Before even opening the box, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2005 had the opportunity to be the best game in the Tiger series. Tiger Woods 2004 was superb and could have been improved upon to make the perfect PC golf game. However, this edition of the game falls short of the mark set by last year's game. Starting up the game you are taken directly to the main menu that will become oh so familiar to you as you progress through the game. Options here include all the usual Options, Extras (including previews of other EA titles and Credits) and Online Play. In addition, you get the chance to "Tiger Proof" holes (more on that later), view your resume, change your appearance with Game Face II, or get into some career action. Career mode in this year's game allows you to play in tournaments moving your way from amateur, through q-school, to the PGA tour. It also allows you to play the World Tour 2004 inspired scenario's that are much more difficult compared to last year. You can also create your dream 18 from courses you "buy" with legend coins. Legend Coins can be earned through completing lessons (same as last year), completing scenarios, or by defeating players on the Legend Tour. Those that played TW2004 remember the World Tour. Which was a combination of game scenario's played out at each course in the game. This year's game offers the Legend Tour, which, in this reviewer's opinion is not a favorable change. The basis of the Legend Tour is that you will face a selection of fictional golfers such as Billy Hightower or Johnny The Hustler. Once you defeat the fictionaly golfers, you are moved up a tier to face real professionals. All the names from last year's game are included this time around. Vijay Singh, Justin Leonard, Ty Tryon, and Natalie Gulbis just to name a few. Once you complete this tier of events, you are able to challenge the Legends of the game. The inclusion of these legends are good to see for fans of the sport. Gary Player, Ben Hogan, Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, and Seve Ballesteros are included in all their glory. The final tier on the Legend Tour pyramid is a face-off with Tiger Woods himself. Who saw that one coming? Next, we move on to Tiger Proofing. Which is the ability to change the difficulty of the course. Sliders enable you to make the fairway narrow, make the rough thick, exaggerate the elevation of the course and make the green tiny. You can also change things like pin position, tree density, course upkeep, and more. This is a very neat feature for this year's game, however its importance seems to be less on making the changes yourself and more on playing Tiger Proofed holes in Scenario mode or on the Legend Tour. You can however, create your own Dream 18 and Tiger Proof each individual hole. As you do so, your prestige rating will go up and you will be challenged by the Legends of the game. Game Face II is the newest version of last year's Game Face feature. And, like last year's version this is where you will change your appearance, golf equipment, and attributes. Your appearance this year can be changed through clothing, accessories, and visual aids such as head, face, and body build. There are more options this year for customizing your look: age spots, wrinkles, scars, dimples, laugh lines, are all apart of the various options. The equipment menu allows you to choose everything from your driver and woods, to your grip color and ball color. Yes, this year you can choose between not only real world golf balls, but 2 color and 3 color balls. There seem to be more options for equipment this year when compared to last year, and that by all means, is a good thing. The more, the merrier. Your attributes this year are limited to only 100 in each category as opposed to the 125 max from last year's game. This makes the game much more realistic and doesn't allow you to hit those 370yd drives on every hole. That brings us into gameplay. Fan's of TW2004 should be able to step right in and excel in this game. Gameplay feels almost exactly the same but that's not necessarily a bad thing. A few changes were made to your drives off the tee and your play from the rough. Power Shots are now much more likely to be severely hooked or sliced, and your shots from deep or medium rough seem to be handicapped moreso. This makes gameplay feel much more realistic while still having arcade hints. The swing motion from previous games returns, but you can also select 2 or 3-click swing styles. The courses in this years game have been reduced from 18 to 11. With 10 real-world courses and two fantasy courses, one that you'll recognise if you have played the console versions from last year and one inspired by Australia's deep outback. This year's real-world locales include, Edgewood Tahoe, Harbour Town, Pebble Beach, Sherwood Golf and Country Club, St. Andrews, The Links at Fancourt, TPC Sawgrass, Troon North, and Turnberry. All of which have their own distinct look and feel. Edgewood is beatifully green with some elevation changes, while St. Andrews is relatively flat but full of pot bunkers and massive greens. The change in quantity of courses this year really is hard to comprehend, I would have liked it if they added this year's new courses to last year's supply as the variety there could have been fantastic. Commentary this year is supplied once again by Gary McCord and David Feherty. While they stay right on top of things and offer plenty of anecdotes, players of last year's game will hear many of the same witty remarks. All in all, commentary is good, but a little repetitive. As far as the audio in the game, it is surely top notch. Shots from the tee with metal woods sound great, shots from deep sand make that deep bass thump found in real life. The only complaint is the ball falling into the cup is silent. The most satisfying sound in golf is the ball falling into the hole and this is missin from the game! Why? I havn't gotten a chance you play online yet so I cannot comment on it yet. Though if it is anything like last year's game I have a feeling you'll be spending alot of your time playing your friends from across the hall, down the street, or around the world. All in all, while Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2005 does not live up to last year's game, it is definately worth playing. Its improvements over last year are overshadowed by its lack of courses and world tour mode. Features that could only help this series in the future. Owners of last year's game may want to hold out on this one, for now.
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