Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08 Hands-On

During a recent visit to Electronic Arts' Los Angeles studio we had an opportunity to spend some time with the latest work-in-progress Xbox 360 version of Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08. We didn't get to play 18 holes at Cog Hill or anything like that, but we were given a guided tour of a number of the games' new features, which include an improved putting system, player-created online challenges, and an alternate control system that should appeal to golf game veterans.

Our presentation kicked off with a rundown of some the usual changes that you'd expect from a new Tiger Woods game; there will be several new professional players on the roster and, although we were told just a couple of months ago that there will be only three new courses, on this occasion we were told that there will be five. Specifically, the previously announced new courses at Cog Hill, Westchester, and TPC Boston will be joined by South Carolina's Harbour Town and Atlanta's East Lake. EA's current plan is to ship Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08 with a total of 15 courses, including 10 from last year's game, and we were also told that additional courses will be made available for download from day one.

Before getting our hands on the controller we were also told about the new "photo gameface" feature, which will let you customize your golfer's appearance using photos taken with the Xbox Vision camera on the Xbox 360, the EyeToy on the PlayStation 3, or a regular digital camera using a Web site. We didn't get to see the process for putting yourself in the game, but we're told that all you need is a head-on photo of your face and, if you'd like your golfer to have an accurate profile, a side view. The EA representative who we were playing with was using a golfer modeled on herself that apparently had been created just that morning. The likeness was good, and we're hoping that the process is every bit as easy as we're led to believe.

Perhaps the most exciting addition to Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08 is the GamerNet feature, which places a new emphasis on player-created content and a sense of community for the series. GamerNet will not only give you an opportunity to show off your best performances and shots online by posting replays of them, but will also let you challenge other players to improve upon them according to criteria that you've chosen. You can set challenges for a single shot, one hole, nine holes, or a full course of 18, and the list of criteria available to you will be determined by your performance. If you hit a tee shot on a par 3 that hits a tree before bouncing on the fairway and landing on the green, for example, your options (you can choose up to three) might include drive distance, distance to pin, hitting a tree, bounce zone, shot height, and stop zone. That last one, like bounce zone, will challenge other players to land their ball within a certain distance of yours. Other optional challenge conditions that we're aware of will include skipping over water, hitting spectators, bouncing on the cart path, and playing only with certain clubs.

The great thing about the GamerNet challenges is that any shot can be made into a challenge, as we learned when we asked if we could try out the feature after hitting a horrible tee shot into the middle of a wooded area. We uploaded the replay, were given a very short list of possible conditions (we settled on drive distance, bounce zone, and stop zone), and moments later our challenge was uploaded and ready for other players to attempt. Challenges will appear in the GamerNet menu under filtered categories, making it easier for you to find the kind of challenge that you'd like to attempt. We uploaded ours as a "long drive," and noticed that other classifications available included 9-hole, trick shots, and single shot putt.

Putting in Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08 will work a little differently than in recent games. You might remember that last year you had the option to check out an "ideal putt-cam" that showed you the exact line that your ball should take en route to the hole. This year's "putt preview" might prove to be a little more challenging because, rather than showing you the perfect line, it shows you the line that the ball will take based on where and how hard you're currently planning to hit it. Furthermore, you can use the putt preview only once per shot, so it's basically just an opportunity for you to tweak the shot you've already lined up--as you might if you were offered advice by your caddy. Worthy of a mention here, if only because we suspect it'll get the most use once you're on the green, is Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08's three-click controls option. Optional at any point during your game, the three-click option harkens back to the pre-analog swing days when you'd take all of your shots using three button presses: a first to start your swing, a second to set your power, and a third to determine accuracy. We didn't get to see the three-click option in action on this occasion, but it's sure to be a welcome addition for those of you who still aren't completely comfortable using an analog stick as a driver.

That's about all we have to report on Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08 for the moment, save for the fact that the game looks even better than its predecessor thanks largely to some impressive depth-of-field effects that make the courses feel much larger. We look forward to bringing you more information on Tiger Woods' next video game outing as soon as it becomes available.