Tiger Woods

With the Ryder Cup looming my interest in golf hits it's peak. I am considering sorting myself out with some lessons again and maybe dragging my golf bag out of the bag of the garage for a trip to the driving range. More to the point, I'm also looking to play some video game golf!!

With that in mind I've taken Tiger Woods 07 for my 360 down from the shelf for a play. I got it before Christmas 2007 when I was stockpiling 360 games in preparation for the big day and consequently I've played it once since then which didn't go too far beyond loading it up and making sure it worked.

I've played a few rounds over the past few days, enough to get a good feel for the game certainly, but tonight it's hit the "to trade in" pile!

The game is beyond frustrating! All my shots seem to be coming up way short of the target, not to mention the predicted "yardage" of the clubs. I'm having no end of problems actually driving the ball in a straight blooming line for starters!!

I don't know whether it's me, the 360 controller or the game or a combination of all three. I do know that I didn't have these problems with Tiger 04, 05 or 06 in the GameCube and am now regretting not having any of those to fall back on.

My thoughts turn, somewhat predictably, to the recently released 09 version. I've downloaded a demo of the 360 version and have found it much more comfortable than the 07 version. However, I can't decide now between the 360 version and the Wii version.

I quite like the idea of the motion controls for the Wii version as this could bring some level of actual skill into the game in multiplayer. I found on the Cube versions in multiplayer that myself and Player Two rarely ever hit a bad shot, any differences were usually down to poor club selection or getting a bad lie, etc. So the idea of having to execute a swing correctly (even if it's not a 1:1 reproduction of an actual golf swing) might be quite cool. Plus the Wii version is cheaper than the 360 one.

However, there are likely to be days when I just can't be bothered to stand up in my study and swing my arms around like a lunatic. Days where I just want to slump in a chair and press buttons, etc. Days when I can't get the kids off the Wii so I can play what I want to play, dammit! So the 360 version has it's appeal...