Tiger Woods PGA Tour 06 continues EA Sports dominance in the sports video game genre with a very detailed and fun game that gives players more options than ever before. 2006's version has the same easy to learn game controls found in previous Tiger Woods titles along with customizable players, multiple game modes and plenty of courses to play.
Game Play
EA Sports has scored a knockout in terms of game play with Tiger Woods PGA Tour 06. The easy to learn controls make the game both fun and challenging. PGA Tour 06 supports play with both a PC game pad or mouse/keyboard. The PC gamepad controls are new to the series and play very similar to that of the console versions. Where the PC version has an edge however is in the Trueswing controls with the mouse.
There are two options when performing a Trueswing with the mouse; vertical, where the mouse is moved backwards and then forwards, and horizontal where the mouse is moved from left to right. The first part of the swing movements determine your back swing and the later movement determines your follow through and aiming. Each of these movements and the swing of the golfer will occur simultaneously, giving a very realistic touch to the game. Determining when to swing hard and when to apply finesse to your mouse movement is all part of the challenge in learning what type of swing to use for each condition.
Moving the mouse in any direction other than a straight line will add spin to the ball which can help control ball movement but also hook or slice if too much movement is applied. PGA Tour 06 also features 3-click and 2-click swings that are easy to learn but also take away a little bit of the realism and challenge. 2-click swing for instance will always results accurate shots determined by where the golfer is aimed prior to swinging.
Depending on the current shot,Tiger Woods PGA Tour offers a great feature with shot selection. There are nine different shot selections which cover just about every situation on the golf course. Examples of these include Power Shots, Chip Shots, puts, High Spin, Sand and more. Each shot type has a unique swing slider that alters your swing and can help give you an edge, but also negatively affect your missed shots.
From Hack to PGA Pro
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 06 lets players customize their golfer in a number of different ways both in appearance and ability. Golfers can begin as an experienced pro or amateur novice trying to make it to the tour. Each golfer created will begin his career with $10,000 which can be used to enter tournaments or to buy new equipment and clothing. As an amateur, golfers careers will start with weekend rounds against friends where the purse can be less than $100.
As golfers progress through many rounds, experience will be earned which can then be used to enhance and improve golfing abilities such as putting, power, accuracy, and unlocking more types shot selections. The decision on what type of golfer each character turns out to be is entirely up to the player. Once enough experience is earned playing these amateur rounds, golfers then have the ability to join the PGA tour and compete against the likes of Tiger Woods, Vijay Singh, and many others.
Game modes worth a note other than PGA Tour Mode include Rivals Mode and Custom Mode. Rivals mode takes you through every era of golf playing against some of the greatest legends of the game up until a head to head match up against Tiger Woods to become the best golfer of all time. Custom games allow for golf round against up to eight players with 14 different types of games along with side wagers.
