Now, let’s be completely honest. One name sticks out like a sore thumb when you think of golf today: Tiger Woods. Not only has he won 45 PGA Tour tournaments, he became the first ever golfer to hold all four professional major championships at the same time, on top of being the career leader among active players for victories on the PGA Tour, all in his nine-year career. Not to mention he is one of the richest athletes in the world with an estimated $80.3 million to his name. Did I mention he is only 29 years old?
This year’s edition of Tiger Woods PGA Tour returns every PGA golfer from last year, including Chris DiMarco, Luke Donald, Ian Poulter, and Mike Weir, who are all new additions. Similarly, this year’s edition has all of last year’s PGA courses for you to tear up, including seven new licensed courses: Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club, Sahalee Country Club, Doral Golf Golf Resort, Cog Hill Golf Club, Reflection Bay, and TPC Sawgrass, a favorite of many.
Anyone who has played, or read anywhere online, about previous Tiger games knows that the game was not very lifelike. You could, with an easy power boost to your swing and the right spin, hit the ball from the tee 300+ yards directly onto the fairway. Similarly, anyone who has played golf in real life knows that this is no easy task, and certainly not every pro can do that every drive. So the main thing EA had to focus on here was to make the game be more "lifelike," or more difficult. We all know that the left analog stick does control your backswing and when or where the ball will eventually land (usually in the rough for me). The new idea to make the game more lifelike is the use of the right analog stick on the swing. You will need to place the right analog stick, during the backswing, on a small picture of the ball to tell it where you want it to go. Depending on where you place it, you can hit the ball further, fade it in, put more topspin on it, or put good backspin on it.
Putting has received an overhaul to make it more "lifelike." No longer are you told a set distance to aim the ball left or right or up and down, it now depends on how hard you swing with the left analog stick. The grid that appears when you get your putter out also has changed for the better. Now, you actually need to "read" the little bead-like dots on the grid, just like pros read the greens. The grid changes color for your convenience to tell you how hard, or soft, you need to hit the ball in order to get it in the hole. You will notice the changes almost right away.
The new Rivals mode allows you to create yourself, literally, with EA’s extensive created player options. These created player options, also known as "GameFace," has some new noticeable options, including an all-new ability to personalize your players in game voice. Rivals mode takes you through the 20th century, and as you would expect, the equipment, as well as clothing, noticeably changes through each decade. You will be able to take on legends such as Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, and, the name of the game himself, Tiger Woods. You can gain sponsorships, change your appearance, and the like. The ultimate goal of Rivals mode is to surpass Tiger as the best golfer on the planet. Good luck with that.
If you’ve ever played EA Sports’ NCAA Football 2006, you will notice (at least, I hope you will notice), that when you are the away team, your screen will shake and your controller will rumble to put pressure on a certain team, just like it would be at a real college stadium. This same concept has been taken over to Tiger 06 to put pressure on you during those very important putts. If you’ve never played NCAA 06, you’re in for a surprise with Tiger 06, though it isn’t as crazy as it is in NCAA 06.
Also, If you’ve ever played any of EA Sports’ BIG games, you will notice they have an option of using something called Gamebreakers during gameplay. To get a Gamebreaker, you will need to fill up your meter until it reaches its top. Gamebreakers in EA Sports’ BIG games are almost guaranteed to get you points, but this is not the case in Tiger 06. It will give you a "boost" to putts or drives that could make or break the game. You also have the option of using your Gamebreaker to your advantage by canceling all of your opponents’ meter points, just like in EA Sports BIG titles.
With all the additions made to this game, it is looking to be a vast improvement over previous Tiger games. You can tell that the folks over at EA actually spent the time to listen to the fans of the game, and structured the game around it. People really appreciate that, I know I do. Making Tiger seem more realistic, and taking away some of the arcade-ish elements (Tiger’s Eye) is looking to be a good move. This could very easily be the best Tiger Woods PGA Tour game to date.
