When we reviewed Tiger Woods 2005 we made it clear we thought the series had got a bit stale and needed an injection of either imagination or reality to help it out of its ‘annual update sameness rut’, and whilst Outlaw Golf 2 doesn’t exactly re-write the golf game handbook, it does waft the occasional breath of fresh air in our direction. We liked the original Outlaw Golf (8/10) and thought the control system was slightly more intuitive and interesting than Tiger’s, and despite its slap you in the face arcadeiness (you know what I mean) it had at its core a sturdy golfing heart. Its main failings were that it only had 3 courses to play on and the fact that it wasn’t actually all that “Outlaw” or outrageous at all. OG2 stumps up the number of courses by upping the number to 8 (including remodelled versions of the original 3 and a wacky full-size “crazy” golf-style course) and gives us a few more Outlaw things to do along the way; apart from all the expected variations on the game of golf you’ll be driving golf buggies through hoops and over jump ramps, running down pesky spectators and hitting balls at cows, donkeys and geese in order to upgrade your player’s skills…

Secondly the ‘composure meter’ from the original Outlaw Golf returns, which goes up or down depending on how good or terrible your last shot was. If you are struggling, the “sweet spot” gets smaller and can affect your next shot – limiting your recovery abilities from dodgy lies in bunkers and the rough or the even the distance a perfect shot will go, just like the real thing. One way to rectify this is to regain your composure by beating the crapola out of your caddie, and this is done by indulging in a simple “press the button when the moving fist reaches the caddy’s head” sub game. It’s rather satisfying venting one’s frustration in a sadistically violent and sometimes amusing cut scene, and adds a hint of resource management and tactical thinking to the play, as ‘beating tokens’ are severely limited and can also be used for cart runs (golf cart challenges that might require you to run over a certain number of spectators, or jump through hoops, or simply get to the finish of a course (which is actually set out on the hole that you’re currently playing). If you successfully complete a cart run you’ll earn a perfect shot, meaning that all you have to do is swing back and through and the ball will fly exactly where you marked the curser to and you don’t need to worry about it hooking or slicing either – this combined with the Ghost Shot feature means you can be guaranteed a well-aimed shot will go close, or even in (there’s nothing more annoying than aiming a shot well, seeing a Ghost Shot go close and then messing up the actual shot by hitting it too hard or soft). The cart runs at first seem impossible and the handling basic and oversensitive, but you get used to it and they become an enjoyable way of breaking up the game and giving the gameplay itself more variety than your average golf game.

This Xbox version of Outlaw Golf 2 also features online play, and as a relatively chilled-out but competitive live game it works really well, with all the game modes available to play online (with up to 4 players), as well as tournaments and scoreboards – all currently well supported by a thriving Xbox Outlaw Golf club. You can play simultaneously to speed things up or play the more traditional way and take turns, and set time limits/weather/wind as well as a host of other options including making games private (sadly there’s no handicap system though), so you play pretty much how you want to. Xbox Live golfers are also promised downloadable content in the form of extra courses which, as long as they’re free or inexpensive, can only be a good thing (it seemed that Microsoft’s very own Links’ extra courses were too expensive and put a lot of people off). OG2 has been out in the US for some time so most of the online players seem to from the US or Canada, but in general they’re a good crowd and I’ve learned exactly how well the game can be played from the likes of Blondzilla, sharky 28m, Spirit of 420, Mistabungle, MatB2, BIG RAYDAWG1, chavelospike and even popped Sir Foadus’ transatlantic Xbox Live cherry (umm... his words not mine - I think he meant by becoming the first English player that he’d played with online). Like I said, they’re a good bunch and much like most good players at anything are only too happy to give you playing tips or ideas on how to navigate the trickier holes. The only serious annoyances that I've come across in a highly addictive online game are idiots who quit when they're getting beaten (you can quickly stop this problem by playing with the regulars) and the fact that the rankings list seems to wipe your hard-earned stats off arbitrarily (I've had mine wiped three times).

OG2's slapstick violence and smut is something you’ll either snigger at once or twice at and then not notice again, or be horrified at and wonder what it’s doing in a golf game – one thing is for sure, if Outlaw Golf actually were all that “outlaw”, it’d have an 18 certificate, you can’t help feeling it wants to be the GTA of the golf game world, but despite some over-deliberate bawdiness and half naked women never quite sheds golf’s conservative shackles. The only other real gripes I have are that the wind indicator seems to be rather inconsistent and unreliable, and that here’s yet another golf game that hasn’t implemented the rules of golf regarding penalty drops correctly, and doesn’t even give you the options of where to drop.