Customer Reviews

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2006

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

Tiger Woods still leads the pack in golfing SIMS for PS2 and XBox. Still a great game, lots of fun, decent graphics, and more importantly - still a challenge. I've given the previous two years 5-star reviews... and this '06 is close at 4.5 stars. Each year, there's not a game I look more forward to coming out than Tiger Woods' golf game. There's no other game I look forward to playing with friends. Here's the breakdown as I see it.

GOLF COURSES: 11 licensed courses (15 total courses). New courses include Doral Golf Resort (Miami, FL), Reflection Bay (Las Vegas, NV), TPC Sawgrass (Ponte Verde Beach, FL), Pumpkin Ridge (Portland, OR), Sahalee CC (Seattle, WA), Cog Hill CC (Chicago, IL), and Britain's own St Andrews. There are 17 PGA players to unlock. The commentator team of McCord and Feherty are back (though many of their phrases are the same from '05).

GAME FACE, EQUIPMENT, GAME MODES: The graphics are a tad better than '05. Dare I say the texture of the faces remind me of when Homer Simpson went 3-D in that "Tron" episode a few years back. Almost, but not quite. Some characters look better than others - Arnold Palmer looks great, but Jack Nichlaus looks sickly. All the things you could do in '05 with the face and body are here. The new feature here is the "voice" of your player. You can listen to your guy yell as he makes a good (or bad) shot. Clothing, club selection and the misc golf gear is extensive and all the top major golfing brands are here (Callaway, Ping, Taylor-Made, etc). Game modes include the standards: PGA Tour/Season, Traditional (8 games including Match/Skins/etc), Battle Golf, Real Time Event Calendar, and new in '06 a "Skills 18" which is a variation of stroke play where you are trying to get your ball through colored hoops along the course for extra cash. There is also a game mode you can turn on called "Reactive Tiger" - the better you play, the tougher each hole becomes (and vice versa). As in '05, once you've progressed through much of the game, you'll be able to play the true PGA legends (Nicklaus, Palmer, Hogan, Woods, etc). New in '06 is a "Save Progress" button allowing you to stop play at any given time - all I can say here is it's about time (previous years did NOT have this option).

PUTTING: Gone are the "Caddy Tips" from previous years. You'll need to read the greens and judge the distance to the cup before each putt. You'll need to look at all the info on the screen when putting - grid with sloping beads, camera angles, distance from the cup, and strength of shot. When putting, press the "X" button to show the ideal line/path to the hole. You'll have to judge how far left or right to move the blue arrow. Like the swing control of all your other clubs, you'll need to determine the power of your putts by how far you pull back on your putter. After many rounds, I've gotten used to the whole aspect of '06 putting... and it's not that difficult. In fact, there's MORE info on the screen for you to make better putts.

SWING CONTROLS: The game box and the commercial I saw made me think the whole swing had changed from years past. Yes and no. Your left analog stick still controls the back swing and downswing, as well as your hook and slice; while the right analog stick determines where the club hits the ball. If you don't use the right analog stick (which will be a majority of your shots), you'll hit in the middle of the ball. I feel the right analog stick is more for those strategic shots when you're close to a tree and you need extra loft to get over it, or you're under a tree and you need to punch a line drive to get out from underneath. It's virtually impossible to hit a strategic shot like this with both thumbs on the analog controls AND power up on the L1 button for a stronger shot. You can still choose how you want to hit the ball (full swing, punch, pitch, flop, chip and putt). One nice thing I've noticed - in previous years the game would decide if and when you could use your putter. In '06, you make the choice where to use your putter... even from several feet off the green.

SKILL TOKENS: Gone are the days of earning cash from tournaments and buying literally whatever attributes you want. In '06, when you hit a good shot, you will earn skill token(s) for that type of shot. There are 6 categories in which to earn tokens for and improve your golfers performance: General, Power, Accuracy, Putting, Spin, and Concentration. I'm sitting on the fence about this change. Tougher - yes. Wagering $$$ - while playing against another player, you can increase your paycheck each time you play, you can wager on every round or even every hole.

THE NEGATIVES: Navigating around the new "Clubhouse" can be frustrating. At first, I kind of felt lost... like, where exactly should I be going? You can visit the "Era Specific" pro shop, accept a challenge, enter the rivals mode, or review your trophy case. Once you do well in one era, a note will pop up saying "Tiger has left this era" and you'll have to figure out where to go next. Not user friendly in my opinion. The "Gamebreaker Meter" is close to being worthless. The back of the box brags about this feature. You'll be lucky to fill the meter once (maybe twice if you're really playing well) in 18 holes. Tap the "X" button during your swing and your shot goes a little farther and a little straighter. If you match your skill with a little luck on any given par 3, you can use your full "Meter" for a hole-in-one. In two months use, I have 3x the number of hole-in-ones than the previous 2005 game. You can also hit the "Gamebreaker Meter" when your opponent is about to swing - emptying his meter (yawn). The vibration "heartbeat" on a big clutch shot is downright annoying - it almost shakes too much, plus the screen flickers. As good as the graphics are, when I use my driver and hit the ball from the tee, the ball flying through the air - the picture always freezes for a second and then continues... I don't know if this is my PS2 system or simply the mechanics of the game. Seems like every 2nd or 3rd shot I take, someone in the crowd yells "I love this game!" Somehow, with this game being bigger and better than any of the previous releases, there'd be more variety of words spoken and less repetition. Sadly, this is simply not true. When you change clothes or clubs, you need to change and adjust the attributes that go with it - you need to do this in order to get the best performance from your player. I found this to be a huge waste of time. However, the biggest down side to Tiger '06 is that it takes longer to play than previous releases. Where I used to be able to play 18 holes in 20 minutes, it now takes 30. Hitting the "X" button to skip the celebrations or warm-ups, your player tying their shoe or picking up their ball after you sink a putt doesn't seem to work - you are forced to watch these now. It slows the game down considerably.

