GameSpot editors' review
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CNET editors' rating:
stars
Outstanding
Detailed editors' rating
- Reviewed on: 09/24/2003
- Released on: 09/22/2003
- Originally published on GameSpot: Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2004 (PlayStation 2) Review
EA Sports has spent the past four years slowly improving the quality of its Tiger Woods PGA Tour series of golf games, and it arguably hit its stride last year with Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2003. That game all but perfected the series' dramatic visual style and tactile analog swing mechanic, while piling on loads and loads of courses and gameplay options. In fact, the 2003 edition was so well made, it could have made a halfhearted Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2004 irrelevant. Fortunately, EA Sports clearly hasn't been resting on its laurels and has poured enough great new features and courses into Tiger Woods 2004 to make it a worthwhile purchase for any and all golf fans.
Tiger Woods 2004 outclasses its predecessor in several important ways.
Functionally, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2004 is not that much different from last year's Tiger. The analog swing is unchanged, letting you control the power and direction of your shot with a back-and-forward motion on the analog stick. The game also offers all kinds of assistance to sloppy duffers, letting you alter the spin of the ball in the air, providing slope grids, and offering shot advice while you're putting. All of this assistance helps keep the game from becoming exceedingly frustrating, and all of it is optional for those who take the game more seriously.
There are nearly 30 different golfers from which to choose, pretty evenly split between real-life pros and EA's homegrown characters. (There's even a guest appearance from Cedric the Entertainer.) One of the big new additions to Tiger Woods 2004 is the "game face" feature that allows you to create your own pro golfer with a rather painstaking level of detail. This player creation mode lets you define virtually every aspect of your player's appearance. For some idea as to how extensive it is, there are 18 different attributes that can be modified in terms of facial structure alone, not including facial hair, eye color, skin tone, and what your golfer's teeth might look like. Truly, the level of character customization offered by the game face feature is unparalleled.
The 'game face' player creation feature really helps put you in the game.
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2004 contains all of the gameplay modes found in last year's version, plus a few extra. You can still take part in the esteemed PGA Tour, as well as one-off rounds of stroke, match, and skins games. You can also take part in team-based games, like best ball and fourball. For more fast-and-loose golf, there's speed golf, battle golf (where two players can go head-to-head to try to win each other's clubs), and the long drive shootout. The skillzone returns and still stands as a great set of drills to help you hone the different abilities you need on the fairway. The scenarios are a great way to test your skills, throwing you into a series of bad situations and leaving it up to you to work your way out. Most of the modes in the game can be played with up to four players, and the variety of play offered makes it a great multiplayer game.
If your friends aren't big fans of video golf, the PlayStation 2 version of Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2004 lets you play online. You can play match or stroke games against another real-life opponent, or you can compete in online tournaments. You're given a great amount of control over the game parameters when playing match or stroke games, allowing you to decide whether you play the front nine, the back nine, or the whole 18-hole course. You also get to choose the length of the rough and the speed of the fairway. You can even introduce a shot clock, which limits the time a player can take for his swing, and, ultimately, it lets you control the pace of the game. This helps to keep a quick nine holes from turning into a long, grueling ordeal.
As golf is a sport that doesn't require competitors to have lightning-fast reflexes, Tiger Woods works predictably well online, and lag doesn't even factor into the quality of the online play. The online tournaments, which are orchestrated by EA Sports, don't have you competing against another player in real-time, but rather, they post your scores on specific courses on an online leaderboard. Theoretically, players who place high in the online tournaments will be asked to play in invitation-only tournaments against other highly ranked players. Some of the interface in the online mode is a little clunky, as you have to directly challenge another player rather than just sending an open invitation. It works well enough and is surprisingly robust for being the first console version of Tiger Woods to include online play. Though the console versions of Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2004 are all roughly identical, the online play in the PlayStation 2 version tips the scales in its favor, making it the most recommendable of the three.
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