MaximumPC 2006 12

H

ere’s the thing about Tiger Woods: If you tweak the settings appropri-
ately, it’s a fun, challenging golf game. If you play at the defaults, it’s
a too-easy, arcade-y piece of crap. After we double-eagled a par-5 on our
third hole with a miraculous 95-yard hole-in, we figured something screwy
was afoot. The longer we played, the screwier things got.
In just a few hours of play, we managed to make more 80-foot putts,
eagles, and insanely long chip-ins than an accomplished amateur could
expect to make in a lifetime of regular, real-world play. Hell, we even made
a hole-in-one! Once we changed the difficulty from Mickey Mouse, the
game became more fun. However, the difficulty gap between the default
Novice setting and the Intermediate setting is massive. Intermediate is
downright hard. Ideally, there would be one more level between the two that
omits the miracle-shots without being too tough-love.
Tiger eschews the old-school “three-click” swing technique for one
based on mouse movement. In order to succeed with the mouse-based
TrueSwing, you’ve got to maintain the tempo and direction of your mouse
movement perfectly. It’s possible to have a wicked slice in this game. You’ll
quickly get the knack of the long game, but we wish there was a little more
guidance within the short game. Players who aren’t experienced at reading
greens in the real world will have trouble using the standard putting grid to
accurately make putts.
While the courses are absolutely beautiful (and there are plenty to
be had), the graphics for the PC version are less impressive than in the
Xbox 360 version. And we’re curious why the PC version doesn’t sport the
streaming ESPN radio featured in the console versions. There’s something
indescribably cool about sitting down to shoot a round of golf and hearing
regularly updated baseball or hockey scores while you set up your game!
There are also many more multiplayer modes in the 360 version, which add
some needed variety to the standard golf-game types. We don’t, however,

miss the ridiculous in-air steering that’s included in the console versions

of Tiger.

The final reckoning

for a game like this is

tough. We’d like to see

more game modes, and

a more evenly scaled

difficulty scheme, but

for $40, we can’t com-

plain too much.

—Will Smith

Tiger Woods 2007

Frustratingly difficult or way too easy—the choice is yours

$40, http://www.tigerwoods.com, ESRB: E

tiger woods 2007

pitching Wedge

Mouse-swing method feels

great and gives good control.

Lots of courses!

Sand Wedge^7

Steep difficulty curve, so-so

graphics, and missing con-

sole features.

You can customize every aspect of your own golfer, but isn’t it

more fun to play with the guy who has a 400-yard drive?

reviews Tes Ted. Reviewed. veRdic Tized