Tiger Woods

I can remember the first time I played Tiger Woods on a console. I got the xbox demo of the game and my friend Mark was over and we tried it and it was awesome so we drove to the Malvern Walmart and picked up a copy and had a blast. That was about 6 years ago and the last good memory I have of a Tiger Woods game, once Links 2004 came out Tiger was put on a shelf and forgotten.

The swing in Links was momentum based and you really felt like every shot mattered you just couldn't swing carelessly or you would land in the rough. In Tiger I felt I was just pushing the analog stick till I got to the green then some strategy was used but not much(variable length putters????). Links just felt right from the swing, the career, the way it presented your course stats, to showing highlights of your round it was a complete package. That was when Microsoft Sports Network was around but a year later that was put to rest and no Links 2005.

Every year I would try the new Tiger only to be disappointed again. My biggest gripes were:

You couldn't turn off the player animations so you would have to press the A button 3 times before and after every swing to get to the next swing.

Unrealistic scores and start times during Tour Events.

Variable Length Putters. I get to set the maximum distance my putter will be allowed to hit so when I need to tap in a 1 inch put I pull the putter all the way back, what were they thinking.

So when I heard about Tiger 10 I got excited as my gripes above were to be relieved. And they were sort of. Now you can turn off the animations so the games pace is quicker. Precession putting where how far and hard you swing matters, and better presentation.

I bought the Wii version for the Motion-Plus and it works as it should. It does have the best swing mechanic of any golf game and putting feels right ...... BUT

There are no course stats in the game. What is my longest drive on this hole, what is my average stroke count for this hole, closest to the pin? None of these are captured as you only get overall stats. I know that it's a small gripe but how do they leave out stats when they should be easy to use and calculate. They are in the PSP version but not on the Wii or 360/PS3. The Wii version also suffers from incorrect tee times in your career and rubberband AI which doesn't exist in the 360/PS3 versions, can't they be consistant?

I don't know what EA's problem is since they have bought out the rights of just about every sports game their quality has gone downhill and it's bad for gamers.

Tiger Woods is much better than it has been in the past and I would recommend the Wii version because of how good the motion controls are but they are not using the millions of dollars we are spending to improve their sports games year after year.