Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09

I did have the 08' version of this game and I really enjoyed it.
With tiger 09' the improvements are subtle but do just about make it worth another £40 investment.

Everyone will be glad to hear that the graphics have been slightly improved from 08' and the general presentation of menus and scorecards etc. has been improved vastly, making it much easier to navigate round the different areas of the game.

Online play has been improved and is very good. The main feature that EA are pushing is the 4player online simultaneous play. Basically, everyone can play shots at the same time, so you don't have to wait around for ages. This is a good idea and does speed up 4 player online games vastly.

Another new feature I kinda like is the ability to upload gamernet challenges whilst playing a single player tournament. Eg. if you make a hole in one in a single player tournament, you can upload it straight away to gamernet and have other people try to beat your shot.

I believe there are 4 or 5 new courses to play (not as many as I had hoped for) but a nice addition all the same.

The ability to tune your clubs is also quite cool but a bit unnecessary I have found as if you use the 3 click swing system, you can usually hit the ball straight and long all the time (on normal difficulty!)

Overall a nice improvement on 08', but more could have been done to improve the character customization, some new courses and maby some new game modes. (the mini games are just a bit bland)

Gameplay - 5/5
Graphics - 4/5
Online - 4/5
Presenation - 5/5
Overall - 9/10

Definitely recommended to not only golf fans, but anyone in general.
Its good, long lasting fun!

The general consensus of EA by the paying public over the past years has been that they care not about their customers and just churn out sports sims year after year because they know they will sell. The customer normally buys them on a yearly basis in the vain hope that they have become fun again, because certain titles have fully licensed kits or because EA have simply bought out the competition.

It is because of this that in the last four years or so I have avoided any EA sports title as I don't like shelling out £40 each time for a miracle.

But until recently I worked at the head office of Europe's biggest games retailer and that aforementioned consensus was starting to change. After having regular chats with the online content team it was becoming quite clear that EA have started to make games fun again.

On a recommendation I took a chance on Tiger Woods 09 and I have to say that I am actually enjoying playing it. The last version of Tiger Woods I played replicated my real world frustration at playing 18 holes on a bad day. It seemed that the game became a complete chore and I cheated my way to the top with various codes and trainer memory hacks. I really could not be bothered to sit in front of my T.V/monitor screen and get f'ing annoyed at a game that made me want to throw my real clubs around. I guess this could be down to bad gaming on my part but I simply didn't enjoy them.

Tiger Woods 09 on the other hand is actually fun, the biggest thing that bugged me about previous attempts was the fact you could hear a crowd ... but not see them? This element alone made you feel totally alone on the courses, replicating real world golf I suppose but I normally try to drag a friend around for a gruelling 18 holes. Besides, you are supposed to be playing on the PGA Tour. Well Tiger Woods 09 adds some cardboard cut outs on the course which adds a little something to the events you play and makes it feel like you are part of a tournament increasing the playability in my opinion.

With most games I buy customisation is a big element that I enjoy, I have been known to spend more time in edit mode on games than actually playing them and Tiger Woods is no different. I spent a large part of my time playing with both Game Face and normal edit mode. My attempt at importing Kate Beckinsale into the game didn't work too well but my own face went in a treat and was very easy to do. The website method was the easiest for me as I couldn't get a decent shot from the Xbox Vision camera I own. The process was very easy and fun to do although Mac users beware that the upload feature on the site does not like OS X, I had to run my Winbloze XP partition to upload images. The lack of eye and hair colours is a bit disappointing and the prices of some of the accessories are silly, especially considering that the stuff you can waste $'s on gives you no stats boost at all. Buying a cap purely for aesthetics just isn't worth it when they cost so much. Don't get me wrong, I don't want instant gratification but I want some sort of reward from buying a golf glove for ten grand otherwise I will continue to play in the default EA Sports stuff until I am an in-game millionaire.

The graphics are very nice. The water effects are stunning and all adds to the overall polish of the game. The courses feel organic with the ball physics working very well. Thank god they toned down that spin system as you could get some stupid cheat shots off ridiculous ball bounces. It all feels that little more realistic in that sense.

Having only just started a career mode I have found it to be very enjoyable so far winning my first tournament makes me want to play the game more (why am I typing this?) and something I love in this version is the "Three click" system. With majority of golf games all jumping on the bandwagon with the analogue method of playing, it is nice to have this feature in the game which you can switch to anytime you like. It helps so much when putting or playing your short game and opens up a new level of accuracy, how many times have you blasted a ball over the green by using the analogue stick to play your shots in previous versions?

Well to sum up Tiger Woods 09 is well worth playing and I hope that EA continue with this method of improving their sports titles. God knows they needed to!

I have really enjoyed playing this game. It's amazing how time just seems to melt away and I really feel I'm "right there" in the game when I'm playing. It's easy to get lost in the drama of the match in the wonderful surroundings.

So what works so well? In part it's the graphics which really are superb and add significantly to my enjoyment of the game. Then of course there's the control mechanism - I always use the "swing with the left stick" method which feels more real to me, and seems to echo the way I really play golf. For example, if I'm tense because I'm playing a critical shot I'm more likely to fluff it than if I'm just on the driving range. And I really get a feel for the shot, with an ability to play delicate little chips as well as thumping great drives.

And the whole presentation is slick, which isn't surprising of course given EA have some many iterations of this game to learn from, with gradual refinements being made year on year.

But it's not all good: I find it a little too easy to be honest - when you're beating Tiger Woods by 12 strokes you know that you're doing well, but maybe a little too well for comfort. And the commentary this year is not as good, certainly not a patch on last year's excellent effort.

All in all though this is a fantastic game and well worth the money. I love the wolf creek course, and Sun City, and of course the old favourites like Pebble Beach.

I'll probably be playing this game for some time to come, and at the moment no other game is getting a look in.

Highly recommended.