No other golf sim has looked and played this good. Ever. Period.

First off, I’m not a duffer. I don’t play real golf. I mean, I’ve tried it, but the sport hasn’t hooked me like it has others. There’s something about all that fresh air and pristine outdoors that just turns me off. Who needs it? A dank, musty basement and a hot rod computer set up to kill a few hours is more my idea of heaven. In that environment, playing the latest iteration of the EA Sports series named for the best golfer in the universe is all I need for a kick-ass good time.

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2002 (TW2K2) is flat out the best golfing simulation ever created. I’m shocked to say that because, frankly, the previous versions in the series stunk worse than the basement I play my games in.

Each previous attempt was a massive disappointment with below par graphics and unrealistic FMV of your golfer on a course from which he looked totally detached. To me it was a golf sim created by cut-and-paste. And cut-and-paste never looks good. To top it off, I had grown weary over the years of the ubiquitous “click” method of playing a golf sim.

Be honest. Clicking sucks. It really does. Despite being a fan of the Links series all the way back to before Microsoft purchased Access Software (the creators of the Links series), I never liked clicking to play golf. All you became good at through clicking is timing a moving bar on a circle. Your stroke was something you had no control over and it wasn’t in real time.

PGA Championship Golf by Sierra took a departure from the click method by creating a real time swing method they named “TrueSwing.” On your desktop, you “swung” the mouse just like you would a golf club, with the golfer pulling back into his back swing in real time, i.e., as you pulled back the mouse. TrueSwing was revolutionary and rekindled my interest in PC golf. Meanwhile, EA trudged along with the same old click method, boring me to tears. Their series’ other shortcomings didn’t help.

EA is one smart company. Heeding my discontent, they went out and hired the people who created the TrueSwing method and brought along the graphics capabilities of PGA Championship Golf 2000 as well, then made them better.

TW2K2 has the most beautiful graphics of any previous PC golf sim. From the gently flowing waves on the ponds at TPC Sawgrass, to the white foam slapping against the rocks at Pebble Beach, you will spend as much time gawking at what you see on your screen as playing the game. Leafy tree limbs sway in the wind. Every blade of grass on the fairway and rough is clearly visible. On breezy or gusty days, the flagpole will bend, the flag flapping in the wind. Even the crowd is animated. Not only does the gallery cheer but you can watch them clap and raise their fists in appreciation of good shoots.

TW2K2 has an action-cam that is better than anything I’ve seen watching golf on TV. Action-cam changes views on almost every shot, some following behind the ball in the air, some on reverse-cam view leading in front of the ball, others positioned on the fairway looking up at and following the ball as it passes overhead. The graphics are so clear you can see the ball’s dimples and black company lettering in flight. Bounces are the most realistic I’ve ever seen. The best part, perhaps, is the golfer. FMV has been relegated to history, which is where it belongs (hint for Microsoft and its Links series). The polygon golfers now look like they are actually on the course.

Not only does TW2K2 now have TrueSwing, it has a better TrueSwing. The older game could become frustrating, as sometimes my golfer would fall down while missing the ball, which I think was unintended comedy not to mention being a pain in you know where. That never happens in TW2K2. But you can mishit by striking the ball on the heel of the club instead of the sweet spot, which will have a realistic effect on distance and trajectory. But TrueSwing has never been truer than in TW2K2. With a swipe of the mouse -- one direction for back swing, the opposite direction for forward -- you can hit a ball straight, or deliberately slice or hook on those pesky doglegs. Putting was never easier than it is in TW2K2. Using TrueSwing, you watch the golfer pull back his club (instead of watching a meter) as you pull back your mouse and swing it forward with the amount of force that you want to apply.

How does TW2K2 play? I’ve finished as low as eleven under par, something I’ve not come close to doing with the archaic and unrealistic click method. Matches against the realistic A.I. have been thrilling, sometimes coming down to the last hole and a twenty-foot birdie putt for the win.

I’ve played against human competition and had as much fun, winning one match on a last hole thirty-two foot chip-in from the fringe with a sand wedge. Whether human or computer opponents, games are fun and challenging. This is the only golf sim I’ve ever played in which I could actually decide -- just like in real golf -- that I’m going to use a sand wedge from the fairway at eighty yards from the pin, deliberately hit my shot twenty feet over the pin but, with the application of backspin, have the ball spin backwards more than nineteen feet to within inches of the cup. Just like the pros, baby. Just like the Tiger dude.

Are there any negatives to this sim? Be aware that your video card will limit not only the game’s beauty but some of the animations and camera views too. I also played TW2K2 on a notebook computer with integrated video. Kiss action-cam and most of the animations goodbye, if you don’t have a powerful video card. I played this game mostly on a Pentium 4 desktop with a Geforce 3 card, and got smooth play at 1600 x 1200 resolution and all the terrific animations and camera views.

The biggest negative, in my view, is that TW2K2 does allow gaming dinosaurs to select the click method. That’s worse than keeping VHS around when DVD is the newest best thing. I guess some people have to be dragged into the 21st Century. So the click method is available, but do yourself a favor and pretend it isn’t. Stick to TrueSwing. You will finally feel like you’re playing golf on your computer.

EA Sports does try to make up for the dearth of included courses with a course creation feature. I’m working on one now. It seems very straightforward and user-friendly. They also included a course converter. The only problem is it doesn’t convert courses from previous versions of this series. That’s a huge bummer, man. Toss ‘em out now. It will convert courses from PGA Championship Golf 2000, but they won’t look as good as the original courses that come with TW2K2.

I can’t get over the fact that as awesome as this game is it only comes with six courses. Last year’s version, if memory serves, came with seventeen. Then again, if you put some thought to it, a six cylinder Ferrari is better than a seventeen cylinder Yugo any day.

Get this game!

Reviewed by Walter Hurdle.