Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2005

With Xbox Live support and a huge roster of sharp upgrades, Tiger 2005 soars to the top of the leaderboard.

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2005 is the kind of huge game that?s easy to lose yourself in for weeks and months on end, sparkling with a ridiculous array of different ways to play, great controls, and more unlockables than you count. The mix offers both lighthearted, arcade fun (like the exciting Battle Golf) and authentic, serious golf for hardcore players, ranging from a mock PGA Tour season to battles against legendary golfers like Palmer and Nicklaus. Of course, the season can?t exactly mimic the real PGA Tour because the game can?t include all those courses, but it checks in with eight new licensed courses and two fantasy ones for a total of 14.

Playing the ?legends? is new this year, and Tiger 2005 uses it to fine effect, pitting you against them in a series of fun mini-matches and full-blown tours. Online support also swings big with two-player head-to-head competitions and tournaments. And the sharp real-time events calendar returns, using your system?s clock to serve up themed events that connect with the calendar.

On the Fairway

Creativity also plays a big role in Tiger 2005. The GameFace II mode lets you delve deeper into an unheard-of level of detail in player creation, while Tiger Proofing takes the sandbox action to the courses. You can?t create courses, but you can tweak them with a predetermined palette of options and assemble your favorite holes into your own Dream 18. Great stuff.

Supple swing controls make using the analog joystick to uncork your swing both a joy and an engaging challenge. You can use arcade-y elements to power up and spin your shots, or you can turn them off and play it straight.

The PS2 and Xbox versions are virtually identical (EA didn?t make the GameCube version available), so it really comes down to picking the controller you prefer. The graphics are sharp on both, mixing astounding player models with just plain good course graphics that, in some cases, could use a bit more pop. The commentary remains the best in sports games, dividing its time between laugh-aloud humor and helpful advice.

In the Rough

Tiger 2005 is not a perfect game, though. The worst design decision is forcing players to unlock the excellent new Tour Difficulty, which should?ve just appeared in the Options menu from the start. What if you?re good after playing last year?s a lot? Or you just learn quickly? Then you have to trudge through a slew of tediously easy games until you?re granted the right to play at your level.

Putting also continues to lack gameplay depth. Visually, all the greens look as flat as pancakes, but a dotted white line tells you how the ball will break. Over time, you have to become a god at the art of tweaking these white lines to sink putts. It?s a shame that EA didn?t spend some graphics-processing power to actually show you 3D greens and let you eyeball putts yourself.

Neither of these flaws should prevent anyone from plunging into this game?they?re the kind of niggling but key details that you hope will be addressed in Tiger 2006. In the meantime, there?s enough stellar gameplay in Tiger 2005 to earn a spot atop everyone?s leaderboard as one of the fall?s brightest stars.

Also on the GameCube

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