Tuesday, January 31, 2006

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 06 (PS2)

I always have to purchase a golf game every year to make up for my lack of playing it in real life. See, I'm still young enough that I get myself into a 150-game summer softball schedule, and I'm just too incompetent to maintain a golf stroke and a softball swing at the same time. Well maybe that's not entirely true - I mean, I figured I'd win the lottery sometime before my 23rd birthday, would tee off every morning in a new pair of khakis, hunt fox in the afternoon with my rather large pack of dogs and play in an exhilarating game of polo later that evening as my supermodel wife looks on thru a tiny spectacle telescope with the other snooty bitches along the sideline.

Alas, none of this happened even though I use words like "alas" to begin sentences. Sure, the sense of sophistication occasionally rises in my online persona, but then you take the time to talk to me over messenger, headset or phone and after the first few "fucks" out of my mouth you immediately begin to label me a bit more accurately. Fact is I drag my ass out of bed at 7:42am to get to work by 8, co-exist with people who if were any more stupid would need watered twice a week, then get home in the evening and blog my opinion about sports and video games to an audience countable by both of my hands and one foot while my wife screams at me to get my ass off the computer. I guess I'll just keep playing the lottery so that I can one day live that life I described, but in the mean time I'll try to fix that blog traffic thing and quit going off on crazy fuckin' tangents that have nothing to do with what I entitled this post in the first place.


gratuitous transition pic to help change the subject

Ahh yes, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 06 for the PS2.

As a blunt, overall statement - if you liked the 2005 version than you'll enjoy the 2006 version. The game has most of the same features with a few added in, with this year featuring new shot mechanics, a few new courses/golfers and other various improvements over past editions. If you're among the crowd that says that it is too easy and unrealistic - nothing's changed. The Tour mode is back again and improved, you can turn off power boost and spin, but with 11's across the board (formerly 110%'s) you can still shoot well below par regardless. Some despise that, but I'm largely an online player anyway - when the other golfer has 11's across the board as well, it plays like a real golf game would - every shot counts, and sometimes pulling up and setting up a shot is much more valuable than trying to reach the Par 5 in 2.

But yes, it is the typical EA exclusive licensing-rehash we've known and grown to love, however unlike Madden - this game doesn't suck.


you gotta click this pic and read some of this - great stuff

"Call out your rivals" is apparently the catch phrase this year, as the Rivals Mode has received a massive revamp into a more streamlined, interactive atmosphere. You still more or less beat several imaginary golfers before facing a past great, but instead of facing off with Ben Hogan or something - you face him in the time where he ruled the course, back when he got more ass than a toilet seat. Rivals mode has time travelling, with your objective being to become the No. 1 golfer of all time. You need to beat the "Turn of the Century", "Golden Age", "Baby Boomer" and "Modern Age" in your quest to become the best (that rhymes...noted*), so I really like the layout a lot better this time around vs. seemingly awakening the dead for a round of golf last year.


Tiger in a Jim Tressel-sweatervest and aristocratic pants

Online play is again anything but consistent as far as connection issues - if you've had problems hooking up to certain people in the past, you're going to have problems again. Not only this, but now some people actually cannot log into the Daily Tournament without jimmying a few things with system settings you're generally not supposed to have to do. The increased online pro shop items, mini games and every day event schedule gives the online portion of PS2 golf a good mark, however the fact you may not be able to log into it brings it back down to earth.

*If you're not online enabled, the Real-Time Events calendar is back with more events than ever to keep the game fresh all year long.

The Game Face feature I feel was perfected last year - I mean, it went from being able to adjust facial pore-size to adding a pimple into it. You could really tell the size, age and weight of my golfer by looking at him...well, that is if I didn't create him to look like I did when I was a stud athlete in high school. You know, perfect face, muscles embellished beyond my imagination and a tan that reflects the aforementioned life from the 2nd paragraph of this review.

They did include some unlockable features on the game if you play the PSP version, but I read that it sucked ass and haven't played it yet. I have no ending for this paragraph so I take a small bow.

The courses are again beautiful and well laid out. Doral, Pasatiempo, Pumpkin Ridge & Reflection Bay joins Bethpage Black, Cog Hill, Kapalua, Pebble Beach, Sahalee, Sawgrass, St. Andrews & Troon North as the authentic PGA courses. "Central Park" is the new fantasy course this year with a unique inner city design, joining Tiger 2004 favorite "Greek Isles" and 2003 favorite "Red Rock Creek" to make for 16 available courses to play on. To improve these courses which were really perfected 2 editions ago (with current-gen settings, naturally), EA has added more background noise - hopping rabbits, birds flying, ...caribou(?) grazing - it definitely does add another small dose of reality to the experience.

And no, you can't drill the caribou with the ball. Tried that. 8 or 12 times.

Aside from the noted birds and various nature sounds in the background, Gary McCord and David Feherty are back with one of the better EA broadcast teams, with McCord always the professional and Feherty always the smartass. This pairing has been a mainstay in the franchise for a few years now, and really helps to make this game an overall complete product. No feature of this game is left unrefined.

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 06 has undergone some significant changes, however the ease of play has either drove you from it or it hasn't - simple as that. One of the more, if not the most complete EA product on the market, 06 has impressed me once again and I plan to be playing it well into 2006 - if not up until 2007 is released

Game Sites: EA Sports, Gamepro, Gamespot, IGN
Gaming Communities: EA Sports Forums, Shankers Unified Golf Association, Tiger Woods Online, Total Online Play

3 Comments:

  • You'll notice the letters "PS" written in succession with the number "2" in parenthesis following the title of the post.

    By Blogger bironm, at 9:40 AM  

  • Ya everyone advances NCAA Football to All-American and Madden to All-Pro within the first week of owning it, but no one wants to up the difficulty on Tiger!

    By Blogger bironm, at 4:01 PM  

  • Ya I kinda noticed that as well - now the easiest ones are when the letters are stretched really wide, which cuts the verification down to like 5.

    By Blogger bironm, at 10:58 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home