Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07 (Sony PlayStation 2, 2006)

I've bought the Tiger Woods golf game for quite a few years now, and before that I used to buy PGA Golf on the Sega (and then Playstation 1) with the bar that goes right and then back left, and you time it just right with the X button or whatever button it was to hit right on the line to go straight (if you mistimed it to the left it'd be a hook, to the right a slice). I can't remember for sure if was an X or B or whatever, it's been like 10 years or more since I played PGA Golf on Sega. But that wasn't the point of the game because after awhile you always hit a perfect shot. The point of the game was before the shot. The strategy was the aiming, and figuring out what the ball was going to do out of the rough, sand, etc. But after awhile, that wasn't really any fun either, unless you had a bunch of friends together who liked to drink. After a few beers, your timing would be off and it wasn't as easy to hit that bar right on the spot, so you'd slice a little. Then after a few more beers, you'd slice more absurd. Then you'd have to play your absurd slice.

Then came the PGA game that had the same thing, but the meter would go in a semi-circle. It would go up and then down somewhat simulating a golf swing, and that seemed revolutionary at the time. It was much harder and at times frustrating. But like anything, you got used to it and it was no big deal. Then came Tiger Woods on PS2, and that changed the golfing video game world as we know it. They had you pull the left joystick back, short pause, and then swing. Then they added in the power boost that had you tapping while you were swinging. This took a while to get used to as well, because you had to do two things at once, so 'til you got used to it, you'd slice or hook bigtime. And this is what we've come up with for our present day game.

This is the model game now, and nothing else really comes that close to the Tiger Woods games (I've been waiting awhile though for them to add something new), just like nothing ever really came that close to the Madden series for football (some people liked ESPN for its 1st person thing, but for realism Madden is king). I liked some of things that they did on '06 game, namely climbing the legend chain of command and doing other things on the way. But the one thing that annoyed me the most was the gamebreaker meter. If you filled your gamebreaker, all you had to do was hit X on your backswing repeatedly and it would be a great shot regardless of your swing. If you had turbo on your controller, it would just go in the hole every time. After awhile that got really lame. So I'm glad '07 got rid of that. But there are some cool new games that '07 has that weren't available in previous years, like Bloodsome (which is alternate shot except you take the worst drive, a little different but cool), One-Ball (which has you hitting 1/2 way to hole and the other team shoots, cool strategy game 'cause if you miss you don't want to be too close to the hole so that your opponent has an easy shot), and Team-Ball which replaces the legends thing (Team-Ball's actually a little less cool than the legend's game, but the other new games make up for it bigtime). Plus, I think this year's game is much more touchy than last year's game as far as the slice thing goes. Last year I'd get birdie or better on most every hole, but this year is a little trickier. Putting's tougher too. By far, I like '07 much better than '06 (goodbye gamebreaker).

The Good:
Lots of great courses; best create-a-character around; gameplay is as enjoyable as ever; plenty of licensed golfers;

The Bad:
Not a whole lot different from 06; some menus are needlessly abstruse; David Feherty and Gary McCord have worn out their welcome;

With companies focusing their energy and resources on next-gen consoles rather than on the current generation of systems, there hasn't been a whole lot to look forward to with this year's crop of sports games. Rather than add radical new gameplay ideas or revamped visuals, developers seem to be content to simply toss in a few new minigames or subtle control changes, and then send their games off to the factory. Such is the case with Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07. It has more courses, golfers, and play modes than last year, but ultimately, little has changed.

Tiger Woods 07 is a heck of game, but it's so similar to last year's version that the question "Does this game really need to be a yearly release?" should be asked. You get a few new golfers and courses, as well as a few more control and difficulty options, but the whole package is roughly the equivalent of an expansion disc. If you own Tiger Woods 06, there's little reason to pick up Tiger Woods 07, unless you're just dying for new content, minimal as it may be. That said, if you've never played a Tiger Woods game before, or you've been away from the series for a few years, Tiger Woods 07 is well worth a purchase.

This game will give you quite a challenge. Tiger and all the great golfers on the tour put up a fight as you battle them to be number one. Tiger Woods 07 has a wide variety of courses to play and plenty of competition to choose from.

My personal favorite feature is creating your own player. Create your golfer and take 'em on tour and boost your skills until your top notch like Tiger.

This game is a must have for fans of golf, and even if you're not really into golf, you'll love this game for its awesome graphics and hours of fun.

This is a very realistic golf game if you enjoy a challenge. Of course the skills required are more video game skills than golf playing skills but it makes you want to go play the real thing. But I personally have less than average video game skills so I felt left behind unlike TW PGA 2005 where the difficulty level had a wider range and rewards needed to upgrade equipment and player characteristics were more easily attainable. TW PGA 2005 is my all time favorite but in my opinion 2007 is a must have if you enjoy video game golf. And although my skills are lacking, careful, conservative play on 2007 has slowly rewarded me to a point where the game is fun again and not so difficult.

This game will frustrate and thrill you. The graphics are amazing. I created a golfer that looks so much like me it is scary. I have a 4 year old boy that loves to play golf games on the Playstation and we did discover this game is too complicated for him, but for everyone else it is wonderful. Just difficult enough for me, but not so difficult I give up.
If you are looking for a fun game at a lower price then 07 vs. 08 could be your answer.