Games - Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2005

Since NHL 2005 won't work for me, I find myself gameless. So I picked up Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2005 . (Smart, huh? Give EA some more of my money!)

I've been a fan of PC golf games for years and years - anyone remember Mean 18? Every few years I'll pick up the latest in the EA or Links golf series, and I'm usually impressed. The advances in graphics and ball physics have amazed me, and PGA Tour 2005 is no exception.

The opening cutscene gives you a good idea of where EA has gone with this version - fun! After starting with your standard live footage of a dramatic shot from Tiger, it breaks into a riot of uptempo music and dancing avatars! A parade of golfer avatars strut their stuff and shake their booties in hilarious sequences. EA has populated the game with a whole cast of characters for you to compete against, from beer-bellied truckers to beehived matrons to pimped-out urbanites. They made me laugh outright (and still do). I really appreciate that EA has injected some goofiness into the game without sacrificing its realistic golf feel.

Personalization is another area where PGA Tour 2005 stands out. EA has taken customization of your avatar to new heights with their "Game Face II" system. You can change most anything about your golfer - height, weight, head shape, mouth, eyes, teeth, eyebrows, tatoos, scars, skin complexion - the list is comprehensive to say the least. And you can specify the type of clothing, hats, watches, gloves, shoes, clubs, and putters. You can unlock still more items as you progress in the game. It's almost overwhelming - in a good way. My wife and I were able to create golfers that look just like us! Seeing Virtual Me doing a goofy celebration dance after a birdie putt cracks me up!

PGA Tour 2005 provides a great environment for advancement, something that is key for a game's longevity. My new golfer started as an Amateur Prodigy who couldn't hit a 250yd drive if his life depended on it. But as he's played tournaments and won some money, he's been able to buy attributes such as Power or Shot Mastery. And with the increased attributes, he is able to take lessons and gain new strokes like High Spin or Flop Shot. After a week or so of moderate play, my golfer is now an Amateur Phenom, and he's about to challenge Jim Furyk in match play. These advancement steps keep you coming back for more and greatly add to the game's appeal.

Gameplay itself is very good. The graphics have taken another step up - grass blowing in the wind, ducks swimming in the pond, birds flying overhead, the galleries clapping, and the very realistic animation of your avatar. Amazing stuff. Sound is also very good (I swear I've heard a bear roar in the distance when playing Lake Tahoe). CBS's David Feherty and Gary McCord provide the commentary, and do a great job.

As for downsides, the only one I can think of is the utter lack of instructions in the manual. I had no idea how to buy attributes, unlock lessons, or buy clubs. The on-screen instructions to unlock a lesson said to pull up the "My Golfer" screen and buy Shot Mastery points. Problem is, there's no "My Golfer" screen! Turns out this feature is on the Game Face II -> Attributes screen. Without help from a message board, I doubt I would have found it. Stuff like that must be in the manual!

All in all, a very good game. A little more effort spent on the documentation would have made this an absolutely perfect game. 4.5 out of 5.

Games - NHL 2005 Update

An update on my struggles with NHL 2005: I managed to get play-by-play commentary working - it turns out that you need to turn "On-Ice Sounds" off in order to hear the commentary. Ok...whatever.

Unfortunately, my gamepad continued to malfunction within NHL 2005 (it works splendidly in every other game I've ever bought). EA doesn't officially support my GameElements AxisPad, so I caved and bought a Logitech Dual Action, which they do officially support. But it has the same problems! Arrggghh!

This is too cruel - there's no NHL season due to the lockout, and I still can't play NHL 2005. What's a red-blooded Canadian to do?

Books - Digital Fortress

Since I enjoyed both Angels and Demons and The DaVinci Code from Dan Brown, I decided to check out his first novel, Digital Fortress. This time Mr. Brown takes us inside the super-secretive NSA for a look at the world of cryptography and codebreakers.

Within 2 pages, I could see where Brown developed his formula for fast-paced thrillers. Angels and DaVinci begin the exact same way Digital Fortress does - a disconnected murder scene followed by the introduction of the athletic, attractive, intelligent, wealthy (oh - and lonely) protagonist. The protag quickly falls into a web of intrigue, faces numerous life-and-death situations over the next 24 hours, and yet manages to be back at work the next day. Don't get me wrong - I enjoyed Fortress, and would recommend it. I just found the pattern to be very evident.

