Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2004 Impressions

Today's Camp EA press event allowed us to take an in-depth look at Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2004, the latest in Tiger Woods' namesake golfing series. Tiger Woods 2004 is looking to be an extremely deep game, with full online functionality for the PlayStation 2, new modes, new golfers, and new courses. However, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2004 is really all about one key feature--letting you play as yourself. EA Sports and Headgate have gone to great lengths to give you every possible option for creating a player of your own design, including tons of different clothing, upgradable stats, and adjustable styles and animations.

The create-a-golfer mode in Tiger Woods 2004 has been titled the "game-face" mode. The game-face mode lets you design your player in many, many different ways. Just choosing a face for your character can be quite a task, since you can edit hairstyles and hair colors, add every discernable form of facial hair and other decoration, and adjust every minute detail from the length of your nose to the width between your eyes. As you play, you'll also be able to use your winnings to purchase tons of gear, including hundreds of licensed shirts, pants, golf gear, and even animations, including 13 different swing styles and lots of ludicrous celebratory animations.

The game will also feature new play modes such as the long drive challenge and a battle mode. Long drive challenge is a face-off type of mode where your task is to effectively hit the ball as far as possible. Battle mode pits you against another golfer, and on a hole-by-hole basis, the winner of each hole has the ability to take away one of the opposing golfer's clubs. The game's PGA season mode has also been upgraded significantly so that you can play over a 10-year time span. The mode features real-time PGA tour events, meaning that real-life events will happen at the appropriate times of the year. You'll also be able to obtain sponsorships throughout the mode, depending on how much fame you attain, which, in turn, depends on how well you've been playing.

Online functionality will also be a huge factor in Tiger Woods 2004. The PlayStation 2 version of the game will go online, and, like the PC version, it will use the EA Sports Online system, integrating the game with all of this year's EA Sports titles so that you can chat with your friends (even if they're playing different games), as well as track stats across each game using the new bio mode.

However, Tiger Woods 2004 also has several online features of its own. For instance, the game's answer to EA Sports' online tournaments is a bit different--instead of just weekly tournaments, players will effectively be playing online against their own score. Periodically, EA will then challenge some of the best players online to play in invitational events. Additionally, you'll be able to take your created golfers online, as well as receive updates about new items that can be purchased that week at discounted prices.

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2004 is set for release on October 14 for the GameCube, Xbox, PlayStation 2, and PC, and it's also in development for the Game Boy Advance.