Taking the rough with the smooth in golf game

IF the title of EA's golf game gets any bigger it will have to come in an extra long box. When it was plain old vanilla PGA Tour, this title always lagged behind the Links series, mainly due to the sublime control method employed by its rival.

But EA isn't the world's biggest games company for nothing. While others have sat back, its programmers have toiled away and the fruits of their efforts are setting a new benchmark for golf games.

The first thing that hits you straight between the eyes are the graphics. Tiger and all the other golf pros are accurately modelled. They even wave to the crowd and strike a pose but Tiger doesn't swear if the spectators take too many photos.

When a ball goes astray, you can see the disappointment on their faces - and if you play really badly your character becomes increasingly grumpy.

The real stars of this game, however, are the courses and PGA 2002 certainly doesn't disappoint. The grass looks hyper-realistic, as do the trees and the sand bunkers. Throw in a detailed soundtrack (birds twittering, the roar of the sea breaking on the beach and even the screech of the odd vulture) and it's as good as a sim as you can get.

Until recently, the Tiger Woods titles were always a bit straight- faced; EA left arcade style action to others. This time around the extra capacity afforded by the PS2 has given the programmers free rein to throw in everything.

Two players will appreciate the speed golf challenge where you just whack the ball and chase it down. The first person to sink their golf ball is the winner. It doesn't have much to do with the game, but it is a lot of fun. You can also create your own golfer and compete against the greats for extra cash.

EA has also overhauled the control method. Using the PlayStation's twin analogue joysticks to simulate the swing of your club takes some getting used to (there are no power bars) but once you're accustomed, it soon becomes second nature.

Zoocube. Publisher: Acclaim. Format: Game Boy Advance. £24.99

TETRIS made the Game Boy and helped sustain the platform way beyond its sell-by date. It was invented by a Russian whose only real pay-off for coming up with such a classic puzzle game was a SNES deck - the first one in Moscow - for his kids.

Zoocube has been invented not by a Russian, but a 30-something city-slicker called Nalin Sharma who no doubt expects to make rather more than a Game Boy Advance and a pile of free games.

The gameplay is straightforward. Each cube you manipulate has several sides, each displaying part of an animal. You rotate the cubes to create an animal, which is then freed from captivity.

Just like Tetris, Zoocube is easy at first but fiendishly difficult to master. To help you later on, the game throws in several power-ups, but it's still hard going.

Zoocube may lack the inventiveness of Tetris - there's too much quality software around now for it to become the GBA's seminal title - but it's still a compulsive button basher, perfect for the summer hols.

DIVA STARZ. Format: PC CD-ROM. Price: £19.99. Publisher: Vivendi Universal.

IF YOU'RE over a certain age then Diva Starz probably won't mean a thing. On the other hand, if you have a young daughter, she will tell you that the Diva Starz are massive.

A range of dolls launched by Mattel a couple of years ago, the Diva Starz are incredibly popular, particularly in North America and given Mattel's close association with Vivendi Universal, a video game was inevitable.

For their first interactive adventure the four cool teens need your help to perfect their outfits and their make-up (yup, it's that rarest of things - a game aimed fairly and squarely at girls).

To accomplish this, they have to visit the local shopping mall. Outfits are chosen at the fashion shop, hairstyles are created at the style spot, music is on the menu at the music spot and there's even an amusement arcade.

The dressing up aspect will probably appeal to the under-eights, but the three simple arcade games are a bit too simplistic for long-term fun.

Vivendi is to be applauded for selling a game with such lowly requirements, but anyone loading this title on an older PC would do well to treat the minimum with caution.

Running on a Pentium P166, the screen up-date was too slow - making some of the twitch games (ie. catch the falling purse) frustratingly unresponsive.

In an industry dominated by young men, games for girls remain something of a novelty. Diva Starz may not advance the cause of women's electronic entertainment very far but your six-year-old sister/daughter will love it all the same.

Published: 09/08/2002