A great game of golf that has aged well, and can be bought on the cheap now.

User Rating: 8.4 | Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2003 PS2
This game is a solid game of golf, that does a great job of balancing arcade and sim characteristics to make a very enjoyable game of golf. In this game, like most Tiger games, it is a bit too easy to sink extremely long putts, hit long drives, and generally make incredibly low golf scores consistantly (like -18 and below). Regardless, this plays just like series vets expect it to play, and the game seems to have changed rather little from year to year.

TW2003 offers a good selection of courses, both real and fantasy. They are mostly well designed, and look and feel like a golf course should. The single player game mostly revolves around competing against pros and fantasy characters. The pros look a lot like their real life counterparts, but the fantasy players are largely insulting stereotypes. There is a "valley girl" that plays at her father's country club, an african american that originally played basketball or football, a kilt wearing Scotsman that cheats, and a sumo wrestler. The characters are lifeless and offensive at times.

The main problem with this game allowing you to consistanly play so far below par is that your opponents also have to be incredibly good to give you a challenge. Get used to trying to catch up to opponents that can get within five feet of the hole using a driver from over 200 yards away. The later levels can feel very cheap, and if it wasn't for a very enjoyable upgrade system than they would be almost impossible.

The game looks great considering its age, but the announcing is annoying and the menu music doesn't fit the game at all. The presentation is fine overall, but the sound needed work.

All and all, this is a great used game to pick up. I thing 2004 is a better game, but this one is almost as good.