Often billed as a
destruction of nature, an easy excuse to get away from the wife, and a
frustrating endeavor, the sport of golf continues to be one of the world’s most
passionate hobbies. Consuming the lives of men and women all over, the
popularity of golf continues to rise. Just try getting a tee time at noon on
Sunday to see what I’m talking about.
EA Sports brings
the game of golf home with Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2004 for the Playstation 2.
This excellent follow-up for last year’s edition is good enough to keep golfers
off the greens and on the couch. With its abundance of new features,
unlockables, and online play, Tiger 2004 is a must have for PS2-owning golf
fans.
While playing as a
PGA Tour pro is fun, the real reward comes from creating a player and taking him
from hack to hero. Most of the game modes were based around gamers creating a
player and pitting him through competitions and exercises in order to win prize
money to boost attributes and purchase some fine looking duds, and with the
amazing new EA Sports Game Face feature, you may just become attached to your
little buddy.
Probably the
greatest new feature in Tiger 2004, the Game Face feature really allows gamers
to customize beyond the realms of anything seen before. Using vectors and plot
points and other mumbo jumbo, Game Face molds eyebrows, noses, cheeks, and jaws
to nearly any reasonable parameter imaginable. With enough work and time,
recreating a fair representation of one’s self is entirely possible. In
addition to shaping faces, Game Face has plenty of hairstyles to choose from, as
well as various shades of pigment, eyes, and hair color. Teeth can be capped,
tattoos and t-shirt logos can be customized using an archaic painting tool, and
loads of equipment, clothes, and accessories can further create a player
entirely your own. This is the first time in a video game that creating a
player is not a waste of time or a pain in the a$$.
After you’ve
created your golfer and outfitted him with fresh threads, styling celebrations,
and ample golf skills, it’s time to throw him (or her) into the fray. World
Tour, a sort of revamping of last year’s Tiger Challenge, is a series of match
play contests versus some of EA’s created players such as “Pops” Masterson, the
geriatric cantankerous grandpa, “The Don”, the mafia boss you don’t want to mess
with, and Sunshine, the spoiled Beverly Hills hottie, as well as PGA Pros like
Vijay Singh, Colin Montgomerie, and John Daly. Defeating these players unlocks
them for general play, puts new items in the Pro Shop, and puts cash in your
pocket. Created players can also take to the PGA Tour once they earn their tour
card for 10 consecutive years of 52-week seasons. This is where the competition
is tough and the money is plentiful. Unfortunately, there really isn’t a PGA
feel to the mode as it’s pretty much just player versus the course with no
updates on the action around the tournament. Scenario mode challenges players
to get through a variety of tough circumstances to win trophy balls and win
extra goodies, Battle Golf lets winners of holes take a club from their
opponent’s bags, and speed golf is as much a foot race as a golf match. New
this year are real-time events that synch with your PS2’s clock for special
events that may only happen once a year, such as a Halloween tournament that
rewards players with a special orange and black shirt, or EA-created characters’
birthdays that yield special items. For great multi-player action, Tiger 2004
features a few alternating and best-ball modes that are a blast.
Fans of Tiger’s
analog swing control won’t be disappointed this year. The swing’s accuracy and
power are still controlled by rocking the joystick back and forth, but it seems
to have been slightly improved over last year’s version by making it slightly
more difficult to put good wood on the ball. Hitting the ball where you want to
go mirrors the real game of golf more accurately – it takes a swift, smooth
swing to hammer the ball like Tiger or approach like Singh. Of course better
driving accuracy and ball striking attributes will help the ball go straighter
and further, but miss slightly with the joystick and you’re likely to end up in
the salad. After all, golf is as much about tradition as it is about throwing
your clubs into the drink in frustration. This is the most significant change
to basic gameplay in Tiger 2004, and it’s welcomed with open arms. It does seem
like it is still a little too easy, as my friend and I holed five 80-yard plus
approaches on only our second round.
