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Guest Reviewer: Jack Jose

Genre: Sports

Format: DVD

Developer: EA Sports

Mac Publisher: Aspyr Media

Minimum System Requirements: Mac OS X v10.3.8, 1.2GHz G4/G5, 256MB RAM, 2.5GB free disk space, ATI Radeon 9000 or NVidia GeForce FX5200 with 32MB VRAM, DVD drive

Review Computer: 1.8GHz G5 iMac 17", Mac OS X v10.3.9, 512MB RAM, Nvidia GeForce FX 5200

Network Feature: Internet (2-4 players, Mac to Mac only via GameRanger, requires broadband connection) or LAN (2-8 players, Mac to Mac only)

Price: $39.99

ESRB Rating: E

Availability: Now

Official Website: www.easports.com/games/tigerwoods2005/

Macintosh sports video game players: until Madden 2005 and MVP Baseball get ported, we must content ourselves with Aspyr's Mac versions of EA Sports' pastimes. Fortunately, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2005 (TWPGA05) is an impressively beautiful and challenging game that will nearly help you fill the void.

TWPGA05 allows you to visit pro golf's greatest, most attractive venues, and tackle them with an existing player's strengths and weaknesses, or to create and grow your own player from amateur to legend. Courses can be modified—or "Tiger proofed"—as your skills become greater, making it very difficult to outgrow the game with the inevitable increased skill in playing. A lack of Madden-esque helmet-dislodging tackles and occasional crashes and video glitches are frustrating, though, and sometimes dilute the pleasure of playing.

TWPGA05 offers a dazzling array of variables, not least of which is the ability to customize your golfer from helmet to cleats, tattoos to sunspots. You can choose from a variety of swing versions, including the time-honored 3 click swing or one that follows the motion of the mouse as the back and forward swings. You can also choose which of your player's own attributes to grow over time. This self-improvement concept is simple, intuitive and addictive. As you participate in tournaments or other challenges, you earn money that can be spent improving your attributes, in a straightforward capitalism-meets-Dungeons-and-Dragons marketplace. Improve your strength to power the ball and maximize each club. Improve your putting to get a better view of the green and cut down on the three-putts. You can also invest in your shot-making ability and unlock new skills for your golfer to tweak existing shots and add new ones.

One could choose simply to tackle the progression of scenarios and tournaments provided, but I found the mix of self-investing, reaching goals, and individual and one-on-one play compelling. As your skills grow, you reach milestones which are marked with "tournament balls": first birdie, first putt over 20 feet, first eagle, etc. Always, you press toward joining the professional ranks and, perhaps more importantly, earning a sponsor to assist you in paying for your increasingly expensive attributes and shot lessons. I find the progression very believable, though I am not myself a professional golfer, and occasional setbacks (like 5-putting a particularly fast and hilly green) in tournament play were not discouraging. In fact, during times like a recent game sequence where I placed 8 consecutive shots in the lake from the same lie in the rough (during which I was asked if I wanted to concede the hole), this game quite closely parallels my own real-life experience with golf. I find it hard to think of an angle they could add to the next generation to make it more engaging and all-encompassing, except perhaps connecting the game to your own set of clubs and letting you swing away in the den.

In addition to game play and player progression, and like many similar reality-based games, you can challenge the great players at the great courses. You can also participate in historic PGA events, or complete challenges attributed to the players that everyone knows. TWPGA05 also has an enhanced interface from the 2003 version, dropping the busy folders format for a more streamlined and modernized look. Also, swing controls are more sensitive, and the graphics flow much more smoothly. Quirky transitions in player posture as you set up your swing are almost totally eliminated, and the game is much more lifelike than its 2003 counterpart. A number of additional improvements both significant and trivial are here too, and the avid fan of the game should not hesitate: it is worth the expense. Casual gamers/golfers might not find the difference as significant, and should perhaps explore the game themselves before buying their own copy.

The game, though improved graphically and in gameplay, did not run without a hitch. On several occasions, it went weird mid-round, either replacing the lush spring colors with a volcanic mix of reds and blacks to make the course look like a magic-eye poster gone golfing (which happened twice in my concentrated playing time), or by simply freezing up (which happened several times). The good news is that the game was continually being backed up, so that a force quit and restarting the game cost time, but did not cost any strokes. This feature saved a great deal of aggravation and perhaps it is OS X that deserves the kudos on this, but either way, these are glitches, not deal breakers. I highly recommend this game for fans of golf and sports games in general on the computer.

Whether clubbing the ball off the tee, tackling a difficult slope, pitching out of a sand dugout, or sacking the opposing green, Tiger almost makes you forget about Madden.