Tiger Woods PGA Tour 06 Hands-On

Tiger Woods may have fallen a bit short in his quest for an 11th major at the recent PGA Championships, but his overall performance in the past year proves he still has what it takes to dominate the competition. Similarly, the development team behind the Tiger Woods golf game franchise has not rested on its laurels. Instead it seeks to improve an already solid golf game on the PSP. A host of additions and improvements have been made to Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2006. We had a chance to see a preview build of the game for ourselves at a recent press event.

The most obvious change in this edition of Tiger Woods involves the loading times, which were downright glacial in the last PSP version of the game. Everything from booting into the game to the menu speeds to the load time in between holes has been optimized. So this time around, you shouldn't be spending most of your time waiting. Counting in our heads, it seemed to take only around five to 10 seconds to load up the next hole within a round of golf. Despite the improved load times, the game will also offer some graphical improvements, such as higher-texture resolutions for the courses and character models.

One major new addition to the game is rivals mode. In this mode, you'll create your own character and start off on a ladder ranked at number 15. It's up to you to challenge the 14 real-life PGA Tour pros and legends above you on the ladder to make your way to number one, which will involve toppling Tiger Woods. Three new pros have been added to this edition: Chris DeMarco, Mike Weir, and Colin Montgomerie. They'll appear on the rivals ladder with the other pros and the three legends: Jack Nicklaus, Ben Hogan, and Arnold Palmer. Making your way up the ladder will require you to take on each pro in a series of six challenges. These include standard tournament play, match play, and minigames. As you make your way up the ladder, you'll gain sponsorships and earn money that can be used to unlock clothing, clubs, new courses, and more.

Speaking of minigames, there's one new, exclusive minigame that will be included in Tiger Woods 2006 for the PSP. Called putting frenzy, you'll have a set amount of time to sink as many putts as you can for points. The putts become progressively harder and are set on more-and-more-difficult-to-read greens, so you'll need to interpret everything as quickly as possible before acting.

Aside from the inclusion of a new putting minigame, the developer has finally included analog putting control in Tiger Woods 2006 for the PSP, showing the game's focus on the most important club of all. With the new analog putting feature, you'll be able to see the how the greens slope via a standard grid system. Depending on where you lie, you'll need to carefully control the power on your putter with the analog stick, but a power meter on the left-hand side of the screen should be helpful in showing you how much oomph you're putting into your swing.

A total of 12 courses will be included in the game, such as Pebble Beach, TPC Sawgrass, Torrey Pines, and St. Andrews. Only nine are real-life golf courses, though. The other three are fantasy courses based on Antarctic, tropical, and Scottish settings. Ad hoc (local) network play for two players will also be included in Tiger Woods, which is currently slated to ship in September for the Sony PSP.