Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07 (PC)

With Electronic Arts focusing its energy and resources on next-gen consoles, there hasn't been a whole lot to look forward to with this year's crop of sports games on the PC. Rather than add radical new gameplay ideas or revamped visuals, the developer seems to be content to simply toss in a few new game types or subtle control changes, and then send the games off to the factory. Such is the case with Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07. It has different courses and a few new play modes this year, but ultimately, little has changed.

Tiger Woods 07 is just as enjoyable as 06, which was just as enjoyable as 05, which was just as enjoyable as....

There's certainly no shortage of ways to occupy yourself with Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07. You can select from a number of different match and scoring modes, including stroke play, match play, skins, practice, stableford, alternate shot, scramble, and four-ball. New this year are bloodsome and greensome matches, both of which are team-based best-ball events. After you and your teammate hit your shots in greensome, you get to pick which ball you're going to play; in bloodsome, your opponent will choose which lie you'll use. If your interests lie in more-traditional golf, the PGA Tour season, which has more depth on the PC than on consoles, will offer you plenty of challenge. You can start all the way at bottom as a no-name weekend hack, and eventually work your way through Q school to the PGA.

Most of the new events this year are designed around multiplayer play, though you can play them against the CPU in team tour. Team tour replaces last year's ridiculous time traveling rivals mode. Now, rather than going back through time to play golf, you'll travel the world, taking on fictitious golfers and PGA professionals. As the name implies, team tour revolves around team play and not just the exploits of your created golfer. As you win events in team tour, you're able to add vanquished foes to your team and replace less talented team members with better golfers. Unlike on the PlayStation 2 and Xbox, you can't upgrade your teammates' abilities after wins. You do earn points for yourself, which makes this the best place to upgrade your golfer before heading out on tour.

If you grow tired of playing solo, you can head online for a greater challenge. There are daily tournaments, as well as alternate game modes, such as skins, scramble, four-ball, alternate shot, and the skills competition. For the most part, everything ran smoothly when playing online, and being able to play while your opponents are playing really speeds up a round. There's a small amount of ESPN integration, but it's limited to a ticker that runs across the bottom of the screen, short text news stories, and brief ESPN Radio SportsCenter updates every 20 minutes. These features are available only if you're in an online lobby.

The thing that makes these game modes so addictive year in and year out is the ability to create a golfer and make him the greatest golfer on the planet. Tiger's unrivaled character creation mode is back and is as deep as ever. There are subtle changes to the process this year, but by and large, it's the same as in Tiger Woods 06. If realism's what you want, you'll love that it's a breeze to create a golfer in your spitting image, and you're limited only by your imagination when it comes to making zany, off-the-wall characters. Should you grow tired of your golfer's appearance, you can go back and change it at any time, or simply purchase the brown paper bag from the pro shop and stick it on his noggin. After completing a round or challenge, you're given points for individual attributes, based on your performance. These points can then be used to upgrade your golfer's skills. You'll also earn money for your wins, which lets you purchase new clothes and equipment. The more expensive the gear, the better it is, but here there are no equipment modifiers to worry about.

If you just want to stick to the pros, there are 21 professional golfers (and host of created characters) in Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07. The list includes the likes of Tiger Woods, Stuart Appleby, John Daly, Jim Furyk, Retief Goosen, Vijay Singh, and Mike Weir, among others. For the first time, there are two LPGA golfers to pick from--Natalie Gulbis and Annika Sorenstam. There are just 12 courses in the PC version of the game--far less than the 21 that are included on the PlayStation 2 and Xbox. A number of courses return from last year, but there are some noteworthy additions--Aviara, Riviera, The National, The K Club, and the ocean course at Kiawah Island. There's no course-designing tool in the game, and at the time of this review there is no course editor available for download on the game's home page. Resourceful players will find a large number of downloadable courses available on third-party sites, but these courses aren't officially supported. On consoles, the "dream course" feature lets you put together a course using holes from any of the courses in the game, but even that underwhelming tool is absent here.

Creating your own golfer is still one of the game's highlights.

As for how the game plays--it's as enjoyable as ever, but you'd be hard-pressed to tell the difference between Tiger Woods 06 and Tiger Woods 07. The Tiger Woods series has never been thought of as particularly challenging on consoles; the same cannot be said for the PC. Because your golfer doesn't start off with the ability to perform certain shots, it's quite a bit more challenging. You'll have to take lessons to learn how to hit a flop shot or a bump and run, put spin on the ball, and perform a power shot. It can be frustrating to not have all of these abilities initially available, but there's no question that you'll become a better video golfer for it. Lessons are unlocked by applying skills points to your golfer, but there's no clear way to determine how many points you need to spend to unlock lessons.

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