Often billed as a destruction of nature, an easy excuse to get away from the wife, and a frustrating endeavor, the sport of golf continues to be one of the world’s most passionate hobbies.  Consuming the lives of men and women all over, the popularity of golf continues to rise.  Just try getting a tee time at noon on Sunday to see what I’m talking about. 

EA Sports brings the game of golf home with Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2004 for the Playstation 2.  This excellent follow-up for last year’s edition is good enough to keep golfers off the greens and on the couch.  With its abundance of new features, unlockables, and online play, Tiger 2004 is a must have for PS2-owning golf fans. 

While playing as a PGA Tour pro is fun, the real reward comes from creating a player and taking him from hack to hero.  Most of the game modes were based around gamers creating a player and pitting him through competitions and exercises in order to win prize money to boost attributes and purchase some fine looking duds, and with the amazing new EA Sports Game Face feature, you may just become attached to your little buddy. 

Probably the greatest new feature in Tiger 2004, the Game Face feature really allows gamers to customize beyond the realms of anything seen before.  Using vectors and plot points and other mumbo jumbo, Game Face molds eyebrows, noses, cheeks, and jaws to nearly any reasonable parameter imaginable.  With enough work and time, recreating a fair representation of one’s self is entirely possible.  In addition to shaping faces, Game Face has plenty of hairstyles to choose from, as well as various shades of pigment, eyes, and hair color.  Teeth can be capped, tattoos and t-shirt logos can be customized using an archaic painting tool, and loads of equipment, clothes, and accessories can further create a player entirely your own.  This is the first time in a video game that creating a player is not a waste of time or a pain in the a$$. 

After you’ve created your golfer and outfitted him with fresh threads, styling celebrations, and ample golf skills, it’s time to throw him (or her) into the fray.  World Tour, a sort of revamping of last year’s Tiger Challenge, is a series of match play contests versus some of EA’s created players such as “Pops” Masterson, the geriatric cantankerous grandpa, “The Don”, the mafia boss you don’t want to mess with, and Sunshine, the spoiled Beverly Hills hottie, as well as PGA Pros like Vijay Singh, Colin Montgomerie, and John Daly.  Defeating these players unlocks them for general play, puts new items in the Pro Shop, and puts cash in your pocket.  Created players can also take to the PGA Tour once they earn their tour card for 10 consecutive years of 52-week seasons.  This is where the competition is tough and the money is plentiful.  Unfortunately, there really isn’t a PGA feel to the mode as it’s pretty much just player versus the course with no updates on the action around the tournament.  Scenario mode challenges players to get through a variety of tough circumstances to win trophy balls and win extra goodies, Battle Golf lets winners of holes take a club from their opponent’s bags, and speed golf is as much a foot race as a golf match.  New this year are real-time events that synch with your PS2’s clock for special events that may only happen once a year, such as a Halloween tournament that rewards players with a special orange and black shirt, or EA-created characters’ birthdays that yield special items.  For great multi-player action, Tiger 2004 features a few alternating and best-ball modes that are a blast. 

Fans of Tiger’s analog swing control won’t be disappointed this year.  The swing’s accuracy and power are still controlled by rocking the joystick back and forth, but it seems to have been slightly improved over last year’s version by making it slightly more difficult to put good wood on the ball.  Hitting the ball where you want to go mirrors the real game of golf more accurately – it takes a swift, smooth swing to hammer the ball like Tiger or approach like Singh.  Of course better driving accuracy and ball striking attributes will help the ball go straighter and further, but miss slightly with the joystick and you’re likely to end up in the salad.  After all, golf is as much about tradition as it is about throwing your clubs into the drink in frustration.  This is the most significant change to basic gameplay in Tiger 2004, and it’s welcomed with open arms.  It does seem like it is still a little too easy, as my friend and I holed five 80-yard plus approaches on only our second round. 

