![]() ![]() Tiger Woods 09 adds other useful improvements, such as a new online mode featuring 4-player simultaneous play, clearly stolen, er, inspired by Hot Shots Golf. As in previous versions of the game, a three-point power gauge is available for players who prefer it, but with Hank available to help you, the thumbstick method finally feels like the right way to swing a club. You may then head to the workshop to adjust your clubs to the way you swing or, as in my case, you can learn not to curve the stick on your downswing by practicing on the range and monitoring that yellow tracking line. A virtual version of Tiger Woods’ coach Hank Haney will take you to a driving range and show you - via tracking marks that reflect your movement of the thumbstick - how you are actually swinging the club. Its “Club Tuner” feature lets you calibrate your clubs, from wedges to driver, to accommodate how you actually swing. Tiger Woods 09 is the first game to address this problem in a meaningful way. The position of my hands on a gamepad seem unconducive to a straight up and down movement of the stick, resulting in slices and hooks that feel arbitrary at best. Golf games began mapping the swing to the thumbstick a few years ago, and even though it makes sense on a simulation level, this control system has never felt comfortable to me. In older games the backswing and downswing were controlled by timed button presses that may not have accurately simulated the feel of an actual swing, but offered precise control and a fair challenge. Longtime virtual golfers may remember the pre-analog swing stick days with some fondness. This gameplay refinement adds a strong element of realism to the simulation and helps separate the game from needless RPG leveling-up mimicry. If you play a couple of rounds hitting poor iron shots, your attributes will decrease. If you’re knocking down pins with your short irons, the game rewards you with increased shotmaking proficiency in that area. Instead of accumulating points for grinding through challenges, the game rewards you for improving your skills. “Dynamic Skills” enable the game to respond to your play, fluctuating with your performance as it improves or declines. Tiger Woods 09 matches this feature with one that works better and feels more aligned with the ebb and flow of golf. Overall, it works unevenly, but the idea is a sound one. This year’s Madden includes an “Adaptive Difficulty Engine” that constantly assesses your skills and tailors the gameplay to match your style. But a closer look reveals a myriad of improvements and upgrades - sort of an aggressive nip and tuck approach by EA Tiburon - all of which add up to a significantly enhanced experience for gamers.ĮA has clearly committed itself to implementing adaptive technologies into its sports games. At first glance, it looks like just another installment in the franchise. Tiger Woods 09 is not an overhaul of last year’s game, nor does it contain a long list of new features. How did it happen? Well, I can tell you how it didn’t happen. This may quite possibly be the best golf game ever made. This is the best Tiger Woods game I’ve ever played. This is the golf game I have been waiting for. Walking off the 18th green after a scintillating match-play duel with Vijay Singh at the nasty/gorgeous TPC Sawgrass, it hit me. But a funny thing happened on the way to the clubhouse. So when this year’s edition, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09, arrived at my door, I expected more of the same. They lack the spirit of the real game, which is a problem for a series that purports to deliver a realistic simulation of golf. So golf games provide a certain vicarious experience for me that I don’t associate with other sports - all of which may help explain why I have never particularly enjoyed the Tiger Woods series of games.ĭating back to its roots as World Tour Golf, I have played nearly every annual iteration, and year after year I find myself thinking the same thoughts: these games are slick and well-produced, but essentially soulless. ![]() I am a fairly serious golfer in my so-called real life, but I live in a climate that prevents me from playing for six months out of the year. I devoted weeks to building an immaculate reproduction of Augusta National in Jack Nicklaus Signature Edition‘s course designer, and I have relished innumerable head-to-head battles in Hot Shots Golf, Mario Golf, and other great and not-so-great golf games. I sank hundreds of hours into the original Links series. I have a long love affair with electronic golf games. ![]()
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