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Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2003 - fore! Pick of the Week
Tiger Woods PGA Tour iconThe macosxhints Rating:
8 of 10
[Score: 8 out of 10]
OK, so this week's Pick of the Week is a game ... it just goes to show I don't spend 100% of my time working on the site! With the recent birth of our first child, I've found that the amount of time I have available to pursue things such as golf has been greatly diminished. As such, I've been forced to look to my Mac for a solution, and luckily, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2003 (TW2003 for short) was available.

For the longest time, there were absolutely no golf simulations available for the Mac. Now, there are two (that I'm aware of) that work on OS X -- Aspyr's Tiger Woods 2003 and Bold by Destineer's Links Championship Edition. I decided to go with TW2003 for two main reasons. First, there's a demo available, which is a key factor in my decision making process. Second, the Links conversion is based on Links 2001 while the current PC version is Links 2003. The Aspyr conversion is the same as the current PC release (though Tiger Woods 2004 is in the works for the PC; not sure about a Mac conversion of that one). I figure the newer engine is preferable to the older engine (but since Bold doesn't have a demo, I can't say that for certain).

When I play with a golf simulation, I look for those nice touches that make the game feel more realistic, though nothing has managed to simulate my vicious slice very well as of yet :-). TW2003 has them in abundance, from the grass clippings flying up on a shot from the rough, to the divots you create with your irons from the fairway. The game also features a "fly the ball" perspective that's quite visually interesting. When you hit the ball, the camera takes off just behind your ball, and follows it in real time through the air. Nearly as soon as the ball has come to rest, your player is on screen and ready to play the next shot. You can choose from a number of different shot types, including punches, lobs, and bump and runs. There's also a "high spin" shot, though I wasn't ever able to get really impressive backspin on any of the irons that I tried. One minor cool trick -- hit Command-R in the demo to bring up information on frame rate and some other technical data.

The game's not perfect (mastering the swing is quite tricky; Tiger never grabs his ball from the cup after putting out!), but for golf on OS X, it's one of only two serious contenders. If I had a demo version of Links Championship Edition, I'd put them head to head for a comparison, but since I don't, TW2003 gets this week's nod as the Pick of the Week.

As an aside, I'd also like to thank Aspyr for bringing a large number of quality titles to the OS X platform. A quick scan of their product page shows an impressive array of shipping and soon-to-ship games, including 007, Elite Force II, Tony Hawk 4, Kelly Slater's Pro Surfer, Nascar 2003, SimCity 4, Medal of Honor Spearhead, etc. Without Aspyr (and MacPlay, too!), the gaming picture on OS X would be much bleaker -- so thanks for the excellent work!
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Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2003 - fore!
Authored by: ber on Jul 28, '03 01:37:57PM

This is a great game. Although I seem to get paired up with this mutant golfer every once in a while.

<http://rineke.net/jrandom/mutantgolf>

Unfortunately she never actually hits the ball so when she appears I have to make excuses and leave the game.

brian



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Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2003 - fore!
Authored by: fitz on Nov 02, '03 01:26:43PM

Rob, I have both TWPGA 2003 and Links Championship. TWPGA 2003 wins hands down. Good choice. Have have you noticed any problems with Panther? I installed 10.3 on my PowerBook 867 and when I play TWPGA, everything looks normal until I get out on the course, then the fairways and rough are very grainy. The background looks okay, but the game is pretty much unplayable. Just wondered if you have seen any anomolies.



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Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2003 - fore!
Authored by: robg on Nov 02, '03 02:00:58PM

Yes, I've seen some graphic issues in Panther -- but I also upgraded to the G5 at about the same time, so I wasn't sure what caused it. A TW reinstall seems to have (temporarily?) solved the problems for now...

-rob.



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