Just sat down and played nine holes at Pebble Beach with Tiger. I'd say it's my favorite game out of the five we received. This might come as a surprise to my family, who knows that I hate actual golf. But think about it this way: I like Fight Night even though I don't enjoy being punched in the face.
Actually, Baker was totally into Fight Night. He completely lost any air of professional evaluation he'd had before. A minute into the fight, I was trying to ask him questions about the experience and all I heard back was "GRAAAH ARGH SON OF A" as he furiously jammed on the analog sticks.
What was I talking about? Oh, right, Tiger Woods.
This is very old news to anybody who actually plays golf games, but I was surprised to find Tiger Woods a very casual-friendly experience. It automatically picked me a club, and swinging was done without any crazy power bars or timing-based exercises -- just flicking the analog stick. Okay, this isn't a new thing at all, but I didn't understand until now just how much it helps the action flow smoothly along.
Graphics-wise, Tiger was a mixed bag. Tiger himself looked okay, Pebble Beach looked decent, but the further off into the horizon you looked, the nastier things got. Things got all Oblivion-y on me when I looked at a far-off, jaggy, blurry, pixelated mountain range across the ocean. Launch games -- it's always the way.
You know what was conspicuous by its absence? Any kind of reaction whatsoever on Tiger's part to the brilliant (and shitty) shots I was making. This game is supposed to feature EA's expensive and awesome new realistic emotion-capture engine. But maybe I just wasn't doing good (or bad) enough, because aside from some fist-pumping while the camera was zoomed out after an awesome birdie, Tiger's face stayed stony whether I was doing awesome or hitting trees. Not sure what's up with that.
