'ESPN Final Round Golf 2002' Is Sub Par

By AARON CURTISS

Sept. 27, 2001 12 AM PT

aaron.curtiss@latimes.com

There’s a fundamental problem with a golf game that lets players birdie their first hole and finish a full 18 at three under par--all without reading the directions.

It’s way too easy.

“ESPN Final Round Golf 2002” for Game Boy Advance boasts lots of pretty graphics but offers a challenge only somewhat more difficult than walking and chewing gum at the same time.

Playing golf on a computer or video game console is inherently different from playing on actual links. Of course, that’s true of every sports title. It’s one thing to hit a virtual pitch at 90 mph and quite another to hit one in a major league park. But with football and baseball games, there remains a certain amount of strategy and skill--particularly when playing against other people. In golf, though, the only thing that matters is individual performance.

On PCs and set-top consoles, golf games deliver a substantial challenge as players gauge wind and terrain and adjust their swings accordingly. The way greens break has a bearing on how the ball rolls. In short, the games try to duplicate as many of the technical aspects of golf as possible.

Despite the formidable processing power of Game Boy Advance, “Final Round Golf 2002” enjoys none of the subtleties found in its more intelligent cousins. Instead, it delivers a brute-force game that amounts to little more than lining up the ball with the pin and giving it a smack.

At the tee, the game defaults to the best alignment to the hole. Sure, players can tweak it, but what’s the point? A slider along the bottom shows how strong the swing will be; players have to hit the A button at the right time for the highest degree of accuracy.

It’s roughly the same drill for the putt, but players on the green must adjust their alignment because the game usually picks a line that’s a couple of degrees off target. But the greens have no texture or undulations that would make them more difficult. Despite the ESPN name, the game offers nothing to suggest it has anything to do with the network.

Its five courses are all fake. So are all the players. There’s no stroke-by-stroke commentary. A cynical player might believe the only reason the ESPN label is on the box is to suck in gullible players who trust the network.

“ESPN Final Round Golf 2002” is sub par. And not in a good way.

‘Extermination’

Add some snow to “Resident Evil” and the result is “Extermination,” a third-person action-adventure in which players race against time to clear an Antarctic base of bloodthirsty mutants.

What it lacks in originality and technical grace the PlayStation 2 title makes up for in workmanlike playability. “Extermination” is not a great game--not even close. But players should resist the temptation to bail out after the first agonizing hour because it does get better as the game progresses.

The game begins with a team of special-forces soldiers infiltrating a research facility in distress. Main character Dennis Riley is a brooding patriot whose past continues to haunt him. Yadda, yadda, yadda. The squad ends up facing an army of killer slugs.

Most of the action unfolds in third-person perspective, but players can switch to first-person when looking around or aiming. In third-person, the automatic camera angles are not always ideal, making it difficult to navigate some of the more cluttered areas.

Unlike the PC game “Max Payne,” “Extermination” makes it exceptionally difficult to run and shoot simultaneously.

Visually, “Extermination” is nothing special. The characters are blocky and the settings look like the desolate warehouses and corridors that house just about every other mutants-take-over-the-world game on the market.

Pre-rendered cut scenes cut into the action way too often and offer way too little. The dialogue is stilted and poorly acted and doesn’t add anything substantial to the story.

Players looking for greatness should look elsewhere. “Resident Evil: Code Veronica X” demonstrates why the “Resident Evil” franchise is so often copied and so rarely matched. But players looking for a little weekend diversion might enjoy a rental of “Extermination.”

Aaron Curtiss is editor of Tech Times.

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The Skinny

“ESPN Final Round Golf 2002”

Genre: Sports

Platform: Game Boy Advance

Price: $40

Publisher: Konami

ESRB* rating: Everyone

The good: Rich graphics

The bad: Easy play

Bottom line: Way too simple