N-Philes

REVIEW: Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10

Posted June 30th 2009 by Brandon Schmidt.

Electronic Arts has taken a lot of flak over the years for churning out sequel after sequel every twelve months for their prize sports franchises like Madden, NCAA Football, etc. Each iteration will often introduce a new feature or a new mode along with the requisite roster/stat updates and maybe a new animation or two. I still don't understand how some people toss down 50 or 60 dollars every year for what amounts to basically the same game. Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 on the Wii breaks away from that pattern and delivers one of the finest sporting experiences you can have in the comfort of your living room. Read on to find out why this game is more than just par for the course.

Tiger Woods has so many modes it's hard to choose where to begin, but you will probably spend most of your time playing Career mode. Once you've created a profile, you can work your way through an incredibly detailed create-a-player utility. I have a habit of trying to accurately represent myself in games, and I spent at least an hour trying to get the details right from hair color down to the structure of individual facial parts. In Career mode, you start off as an amateur trying to play your way into the PGA Tour. There are certain criteria you must meet through the course of the season including winning a set number of tournaments, maintaining a certain score average, etc. There's an RPG element to Career mode that has you earning points in various categories such as power and accuracy.  You can redeem these points between tournaments to up your stats. You can accumulate these points faster by upgrading the equipment you use, but equipment costs money, which you must earn by playing and playing well, potentially earning sponsorships. Within Career mode, you can also choose to go straight to the FedEx Cup, which is a points ranking competition they have in the pros. The game features a Quick Play mode should you or a friend want to just jump right in rather than take the time to set up a profile.

There's a Tournament Challenge option within Career mode that puts you in specific scenarios that you must overcome such as recovering from a series of bunker shots or getting subpar on all of the par-5 holes on a course.  Doing so will earn you money and also unlock a variety of players, courses, and items in the game.  I'd almost recommend playing this mode first as you can quickly earn stat points by completing some of the easier objectives. You can also select and tune your clubs and track your stats while in Career mode.

For the first time ever, Tiger Woods features a Disc Golf mode. As an avid disc golfer I was really excited when I heard about this inclusion, and while it's not fantastic, it is a nice alternative to the standard golf game. You and up to three friends can play on any of the golf courses available in the regular game, though many require unlocking through various means. You only have the option of using three discs: a driver, a mid-range, and a putter. Landing on a cart path, sand trap, or water hazard results in a one-stroke penalty which helps balance out the fact that the rest of the gameplay is fairly easy, particularly putting. Control for how you hold and angle the disc is absolutely perfect, but the game can never really capture grip which is such a key element of the real game. Despite that, I would love to see EA develop a full-fledged disc golf game sometime in the near future as this mode showed a lot of promise.

Online mode in Tiger Woods is fairly simple to use. You must create a new account with EA or use an existing account from another game. Doing so unlocks two options: live tournaments or simultaneous play. Live tournaments allow you to compete against the scores of other players in daily or weekly competitions. In a new feature this year, you can also play against the actual scores of PGA pros as they play the courses on the real tour. You can choose either an amateur or professional setting that dictates how much information/meters you are given as you play. In simultaneous play, you can choose to play against friends, play against anyone in ranked and unranked matches, or set up shop in the lobby. The great thing about simultaneous mode is that, like its name suggests, you all play at the same time. This way there's no waiting around for the other people in your group to go. As they play, you can see a trail indicating their most recent shot, as well as the total number of shots they've taken on the hole. While it can be distracting at first, it's a good way to know how your opponent is doing and to gauge their skill in general. Adding friends is simple using EA Online; there are no friend codes involved. You can either type in their account name or add friends via your Wii friends list.

Golf Party is a mini-game mode featuring golf-related challenges for up to four players in local multiplayer. Players are competing to reach a specific goal by obtaining points throughout the various events. After each event, you have an opportunity to randomly earn bonus points or take points away from your opponent by simply playing a game akin to a slot machine. The mini-games are a very diverse group and include golfing, disc golfing, and other assorted challenges. For instance, there are target practice games akin to those found in the original Wii Sports, a closest to the pin competition, a shooting gallery, and many more. Obviously with around a dozen mini-games some will be duds, but there are a few in the bunch that'll have you coming back for repeat plays.

With the inclusion of Wii Motion Plus this year, control is the biggest question everyone has. While I think there will be games that make more creative use of the Wii Motion Plus, Tiger Woods is a showcase for how an already good series can benefit from the new technology. While I'm not a golfer by trade or hobby, taking swings in the game feels really precise. Whether you launch an absolutely perfect bomb off the tee or completely shank your swing, you always feel like the result was dictated by your grip, draw back, and follow through. Wii Motion Plus is a two-edged sword, however, in that because of the preciseness, you do have to pay more attention to every part of your swing. There are multiple control difficulty options available depending on your level of skill should you need additional help. Let's face it, the biggest inclusion in this year's iteration is Wii Motion Plus, and I found it to be beneficial while adding another level of immersion for the genre. Although you can play without the new peripheral, I think it would be a waste.

The video quality in Tiger Woods isn't the greatest. You'll see much prettier games on the other consoles, though that's not really the point of a golf game. Character models animate well enough, though there are the occasional glitches and clipping, particularly when around fences and other low-sitting objects. Only once did I ever have this affect my shot, though that one instance was incredibly frustrating. EA has to do away with the over-the-top celebratory animations. It would be nice to have them as an option, but Tiger Woods is a more traditional-style golf game and the celebrations don't really fit the atmosphere.

The audio in the game is one of the few areas of noticeable fault that I can find. While I love the sound the Wiimote makes when you solidly connect on a drive, the commentary in the game is a huge miss. Scott van Pelt is one of the two commentators for the game, and while I think he's great on SportsCenter, the humor just doesn't translate which is a shame. I also find it annoying that 99% of the time they can correctly guess where my ball is going to land immediately after I make contact with it. All the developers would've had to do was to cue the audio clips once your shot made contact with the ground or whatever surface it was heading towards. The commentators tend to exaggerate too. If you miss one putt badly all of a sudden this is "the worst putting I've ever seen". I must be a glutton for punishment for not turning the volume all the way down on them when I was first getting accustomed to the game.

Final Thoughts:
The Wii version of Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 is packed with great features and great controls. Even the weather conditions in the game are dictated by information derived from live data. As one of the first games to utilize the Wii Motion Plus technology, this game is a showcase for the potential of the new peripheral. The variety of game modes and online play add so much replayability that it'll be interesting to see what EA can come up with next year to improve upon the series. Until Microsoft and Sony debut their flavors of motion control, I can't imagine playing another golf game on any other system. Simply put, the game is fun, even if you're indifferent to the sport of golf.

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