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(More customer reviews)Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2005 is a nice follow-up to the 2004 version. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the title, here is a brief summary:
Create your own golfer and take him from the ranks of the amateurs to the PGA tour, or play as one of several PGA Tour personalities included in the game, including up-and-coming youngsters Adam Scott, Charles Howell III, battle-hardened veterans like Colin Montgomery and Jesper Parnevik, multiple major winners Vijay Singh and Retief Goosen, LPGA hottie Natalie Gulbis, friend of Tiger Notah Begay III, and the man himself, Tiger Woods. Play on close to a dozen real courses (Pebble Beach, TPC at Sawgrass, Harbortown, etc.) and two fantasy courses.
Here's where 2005 improves on 2004:
1. More licensed equipment and clothing
2. More detailed character construction ("Game Face")
3. Sharper graphics
4. Legends Tour, where one can climb the ranks to challenge all-time studs Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Ben Hogan, and Gary Player, as well as Seve Ballesteros and new legend Tiger Woods.
Here's where 2004 is better:
1. More well-known courses (Plantation course at Kapalua, Princeville, Poppy Hills, Spyglass, Sahalee, Coeur d'Alene, Bethpage Black, TPC at Avenel, etc.).
2. Driving range for practice.
3. Less-buggy.
I found one particularly irritating bug -
When I was playing against any legend on any course that was comprised of a compilation of holes from the included courses, there was one hole from St. Andrews (Old Course) in which the computer player would tee off on the par 4 with a lob wedge! Then, they'd putt about 20 feet. So, basically, I would tee off, hit the ball 275+ yards, and pretty much be up a stroke right off the bat.
Another irritating bug -
The commentary doesn't match the situation or outcome. For example, I'll hit an approach shot from 200+ yards away to within 8 feet of the cup, and David Feherety's voice will say something like, "That's not the worst shot in the world, but its not the best, either." Or, you could make a putt, and he'd say, "That's going to be way short," right when the ball drops into the cup. There are other silly mismatched comments, too.
The game ran well on my terrible MSI GeForce FX 5600XT 128MB video card, but I did run into a little lag from time to time. I upgraded to an ATI Radeon 9800 Pro, and I can pretty much play the game at the highest quality levels now. I also tried the game on my same computer (P4 2.8c, 1 Gig of Corsair XMS RAM) with an ATI Radeon 9550 card, and it ran extremely well. Both Radeon cards were big time upgrades over the GeForce FX 5600XT.
Although 2005's courses aren't as great as 2004's, you can load 2004's courses into 2005, although they won't be available for tournament play, but you can still play matches on them. Check out any of the Tiger Woods PGA Tour forums online for more information on how to play 2004 courses in the 2005 game.
This is a really fun golf game with terrific graphics. I found the improved graphics, better "game face," and more licensed equipment a worthwhile reason for purchasing TW2005 even though I also own TW2004. I really don't think there is any other golf game out there that can match TW2005. MAKE SURE you have a PC and Video Card that MORE than meets the minimum requirements if you want to see graphics that will make you drool. I've seen what TW2004 looked like on a PC with only 16MB of Video RAM (the minimum system requirements) and a P4 2.0Ghz, and it wasn't pretty!
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