Getting Around the Tiger PC Crashes
The EA support forums say that nVidia should be releasing a new driver set today that will fix the crashing problems many GeForce users are having in Tiger Woods 2006. God I hope so because it’s been unbelievably frustrating. Fortunately, I did stumble on a “fix” of sorts. Someone on the EA forums suggested changing the 3D hardware setting to fixed instead of using the renderer. This kills the gameplay in innumerable ways because the camera is basically fixed in this mode. So I gave up on the solution rather quickly.
When I switched back to the renderer mode, however, I noticed that it turned off a slew of other graphical options. I left them off and have experienced exactly one crash in about 144 holes of play over the weekend. (Yes, I played the hell out of the game this weekend.) So whatever is causing the problem it has to do with one or more of the detail settings. Granted, the game doesn’t look as good without the swaying tree limbs and detailed grass and such but at least I can play it without spontaneous reboots every other hole.
Oh and other note. Pebble Beach is a nighmarish course to play as a hack (I ended up re-creating my golfer and starting from scratch on Friday). You don’t have enough power to even reach many of the fairways and I have a habit of hitting some nasty fades, which has put more balls careening off cliffs into the ocean than I care to count.
I have, however, practiced on every course in the game but the Greek Isles and the Pirate Cove (which the game says would be exceedingly difficult for my impotent golfer) and I really like every one of them. I’ve never been a big fan of Saint Andrews, and Pebble Beach is just not for the timid. But Coghill, Reflection Bay, etc. are just gorgeous. I especially like the course in Illinois, but for the life of me I can’t think of the name. Very picturesque.