Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10

Review from AJ - Monday, 24 August 2009 @ 11:01pm

I just realised as I started to write this review, that this is the third year in a row Australian Gamer has reviewed a Tiger Woods game....and the game hasn’t changed all that much in the last 10 years.....

So....umm.... see previous reviews here and here

Right...so now you know what Tiger Woods is about, I can say “this game is the same as the other two” and save me a lot of typing, and you a lot of reading. The only other thing to talk about is how the new Wii Motion Plus controller goes, and given you’re reading a review of Tiger Woods 10 for Wii, that’s probably what you’re interested in anyway.

After having played golf on Wii Sports Resort, I honestly didn’t have high expectations for Tiger Woods 10. Without turning this into a review of Wii Sports Resort, I can safely say that Nintendo really dropped the ball with their version of golf. The basically went CTRL+C, CTRL+V and said, “hey look! Now we have 12 games!!”. It’s crap. Really crap. So crap, that I can’t believe that they bothered adding more courses without fixing the control scheme. Given the controller comes with Wii Sports Resort for free, it is logical that the games should attempt to give you the best first impression of the controller. Had I not been sent Tiger Woods 10 for free, I quite possibly would never have played another Wii Motion Plus game. So that’s a big FAIL for Nintendo there.

It looks like he might find the sand, Jim

Of course, we now know that I DID get sent Tiger Woods 10, and I love it. Aside from the shitty graphics and the fact that it is exactly the same game as every other Tiger Woods, the controller makes it feel like real golf....well...kind of.

First off, I need to have a whinge. I have a 5 month old son. So gaming time is scarce these days and golf isn’t the quickest game around. I’d started and quit about 5 rounds over a week or two because there didn’t appear to be a SAVE button at the end of each hole. Normally you’d expect to see a score card, a continue button and a menu of some sort. Nope. Pressing every button didn’t seem to do anything either. The manual didn’t tell me how to save either. So I just assumed in Tournament mode that you couldn’t save in the middle of a round, perhaps to stop cheating....?? It was only by accident that in the middle of playing a hole I pushed pause and found the save option! What the?? Why is the save option only available in the middle of playing a hole, and not at the end of a hole? Why, if I want to quit, do I need to check the score card, sit around and wait for the next hole to load, just so I can push quit? Is it REALLY that hard to have the menu accessible from the scorecard?? I wouldn’t have thought so.

Second complaint: As you know, in golf, not all players are on the course at once. In a tournament someone is last to hit off. In the case of a lot of tournaments (especially if you’re heading into the day in front), you’ll hit off last. So, by the time you hit the 3rd hole, a lot of players are already in the club house. Got that much? Good. Now, Tiger Woods 10 has this nifty little feature which looks up your weather channel and gives you “real life” weather conditions for the course you’re playing. This equals awesome in my book.

Looks good in a small jpg, not so nice at 42"

Here’s where it gets messy. I was leading a Tournament at Cog Hill or somewhere heading in to day 2. It’s a beautiful day, not a breath of wind, no clouds....a great day for golf. Of course, this meant that scores had really dropped, meaning my overnight lead had vanished. No problem, I can catch up no problem.

“WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH”

Uh oh, there’s the baby. Pause, Save and Quit.

6 days later in the real world and it’s time to resume the tournament. In the game, however, it is the same date, same time and I’m on the same hole. Except mysteriously, whilst in the midst of playing a hole Hurricane Katrina has come in off the coast and suddenly the difficulty level has been thrown up to 11. Anyone still on the course, myself included, now struggles to find anything better than a bogey. Putting becomes nearly impossible on the water logged greens, and driving into gale force winds means I just about put my shoulder out trying to drive the fairway. Now, this is both very cool, and very shitty at the same time. It’s amazing that the game can deliver such realistic conditions, but really really shitty that someone didn’t consider changing weather patterns mid-round. Sure weather changes in the course of a day, but not THAT much. Of course, the upside is if you don’t like the weather, just push save and come back tomorrow....

Rain, Rain, Go Away...and..actually, just stay away

Ok, so now I’m done whinging, here is the good news. Tiger Woods 10 for the Wii (yes the Wii specifically) is hands down the best golf game I’ve played. Yes it is tiring, but for golf fans nothing simulates the real thing like this game. I’m not entirely sure, but I’m confident that Tiger Woods 10 has fixed my hook. I actually can’t wait to get out on the course and find out. When I started playing TW10 I had the exact problem in the game that I have in real life; that is a tendency to roll my hands through the shot and thus hooking the ball. I know I have this problem, but I don’t play enough golf (the real thing) to correct the problem. But here I am in my lounge room, head down, focused on the ball (yes I put a real ball on the floor), knees bent, elbows straight, slow backswing, head still, well timed downswing and smooth follow through without rolling the wrist and without lifting my head. After a few rounds I’ve found my hook is gone. When the weather improves in Melbourne I fully intend on finding out if my improved technique will translate to the real deal.

The putting I found to be a little less realistic, mostly because the Wii remote has no weight, and putting is all about feeling the weight. It means putting is a little more error prone than you would like in a golf game, but amusingly is probably far closer to my real skill level. As with previous Tiger Woods games, a shot preview is available to tell you if you’ve lined up the shot correctly, of course you still need to execute the plan correctly!

Playing as Tiger is, fortunately, optional.

If you’re not into the realistic swing you can put the game into a dummy’s mode which featured in the “All-play” version of the game last year. This means you basically choose how you want the ball to go and then just match the power of the shot. It’s great for beginners, but really takes the fun out of it (assuming you find golf fun to start with).

I could waffle on about the game modes, online tournaments, challenges and “party games”, but I won’t bore you. If you’re not interested in the game already, telling you about the extras is hardly going to entice you any further. Suffice to say that there is more content then you could possibly get through before they come out with Tiger Woods 11.

You CAN play this game without the Wii Motion Plus, but to be honest, I didn’t try it. I’m not entirely sure it’d be worth it. Without the fine control of the Wii Motion Plus, you may as well be using a thumbstick and get better graphics on the PS3 or 360 instead. But then without the Wii Motion Plus you may as well keep playing any one of the previous 11 Tiger Woods games you may already own!

Pros

Wii Motion Plus makes this THE best golfing game there is.
Real weather system is pretty neat
Absurd amount of content

Cons

Wii graphics
Stupid menus
Weather system changes mid round if you save and come back later
Once you're tired of swinging, there are no alternatives.