Nothing is certain but death, taxes, and the release of a Tiger Woods game each year. I really wish I had news of great new additions to the series but other than a couple of minor changes this is pretty much identical to Tiger Woods 09.

There aren’t any noticeable differences in graphics and sound since the last time we saw Mr. Woods on the PS3. This isn’t a bad thing in itself as the previous title was pretty decent on both accounts but those boundaries really should have been pushed. This is especially true of the graphics which are starting to look dated with titles such as Fight Night Round 4 pushing the envelope on what the system is capable of. The audio is once again decent with nice crowd chanting but as with the graphics more of an effort should have been made. The commentators are annoying and I much preferred Sam Torrance whom I imagined talking to us through his impressive moustache. I actually found that I played much better with the volume turned down and that sums up the negative effect those commentators have on me.

Real-time weather conditions powered by the Weather Channel is an interesting addition to the series as when used it will alter the weather on each course according to what’s happening there in the real world. When you strip away the mildly impressive integrated aspect of this feature it quickly becomes utterly pointless as it really doesn’t matter if the weather effects are random or accurate to real-life. This type of feature also requires an element of faith as the only way to determine if this is 100% accurate is to live near a particular course and look outside your window while playing the game.

The new precision putting system is quite tricky to get the hang of and for a while it had me really frustrated. Gone are the multiple putter choices and in comes a more realistic one putter system. The putting bar has a marker on it which indicates the amount of power you need in order for your ball to reach the hole. The frustration came when I realised it was lying to me as hitting the marker is only helpful if you’re playing on a perfectly flat green and are hitting the ball in a perfectly straight line and this is never the case. You must add or detract some power depending on which uneven path your ball must take while taking into account the weather conditions. The problem I have with the marker, which is unrealistic in the first place, is that it’s intended to work as a caddy yet this “caddy” can’t provide you with a marker which takes into account the lay of the green and weather conditions. I can only imagine what would happen if Tiger Woods’ knowledgeable caddy hands him a club and when asked for some help on a particularly frustrating hole he responds with “you’re on your own”.

The core of the Tiger Woods series is still enjoyable and it finds itself in the comfortable position of only requiring a few minor tweaks each year and it’ll still be enough to satisfy the fans. I want to be able to sit down with a Tiger Woods game and see that things have moved on from the previous year. In some cases it’s enough to give fans more of the same and I’m not asking for “Golf in space”, although that would probably be fun, but I don’t think a golf-course editor which allows us to share our creations with others is asking too much.

8/10

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