Featured Books & Games

BY RICK TITTLE

Ah, Tiger. I, for one, have very little interest in his personal life.  Pious or impious, loyal or cheater, it really doesn’t matter to me.  I won’t judge him on being a husband but I will judge him on being a golfer.  And when it comes to golf, we’ve never seen anything like him…until this last year, when his game took some refining, shall we say.  He lost countless amounts of money as sponsor after sponsor pulled away from him, yet Electronic Arts stuck by his side, something which I think is commendable.  You may think it was because of financial considerations, because golf without Tiger is less attractive, but the fact of the matter is that the game is still being made.  So this review on his latest video game is about his video game with nothing else sprinkled in.  Now that we have that straight…

I have to first admit that I’ve never been a huge fan of this franchise.  My tastes for video golf lean more towards the Hot Shots titles.  The Tiger games were always quite stiff and it took EA until last year to introduce “real weather elements”, something which we’ve seen since the days of Colecovision.  They used to just simply slap the name “Tiger” on the box and then let it sell itself.  So with new scrutiny and less credibility, EA had to put a full effort into this year’s incarnation.

I’m glad to say that they have done just that.  The game is much better than last season’s effort.  The biggest addition is play function called True-Aim. What this does is it removes the accuracy circle when zooming into your shot and forces you to aim your ball entirely from an over-the-shoulder view. This is the same viewpoint as you would have in real golf!  The only bad part is that it means there's no camera tracking as your ball flies through the air. Instead, you have to gauge how well you hit the ball by the reaction from the gallery.  Realistic?  I’d say yes.

Another big improvement is the addition of the Ryder Cup, which is when golf is it at it’s most interesting.  You can still create a player in Career Mode and then qualify for the Ryder Cup or just plunge right in with an established pro.  The voice commentary by Scott Van Pelt and Kelly Tillman, however, are mailed in and drab.  Still, the thrill of draining that last put to beat those unshowered Europeans is quite fulfilling!

All in all, this game is pretty good, especially considering how lame the previous titles were.  I give it a decent 7.5.

Rick Tittle can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it