Tiger Woods 08: Photo Game Face

Aug 14, 2007

Golf, baseball, football, pro wrestling, tennis.... The athletic event itself is almost irrelevant. I'm willing to bet that any fan of any sport has said, at one point or another, "I bet I could do that, and do it better than that schmuck." Fantasy leagues and videogames have let benchwarmers live out their virtual dreams of athletic prowess for years, but Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08 aims to allow its fan base to take things one step further by way of a simple method to stick a player's face onto a golfer's body. Using 08's Photo Game Face tool, any regular Joe can transport his ugly mug into the game to take on the likes of Tiger Woods.

While using an online photo is always an option, the more fun--and probably more accurate--method is to use the Xbox Live Vision camera to capture a prospective pro's rugged bad looks. After selecting Photo Game Face from PGA Tour 08's main menu, players are given the option to either create a new PGF, or select one already in the game's inventory. I chose my gender--yes, male!--then got the camera properly aligned for a front view shot of my whiskery countenance. It's important to not stand too close to the camera, as the game takes into account chin and ear positions; make sure enough room is available for the entire face.

Here's where players have the chance to make something truly disturbing, though really, a gamer's face is more than likely already disturbing enough--but I digress. Using the photo of a CG face found on the right, the player must go through his own photo and line up key points on the face, such as each nostril, ears, eyes, and lip positions, each of which is represented by a white dot. The left analog stick is used to quickly move a dot, while the d-pad is reserved for more precise movement. Pressing the A button moves on to the next marker, while X is used to cycle back, in case a mistake was made.

The next step, adding a side photo, is completely optional, though does serve to increase the finished product's accuracy. Should players decide to do this, points must again be lined up pertaining to cheeks, ears, eyes, and so forth. Finally, whether players decide to create a side photo or not, Tiger will proceed to generate the Photo Game Face. This can take anywhere from five to twenty minutes, so those so inclined to grab a snack or browse IGN's wide assortment of videogame-related news are encouraged to do so. Or, feel free to stick around and read the text associated with the process's percent of completion. "Genome mapping model's metadata," "Antagonizing pedestrians," preparing the CPU to "generate random text," "Applying healthy glow," and "Recombinating nucleic acids" are all steps that are very interesting to observe, after all.

All done with that sandwich? Good, because the fun is almost ready to begin. Save and apply the face, or simply save the texture for later. The virtual golfer is as bald as a golf ball. Choose a hair style--or not--then mess with details such as shirts, pants, shoes, eyebrow placement, eye color, and so forth.

Finally, the meat and potatoes--or, more appropriately, the irons and putters--of any good character creation system: Skill point allocation. Unlike other games, Tiger 08 doesn't give players a set amount of points to distribute among stats; players will have to work to improve their pros-in-training. Power, Power Boost, Drive Accuracy, Approach, Putting, and Luck are just some of the attributes that make up a solid golfer's repertoire. Each is given a base level of 5, and can be increased by successfully completing mini-games associated with each attribute.

Power is an obvious necessity, as each hit should drive the ball closer and closer to each hole's cup. After selecting Power, I was given a menu of challenges from which to choose. I started out with Long Drive Contest, and I'm happy to say I failed miserably. This challenge pits the player's avatar against a pro in an effort to see who can drive a ball the farthest. Each contestant is given three tries, and because my base power rating was a measly 5, I got shut down pretty quickly. Herein lies one of the idiosyncrasies that almost makes Tiger Woods 08's character creation mode a game in and of itself: Skill reliance. Real golfers don't use attributes such as Power and Approach by themselves; traits must be mixed and matched in order for a round of golf to be successful. Since my Power rating is terrible, I need to boost a characteristic within that same vein in order to boost Power.

Power Boost, which increases the maximum power boost on a player's backswing, seemed the most logical place to start. From its list, I chose Putting Timed II, a test which has the player putting from random distances in order to see how close how close each shot gets to the pin. The closer a ball reaches, the more money is granted to the player after every shot, and actually sinking the ball is quite a lucrative feat.

Successfully completing the challenge increased my Power Boost rating to 10, but I wasn't quite ready to re-attempt the Long Drive Contest just yet. I went back into Power and tried a game called Seven. The objective is to choose a hole and drive the ball closer to it than the competing player. If the player ends up getting his ball closer, he is awarded one point, with the goal being to reach seven. The player then picks another hole and the process repeats. It's quite fun, and a shining example of a fun and engrossing way to allocate stat points.

Eventually, training has to end at some point; there are pros that need to feel the bite of my iron club, after all. Though ostensibly nothing beyond a gimmick, Photo Game Face allowed me to do something that hasn't happened in quite some time: Actually have fun building a character. Sure, it's always fun to throw points around, but taking a hands-on approach in the development of the Next Big Thing in golfing made for quite an entertaining distraction.