| | Operation Sports:Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 2005: The Whole Shebang
By Shawn Drotar, Managing Editor, OperationSports.com
Too many times, games can leave you wanting more: more options, more ways to play, more items to earn and unlock, and more longevity for your dollar. This season, Tiger Woods PGA TOUR® 2005 gives you all those things, and even … well, more.
When you create a profile, you use the marvelously in-depth Game Face II to create either a unique character or even a startling, life-like representation of yourself. After that, the course you take (pardon the pun) is entirely up to you. 
Now that's some nice form.
Perhaps you're a casual golf fan or just want to play a few quick games with your buddies. Try entering the SkillZone and playing one of the handful of mini-games like Capture the Flag, Target, and T-I-G-E-R. The mini-games aren't just for fun—they're also a great way to refine your game.
Battle Golf is a wild, head-to-head game where the winner of each hole can take a club away from the other player. The Real Time Event Calendar offers a variety of different events to play on holidays, golfer's birthdays, and even the nights with a full moon! Successfully completing the events can earn you money to improve your player and unlock apparel or better equipment, to boot. Once the day is over, that event is gone, so be sure to check your RTE Calendar often!
Of course, for those who would just like to tee it up for a regular round of golf by yourself, or with up to three other friends, the Traditional Games are for you. You can simply choose to practice or play a standard Stroke Play round, or you can try one of many different and fun modes of play. Match Play, like in golf's famous Ryder Cup, is available, as is Skins play—made famous by the annual holiday golf invitational. The Stableford scoring system, which is used once a year at the PGA's International tournament, is included. The Stableford system encourages aggressive play, and rewards the savvy, risk-taking player—in other words, a perfect match for Xbox® gamers!
Great team play options are available as well, including Fourball, Best Ball, and Alternate Shot. Not only are these modes a refreshing change of pace, but they make for a rousing contest with your buddies on the living room sofa. 
Gotta love that scenery.
However, just because Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 2005 has a plethora of options for the casual gamer, don't make the mistake of thinking that this isn't a game for the true golf aficionado. Enter My Legend Pursuit mode, and the solo golf gamer has more things to do than you can imagine. The Legend Tour is a series of match play events, broken down into six different brackets—one for each of the game's legends—Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Ben Hogan, Gary Player, Seve Ballesteros, and, of course, Tiger Woods himself. There are over 40 players to challenge here, including some of the PGA's best, and some of EA SPORTS™' more imaginative.
Legend Scenarios are set up to test your skills to their limits, and when you're through with that, the entire PGA Tour awaits you. You'll play a full season as a PGA Tour pro, struggling to make the cuts, and competing on the same weekly schedule as the real pros will in 2005. You earn money, sponsorships, and fame—if you're good enough.
If you've spent enough time on the links and know the 14 courses like the back of your hand … change them. With Tiger Proofing, you can dramatically modify any hole on any course in the game. Let your inner course designer run amok as you tweak the hallowed fairways of Pebble Beach to suit your whims. It's a surprisingly deep mode, and you may find yourself investing hours into making the course your own. Create your own Dream 18 out of all your modified holes to create the ultimate challenge. Build the course well, and its prestige rating will rise. Raise it high enough, and the legends of the game may even decide to pay your course a visit and challenge you!
There's more, of course. Stats are tracked in every imaginable way. There are trophies to be won, records to be set, and secret codes to discover. Want to play custom soundtracks from your Xbox hard drive during your round? You've got it. Need to make the game tougher? Change the game's settings to make it as tough as you dare.
We haven't even mentioned the big one yet—Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 2005 is Xbox Live®-enabled, so you can take on anyone, anywhere, at any time!
If golf is your thing, then Tiger's your man. What more could you want?
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