It's still the best golf-sim on the market, but this is the same game we've been playing since '04 with minor upgrades.
My point is that the developers of the Madden and Tiger Woods series have, obviously, realized that they can put out the same game every year (with a few minor upgrades), slap a new cover on it, and get $60 of your hard earned money. That's not to say 'Tiger Woods '07' is a bad golf game. It's always been a very fun mix of arcade-style & simulation-style golf. It's always been an easy game to pick up and play for beginners, but you'll really have to invest some time to master it. And with the move to the 360 last year, the series got a decent visual touch-up that it desperately needed.
The '07 entry into this series doesn't stray far from the course, so to speak. One of my biggest annoyances with these 'next-gen' sports games that EA is putting out is the fact that people (including reviewers) are overlooking the fact that these titles STILL don't have the feature-set that the 'current-gen' titles have. Why? I understand that making a completely new game engine to use the power of the 360 takes some time (so I can somewhat excuse the '06 EA sports titles), but we pay a hefty price for these games and we deserve all the gameplay modes & features that the 'current-gen' gamers get. Especially since we are paying $10 MORE for the game on the 360. So when I get a game that STILL has less features than the PS2 version, it annoys me.
The game certainly looks nice, but it's nothing that will blow you away. And being a veteran of this series, the announcers are really starting to get on my nerves. They are repeating the same stuff that they did several years ago! You can't get these guys in to spout out some new lines? Even though it's not as feature rich as it's PS2 counterpart, this game will keep you busy for quite awhile. There is the usual PGA Tour mode, of course. Then there is the Tiger Challenge, which is the same boring ladder-match style that has been in the series for awhile now. And no matter how many times EA changes the name of it, it's still the same thing every year. There are also a ton of mini-games to play here. Some of them are fun, but I mostly went through them just to get the achievements that are attached to them. And thankfully, the achievements are WAY better this year.
The main reason to play this game is to make your own golfer with the excellent create-a-player system, build-up his/her skills, and then beat the snot out of your buddy's created character. Or you can take your character on Xbox Live and give some of the online modes a shot. Like I said, the game does have an extensive single-player game here. The problem (like I said before) is that I have been playing this since '04 and it's the same thing, over and over. This game has grown VERY stale playing by yourself, if you are a veteran of the series.
I still say the best way to play this game is to get a bunch of friends together, have some drinks, each of you create a golfer, and play against each other. I have even found that girls like the create-a-golfer feature quite a bit and I tend to use that to get them to give the game a chance. After that and when they get the controls down, they are hooked. The game is a blast in this capacity and is still fun to play online. EA really needs to give this series a jump-start, though. The single-player needs more improvements than just changing the name of the 'Tiger Challenge' thing every year. I used to REALLY like this series, and I hope for the best in '08. Unfortunately, with EA's track record.........the forcast isn't looking good.