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Reader Reviews
6 reviews. Average Rating: 5
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Publisher:  Genre: Sports
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Mac OS X: Any Version Mac OS Classic: Not Supported
CPU: G4 @ 1200 MHz RAM: 256 MB DVD-ROM Graphics: 32 MB VRAM |
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In a move that will have many armchair golfers rejoicing, Aspyr recently ported Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2005 to the Mac. As a person who generally avoids sports games like the
plague, I nevertheless had seen and heard enough about this title to be
intrigued by its great reputation on the Windows platform. What I found
was an extremely enjoyable game that should not only appeal to sports
buffs, but also to members of the action gaming crowd who feel the need
to take a break from the endless supply of lightning fast shooters,
racing games, and flight sims. Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2005 sports
addictive and entertaining gameplay, great graphics, and an incredible
player customization system that is so detailed that it may make fans
of other genres writhe in envy. Although I started this review with the
thought that I, as a hardcore first person shooter fan, would never buy
a game about golf, this game has persuaded me to reconsider that
position. If this sounds like you, you may be surprised by what you
find, so I encourage you to read on!
Gameplay, Part 1
Part
of the phobia that non-golfers all seem to share about golf is that, in
a word, golf is boring. While watching the PGA Tour on ESPN may be
analogous to watching paint dry, playing golf can be a completely
different story. After all, give a man a round object, and what does he
do? He inevitably winds up throwing it, or hitting it with an object so
that it flies even further and faster. Golf beats other sports with a
stick (literally) when it comes to making objects fly, and therein lays
the entertainment.
Tiger Woods PGA Tour will attempt to
deliver this in spades as it sends you down the fairway, club in
(virtual) hand. There are many famous, real life courses at your
disposal including Pebble Beach, the TPC at Sawgrass, and Troon North
Monument. In order to get the most out of the 11 courses available,
there are seven different game modes that should provide even the most
voracious golfers with new material for weeks on end. While tournament
play tends to be the 800 lb. gorilla of the Tiger Woods PGA Tour world,
there are several innovative options that present a great deal of
variety in the overall game experience.
The
first of these unusual game modes is called the "Legend Tour," and it
provides the player with an opportunity to work his or her way through
a massive series of challenging opponents, starting with amateur
golfers and concluding with a showdown with well-known golf legends
from the past and present. While the first dozen or so golfers that you
face will be easy pickings for most players, you'll eventually have to
face some very recognizable legends such as Jack Nickalus, Vijay Sing,
and John Daly that should provide a strong challenge.
The next
mode that Tiger Woods offers is called "Scenarios," and is probably the
most inspired feature of the game. In this mode, the primary objective
is to win medals by completing a wide variety of challenges that may
have you competing with other golfers in "closest-to-the-pin"
competitions, attempting to slam dunk devilishly hard-to-read chip
shots, or even attempting to land shots on the green when faced by huge
obstacles. While these challenges range from moderate to severe
difficulty, they are all quite a bit of fun, and can really teach you
to be a better player.
The last unique mode that Tiger Woods has
to offer is probably the strangest one, at least for a title that
focuses on playing golf. Dubbed "Dream 18," this mode allows you to
design your own "dream" golf course by assembling it from holes
belonging to other courses. The object of this mode is to eventually
piece together a course that that has a high enough reputation to be
added to the PGA Tour. In order to do that, you are given a set of
basic tools to customize the layout and difficulty of the course.
Before fans of Maxis' excellent SimCity series get too
excited, however, I should note that the amount of customization that
you are allowed to do is extremely limited—the lack of an ability to
create my own course from scratch left me wanting more (though your
mileage may vary). Fortunately, the rest of the game dwarfs this
lackluster option.
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