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Xbox | Sports | Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2004

Boxart for Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2004
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2004 12 screen shots
  • GRAPHICS: 4.5
  • SOUND: 4.0
  • CONTROL: 4.5
  • FUN FACTOR 4.5
  • AVG USER SCORE n/a
  • AVG CRITIC SCORE 4.6
Winner of the GamePro Editor's Choice Award

Review: Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2004

Review by DANELEKTRO | 09/22/2003 | 12:44:19 PM PST

It?s tee time again for Tiger?and Xbox owners looking for an answer to Hot Shots Golf now have one.

For a sport that usually gets tagged as boring or elitist, golf certainly comes off as active and inviting in Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2004. It?s not as arcadey as Hot Shots Golf, but it makes several concessions to the short-attention-span crowd while still offering gobs of options and realism for true fans of the sport.

Mr. Tee
Tiger 2004 is no mere walk on the fairway; in fact, there?s so much stuff stuffed into Tiger 2004 that it?s hard to comprehend ever getting bored by it. In addition to the expected PGA Tour Season career mode and friendly pick-up and practice games, you?ll find a new World Tour mode, scenario-based challenges, and arcade-style quick gratification games like target shooting for cash and the aggressive Speed Golf and Battle Golf. PS2 owners can also play peer-to-peer online as well as join Internet tournaments; GameCube players can link up to a GBA to unlock extra tournaments and improve in-game cash flow.

Among the most significant new elements this year are a chip shot and a new grid on the putting green?something EA seemed to resist, but now that they?ve caved, the game on the green is much better. The player creation, now dubbed Game Face, is frightening, giving you control over every aspect of your golfer?s appearance. If you?re armed with a photo, EA says you can re-create anyone?s face in about 15 minutes?no kidding.

The Course Creator returns, too, enabling players to select their favorite holes from St. Andrew?s, Pebble Beach, TPC Sawgrass, Torrey Pines, and 15 more courses to build a personal dream 18. Tiger 2004 also supports the cool new EA Sports Bio feature, which rewards gamers who play multiple EA Sports games.

Five-Hit 7-Iron Combo?
The game uses dynamic camera angles to note especially powerful shots and?if you can believe this?requires a fair amount of button-mashing to affect your shot?s power and rotation. Combined with the excellent analog Total Precision Swing, which represents a vast and logical improvement over the old three-press swing meters that have dominated the genre for years, it?s as active as you?re likely to find a golf game. Handling ball rotation, club power, and wind guesstimates all at once is a pleasantly complex challenge. Oddly, due to the button-layout differences, it?s better to swing with the left analog stick on the Xbox and GameCube but with the right one on the PS2. With so few objects moving on the screen at any given time, the overall clarity and beauty of the game world is awesome?lots of little details, from individual blades of grass to ducks in a pond in the background, really get the chance to shine. All three versions look very clean and virtually identical; only the GameCube?s frame rate seems to stutter a bit in places, but it?s not bad or noticeable enough to ding the score.

Unfortunately, the endlessly entertaining and varied commentary from Gary McCord and the hilarious David Feherty (?So much of golf is mental?and that shot was mental right there,?) battles the hodgepodge, made-for-marketing-purposes soundtrack. Snappy pop meets posturing, censored rap (in a golf game?) for a decidedly uneven, mute-worthy experience.

Par for the Course
For all of Tiger Woods? various endorsement deals, he?s definitely signed a good one with EA. The mix of true physics, newbie approachability, gameplay depth, and even a sly sense of humor makes Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2004 thoroughly enjoyable.