Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 Review

Written by: Steve Martin Posted: 14th July 2009

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Steve takes on Tiger!

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 Details:

	Sports
	PC/PlayStation 3/Xbox 360/Nintendo Wii/PSP/Nintendo DS
	EA Sports
	EA Sports

Out Now

1-4

The box art for the new Tiger Woods game depicts Tiger with his fists clenched and his face twisted with a pained expression of passion and joy, possibly at sinking an eagle putt from 20 metres. On the other hand it could be interpreted as a sign of frustration whilst playing this updated iteration of his golf game franchise.

As expected this is a slightly bigger and slightly better version of Tiger Woods 09, and as such the game is fundamentally unchanged. The major upgrades this year are actually all very welcome and although they don’t make a huge difference are nice additions nonetheless. The most important is the new precision putting, where you only have one putter and the force of your swing dictates the speed and distance of your putt. This new system has been implemented very well and is easy to understand and execute, whilst been a vast improvement over the old mechanism. There is also now the option to play with real life weather conditions, the game hooks up to the internet to find out the weather conditions of the course you are playing on and then mimics them whilst you play. This means whenever you play the Turnberry course in Scotland it will always be raining!

This year’s edition also gives you a chance to play in the US Open for the first time, which is nice. I especially like the new approach to building the stats of your created player in career mode. You start with a few easy challenges to set your base stats and then as you complete each round, your stats increase depending on how well you did in that area. For example, if you consistently hit your tee shot long and straight, and your putting was sublime then your power attribute would be increased by a point as would your putting skill. This means that you actually get better at the skills you use, rather than just earning experience points to distribute as you wish, you actually have to use your short game to improve it. Money earned from events can be used to buy gear that can also boost your stats. The tournament challenge mode takes you back to remarkable scenes from previous championships on all of the courses in the game.

There are several challenges to undertake which are nicely varied involving things such as closest to pin contests, longest drives as well as the usual stroke and match play modes. Some of the challenges are quite tough and will require your created character to be of a high standard to complete them.

To be fair, one thing that EA prides its self on is the amount of modes, locations and players they cram into their games and this is no exception. There are loads of courses with hundreds of holes to play, a multitude of famous players to choose from and so many modes of play that you could get lost amongst all the menus and options. The opportunity to customise your character in the huge career mode is top notch, allowing you to change every minute detail.

My major gripe is that I am reviewing the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions after playing the sublime Wii game of the same name, and in comparison I found them to be much more frustrating. Mainly due to having to use the analogue stick, which I found to be inconsistent and difficult to judge! I’ll try my best not to benchmark this against the Wii version as the control system and the feel of the game is completely different on the other consoles. The Xbox 360 analogue controls were better, in my opinion, than the PS3 ones which didn’t give enough resistance on the backswing or the forward motion afterwards. The controls are still useable but require a lot of practice to get right, or you have to be playing as a character with some decent stats. Another note about the controls is how difficult it is to add power to your shot, as you have to tap a button as you do your backswing which I found quite awkward. My other concern is that the career mode starts off difficult and gets easier. This is due to the fact that you are slung in at the deep end, taking on the pros right away, but with your pathetic stats at the beginning of the game you will find yourself over par by the end of the round, unless you’ve played before. This makes it extremely annoying for newcomers to the series, and could put them off the game completely. Of course if you stick with it, your wannabe will eventually come good and be up there with the best of them. I can’t see why EA didn’t include an amateur season mode (like in the Wii version, sorry) to begin with to help ease you into the action, rather than making you play against the likes of Woods, Poulter and Singh in the very first tournament!

The courses look astounding and the level of detail is excellent. The player animations are also top notch, and the television style presentation helps to make you feel like you’re actually watching it on the television. The inclusion of several videos from Tiger and Coach Hank also make it feel very professional.

The commentary is of a good standard if a little dull and lifeless, but it is golf after all! All the sounds are present and correct from the gratifying “tink” of a well struck shot to the “chrunk” of a miss hit!

Overall this is another highly impressive gaming package from the seasoned professionals in the golf game trade, which is enjoyable if you’re not put off by the tough learning curve to begin with. There’s plenty to do and it will keep you busy, with the huge career mode to complete and the tournament challenge mode, along with all the unlockable gear in the pro shop. The awkward controls are bearable and get easier after a while however I’m not sure whether there is enough new stuff on offer to tempt people who own Tiger 09 to buy this too.