Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 2004

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2004, EA's beloved golfing series, is becoming the "Madden" of the genre.  It has so many modes it's unbelievable.

An incomplete rundown of the game modes and sub-modes: World Tour, PGA Tour Season Mode, Scenarios, Stroke Play, Match Play, Skins, Practice, Stableford, Alternate Shot, Best Ball, Fourball, Battle Golf, Long Drive Challenge, Skillzone, and Speed Golf.  The reason this huge list is incomplete is because some of the modes are locked, and since there are so many available from the start, it isn't necessary to spoil the surprises for you.

These modes are filled with hours of gameplay, especially the first two: World Tour and PGA Tour Season Mode.  The former is a series of competitions between you and the best regional players.  The winner earns cash and, assuming the win wasn't dumb luck, the necessary skills to take on the more challenging PGA Tour Season Mode.  That mode includes the entire PGA Tour schedule.  Start by playing through the first tournaments of the year and work your way to the final event.  The replay value is high on this one, so you should be glad to know that you can play up to 10 consecutive seasons.

Stroke Play, Match Play, etc., are all taken from the Traditional Games mode.  These modes are designed not only to give the player more gameplay options, but were also designed to provide additional venue to test their skills.  For example, in Stroke Play you try to complete a round with the fewest number of strokes.  With 18 holes to score big or lose bigger in, this mode should remind you of the classic golf games that were developed before polygons revolutionized the industry.

The arcade modes include Battle Golf, Long Drive Challenge, Skillzone and Speed Golf.  They may sound like a fun, easy-to-play alternative to the challenging gameplay of the simulation modes, and while the former would be true, there is nothing easy about them.  Imagine a series of targets.  Some are hard to reach, while others are surrounded by water.  Your goal is to hit the ball as close to a hole as possible.  The closer you are, the more points you'll earn, but there's a catch: each hole can only be attempted a limited number of times.  After that you must move onto the next one, which is significantly harder to reach.  This is just one of the sub-games within the Skillzone mode.

Tiger Woods 2004 has an excellent control scheme.  EA has brought some innovation to the genre by eliminating the standard power meter that other games use.  In this game there is no meter; only a thumb stick that acts as a golf club.  To swing, you must press down on the stick, causing your golfer to pull back his or her club to prepare the swing.  To complete the swing, you must then press up on the thumb stick.

The beauty here is not so much that the thumb stick is involved as it is the fact that it gives the player so many more swing options.  You can swing as harsh or as lightly as you desire just by altering how far you press the thumb stick.  You won't believe how brilliant this is till you've played the game yourself.

Because of this innovative control system, the learning curve is a bit steep.  Playing Tiger Woods 2004 for the first time is like playing Wave Race 64 for the first time; Wave Race was the first in its class to make good use of an analog stick.  Adjusting to it was not easy, but seven years later, gamers have no desire to go back.  The same will be true for Tiger Woods.  This is my first outing with the series, so I don't know if they've done this before or not, but EA is known for improving each sequel to the point where it nearly crushes the previous title.  It's unlikely that this game is any different.

Golf isn't the most colorful sport, so EA didn't have a huge palette to work with when it came to creating the graphics.  Still, they did a stellar job of making Tiger Woods and the other golfers – including the homemade ones – come to life.  It's easy to take a look at a football player who's wearing a helmet and say he looks like the real thing.  But golfers have no face guards or barriers, meaning that EA had to render every detail of Tiger's face, which they did very nicely.  From his eyes to his mouth to even the shape of his nose – it's as close to perfection as you could possibly get on the current generation of game systems.

Tiger Woods 2004's background detail isn't as eye-popping, but the spectators are noteworthy.  As for the rest of the backgrounds, there are trees, trees and more trees.  They look pretty good.  They would be great, but the animation isn't too spectacular when the camera moves around them.  The trees tend to look choppy, and bits and pieces of them appear and reappear at will.

When zooming in on a hole, Tiger Woods 2004 treats gamers to a cinematic effect.  As the camera zooms in on a golfer, the backgrounds black out.  This is mainly done to get the game players to concentrate all of their attention on the golfer.  However, the backgrounds may also black out to minimize the amount of processing power that's needed to power the golfer's face.

Overall the graphics are great.  The shortcomings don't impact the game too much since the golfers themselves look so good.

Gameplay: 9
This may not be the first game in the series, but as far as I'm concerned Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2004 is a hole in one.  Figuratively speaking, there are no holes in this one – no missing links that could have made the game better.  EA didn't add the season mode and a few others and say, "Alright, we can stop."  They just kept adding to the game until finally there were so many that you didn't know which to play first.

The controls are easily the most important aspect of the game.  They could have used a different control system and still made the game fun, but this one adds so much innovation.  Innovation = a new level of gameplay depth.  With innovation you have to learn something new as a gamer, and let me tell you, there is no greater joy than that.  The most memorable games are those at innovate.  Tiger Woods 2004 is another to add to that list.

Graphics: 8.5
The golfers are the graphical high point of this title.  Facial detail is high and the animation is smooth and realistic.  Background detail is less impressive, but still good.  The blurry camera effect (which is intended to be cinematic and occurs when you zoom in on a hole) has been used before, but works well in this scenario.

Sound: 8
Tiger Woods 2004 has a better-than-decent mixture of rock and rap tracks from up and coming artists like Revolution Smile, Just Blaze and Brand New.  Popular rap artist DMX has lent one song to the soundtrack -- "Party Up."  It's old, but fans of the genre likely won't care.

In keeping with the simulation sports style, the music is silenced during a season game unless it is turned on ahead of time.

Difficulty: Hard
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Gamers.  Your inexperienced friends will whine like crazy when you kick their butt for the first time.  You'll whine like crazy when the computer kicks your butt for the fifth time.  But if you're persistent and really give this game a chance, the challenge begins to dwindle and the game becomes less overwhelming.  It'll still be tough, but on a level that you can handle.

Concept: 8.8
Reason for the high score: the controls.  EA has never ceased to amaze me.  They take an existing genre, develop the best game possible, and make it innovative and far more realistic by adding a new control scheme.

Multiplayer: 8
This is an excellent multiplayer sports game.  Split-screen gaming for two players; alternating controls for four players.  And tons of standard golf games and a plethora of mini-games to enjoy.  You really couldn't ask for more.

Overall: 9
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2004 is the premier simulation golf game.  Its intuitive swing system is more than enough to make this a really good game.  But then the developers went and piled as much frosting onto this cake as possible.  There are so many play modes that a college professor could recite them to his students and give them a quiz.  Most students would fail!

As challenging as it is, Skillzone is very entertaining, as are the World Tour and PGA Tour Season modes.  The simultaneous multiplayer option (via split-screen) is excellent for gamers who just can't wait for their friend to take a turn.  If you have several friends around, you have the option of alternating.  Up to four players can play one alternating game.

It's a minor note, but the soundtrack is very enjoyable.  The rap songs weren't too recognizable except for DMX's "Party Up," which EA uses to show the golfers gettin' jiggie with it during the intro.  On the other hand, the rock music includes tracks from upcoming artists like Brand New and Revolution Smile.  All of these tracks gave the game a nice variety that is sure to please the ears of most gamers.

Add up all these elements and you get one heck of a simulation golf game.