Glitchy golf game for those with patience (Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2001 (PC))

Member Name: lilmanweddle

Product:	Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2001 (PC)
Date:	07/03/01 (50 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Lots of options for the golf fan

Disadvantages: Glitchy control, a little dull

I've been ignoring EA's sports brands for years, FIFA, NBA Live, F1, and Tiger Woods (there are others), for one reason, they are supposedly crap!
While FIFA offers players with more options than you could possibly need (and want) the game also lacks in the playability stakes, unless your one of those who are easily pleased (playstation owners). Tiger Woods PGA Tour follows in this mould, endless options, refinements and styles of play. The difference with Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2001 (TW2001) is that it does have some depth to it's gameplay and is a clear improvement over the last effort.

TW20001 has the official license of the PGA Tour and so has a wide variety of courses, (17 I think in all) and a whole bunch of real life characters to play as or up against. As with all EA games, they aren't affraid to show off the license and they use it well in presenting the game.
Does any of this matter though if the game is a complete nightmare to play, for most of us, yes!

So thankfully while at first TW2001 seems almost unplayable, give it a few hours and you'll have worked out the slightly erratic ball physics and will be landing your approach shots nicely on the putting surface. With more hours, putting will improve, and making a long twisting putt is a nice feeling thanks to some nice crowd reactions. The more hours that are put into the game the more you'll get out, it's like taking up a sport for real, you can't just shoot straight to the top.

So for those who aren't concerned with realistic ball physics and have patience with the games erratic nature, there is a good, solid game underneath it's flashy presentation.

Graphics wise, my PC didn't cope very well with the texture mapping (or whatever, i'm no PC genius). Performance will obviously vary on different machines, but I can say some of the landscapes looked beautiful when nothing was moving. Most of the characters are motio
n captured, but for a sad few,(Stewart Appelby, Michael Jordan) they are not, and it's almost embarrasing to watch to watch them like something out of a cartoon.

So i'm still waiting for a really good golf game, and TW2001 will no doubt fill the gap until that game comes along.

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