Tiger Woods PGA Tour 06

...or kitten shrub, as it turns out...

Tiger Woods PGA tour 06 on Xbox 360 is the newest rendition of the record-selling, universally renowned golf franchise. Due to the slight improvements made every year, along with a lack of competition from other developers, EA's Tiger Woods series has always been at the top of its game. With an early release of Tiger Woods PGA tour on PS2 and Xbox it should be exciting to experience the next-gen upgrade.

It's not surprising that the biggest improvement over the current-gen games is in the graphics department. Visually, it's far superior to the Xbox and PS2 versions, and compares quite nicely to other 360 titles on the shelves. The complex shadows and lighting effects along with the much more lifelike spectators really help to give a deeper sense of depth and realism to the stages. For instance, a wayward shot into the crowd now has the potential to knock down the unfortunate polygons in the way. Perhaps a future mini-game beckons? Sadly, some of the playable characters don't look quite so impressive, but the frame rate remains stable and the green, leafy environments really are a wonder to observe.

Unfortunately the same dedication hasn't been taken with the rest of the game, with the biggest criticism being the lack of content. Although the game plays almost identically to the current-gen versions, there are only 6 golf courses included in the game. A number that seems pathetic when compared to the 14 the current-gen versions boast. The courses included in the 360 version are; Riviera Country Club, Pinehurst No. 2, Sawgrass, Carnoustie, Turnberry Alisa Course, and the ever-present Pebble Beach. Each course is particularly varied and represents its own challenge, but even with this considered 6 courses just isn't nearly enough for the hardcore golf player.

A good feature however, is the Create-A-Player mode at the start of the career mode. There is a great deal of scope in the different features you can change, from things as typical as height, eye colour, hair colour and hair style, to more menial things such as amount of freckles, eye brow height, eye rotation, nostril height and so on. Precautions should be taken to not be too radical with these features, otherwise if you are not careful your player may look like something from Star Trek rather than an actual human being.

The difficulty level in this edition of Tiger has seen a firm upgrade from the current-gen versions. This may be a good thing for seasoned pros, but newcomers to the series will almost certainly find the steep learning curve too much of a challenge to keep them interested throughout its main career mode. Things which contribute to the increase in difficultly are not only the intensity of the career objectives and a re-vamped putting mechanism but also slight changes which have been made to the controls; such as how easily shots can now go wide and into the dreaded rough.

The sound in Tiger 06 is reasonably good, if somewhat uninspiring. However, the crowd is a true strength as they always seem to react appropriately to your performance. A poor shank into the woods and they will mutter with disappointment, whereas a perfect blast in the right direction will be rewarded with a mighty roar of appreciation from the eager onlookers. The commentary from Gary McCord and David Feherty isn't entirely accurate at all times, but can be highly amusing thanks to some rather subjective lines of commentary. Thankfully, unlike many other sports games the commentary doesn't grow old too quickly and you very rarely hear the same comments twice in quick succession.

Tiger Woods 06 for Xbox 360 is unfortunately not the huge leap forward for the series that fans had hoped for. The lack of courses really hurts this title and their usual 'next gen' approach of upgrading the graphics and presentation slightly from the current gen versions and skimping on the content is hard to swallow considering the price tag. Because of the insanely difficult learning curve it's tough to recommend this version to anyone other than Tiger pros who are familiar with the series and long for a fresh challenge. While some credit must go to EA for attempting to build the game from the ground up for the 360, it is frustrating that they only got half way there.

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By Steven Embling