Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 (Wii)

This is the movement-based golfing game you've been waiting for.
6/16/2009 1:01 PM | 0 Comments | Page 2 of 3

While the new controller makes the single-player game more realistic than it had been, it's the game's new online features that will put a smile on golf fans. The "Play the Pros" online mode is just flat-out fun: During the season, you can be a part of a virtual PGA Tour event by playing four rounds on the same course that the pros are playing that week to see where you'd end up on the leaderboard. Adding to the realism is the game's new "dynamic weather" feature. If -- for example -- it's raining for the first round of the U.S. Open, you'll be playing alongside Tiger, Vijay and the rest in a downpour. You won't actually get wet, of course. On the other hand, you also won't get 1.3 million-or-so bucks if you win.

The features have their limits, though. Due to the fact that not every tournament course is included in the game, some weeks you'll be playing on substitute courses in Play the Pros. I'm also very curious to see how the dynamic weather feature handles things a few months from now. I'm looking forward to playing a round or two at Bethpage Black in February just to see what it's like to play 18 holes in three feet of snow.

When you're tired of serious golf, the game offers an assortment of mini-games from Tiger 09. It also includes a version of Disc Golf. Here, instead of using clubs and a ball, you throw Frisbee-like discs around the course to try to get from the tee to the hole. I'd read a lot about this feature, but ended up growing tired of it. More than anything else, it seemed like it was just there to show off the physics of MotionPlus-assisted gaming.

While there are a lot of developments to be impressed with in Tiger 10, the graphics aren't one of them. The courses are detailed and pretty, but character models are weak even by Wii standards. Most of the touring pros would be unrecognizable even to their family members, and Tiger himself looks a lot of the time like a guy with a banana lodged sideways in his mouth.