Tiger Woods PGA Tour 06

"Nice drive, but your short game stinks."

At this point, if you are not aware of Tiger Woods and the game of golf, then perhaps you should inform yourself with the nearest Wikipedia encyclopedia article right away. For those who knew what they were getting into in this game, then the good news is it's what you expect—just a no-frills golf game with Tiger's name sake on the cover. Now you can kill some time hitting a ball with a stick into a hole over several hundred yards away over and over again on the series' first outing on the Xbox 360.

For those who have played the Tiger Woods series before, it's the same deal. You can play golf on a multitude of courses (front 9, back 9, or both) with any number of players, set of rules, wind, color of tee boxes, and even green speed. Other features include your usual array of campaign and practice modes. Tiger Woods and a cast of other pro golfers, such as John Daly, Mike Weir, and Vijay Singh, are playable, along with your own custom-created golfers, decked out with tons of different polo shirts and khaki pants. If you want to play for the highest score, or test your chances in a tournament setting, complete with camera stands, crowds of spectators, and bikini-waxed greens (anyone who says this on Golf Channel will be fired), then you can play the game your way, minus the driving range, putting greens, and golf carts.

Once you actually hit the links, you'll be surprised that the controls are fairly accessible. You can toggle through the golf clubs in your bag, each of which has it's usual “max distance.” Adjusting your aim and examining your surroundings is flexible due to the smooth camerawork. Rip the ball with your left joystick by pulling back, then up in a straight line. No surprise that it's pressure-sensitive, so the faster you push the stick, the farther the ball will go, so even the short game is fun and interesting. With some fancy fingerwork, you can even shoot fade/draw shots or even give yourself a little boost by mashing the left button during the swing. If moving a joystick up and down over and overagain seems like your kind of game, you'll love this game.

That's not to say it doesn't come with problems. One problem is that backspin shots are too simple to execute (they toggle on automatically). Backspin shots will keep the ball from rolling, so you can plop the ball right next to the hole with ease. Speaking of ease, once you get skilled, the game errs on the side of easy as you can blast 300-yard Happy Gilmore drives in a straight line almost 90-95% of the time. On the hardest settings, yes, the possiblity of shanking the drive goes up, but matches usually result until someone makes a stupid mistake. But that's how golf is like in real life, so it's no surprise.

Putting is a bit more unusual as you must adjust between certain “power levels” with your putter (say, putt 5 ft., 20 ft., 50 ft., etc.) and you must adjust accordingly. At least you don't need to worry about barely nudging the stick for gimme putts. The game draws a yellow path for you to follow (although you must follow through yourself) and typically, you can finish holes in one or two putts. There's a few tricky holes now and then, and the tension of making a game-deciding putt still exists, so it's good fun.

Then there's the list of courses. Unfortunately, this is the game's biggest draw. The game's six courses include Pebble Beach, Pinehurst No. 2, Riviera Country Club, TPC at Sawgrass, Carnoustie, and Turnberry's Alisa Course. If you've never heard of them, the first four are your typical, green American PGA courses, the latter two are plain foggy courses from Scotland. The environments are strikingly accurate, with dips and hills in your usual locations. Yes, the No. 7, Par 3 at Pebble Beach is just as devilish as ever, and being able to play in these real-life locales is quite exhilarating. Unfortunately, with only 72 holes in the game, one can't ask for an extra course or two, especially since the PS2 version had some 10+ courses available for play.

Then there's the “Campaign” mode. You can create your own golfer and deck him out to look like a generic shorts-wearing white guy or even your favorite characters from Caddyshack or Happy Gilmore. There's a ton of tasks that involve doing the basic stuff, such as completing two holes with a birdie or better or chipping in a shot from 30 yards. By completing these tasks, you'll get stat points to increase your golfer's stats in power and accuracy for all the types of clubs (irons, woods, putter). You can even choose your 13 clubs to put in the bag (now you can pick the neglected lob wedge) and customize your equipment, though you'll find yourself using specific gear that'll give you certain stat boosts. Eventually, you'll reach the tournaments in which you'll play regular matches over and over again and rack up trophies and cash. Nothing really spectacular—once you've leveled up your character, you'll see little incentive to play EVERY tournament just to unlock a few generic golf club heads.

The graphics really show the power of the 360. Generally, courses are loaded with detail all the way down to the blades of grass and the shadows off mere limbs of foliage. The view distance is staggering as you can point out green-side sand traps from the tee of a Par 5. Player models are like-life and actual golfers look like their realistic counter-parts, bar some generic voice clips and animations. Their animations are fluid if you exclude some choppy swing animations when you nudge the stick to swing. For custom golfers, you can even choose from a boatload of celebration and disappointment animations, from the usual “fist-pump” to the “point and smile” or the “ride your club like a toy horse.” The only problem comes in lighting, and at times, the golfers and environments look more pasty and artificial than they should. A few framerate hiccups will also appear in inopportune times.

The sound is more noteworthy partly due to the commentary by David Feherty and Gary McCord (old nice guy and petty Scottish stereotype, respectively). McCord steals the show as he will find any opportunity to insult your golfer with comments such as “You could reach the green if you had the power,” and “Yikes, it's in the rough again, no surprise.” Yes, you will love to hate McCord while Feherty lives to confirm the obvious, that your ball's on the green or you got a par, etc. Other sounds include the “whomp” of hitting a solid drive or a “clululunk” of sinking a long putt. The ambience is that of an actual golf course and it's refreshing to listen to. There's not a whole of golfer voice clips, besides the usual “Yeah!” or “That's right.” Most of the music, besides a single Dave Matthews song (Stand Up), is a bunch of soundscape-ish, hip-hop tunes that fill in the menus and nothing more.

Tiger Woods' PGA Tour '06 is your typical golf game, nothing fancy or unexpected. A few more features, ESPECIALLY courses would do this game wonders. If you want a shiny bargain bin golf game to play, then check it out.

Presentation: 7/10 – Golfing with Tiger Woods, which is hardcore in it of itself. Menus are sort of boring.
Gameplay: 8/10 – Simple swing-mechanics that are hampered by low difficulty.
Graphics: 7/10 – Courses flush with detail and golfers' swings are second to watching the Golf Channel, but the lighting is a bogey.
Sound: 8/10 – Ambience is good, McCord is hysterical, menu music are just as easy as the sport is itself.
Replay Value: 7/10 – Needs more courses, but a few features, espeically Live, make it worth revisiting.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 02/01/08, Updated 06/24/08

Game Release: Tiger Woods PGA Tour 06 (US, 11/16/05)