Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2004

So what does ’04 have that ’03 doesn’t? Tons! TWPT offers the virtual golfer 19 different courses that include some already-seen world-class ones. It also offers five new PGA sites (15 in all), two fantasy locations, and 12 characters. It carries the extra load of several new game playing modes-Alternate Shot, Stable Ford Scoring, Best Ball, Long Drive Shootout, and Battle Golf.

On the great Game Face mode: this is where you dabble with the image of your virtual golfer. There are over 40 slide bars controlling numerous features, such as bone density, body mass, chin and jaws, eye/hair colour and shape, to name just a few. Tons of accessories, from cowboy hats to tattoos, are available to jazz up your golfer.

Another big addition is of course a real PGA Tour. If ’03 lacked anything, it was this. ’04 offers your golfer the chance to participate in a full PGA tour, with over 30 four-day events.

Your golfer starts his career right down at the bottom-you begin as a true rookie. Solace lies in the fact that a challenge’s difficulty is proportional to your golfer’s talent. It would be advisable to spend time practising, just to see what your golfer can do.

Money is definitely important, providing you with access to tons of goodies at the Pro Shop. From animations to best represent your moods, to hats, clothes, faces, hairstyles, clubs, sunglasses etc, you can have a ball splurging the green.

The graphics are near-perfect. The tracks used in TWPT2004 are better than before, but still rely on a lot of rap, with the likes of DMX and Roscoe. The best part though, has to be the sound of your club smacking the ball in perfect synch with the animation on the screen. It truly gives you the feel of having hit one helluva shot.

This game definitely gets our ‘Highly Recommended’ stamp on it.

The Great Escape is almost completely a stealth-based third-person game. If you have not seen the movie (you should), it involves a group of daredevil WW II POWs who attempt to break out of a maximum security camp in Germany. All-out action is present only on the few occasions when you get a weapon or vehicle to use. Think of this game as Splinter Cell, but without the weapons, neat-o gadgets, graphics, gameplay, and fun.

The in-game sound effects and music tracks are passable. All guns sound the same-big guns make bigger noises.

Coming to the missions themselves, they don’t differ too much. You hardly ever get weapons, so most of the time, you have to sneak around and avoid the guards. Your objective is mostly to talk to people, sneak around, get items, talk to them again, get directed to some more people, get more items, and keep repeating until the game decides it’s had enough of you. It’s just like an adventure game, without the adventure in it. It wouldn’t have been so bad were it not for the horrid controls.

There is always just one and only one way to complete your objective. The only choice you have to make is whether you’ll strangle that patrolling guard or simply sneak past him. In a stroke of pure evil, the game’s designers decided that to strangle a guard, you’ll need to sneak up behind him, then mash the mouse button as fast as you possible can. Some guards are harder to strangle than others, which means that you’ll have to hit that button even harder and faster.

There is no compelling reason to play The Great Escape, unless you are on the endless quest of playing every game you can get your hands on.