smooth. In multiple four player matches I never once encountered lag. There is an annoying feature online when matches end. As soon as the last stroke is made, you are disconnected from the session. So make sure to get those last words in quick before the last putt drops. 4 of 5

Lasting Appeal: There is a lot in of meat in Tiger Woods 08 to keep you coming back. The deep Tiger Challenge mode coupled with the GamerNet online component will keep you playing for hours on end. The large number of courses compared to previous year’s titles provides a much needed variety to the gameplay as well. 4 of 5

Final Word: Unfortunately, some parts of Tiger Woods 08 will frustrate some gamers to the point of putting the game down and not coming back. If you’ve never played a Tiger Woods game, definitely check out the demo and see what you think. If you’re a golf fan, this game is for you.

Overall: 3.75 of 5

1 = Not worth the bandwidth.

2= Demo is enough, not worth your money.

3= Game is good, depending on the price, seriously consider picking it up.

4= Worth your money. Should provide some good times for quite awhile.

5= Buy the game. Lock your door. Pick up a case of beer. This could take all night.