Technically, Brown did quite a good job with his use of cryptography and computer lingo, and I didn't find too many holes in his explanations. All in all, acceptably plausible.

Don't want to get into the plot - it would be difficult without giving it away. Suffice it to say - a fun book. 3.5 out of 5.

Games - NHL 2005

My latest purchase arrived earlier this week - NHL 2005 from EA Sports. I've been a faithful fan of EA's NHL games since 1994, and I buy them as soon as they hit the shelves. So I counted the seconds as the installer slowly loaded the precious bytes to disk, and fired it up with my gamepad close at hand.

Unfortunately, my enthusiasm soured pretty quickly. First off, the background music at the main menu sounded lousy, as if they recorded it at a very low quality. Minor detail, I thought - let's see how she plays. So I hit "Play Now", quickly accepted the default game settings, and launched into the game. The opening sequences were well done (especially the Canadian anthem). Once the puck dropped, however, the problems began.

I noticed immediately that there's no play-by-play commentary. What gives? I checked my sound settings, and sure enough, play-by-play enabled. I'll figure it out later, I thought, and returned to the game. Well, next problem - as soon as one of my players gets the puck, he freezes up! Turns out he's locked in "Manual Deke" mode, and I can't pass, shoot, skate, nothing. The player eventually gets clobbered, and the puck luckily bounces to the goalie, who covers up for a faceoff. I then try to pull up the Line Change menu - and can't! I'm hitting the right button combo - Mod + DirPad, but cannot for the life of me get a line change called. So the same line stays out there forever!

Needless to say, I abandoned the game. I went Googling for some answers, and have yet to find any. Other people are having similar problems, but no one has answers. Of course I tried EA's support site, but I can't even find anywhere to post or email a question!

So I'm pretty peeved. I've supported EA for a lot of years, and I've never had this kind of trouble with one of their games before. Don't know if they rushed it to market, or just didn't test it enough. Very disappointing. Hopefully they'll get a patch out soon. 1 out of 5.



On a happier note, purchasing NHL 2005 was easy. I was very pleased (once again) with NewEgg's service. The order was processed quickly with feedback at every step along the way, and it arrived at my door within 3 days. Kudos!

Books - A Fortress of Grey Ice

I was happy to find A Fortress of Grey Ice by J.V. Jones in paperback last week. With the long hiatus since Cavern of Black Ice and the lack of activity on her web site, I was worried that something had happened to J.V. Luckily, that's not the case.

I'm about halfway through Fortress, and it's another quality piece of writing from Ms. Jones. Her characters are complex, interesting, and most importantly - not stupid! I've read too many books lately where main characters say and do things that just don't make sense. J.V.'s protags are much more intelligent, and as result, believable. Sure, they still make mistakes, but I don't find myself shaking my head in disgust when they do. My only gripe so far is how often she switches protags and settings. It's a tribute to J.V.'s writing that when a chapter ends and she focuses on a different character, I go through a moment of disappointment - I want to keep following that plot line I just read! Ah well - I guess that's a pretty good problem to have. Thumbs up so far.

Music - Assemblage 23

Listened to an advance copy of Assemblage 23's new album Storm over the weekend. Good stuff! Once again, Assemblage 23 has delivered a quality album. Nothing ground-breaking, mind you - it sounds a lot like the previous releases. But since I really liked the previous releases, that's a good thing! I learned that they're actually a one-man act, too - Tom Shear writes, performs, and produces everything himself. Surprising - I always thought A23 was a band...

Games - Far Cry

I recently finished playing Far Cry from Ubisoft . I'm usually not into FPS games, but after trying the demo, I was hooked! Awesome graphics, amazing realism, and uncomplicated gameplay all added up to a very fun game. Yes - I'll admit it - I played it on the lowest difficulty setting, and still got my butt kicked frequently. And yet it was still fun somehow...Highly recommended! 5 out of 5!