AMN's Review Policy: Our reviews are written for you. Our goal is to write honest, to-the-point reviews that don't waste your time. This is why we've split our reviews into four sections: What the Game's About, What's Hot, What's Not and Final Word, so that you can easily find the information you want from our reviews.

What the Game’s About
Tiger Woods is a Golfing legend. He will be remembered with Michael Jordan, Joe Namath, Babe Ruth, Wayne Gretzky, and the pantheon of other sports superstars that made an impact on their sports. Tiger Woods is the premier golfer and it only makes sense that he would be featured in the premier (and only) golf game franchise. Play as a pro or make your own rookie and compete in a number of tournaments. There are also a variety of mini-games and other challenges to diversify the game of golf.

What’s Hot
Just like Tiger Woods mastered the game of golf, EA mastered capturing the essence of golf. The mechanic of swinging around the club using the analogue stick is easy to pick up but hard to master, a sign good development. The carefully manicured lawns of the links are now in high-def glory, just like last year. The buttery smooth animations you see are also top-notch and way above par due to advanced mocap techniques.

Aside from the standard tournaments you must post fabulous scores to progress on, there are smattering of other modes that are available to participate in if you can’t make the tournament cut. These variations are T-I-G-E-R (think H-O-R-S-E) or “closest to the pin” and “capture the flag.” Online is also another large component to Woods 08, gather a virtual foursome and play your heart out. Make an amazing shot? You can now upload it to the GamerNet servers for others to download and play; think of an EA Sports YouTube mixed with actual challenges. In Xbox Live matches, you can show off your created character and impress your friends about how good he looks and how much better he plays.

The character creation has been taken to a new level. With the help of the Vision Camera, you can take a front and profile picture and have the game map your image on a face. While wholly unnecessary, it does provide tons of entertainment and sillyness.

What’s Not
Notice anything about the positive aspects in Tiger Woods 08? They are almost identical as the ones in Tiger Woods 07. It is true that not much of the game has been changed but what is there is good. GamerNet was the big push for Tiger Woods but even with tons of potential, it is still in the infant stages. There are many missed chances to fix minor issues and glitches but must have had to be put aside because of GamerNet. While the incremental changes are a development strategy of the seasonal franchises, there are some years where the new features pour in. This year, the features trickled in.

Some of the animations are annoying after you make a good or poor shot. You can skip them but they are still a persistent nuisance. For those that are trying Tiger for the first time might be put off by the difficulty. The adjustable difficulty does help out but still poses a challenge to greenhorns. The swing analogue stick doesn’t help matters by being overly sensitive.

Final Word
Tiger Woods 08 is a remarkable golf game. There are many things it does right but it feels like some of the modes have been sacrificed in order to make more changes. Most of the mini-games are just outside the box of being outstanding. The career mode is, like Madden’s gameplay (solid and dependable), something you can take to the bank. Tiger Woods 08 should and will dazzle sports gamers. Sure, there are a few areas of missed opportunity and unaddressed issues that should have been resolved but it doesn’t distract from the core of the game which almost hits the hole-in-one.