- Reviewed on: Xbox 360 (viewed in high-definition at a resolution of 720p on an HP PL4200N 42-inch plasma television)
- Also available for: PlayStation2, Xbox, PlayStation3, PlayStation Portable, PC
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- The Good: Canada's Glen Abbey is included in this year's roster of golf courses; it's more challenging than recent games in the series; has a new, better balanced character building system
- The Bad: Play long enough and sub-60 numbers become the norm; apparel selection fosters poor style in a sport already struggling with a public perception of bad fashion sense
- The Verdict: It's got Glen Abbey, and that's all any die-hard Canadian golfer really needs to know
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At long last one of Canada's many world-class golf facilities has made it into a video game. Glen Abbey, the Oakville, Ontario course that often plays host to Canada's sole PGA event, the Canadian Open, was selected by Electronic Arts to be included as one of the 12 courses in this year's iteration of Tiger Woods PGA Tour, and it's undeniably the highlight of the game.
I've experienced Glen Abbey only once in real life, but I recognized and remembered every single hole as I played it again in the game. The details were remarkable, from cart path locations all the way down to the giant, rotating fans that keep the 11th hole's perpetually soggy green dry.
It's also one of the hardest courses in the game, proving a more difficult test than even renowned locations like Pebble Beach, St. Andrews, and Spyglass Hill. Indeed, the challenge of the seven valley holes on Abbey's back side is second to none.
Bye-bye birdies
As it turns out, Glen Abbey is just one of several elements in PGA Tour 2007 that makes it a more challenging-and ultimately more satisfying-game than its recent predecessors.
I've been playing EA's Tour games since long before Tiger Woods became the face of the franchise, but I've been growing increasingly dissatisfied with the series over the last couple of years. In recent editions EA had fine-tuned the controls to such a degree that ridiculously low scores had become the norm; pars felt like bogies, and birdies felt like pars. Winners of on-line tournaments were regularly posting numbers in the 40s-for 18-holes.
EA must have recognized the foolishness of such unrealistic scoring, because they've made this year's game a tad more difficult. The precision aiming that made plunking a ball to within three feet from 250 yards a piece of cake and sinking 40-foot putts a matter of course is gone. Instead, we're given a very general landing area for our shots, and greens must be read using only a slope grid as aid. (At least that's the case for the Balanced, Hard, and Tour modes; series newbies can select the Easy mode to bring back most of the old aids.)
I lost several matches early on. Not being able to hit perfect shots on command was a little annoying at first, but after a few matches I realized I was having a lot more fun. I enjoyed the exhilaration of stepping up to a five-foot putt that I needed to win a tournament and not knowing with any certainty that I'd sink it.
Unfortunately, as time went on and I upgraded my golfer's ball-striking and putting abilities the game began to seem a bit too easy. By the time all of my attributes topped out, I was once again walking off the 18th with sub-60 numbers on a regular basis. Slowly slipping back into the role of the unrealistic ubergolfer was a bit disappointing, but at the same time I realized that it took about fifteen hours of play to get there, which gave me the feeling I'd earned my skills.
Clothing, clothing everywhere and not a stitch to wear…
On the topic of golfer growth, the designers have created a new system that encourages gradual, balanced development over the course of dozens of rounds and training sessions-another way to keep our hackers from getting too powerful too quickly.
Players can speed up the development of their abilities slightly by purchasing a wide variety of equipment and clothing that adds skill bonuses. However, I found myself cringing at the notion of my golfer, whom I'd customized to look almost exactly like the real me using EA's powerful Game Face player builder, donning almost any of the available apparel. For a game that sports over 600 pieces of unlockable clothing and equipment it's surprisingly difficult to deck out your duffer in dapper duds.
Here's the problem: Most of the items that significantly improve your game come from sports brands like Nike, Adidas, and Oakley-companies that, though they might make excellent sports equipment, are not known for high fashion. They likely paid a pretty penny to ensure their apparel would be amongst the most sought after items in the game.
In the end, I just stuck with a simple pair of trousers and a stylish vest from Swedish hipster designer J. Lindeberg, neither of which provided any skill bonuses. Though among the bespectacled, I chose to boycott eyewear altogether (Oakleys just don't do it for me) until I beat some old codger in match play and unlocked an acceptable pair of plain, black-rimmed specs-which, to be fair, came with two valuable skill enhancements.
There's always room for improvement
Overall, I'm pretty happy with how Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2007 turned out. Bad attire aside, EA has made some noticeable strides towards making the game more challenging and realistic. It still gets a bit too easy near the end, but hopefully they'll work on that in next year's edition.
And if anyone at EA is reading, please keep in mind that if you give us the power to create virtual likenesses of ourselves, you'd damned well better provide the ability for us to control our virtual style as well.