Power boosts and spin control are back and identical to last year.  Quickly tapping the L1 button on the controller during the backswing gives golfers a little more oomph on their swings with the risk of slicing it into the next fairway.  The rapid L1 tapping also serves to distract gamers from the technical analog swing, much like laying into a ball in real golf often throws swings out of whack.  After striking the ball, the L2 button combined with the joystick puts spin on the ball.  It’s obviously incredibly unrealistic, but it adds a bit of fun when the ball is zooming at the hole like a missile.  These power-ups give Tiger 2004 a bit of an arcade feel, but nothing like other games on the market.

The Playstation 2 version of Tiger 2004 has a slight edge over the other console versions because it is the only version that allows for online play.  Online features include one-on-one play in stroke or match play and online tournaments.  The tournaments are fairly basic, unfortunately, only serving as a way to post scores.  Each day, a new tournament is available for participating in.  Everyone plays the same holes under the same settings to even the playing field, but you’d better be insanely good to crack the top ten.  Special invite-only tournaments are held by EA, with various qualifications needing to be met such as finishing a certain percentage of the game or averaging a certain distance on your drives.  There are several options when setting up an online match such as green speeds, making the match affect online rankings, and even a shot clock to speed up the pace of the game.  Tiger 2004 supports the Logitech USB headset for online chat, and there is virtually no lag during conversations.  The only downsides to the online portion of the game were the clunky interfaces and the above average number of disconnects. 

After seeing the graphics of Tiger 2003, I had high expectations for this year’s version.  Tiger 2004 does not look much better than last year’s, though it still does have some of the best human modeling of any game.  The main problem comes with the fly-bys of each hole revealing only average texturing and “blocky” environments.  On the course, the holes look splendid, however, with problems only arising when balls fall close to an object such as a tree or rock.  The real graphical accomplishments are achieved with the actual golfers themselves.  One of the only games in which close-ups actually look better, Tiger 2004 does fantastic work with skin textures and player animations, making it even more important to take some time while creating a character.  One last problem EA seemed to ignore – Where is the HDTV or progressive scan support? 

The sounds of golf may not be overwhelming, but they’re part of the charm of the game.  Whether it is the calm cooing of wildlife or the crazy crowing of wild fans, Tiger 2004 amply covers the bases.  There’s nothing ground breaking here, but the roars of success from great shots (on your hole or not) really reward golfers for shooting pin-high.  The sounds of the environment are good, but often don’t do the courses justice. 

Tiger 2004 is currently the best golf game available, period.  The controls are top-notch thanks to the real feel of a golf swing EA has reproduced.  There are 19 full courses in total, some fantasy courses, and most of them are available at the onset.  The online feature assures golfers will always be able to find a match, but the real fun comes with playing with friends in the living room.  The game is sure to captivate just about anyone, golfer or not. 

Gameplay: 9.5

Tiger 2004 features just about everything that the game of golf has to offer.  Trouble stances will cause balls to shoot off left or right, wind will knock pitching wedges down, and real ball physics send balls bouncing like pinballs in the trees.  Sorry guys, there are no beer carts.   

Graphics: 8.4

I’m knocking this down a bit mostly because I expected great things from the graphics this year.  The courses do look good while playing on them, but some of the overhead shots reveal some graphical mishaps.  However, the golfers look awesome, the best in any video game that is not a cinematic.

Sound: 8.0

Several of the sounds of golf are well represented here, from the PING of a well-struck drive to the sound of the ball gently touching the bottom of the cup.  The mish-mash soundtrack doesn’t seem fitting, jumping from poppy alternative rock to thuggish hip-hop. 

Difficulty: Medium

Veterans of last year’s game will slide into Tiger 2004 with no problems.  Newbies may take a while to get used to the swing, but the game offers an instant reward system that should take the kinks out of their swings.   

Concept: 9.0

There is definitely some good stuff going on here.  Online play, Game Face, and the Pro Shop are some great additions and really help the replay value of the game. 

Multiplayer: 10

I don’t give out ‘10’s that often, but is there anything better than playing a round of golf with your buddies?  The online play could use a bit of improvement, but it’s a heck of a lot more fun than playing by yourself.   

Overall: 9.2

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2004 is a great achievement in video games, sports or otherwise.  The Game Face feature is almost worth the price alone.  Tiger Woods 2004 is the only golf game that PS2 owners need to own – until Tiger 2005, of course.