We all make sacrifices in life. A couple of years ago for my birthday, my boyfriend bought an X-Box 360 and a couple of games. "It'll stay at my place, so the little one doesn't destroy it." (In his defense, she is an electronics-bustin'-machine. Also in his defense, he bought my all-time favorite mindless game, Dead or Alive, with it.) Then came a parade of "He Games," the flight simulator I would never play, (looping around like that makes me want to hurl,) some shoot 'em up realistic war game, (isn't that what we have Halo 3 for?,) Tiger Woods golf. Tiger Woods golf?!? Something that I'd watch on television to induce sofa-coma... you expect me to play that?

Okay, though, we gotta take an interest in the guy's interests, though, right, ladies? After all, you got to give to get. So, obviously, I'm honestly not the biggest golf fan in the world and I wouldn't say he is, either. But, man, he was stoked about this X-Box 360 Tiger Woods game. The first time we booted it up together, ("You're gonna play with me, right?,") the first thought that flashed through my mind was: "Holy, smokes, the graphics on this are fantastic! What a waste on a golf game!"

The first thing you want to do when you start playing is set up your own golfer profile. This was a lot more complicated and in-depth than I thought it would be. You basically choose your gender, build your own character appearance, you even get to modulate your voice. After spending 45 minutes or so agonizing over such silliness like what kind of nose I should have I was ready to PLAY! "Okay, this isn't so bad," I thought as our characters got a bird's eye view of what the first green would be.

The graphics are amazing in this game, you almost can feel the wind blowing in your face as you step up to tee off. The user interface is really easy to figure out, too, if two people who have never played a golf game and really don't know anything about golf other than the basics can figure it all out within a day. We played our first round, (he trounced me, of course,) and I found that I was actually wanting to play a second.

But, wait, it gets better! There are challenges which allow you to improve your character's stats, win money and fabulous prizes to be had. (In the game, sorry, guys.) As I figured out slowly but surely how to use the shop interface, (hot-pink plaid miniskirt, anyone?,) I gained more and more appreciation, not only for the game itself, but for how much fun I was having with my boyfriend doing something he really likes, which in turn became something I really like.

At this point, I've decided from here on out that when new games are released, instead of just dismissing them off the cuff as not being in my pigeon-hole genre, I'll see which of my friends has them, borrow and play. Playing Tiger Woods Golf really opened my eyes to everything I could be missing out there. Just because there aren't any aliens to shoot or dungeons to be explored doesn't mean it won't be fun!

Tiger Woods '08 really opened my eyes up to the entire sports-game genre, it is so much fun to play, develop a golfer and improve your scores, I'm looking forward to playing more sports games available from X Box 360.