Tiger Woods has become part of the many sports titles that EA Sports delivers each year during the Christmas period, albeit most with few notable changes to their predecessor. Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2005 is certainly no exception.
Having played the last four Tiger Woods installations, I honestly say a lot has changed from the first version I have owned compared to this one, from gameplay to graphics. The 2004 and 2005 editions of Tiger Woods are very alike, though. The differences are subtle but then again are pleasing enough to fans of a genuinely amusing golf game, and whom every year expect to find it wrapped under the tree lying next to their socks from grandma.
The bit that I find most appealing in Tiger Woods 2005 is the more time-intensive solo player “Career” mode that is now dubbed as the Legend Tour. This is similar from last year’s version where the globe was travelled in order for challenges to be completed against competitors. The clue is in the title here with the Legend part being the aim, there are five legends to face before you manage to get your grubby little mitts on the challenge of the main Legend, Tiger Woods. Yet, before you even get to challenge the first five legends – Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Ben Hogan, Seve Ballesteros and Gary Player – you have five competitors per legend to get past.
This isn’t as simple as it sounds though, it isn’t simply a case of pick a player to be and then compete against professionals and win to get the chance to play Tiger Woods. That wouldn’t be much fun at all would it! The main challenge is to build your player up by completing sub-challenges within the competitive matches, such as getting eagles, birdies and other ornithological references! This earns you trophy balls and, more importantly, cash. This isn’t the only way money is made though; you also get to hear the sweet sounds of success (money!) by beating challengers, competing in real-time events and being sponsored by big companies. This isn’t anything fresh though, this was the same in the last edition of the game, which in itself was a minor revision based on the version the year before that.
Another update from last year’s version is the GameFace 2 player editor. I’m not too sure why this was dubbed a sequel to last year’s GameFace because to me it looks and feels identical. The idea of GameFace is for you to change your player to look completely like you or something that you feel looks enough like you to fool yourself into thinking you really are on the PGA Tour making millions! This is achieved by tools where you can select shapes of heads, to shapes of moles, to colours of skin to age markings! It really is an intensive piece of kit but something that I find too irritating, as it is time consuming and pedantic. The question the developers really need to ask themselves is how long do people really spend on the creation of characters? My answer is five minutes at the max, something that is hardly achievable with the plethora of options you have to search through to merely design your character.
A new part of the game is the “My dream 18” where the user can design their own course, but it is something you find in a game when developers are running thin on ideas. Look at Tony Hawk’s Underground 2 for example, I’m not actually too sure if there isn’t anything you can’t create on that game, but really do people spend that much time doing it? One appeal for this feature is the fact that you can take the course online and allow people play on it, a feature good if you fancy making your mates seem rubbish on your course! The Tiger-Proofing section of this game feature is where the user can spend their hard-fought for “Legend Points” which are obtained throughout the Legend Mode. These allow you to buy different things to put on your masterpiece. I haven’t really exploited this mode but think I might please myself by eventually making the easiest course on earth!
Following on from the creative scheme of things we also get a mode which has been ingeniously named “Create-a-swing” a name that has a tacky and annoying ring to it! This is merely a case of SWYSWYSI (swizz-wizzy: meaning say what you see when you see it!). The blurb in the instruction book makes the most of a dire situation by describing it as so: “from the funkiest swing imaginable to a picture-perfect masterpiece, create your own swing with all the intricacies you can think of.” That doesn’t particularly sell it to me, but as you can probably tell I don’t have a particular soft spot for create it yourself modes in games. I mean come on, that’s what the programmers are paid to do!
There is online network play, too, where you get to challenge other golf enthusiasts around the world, something I have yet, and probably will not experience. If network play is your bag then you will be able to have match play matches or simple stroke play matches against your competitors, just the same as in the multiplayer mode of the game. There are also Tournaments that are created by EA themselves, where a bunch of suckers are forced to play against each other for no reason but self-satisfaction and being crowned “Tiger Woods 2005 King!”
Overall, I have no complaints about the game; I love the series, but not completely. I am not a fan of creation modes, and also feel that over the four years of games there have not been enough gameplay differences. The only real change in this edition is Tiger-Vision where you get more of a hint as to where the ball needs to be hit in a putting situation. The graphics are again a slight improvement to last year, and as far as I have seen the courses are pretty similar to last year's edition. They have changed the format of the Career mode for the better and of course I am secretly happy that the game is pretty similar because I don’t want it to change too much!
If you have last year’s edition, then don’t rush out to buy this, wait for a while when it is a quiet period for gaming, when no big name games are hitting the shelves. If you have pre-2004 version you should get in your golf-caddy and ride straight down to the club-shop and buy this, it’s great fun, great to play and of course has the EA Sports franchising which means proper courses, proper names and proper branding.
David Kyle