Power boosts and
spin control are back and identical to last year. Quickly tapping the L1 button
on the controller during the backswing gives golfers a little more oomph on
their swings with the risk of slicing it into the next fairway. The rapid L1
tapping also serves to distract gamers from the technical analog swing, much
like laying into a ball in real golf often throws swings out of whack. After
striking the ball, the L2 button combined with the joystick puts spin on the
ball. It’s obviously incredibly unrealistic, but it adds a bit of fun when the
ball is zooming at the hole like a missile. These power-ups give Tiger 2004 a
bit of an arcade feel, but nothing like other games on the market.
The Playstation 2
version of Tiger 2004 has a slight edge over the other console versions because
it is the only version that allows for online play. Online features include
one-on-one play in stroke or match play and online tournaments. The tournaments
are fairly basic, unfortunately, only serving as a way to post scores. Each
day, a new tournament is available for participating in. Everyone plays the
same holes under the same settings to even the playing field, but you’d better
be insanely good to crack the top ten. Special invite-only tournaments are held
by EA, with various qualifications needing to be met such as finishing a certain
percentage of the game or averaging a certain distance on your drives. There
are several options when setting up an online match such as green speeds, making
the match affect online rankings, and even a shot clock to speed up the pace of
the game. Tiger 2004 supports the Logitech USB headset for online chat, and
there is virtually no lag during conversations. The only downsides to the
online portion of the game were the clunky interfaces and the above average
number of disconnects.
After seeing the
graphics of Tiger 2003, I had high expectations for this year’s version. Tiger
2004 does not look much better than last year’s, though it still does have some
of the best human modeling of any game. The main problem comes with the fly-bys
of each hole revealing only average texturing and “blocky” environments. On the
course, the holes look splendid, however, with problems only arising when balls
fall close to an object such as a tree or rock. The real graphical
accomplishments are achieved with the actual golfers themselves. One of the
only games in which close-ups actually look better, Tiger 2004 does fantastic
work with skin textures and player animations, making it even more important to
take some time while creating a character. One last problem EA seemed to ignore
– Where is the HDTV or progressive scan support?
The sounds of golf
may not be overwhelming, but they’re part of the charm of the game. Whether it
is the calm cooing of wildlife or the crazy crowing of wild fans, Tiger 2004
amply covers the bases. There’s nothing ground breaking here, but the roars of
success from great shots (on your hole or not) really reward golfers for
shooting pin-high. The sounds of the environment are good, but often don’t do
the courses justice.
Tiger 2004 is
currently the best golf game available, period. The controls are top-notch
thanks to the real feel of a golf swing EA has reproduced. There are 19 full
courses in total, some fantasy courses, and most of them are available at the
onset. The online feature assures golfers will always be able to find a match,
but the real fun comes with playing with friends in the living room. The game
is sure to captivate just about anyone, golfer or not.
Gameplay: 9.5
Tiger 2004
features just about everything that the game of golf has to offer. Trouble
stances will cause balls to shoot off left or right, wind will knock pitching
wedges down, and real ball physics send balls bouncing like pinballs in the
trees. Sorry guys, there are no beer carts.
Graphics: 8.4
I’m knocking this
down a bit mostly because I expected great things from the graphics this year.
The courses do look good while playing on them, but some of the overhead shots
reveal some graphical mishaps. However, the golfers look awesome, the best in
any video game that is not a cinematic.
Sound: 8.0
Several of the
sounds of golf are well represented here, from the PING of a well-struck drive
to the sound of the ball gently touching the bottom of the cup. The mish-mash
soundtrack doesn’t seem fitting, jumping from poppy alternative rock to thuggish
hip-hop.
Difficulty: Medium
Veterans of last
year’s game will slide into Tiger 2004 with no problems. Newbies may take a
while to get used to the swing, but the game offers an instant reward system
that should take the kinks out of their swings.
Concept: 9.0
There is
definitely some good stuff going on here. Online play, Game Face, and the Pro
Shop are some great additions and really help the replay value of the game.
Multiplayer: 10
I don’t give out
‘10’s that often, but is there anything better than playing a round of golf with
your buddies? The online play could use a bit of improvement, but it’s a heck
of a lot more fun than playing by yourself.
Overall: 9.2
Tiger Woods PGA
Tour 2004 is a great achievement in video games, sports or otherwise. The Game
Face feature is almost worth the price alone. Tiger Woods 2004 is the only golf
game that PS2 owners need to own – until Tiger 2005, of course.
