Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2002 Preview

By Brett Todd, GameSpotPosted Jan 4, 2002 3:34 pm PT

EA Sports' latest golf game is being completely redesigned. We take a few chips at an alpha build of Tiger Woods 2002--read our impressions inside.

EA Sports must be hoping that Tiger Woods' well-publicized slump in recent months doesn't extend beyond the golf course. That sort of jinx would be most unwelcome in mid-February when the sports game giant unveils Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2002. The latest edition in the company's long-running golf series is being promoted as the best yet, courtesy of a complete redesign that has jettisoned almost every aspect of the previous version--not a bad idea given the way that the previous game failed to make much of a dent in Microsoft's Links empire.

Tiger eyes a putt.

A recent alpha build indicates that this will certainly be much more than the usual sports sequel. Developer Headgate Studios, well known for its work on the highly acclaimed PGA Championship Golf series for Sierra, has gone back to the drawing board and come up with what could be regarded as an evolutionary leap in golf game design. For the first time, virtual duffers should be able to enjoy their favorite sport without making any compromises in terms of simulation and graphical quality. Eye candy fans and simulation buffs who treasure an authentic experience over everything else should be equally pleased with what they'll find here.

Tiger Woods 2002 definitely looks the part. One of the biggest problems of the last few editions in the series--sluggish, clunky visuals that made all but the most powerful computer systems grind to a halt--has been eliminated with the introduction of an all-new graphical engine that is quick and capable of rendering gorgeous visuals. The player models are as lifelike as those in sister titles such as NHL 2002 and Madden NFL 2002. Tiger and his seven fellow PGA pros have been drawn with thousands of polygons, giving them an authentic look, right down to Jesper Parnevik's trademark flipped-up cap and Mark Calcavecchia's pale complexion. The players also move in a realistic fashion. The various swing types are dead-on, as are celebratory fist pumps, running after putts, picking blades of grass, and various other signature moves familiar to the included pros. Like in other recent EA Sports games, you can even see the players blinking.

The meanest rough ever depicted in a computer game.

The course artwork is just as impressive. Objects never become masses of blocky pixels when seen close up. Get intimate with a tree (so to speak), and you'll see nothing but intricately drawn individual leaves. The textures are also very sharp. Zoom right in on a wedge shot out of the rough, and you'll not only see defined blades of grass, but you'll also see those blades of grass ripped from the ground in the wake of your club. About the only drawback is the inclusion of just six courses, most of which are tried and true veterans like Pebble Beach, Royal Birkdale, and Spyglass Hill. Free-floating cameras enable you to look at these familiar courses from new angles, though. Simply right-click and rotate the mouse to pan all around your golfer, or click on any part of the overhead map detailing each individual hole to shift your viewing perspective. All these points of view can be accessed instantly. Load times were virtually nonexistent on the two machines we used to test Tiger Woods 2002. Both a Pentium III 600 and an Athlon XP 1700 equipped with GeForce 3 video cards ran the game at its highest settings with no problems.

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