Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2006 Preview

The Tiger Woods series has always found a special place with golf lovers. It was the king of golf games until the console versions took over the spot with its better graphics and gameplay options, however at E3, EA displayed the next title in the golf series named Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2006 and by the looks, it seems absolutely spectacular. Truthfully it just may get back the lost glory of the Golf series by EA. The game showcases tweaked front-end visuals along with some major changes. Hopefully these upgrades, additions, and tweaks will be enough to make the game a top seller while keeping the fans satisfied.

Good Shot

The key to a good shot in golf is execution and precision. The game supports both the two- and three-click swinging methods, available in earlier versions, when you’re using the mouse; however the new implementation in the game this year is the feature of game controller support. But unfortunately the PV version of the game does not include the right stick” shot shaping” controls available in the console version

Players will now have to focus more on the point where the ball will impact, as the game features higher-fidelity physics models, which enables the ball to interact more realistically with the clubs and terrain when it is struck, thus, resulting in more realistic flight and bounce of the ball. Another new feature of the game is the using the controls to determine the point where the club hits the ball, thus influencing its fade, draw, backspin, or topspin.

Learning from History

The PC version of Tiger Woods 06 will offer a fresh mode of play, this time instead of making you play seasons and seasons of simulated PGA Tours, you get to play the game as a local hack i.e. playing weekend links at courses with your buddies. With practice, your game will improve and with that slowly you will progress on in the game, after defeating your friends, you get to play with your Boss, then you go on to a local tournament, then a national amateur tournaments, up through Q school to qualify for your tour card, and, ultimately, you get to the PGA Tour schedule. As you play more and more you will get to know various match types, such as four-ball, alternate shot, stableford, and so on.

Then you have “rivals mode,” a single-player experience mode that will have you go through five separate eras of golf’s history where you get to challenge some of the all-time greats. The goal in rivals mode will be to earn the number one ranking and then defend your position against Tiger when he makes his challenge.

You start off in the 1800s, in the era of legendary golfer Tom Morris Sr. and Allan Robertson, who is regarded as the first professional golfer. As you take on challenges in each era, compete in tournaments, and finally defeat the legend from each era, you progress through various era’s, every time entering a new period in golf’s history and take on new set of challenges.

No Instant Upgrades

As you cycle through the eras, the look and feel of your golf clubhouse will change with the time period, starting off with the stately wood-paneled walls of yesteryear to the 70s style furniture, and finally the gadget savvy clubhouse of today all rendered in 3d. You will have the ability to purchase equipment in each era, from the leather balls stuffed with feathers in the Morris era to today’s graphite clubs.

Another interesting thing of the upcoming Tiger Woods game is that there is now a different approach for money and experience points. Now one can’t just enter into a pro shop and blow out moolah, instead you will have to use experience points earned by playing matches to improve your golfer kits and clubs. The money you win in tournaments can be spent for apparels and practice gear for your created character.

Stunning Graphics

Players might be shocked by the look of Tiger Woods 06 on a high-end PC. The game is absolutely amazing in terms of graphics; it has sharp player models, detailed grass textures, vastly improved shadow effects, and now offers1024×768 resolution support. Advanced lighting techniques have been put in so that players get a better sense of terrain at different levels and each course is made unique by various outlines of natural features. The developers are working to make sure Tiger Woods 06 runs easily on different PC configs, and to do that they have made a helpful analyzer tool that will optimize the game to suit your hardware setup.

Earlier for reading the greens, a dotted visual line appeared between your ball’s lie and the hole. However in the latest offering the grid is back and reading the greens is just a little closer to the real thing. The “water on the surface” method is used, which has become quite popular, to give you visual feedback; it works by glowing “drops” of light which flow down the lines of the grid, making it much easier to understand the play of the green.
More Greens

The courses have also been revamped and now include seven new courses alongwith the old favorites like the St. Andrews alongwith new courses such as, TPC Sawgrass, Reflection Bay, Cog Hill Golf Club, Pumpkin Ridge GC, Sahalee CC, and Doral Golf Resort, Pinnacle at Troon North, Witch Hollow at Pumpkin Ridge, and the Pasatiempo course. Thus the game features a total of 10 licensed courses and 2 fantasy courses.

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2006 also features an online mode where upto four players can play their approach shots simultaneously, without having to wait for one another

With enough control options to please golf players and visually refreshing graphics, Tiger Woods 06 should appeal to old and new gamers alike. The title is being released for GameCube, PlayStation 2, and Xbox in late September and the PC version will be out in late November.

Karan IceFusion Bajaj