Tiger Woods PGA ’09 review
Tiger's game remains the same in 2009
By Nick Lewis
Published on Canada.com on Wednesday, August 27, 2008
The average length of an NFL player's career is four years, according to that league's players association. The average length of a golfer's career isn't charted by the PGA, but it's likely between five and 10 times that.
What this really means is that most of the real-life golfers you played as four years ago on Tiger Woods PGA Tour '05 are back on the '09 version of the game, with the same relative skill set. They haven't swapped teams or retired, except a few of them now wear different polos.
In this year's edition, Tiger wears a green shirt. Ooh!
That's not much motivation to purchase the same game over again, and while PGA Tour '09 is a solid stand-alone title in its own right, there's very little innovation to recommend it to gamers who already own a recent version of the franchise.
It will be most attractive to the online sports gamer, as the '09 version now lets four players go head-to-head simultaneously. This means all four players online play each hole at the same time, without having to wait for the other to take his turn. Not only does that considerably cut down the length of an 18-hole course, it also allows you to get into a rhythm, and take brief pauses whenever you like.
The other new features are, frankly, pointless. Woods' real life coach Hank Haney now guides you through your career with tips and pointers, and there's a new club tuner that lets you customize every club in your bag. I doubt many gamers are looking for either new addition.
Some changes from previous iterations are frustrating, such as the new Dynamic Skills engine that automatically raises or drops your created characters' skill sets based on the last round they shot. Hey, when I want my character to be as good as Tiger right out of the box, the last thing I want is to see my skills diminish because of one lousy hole. At least giving me the option to create my golfer as good or as bad as I'd like would have been nice.
There are a four new golfers added to this year's edition, such as Se Ri Park and Darren Clarke, although if you consider that the '05 edition allowed you to play as Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Seve Ballesteros and even Justin Timberlake, it doesn't sound all that impressive.
There has been some graphical improvement in the new version, with sharper details on some holes and just a general brightness and better contrast around all the courses. And I will say that the swing mechanics, a crucial part of most golf games, seems more forgiving in the '09 version than it did in the '08, allowing for a more enjoyable round of golf.
But again, it's still not enough to replace last year's version on your shelf. Considering the real Tiger has taken the year off golf to nurse a bum knee, you shouldn't feel bad about taking the year off from his video game series.
Tiger Woods PGA Tour '09
Publisher: EA Sports
Systems available on: PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, PS2, PSP
System reviewed on: PS3
Rating: 3 1/2 out of five
