Is Tiger Woods the best golfer of all time? He’s ready to settle that debate once and for all and only you can stop him. Create a golfer using the most advanced Game Face technology ever released, and battle through five classic periods of golf with Tiger Woods challenging you every step of the way. Feel the pressure and intensity of making perfect tee shots or sinking tournament-winning putts with all-time greats like Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, and Ben Hogan breathing down your neck. With new mini games, 21 licensed golfers, and 11 authentic PGA TOUR courses, Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 06 challenges you to call out your rivals and prove yourself as the greatest golfer ever.
- Play as or against Tiger Woods and 17 other PGA TOUR players including the newly added Chris DiMarco, Mike Weir, Ian Poulter, and Luke Donald
- New Shot Mechanics – For the first time, both analog sticks control each shot from tee to green
- All-New Rival Mode – See if you have what it takes to beat Jack Nicklaus in his heyday with a bag full of wooden clubs, or Tiger Woods with his modern-day equipment
- Call your shots – Back your challenges with wagers before any shot or round. Bigger odds are given to special accomplishments, so reap the largest rewards for nailing the toughest shots
- 14 beautifully detailed courses, including – Pebble Beach Golf Links, St Andrews, Reflection Bay, Doral Golf Resort, and more
List Price: $ 29.99
Price: $ 13.95
So bad, it’s an insult to Tiger Woods,
This game, especially now that the original Xbox game is $29.95, is complete robbery. The Xbox 360 version sports only 6 courses compared to the 11 courses on the original Xbox and this version is filled to the brim with bugs.
For example, when playing a tournament, on the final hole, the putting line will mysteriously disappear (this actually happens countless times throughout the game, but interestingly enough, I’ve noticed it appears most often when you’re about to finish a round). Also, as you make your last putt, the announcers will often say “That’s a tie atop the leaderboard!” or “That’s for a share of the lead.” when you’ve actually won the tournament. Announcements will also come late, for example, when you’re putting and the announcer calls out that you’re 170 yards from the hole. Top that off with the fact that their putting advice isn’t just useless, it’s often totally wrong.
The online version of this game is using EA’s own front-end, as they have in the previous TW games. If you haven’t experienced how bad it is, consider yourself lucky. Game drop-outs (which are tallied on your personal Xbox profile) are far more likely EA’s fault then a sour player. EA even taunts us by directly telling us that the only way they’re going to update their 4-question online FAQ is if we send them a question “wrapped in cash preferably twenties.”
EA has never offered additional courses for download. There is no “download” menu item in the Xbox Live menu of this game, and I will personally fly to EA and buy every member of the TW06 team a copy of this over-priced, over-rated game, if they ever offer even a single course. It simply won’t happen because they don’t care.
This game has a “fall-behind, catch up” feature, so bad that, if you’re winning the tournament, Tiger Woods will come out of no-where on the 3rd day and score an impossible round. For example, he shot a hole-in-zero (yes, you read that correctly) on a par 3 to catch up to me on the back nine. He’ll also take the lead in the tournament. The reason this is done is so that you can do “head to head” against Tiger. However, it also ruins any course records you’ve worked hard (and fairly) to earn.
The final nail in this game’s coffin is that the system “cheats.” And by that, I mean that the controls on the system will mysteriously pull (left or right) or push (over the green) your shots when you’re too far in the lead, or making an early gain at the beginning of the higher tournaments. If you want an example, try making the exact same eagle approach shot in one of the major tournaments when you’re ahead and behind. If you’re the leader, you won’t ever hit the green, if you’re the leader, you’ll never hit the green, if you’re a few shots behind, you’ll -amazingly- land near the pin.
For the price of this game, you should really go out and play a real round of golf. You won’t be giving lazy developers any of your hard earned money and you’ll be playing at a far nicer course than EA has virtually created.
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|Great realism for the serious golfer,
Tiger Woods 2006 brings the glorious realism of the XBox 360 to the game of golf. You get quick games, planned out career mode, plus live play and minigames.
First, the characters you can play. By default you are Tiger Woods of course, but you can also play Vijay Singh, Mike Weir, Chris DiMarco, tons more, or create your own character from scratch. The creation screen is rather impressive, so you can really create a golfer that you can relate to. We had a ton of fun playing with the precise level of detail. Unibrow? Freckle density? It’s all here.
You start out with six extremely detailed courses – but EA lists the following courses as the ones supported for this version of the game. I imagine that it means the rest of the courses will be able to be downloaded in the future. You can only fit so much information on one DVD! I’ve marked which ones come on the game DVD.
Bethpage Black
Carnoustie – INCLUDED
Central Park
Cog Hill
Doral
Greek Isles
Kapalua
Pasatiempo
Pebble Beach – INCLUDED
Pinehurst #2 – INCLUDED
Pumpkin Ridge
Red Rock Creek
Reflection Bay
Riviera – INCLUDED
Sahalee
St Andrews
Troon North – Pinnacle
TPC at Sawgrass – INCLUDED
Turnberry – INCLUDED
The game is definitely not an “arcade” easy style button masher. There’s no swing-o-meter to hit the X button on. You have to really “swing” the joystick properly to hit your shot. I found this really natural to do, and my boyfriend, who is an avid golfer, was playing extremely well in only a few holes. That being said, if you’re not into golf and don’t understand the club choices / ground slope issues, you can have problems.
I really loved how the power shots go into slow motion if you hit them right on, and how the crowd roars out its approval for the great shots. It really gives you a visceral sense of reward. I also love how the crowd cringes if your shot goes too near them, or they actually double over in pain when you hit them. I admit to aiming for them a few times
It was just too funny.
The graphics are quite nice. The shadows ripple across the green, the ball kicks up debris, the clouds roll across the sky. The birds chirp, you can hear the wind rustling in the trees. The characters still aren’t quite photorealistic, but we’re getting quite close. I remember as a kid playing the Atari Golf with little pixel-characters – this is amazing how far we’ve come.
The sounds really draw you in, from the commentary to the crowd noises to the ambient sounds. I didn’t even mind the background rock music in the character screens and such.
There’s a ton of items to unlock – better clubs, better shafts, and so on. There are always new challenges to try for and items to strive for.
For quick arcadey fun, we’re big fans of the PSP Hot Shots Golf, and we finished that game all the way through. But for a serious challenge, where our golf skills are tested and honed, we really like this one. It’s both very challenging and very relaxing at the same time.
If I was going to pick on the game, perhaps I’d say it was too hard for beginners, or those who don’t really play golf. However, there are tons of games out there that are deliberately arcadey or just “fun”. Casual players have plenty of options to choose from already. If someone is a serious golfer looking for a game to have fun with during rainy days and winter season, I really recommend this one.
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