9 out of 9 people found this review helpful.
EA has done it again!
Date of Review: Dec 21, 2004
The Bottom Line: EA has done it again with TW PGA Tour 2005! The new and updated features are a solid reason to upgrade.
Lets start this off by answering the question that everybody is asking, Is it worth the upgrade from 2004? I definitely feel that it is, and for many reasons too.
1) Playabiltiy: The game control in the true swing mode is more life like. If you are off a little to the right, you are going to hit it more off the heel thus causing a shorter and less than accurate ball flight. This is especially important when playing in the big matches online!
2) Game Face 2: Everybody likes to be represented by themselves given the chance. Game face 2 allows more customization over facial and body features than Game Face in 2004 ever did. You can build someone very close to your likeness or create your evil inter being.
3) Game Modes: EA has kept the routine Seasonal Mode which allows you to build attributes for getting to the big dance on the PGA Tour. They kept the Lessons Mode helping you build on the finer parts of your game as you advance in the rankings. But now, they have added the Legends Tour. This mode allows you to play your way up the "ladder" to becoming a Legend your yourself. You play 18 holes against amateur champions, then tour pros, and finally the Legends of Golf themselves to finally become the ultimate Golf Legend. This mode takes time as you need more skill and attribute to defeat the more superior players of the tour.
4) Online Play: In the past, it has been very difficult to get a game going and stay going while the servers were handling a lot of game play. This was a very common headache for me while playing 2004 on Saturday evenings. In the past three months, I have only experienced one issue with slow or too busy server activity. EA seems to have a handle on the one problem that many got frustrated with, the very reason why we buy this program. And lastly, EA has done away with paying to play online, as long as you purchase the new version and it registers as the only copy with its own code.
5) Courses: There are several new courses added to 2005. Most of these are really nice and very realistic. I won't list them but having more courses to play is a nice addition.
Now for some negatives:
1) Player reactivities: At the end of a hole, whenever a good putt is made or holed out from off the green, players will do a little too much "celebration" on the green. The "touchdown dances" and "break dance" moves should be abolished from the game. I really cheapens the reality of game play as no one does the "windmill" after sinking a 40 foot putt, at least not on the courses I routinely play.
2) Equipment choice: I really like the ability to choose what equipment manufacturer you want to play, but not all are represented in the game. I know this is probably a licensing issue, but it is just a small peeve that I have. Buy the way, they have added a few more manufacturers to the list in 2005 (No Titleist products this year again)
As you can see my likes of this game certainly out weigh the dislikes. If EA can make these changes, the the rest of the world would be happy!
This piece of software is definitely a step up from previous versions.
