The real Tiger may be struggling, but the EA franchise keeps getting better.

In the golfing world, Vijay Singh, may be arguably the best golfer in the world. His success at this point and time is a near mirror of success once held by Tiger Woods. Even though Tiger is struggling, as of late, I do not think he has much to worry about as far as losing his license with EA goes. Honestly, does Vijay Singh PGA Tour Golf 2006 roll off the tongue as well? No matter what the future holds for the still fantastic young golfer, his franchise console and PC hit is still as exciting as it has been since its incarnation into the 3D realm. Year after year, EA is getting closer to bringing the PGA series back to its simulation style of golfing of days gone by, yet still holding onto that fun factor that will keep casual fans coming back as well. With Tiger Woods 2004 being a huge success last year, is there enough for fans to pick up this version just one year later. Oh yeah there is! You can be sure that 2005 has enough new features, options, and game play tweaks that will satisfy fans who loved last years, but wanted more.

Tiger Woods 2005 has not had the modest upgrade in visuals this year as we might have hoped. It is obvious that the folks at EA knew they had a solid looking game, that needed little refining, so they opted to work on the game play engine and features this go around. Usually I frown on such little additions on the visual engine from year to year, but this year is acceptable, as the game still looks fantastic. What you can expect to notice are new "ball in air" cut scenes, new courses, and of course a new batch of golfers including legends. Each real life golfer looks "on par" with their actual likeness. From a distance, it is easy to recognize such favorites like John Daly, Vijay Singh, Charles Howell III, and even Tiger Woods, by not only their physical makeup, but also their signature animations which have been implemented as well. Legends such as, Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, and Ben Hogan, have their physical characteristics and likenesses accurately displayed. All 14 courses in Tiger this year look remarkably accurate and detailed. From the sands at Pebble Beach, to the swanky environments of the Colonial County Club, you can now hit the links on these courses, even though most of us could not afford to in real life. I would have like to seen more of the Xbox's capability taken into account as far as textures go. It would have been nice to see textured grass and sand much like Microsoft's Links accomplished last year, but what is there is still nice, even if it is a port from another system's hardware specs. I hope next year EA will deviate from designing one engine and branching it to all consoles, as they rarely take advantage of what some systems can do well.

Audio has not changed much this year, with the exception of newly recorded commentary from David Feherty and Gary McCord. Their play by play is genuinely informative, yet amusing enough to keep you interested in what they have to say from hole to hole. The sound FX is true to life, but on the presentation end, the sounds have been juiced for extra excitement. Expect pulsing tee shots, explosive accurate shots, and heart beating for those extra tense moments. EA Trax makes its way back for better or for worse, depending on your taste in music. For you Xbox owners, Custom Soundtracks are back again to allow you to hear what you want, when you want to hear it. Like the game quiet, but menu music full of tunes? You can do that. Want music in the game as well as in the menu screens? The choice is yours. Brought to you in luscious Dolby 5.1, it will sound almost like you are on the links. Overall, as mentioned before, not a huge upgrade in audio, but enough changes to not seem thrown in from last seasons offering.

Game play remains very similar in terms of the way the game is played, but it is the subtle tweaks that EA made this year that makes for the greater challenge. Tiger once again uses the left analog to swing the club, gone for good seems to be the 3 click method, which I am all in favor of staying in the past. What was once a cool gimmick has become second nature, especially with the controls tightened to accurately mimic they way you move the analog stick. Not only can you swing from back to front, but also diagonal pivots will allow players to fade or draw their swings to maneuver around trees, crazy doglegs, and insurmountable winds. There are also a number of different swing types to be found, from pitching to flopping your shot; you can make your approach around any obstacle if you have the skills to perform such actions.

The general A.I. fairs well in the tournaments, but it is not until you unlock Tour Difficulty after the first tournament that makes this a much more simulated and challenging experience. The game will now take your mistakes more seriously; you will find that luck no longer plays the pivotal part of the game, as skill takes charge. Gone also in this difficulty setting are the caddie tips that tell you how far to move away or towards the hole when putting. One major addition to Tiger this year is Tiger Vision. This option is given to you once per 18 on regular difficulty, and twice on Tour Difficulty. What Tiger Vision does is show you exactly where to put your marker when putting. In short, the option should be called, Tiger Cheating, but it's thankfully an option you can choose to use, and use only in certain situations. Tiger 2005 for the most part plays very close to last year's game, but it is the tweaking of the sensitivity on swings and the Tour Difficulty that set it widely apart from last season.

Options, options, options, that is what Tiger Woods 2005 brings to the table this year. Beginning with Game Face II, you can bring yourself in the game and create your likeness as close as the real thing. From here, you can choose to play a career that spans over 10 seasons of play. You play on an actual 52-week calendar and participate in events that take place on a weekly basis. Along the way, you will earn money, prestige, and even sponsorship for better equipment. Your goal here is to ultimately surpass Tiger as the all time moneymaker in PGA golf. Want more? How about a Legends Tour, which allows you to compete in challenges against the best that the game of golf has seen.

Tiger 2005 has added eight new real life courses and two new fantasy courses to give an impressive 14 courses to play upon. If those courses become too easy for you, then use EA's Tiger Proofing system that allows you to alter each course to make the most extremely challengeing 18 holes you can think of. Everything from the depth and length of sand traps, to patterns and breaks on the greens, to even the amount of trees and leaf colors they have can be tailored to your liking or friends disliking. Throughout your progress, you will come across real time events that are placed on a real time calendar. For instance on Halloween, you will be able to enter a challenge that will reward you with a club or peripheral that you cannot buy in the game. The catch is that you must complete that challenge only on the day offered or you miss the opportunity all together. Lastly, this year offers online play for both PS2 and Xbox. This adds a completely new amount of replay value as you can play one on one with your friends and try to make it on top of the online leader board. You can always tell people you are the king of swing in Tiger 2005, now how about proving it online. What's more, you can customize your online game from game type, how many holes, difficulty of tees, how much money you want to wager on the round, and even whom you can or cannot play with. The experience I have had thus far was a lag free, error free funfest on Xbox Live. Even if you mastered every offline part of Tiger 2005, you still can find longevity online.

Even though the overall look and presentation has not received a glowing amount of attention, it is what EA has done as far as tweaking the controls, A.I. and adding a monster amount of modes and options that will keep fans of the links playing for another year to come. Tiger may no longer be the king of his domain in real life, but his franchise golfing simulation cannot be beaten.