Tiger Woods 2002...Impressions?

I\'m seriously considering buying this game as I\'m an avid golf FREAK...Anyone played it? I\'ve read the review at IGN and they give it an 8 but I trust your guys\' opinions more...

Any thoughts?

Ins

I think the game looks great.  The past few "Tiger" games have been bleh but this one looks promising.

I\'ll answer myself here since noone else really did  I bought the game Friday night and played it a LOT fri, sat, and sun.  

Gameplay - To me, this is the best part of the game now.  With the earlier versions the appeal was the fact you had Tiger and a full license of all the other players out there.  I mean, in what other game can you have the sheer joy of watching a fat man compete for so much money (bowling doesn\'t count, they only make 40k per win on average there)?  Gone is the old 3 click routine when striking the ball.  It is now controlled with the analog stick and after playing it for probably 30 hours, I must say once you get used to it, you will not want the old method back.  Another thing I like is the fact that you impart the spin after you hit the ball, as in while you\'re watching it fly in the air.  Just rapidly tap the L2 button and move the analog stick which direction you want it to spin and upon hitting the ground it reacts appropriately.  Putting is a little tough.  You have a caddy tip where basically your caddie reads the green and tells you via text on the screen where to aim in relation to the hole.  The only problem with this is you really have no idea how far "2ft 3in left" is.  You kinda just guess and hope it works out ok.  It also tells you to aim either "short" or "long" and again you just aim and hope.   Club selection can be a real pain in the arse.  There\'s actually a hole on one of the fictional courses where the green is 237 ft below the tee box.  Deciding which club to use for such a drop in elevation is frustrating at best.  

The meat of the game is called Tiger Challenge.  This is basically a mode where you start out with a golfer who has no skills and you build him into what you hope is a Tiger beater.  Your golfer has different skills such as Power, Accuracy, Recovery, Approach, Putting all with number skill points going to 100 in each must like you\'re used to with any sports game with attributes.  You build these points by cashing in by winning Tiger Challenges (1 on 1 match-ups against Tour players) or any other varieties of events that cash.  You then spend this cash on these points which adds to the replayability.  I could talk lots more about gameplay, but to keep this thing under 20,000 words, I won\'t....

Graphics - The graphics are very decent.  I\'m not going to say great, simply because I\'ve seen better on the PS2.  As far as golf games go though, I can\'t imagine graphics being a whole lot better.  After hitting the ball, you can speed the flight up by hitting X or slow it down by hitting Triangle.  The water is nothing to write home about but it\'s decent.  The models of the golfers are again decent (it must be noted that the chick Lopez\'s belly button is a nice tough though).

Audio - Sound is very good in my opinion.  I don\'t suppose any of you watch the PGA Tour on TV like I do, but adding David Feherty to this game makes it 3 times better in my opinion.  Noone is as funny as this irish guy when it comes to summing up someone\'s shot.  I would say the sound is superb but since I don\'t have any Dolby receivers or the like I can\'t.  It does sound very good on a nice stereo though.  

Overall I would give this game a 9/10.  Again, I\'m probably predjudiced to golf games as I am a big golf fan.  If you\'ve ever liked any golf game in the past though,  you ought to at least give this one a rent.  And if you call yourself a fan of golf this is a must buy.

Sorry for the length but I felt the need to describe it well to all of you =)

Ins

Very nice review, thanks! although I\'m not really into golf, it was still a very interesting read. I might check it out and rent it. Anyway, welcome to the forum.

Wow, ever thought about reviewing games for a game magazine "PSX" magazine maybe. Might want to look in to that.

Overall sounds like a fun game. Im a big golfer my self so it\'s easier for me to find interest into this type of game. I\'ll defintaley check it out after I get tired of FIFA.

Thanks for the compliments.  I used to do reviews for a long defunct PSX site.  Playstation Hangout was the name of it I believe and I enjoyed it.  I actually tamed the review here down to make sure people didn\'t fall asleep while reading it, I\'m normally much more long winded

Ins

Here\'s a compilation of several posts I made somewhere else concerning this game:

I\'ve had the same beef with EA Golf games. I\'ve hated all of them since PGA Tour II on the Genesis. All of the TW games thus far have totally failed to deliver a Golfing experience. They got off on that "being hip" tangent... selling the whole Tiger Woods brand to the young crowd.

My problem with this is that Golf isn\'t really a young and hip game like say, snowboarding or skating. Thus far, the TW brand has failed to deliver on the golfing environment... there just wasn\'t a golfing atmosphere to play in, the camera angles all sucked, the music was inappropriate, environmental effects were hardly noticeable... it just wasn\'t a GOLF experience at all.

I haven\'t been playing TW2k2 too long, maybe an hour at this point so it\'s hard to give a really good assessment of what\'s up, but so far I\'m not totally convinced all of these things have been addressed. Super shots and matrix effects, an obnoxious zoom for looking at the ball lie...PISSED OFF CHARACTERS (I know I\'m not doing great but c\'mon!) so far leave me feeling like they dropped the ball on this one too.

Other things bother me more, like the ridiculous course design of that one Arizona-esque rock pillar/desert course that there would be no way of getting around on IRL. Really, all I wanted was Sawgrass, Avanel, Scottsdale... you know the courses we\'ve all come to know and love from way back. I also think you should be able to create a golfer from scratch, instead of using one of their prefab characters to change shirts on. That\'s lame... I mean, what ever happened to NEXT GEN?

Why is it so freaking hard to create a golf game? It\'s GOLF! That\'s not so hard is it? Slap some tastefully dressed guys/gals on a green course, have them smack some balls around, add some birds, wind, and water sound effects, keep the camera angles realistic, or present them a la TV and it\'s all good! Try to make it seems like you\'re presenting a golf course and not simply a series of holes to play and what you\'ve created is an immersive golfing environment for your gamers. YOU CAN\'T SCREW UP A FORMULA THAT\'S SO EASY. Why then, do they keep doing it?

I\'ve got one kudos for TW2k2 though. The swing meter is on it\'s way out folks. Thanks EA for bringing us this wonderful golfing control interface. It feels much more real, and it\'s the ONE thing they\'ve definitely gotten right.