OVERVIEW: The first few writers here have given this game poor reviews. I disagree. There are a few things here that they've changed from '05 (some good, some bad), but overall this is still a great game. The negatives mentioned above are minor in my opinion. The '06 is definitely as tough or tougher than previous years. Tiger Woods is still the best golf game on the market. If you loved Tiger's games in previous years, you'll love this game too.

I've read the upheaval from other reviewers, and I'm here to say that I actually really like this game. After seeing some friends playing '05 at school, I decided to try out '06. If you've never played any other Tiger Woods games, then all the negative comments by other people don't apply to you.

Personally I like the new putting feature a lot better than the old way. In '05 and before, all you had to do was wait for your caddy tip, place the cursor where it told you, and hit a button. In '06, the putting is a lot more realistic because you can see the break of the green, and then get an actual "tip" from the caddy in the form of a best-line putt. I'm not a huge golfer in real life, but I'm pretty sure that golfers and caddies try to determine the best line to the hole, rather than thinking "well, I had better aim about 6 inches to the right and 2... no, 3 feet long."

The graphics are fine, and I've had no trouble "X-ing" through the animations. The animations that you can't X-through are the longer ones where a player will throw his club or kick his ball into the trees after a triple-bogey, and I think those are kinda funny. You don't have to play all the best-ball or four-way matches in Rivals mode to progress through the game. Those are very long matches, but I think they only exist if you want to get the maximum amount of money and unlock every item of clothing and equipment possible.

One suggestion for the controls is to change the configuration of the controller so that you swing with the right stick rather than the left. That way, you are tapping L1 for power boost and swinging with the other hand, so it's a bit easier. The shape stick is difficult and takes a lot of concentration and skill, but so does hitting a draw/fade shot in real golf!

I'm not all the way through the game yet but I'm still having fun with it. It's a good game to play with one player, and when playing with other people it allows you to talk way more smack than golfing in real life. I recommend it.

As an avid TW player since 04, I will probably continue to get the TW games as they arrive. It's still a great game. Do I recommend 06? Yes.

But, frankly, 05 was more fun. I hope EA is reading these reviews. 07 must be better thought out.

I will say that the putting is more realistic in 06. Where 05 putting was a matter of aiming at a spot described by the "caddie" (e.g. "2 inches left, 4 feet long"), 06 requires an aiming guesstimate based on the projected path of the ball and a distance judgment using an anolog stroke. I now often miss hard-breaking 20 footers as I probably should have all along. The days of shooting a 45 from the black tees are probably gone for now.

Now for the "improvements" that make the game less fun...

I guess my first gripe is the actual swing mechanics. The "shaping stick" just doesn't do it for me. The foot position option (an 05 improvement) was simple and effective. You could hit the ball with more loft by stepping back on the ball or "flatter" stepping up on it. And, of course, you could strike the ball with fade/draw in one motion with one stick.

06's shaping stick (used simultaneously with the "swinging" stick) now accomplishes all that. The problem I have is figuring out how to repeatedly tap L1 (power boost), swing the club straight with one stick, shape the shot with the other stick and, god forbid, repeatedly tap the X button for a "game breaker".

Give me back my 05 swing mechanics.

The other thing I can't stand is the amount of time I spend looking at "character" animations. In 05 I could X my way through that garbage. In some 06 "rival" matches I spend half the game watching those hacks shaking their heads or worse. X, X, X, X... let's go already!

Some of the new "rival" challenges involve four players (you and three animated goof balls). It's a long, long, long boring game.

Let's say I whack a nice long drive; now I sit there and watch three dopes hitting shorter drives all over the county. They're all "away", so now I get to watch all three of them whack their balls into hazards. I finally get to go so I hit a nice iron shot a foot from the pin. Now I sit there and watch the three stooges try to get on the green so they can three putt their double bogeys. Excruciating. And, again, to add insult to injury, I guess EA was so proud of their character animations that the animations often can't be bypassed by Xing. You watch the same guy do the same head-shaking over and over again.

I literally read a book during those matches. Literally. No kidding. And there are plenty of them.

To illustrate how bad EA dropped the ball in 06, get this. Let's say you hit a ball into the rough. You're bummed and you say, "Oh, cripes, I'm hosed." Well, in 06, YOUR PLAYER will say something like, "Not over there!" I mean, why the heck do I need my on screen persona griping about my shots?! That's MY job. It's stupid, but, thankfully, you can turn it off.

