Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2000 - PC

.com ---- From Q-School to Tour Championship, Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 2000 captures the realism, beauty, and accuracy of PGA Tour golf on your computer. It's easy to play but hard to master. Earn your way onto the elite PGA Tour, play on a variety of premier courses, and immerse yourself in the life of a Tour pro. Plus, you can expand your game with the PGA Tour System of Golf and the growing EA Sports library of world-class courses. You also can add your own creations with the Course Architect. Review ------ Considering that the first incarnation of Electronic Arts' PGA Tour golf-sim series first appeared nearly a decade ago, it's only natural to expect that the latest installment would be the most finely honed golf simulation on the market. That's certainly been the case with other EA Sports games - just look at how much EA Sports improved Madden NFL, NHL Hockey, FIFA Soccer, and NBA Live over the years. But while Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2000 scores high marks in crucial areas like course selection and multiplayer support, it has a host of minor omissions and other problems, as well as some serious technical issues, that keep it from reaching the upper echelon of golf sims. One of the big selling points in the PGA Tour line has been the ability to play as or against virtual versions of PGA Tour pros, and Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2000 adds several new faces to the roster: Mark Calcavecchia, Stewart Cink, Robert Damron, and Justin Leonard, to be precise. Of course Tiger is here, and in a creative double-dip move, EA tapped into its Michael Jordan license to put His Airness out on the links (though if I were M. J. I'd be a little miffed at how poorly my sprite had been rendered). There are nine pros in all (the box says ten) - a far cry from the dozens of PGA players of that first EA game years ago, but still a lot more than any other golf sim currently offers. Competing against these cyberpros is definitely a blast, but many fans prefer developing their own star player rather than taking on an existing PGA persona - and here Tiger Woods 2000 falls far short of what you're able to do in other golf sims. Not counting Jordan, you can choose from only three character animations (two female and one male). While it's true that you can import a .BMP image of yourself into the game, it only appears during the golfer selection screen and as a small thumbnail at the top left of the screen during play: The actual onscreen golfer remains unchanged. You can't even choose what color shirt to wear. This might seem like a minor concern at best, but at the same time it's a real letdown compared with the comprehensive player editor in Sierra's PGA Championship Golf, or even the multiple player animations of Jack Nicklaus 6 or Links LS 2000. On the other hand, the selection of courses in Tiger Woods 2000 is outstanding. Besides the game's exclusive rights to Pebble Beach, there are seven TPC courses encompassing a broad spectrum of surroundings, from the dry desert biospheres of Summerlin and Scottsdale to the tree-lined hills of Piper Glen to the gently rolling fairways of Heron Bay. With support for add-on courses released for Tiger Woods PGA Tour Golf 99 and The Tiger Woods Collection, its diversity of courses is one area in which Tiger Woods 2000 doesn't disappoint. This is also the first time in the series that EA Sports has included a course architect to let you design your own course or make replicas of your favorite real-life links. While I found it a bit more cumbersome to use than the course editor in PGA Championship Golf, it's certainly functional and definitely beefs up the game's replay value. --Stephen Poole --Copyright ©2000 GameSpot Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of GameSpot is prohibited. -- GameSpot

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