Struggling to think of much to write about tonight due to still feeling half asleep for some odd reason. Luckily a seemingly ongoing mini series of entries about multiplayer games is here to save the day! 
This is a bit of unusual choice for me due to the fact it’s about a sports game that’s not basketball but it’s a game I revisit usually once a year for a quick laugh and some MP fun!
No it’s not a football game either. It’s actually Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2004 which I was first introduced to by some fellow Half Life players when we were looking for something else to play for fun. This seemed to fit the bill and was actually marginally enjoyable in single player mode.
In said mode you create your own golfer with the rudimentary face distortion tools and give him/her some funny hairstyle and get to work. Play rounds of golf for money, play challenges to get more skills, rinse and repeat. It also had some Trophy Balls you could get which were pretty much strikes me as an early form of the now popular ‘Achievements’.
Once you’d got your golfer to a decent level playing online was most certainly an option and something I enjoyed thoroughly. Playing in groups of 4 our most ridiculously dressed golfers would make their way round the courses to get the best scores we could. Good fun.
When I showed my dad however he loved it and started playing too. Local MP is always more fun than over the internet and of course you know what happened. In the single player mode we would race to get to a certain amount of money/skills/trophies but in MP we would just play normal games.
At the same computer though! For some reason the netcode on this iteration of the game was a little bit rubbish on a LAN and dropped quite frequently causing a lot of disconnections and odd results. Playing side by side isn’t much fun though…..unless you include a variation of golf in which you can suprise/distract your opponent!
Usually we allowed it for once a round (although often it became once a hole) it was at least a slightly amusing way to make the game even funnier. Obviously distracting someone works better when playing for real but I don’t think it would be well tolerated!
The only courses in the game that gave us any real bother though were the horrible pair of ‘The Highlands’ and ‘The Predator’. Evil, evil fantasy courses which have no place in a game. Ever. Strangely enough we do still play them though…..we must be nuts.
Re-installed this game again last night and it’s still just as fun as I remember! Must go and play some more now. Or Deus Ex……hmmmm tough choice!