Another example... equipment bonuses are acquired in no time in 06. I won't explain it here, but there is no challenge getting them right off the bat. An hour into the game, you figure out how to pile them up, and you do it. Therefore, what's the point?

And there are other little things. In 05 if you whacked the longest drive of your life, it would immediately tell you. Hey, I just set a record for this course! No more.

I suppose I'll get used to it, but I wish EA would consult with me before they make any more "improvements." It's like one step forward, two steps back.

I can't wait for 07, though!

Prior to buying this game, I have owned both TW 2002 and 2004. I was really hoping that the 2006 version would bring the game to the next level. I can honestly say that this game is no better than the 2002 version and maybe a little worse than 2004. I agree with the other reviewers: rent the game before buying. You will probably be disappointed.
The one thing this game does improve upon is the tournament competition. You likely will no longer be winning tournaments by 30+ strokes. However, you will probably still win every tournament without much difficulty, but it may only be by 5-10 shots. I actually like the change in the putting controls as this makes putting slightly harder and less predictable.
Menus are not as intuitive as they have been in previous versions and loading times for each step are pretty poor. Game face is really not improved (I actually think it is worse than 2004).
I have been a huge fan of previous versions of this game, but I am disappointed in this edition.

This is the worst Tiger Woods game to date. Action is slow, controls confusing, characters are lame. Do not waste your money

This is the first Tiger woods game I have bought. When I looked the game up to see the reviews on it after I bought it I was shocked at the low score it had. I think the game is awesome!! I was looking for a game that was fun but also realistic. This is both. I must warn that it does take a round or two to get used to the controls but I figured it out without even looking at the instructions.

If you are looking for something that is easy to play, buy Hot shots golf or something cartoonish like that. But this is a great game.

In most of the reviews I keep hearing how they should have made 06 like 05. I'm glad they didn't. 2006 has challenged me like no other golf game ever. Come on I was shooting on average scores of 20 under par in 2005. What fun is that. there's no challenge at all. They did good in making 2006 feel more like the real thing.
I'm not saying TW06 is perfect because it's not. It's confusing at first to realize where to go to start playing. The load times are pretty bad, and there are some nasty bugs that should hgave been fixed before release. The worst one forced me to to retake my second shot over and over again because i couldn't make it over the water. It wouldn't let me pick anything than wedges. It did the same thing to my computer opponent. That's only happened once but it is still pretty bad.
Wityhout that one bug it would be a much better game. I haven't played online yet, but it seems like everyone else thinks it sucks. If you want a good golfing sim, it is worth it if you can get over some of the flaws.

I would like to start by saying that I have all of the Tiger Woods golf games that exist for the PS2. However, I would like to give this one back. I really have no idea why EA felt they needed to completely overhaul the game. Tiger Woods 05 was outstanding! It could have used a few extras like more customization of the create a course option. Something like adding your own waterways, sand traps, etc. instead of just picking existing holes from the courses that already exist. Anyway, the new putting feature is the worst!!! It isn't just because it is more difficult. It is no longer any fun. Being challenging is one thing, but being absolutely ridiculous is another. Why not leave the old putting option and let the gamer choose between the two in the game settings? The bottom line is that all of the Tiger Woods golf games have been outstanding up until this point. However, this is the last one I will ever purchase unless changes are made. Bring back the old putting options. And for those of you who want the game more realistic than fun, stick with the real game of golf and leave the electronic version of it to those of us who enjoy a fun and entertaining game. Not one so difficult that it never gets played.

If you want this game for online play, forget it. It is basically unplayable online. Among many other flaws, the main problem is a long screen lag that makes timing the swing impossible. Swing timing is absolutely crucial to gameplay. Offline, the game is alright. Always a great golf series, the game continues to evolve, improving with each version. Yet, it is still peppered with annoying program errors and glitches. The final product lacks polish. It is so close to being a great game, but they obviously did not test it before releasing it. The game engine is wonderful, and EA has left it largely intact since 2002, tweaking it here and there for the better. Probably the best feature of this game is its replay value. You can play this title for months and still improve your game. In this respect it is just like real golf. It will always challenge you. You will never fully master it. Even when you are shooting 30 under par, there is still potential for improvement. However, for the second straight year, EA has completely dropped the ball on the online glitches that have always plagued this series. I mean, really, I think 3 years is long enough to iron out the difficulties? They really should have delayed the launch to fix these major problems, and the myriad of minor ones too. Many buy this game for the online play alone, I among them. Therefore, I feel like I wasted my money.

Why did EA take a perfect game and screw with it? The '05 game was perfect; easy to play but challenging. There is absolutely no way to shape your shot and add distance with the L1 button unless your an octopus or maybe EA wanted this to be a two player game. One to swing the club and the other to tap L1 for added distance. All I asked was for the '05 gameplay with the same controls but add different courses and a few new players. What we received was a completely different game with difficult menus to navigate and ridiculous controls. If you have played Tiger from 2002 to 2005 you will be dissapointed in the new game. Please take me seriously when I say rent the game before buying it. SAVE YOUR $$$$! I want a refund!