Review: Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10

The lack of rapid change in the world of golf is easily demonstrated by the small number of new pro golfers in this year's Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10. Unlike football, with its ever changing line-ups and dramatic changes of power between teams, Golf appears rather static. The same can be said for Boxing and EA Sports has already made the decision to not to pump out a new Fight Night game every year.

The publisher should take the same route with the Tiger Woods games in future. In terms of gameplay the thwacking of little white balls has been streamlined to the nth degree and there's very little room for improvement - at least if EA Sports' version of golf is the right one.

The only reason I can see to release another Tiger Woods game next year is if there's a radical overhaul of the very basis of the game itself. And I'd argue that is really needed.

Stats or Skill?

The real problem with the Tiger Woods franchise is the fundamental focus on upgrading stats rather than developing skill. Early success is easy to come by - allowing the player to increase their stats. What follows in an exercise in stat grinding as obvious as any MMO RPG. As player stats increase it becomes increasingly difficult to put in a poor round. Drives and approach shots go exactly where you want and putting becomes less and less a lottery.

Your skill with the controller is neither here or there. Ridiculously low scores are possible once the stats have been increased to high levels and it makes a mockery of trying to play against the real world US Open - on of PGA Tour 10's high-profile new features.

The other issue with this stat based approach is that every year with each new title you have to start again. Can you imagine if Madden or FIFA took this approach? Where each year every player on each team had minimal skills and you had to grind away in matches to the point where the on-screen avatars could cope with your control inputs without falling over?

Presentation

All that said, EA Sports knows how to present a pretty sports game. As usual there's the feeling that the graphics could be better - certainly there's a lack of tournament atmosphere even with the crowds - where is the hustle and bustle, all the TV gear etc.? But overral Tiger Woods 10 is really rather pretty.

Some new features seem welcome enough - practice rounds now incorporate the ability to tune clubs, killing two birds with one stone. The commentary is less annoying than last year and the crowds don't quite seem the mindless zombies of the last version.

Elsewhere some changes aren't so successful. The replacement of Tiger Challenges with a chance to replay historic moments means that instead of some clever and interesting developer-created missions instead you're left with some dull recreations of supposed major events. Away from their original context these fail to raise excitement levels.

Time to rethink?

Taken on its own Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 is a pretty good game. The swing mechanics feel very natural - the new putting method works better than any the developer has tried so far, the graphics are attractive and the game is packed with content. If you've not bought a Tiger Woods game for a couple of years this is the one to pick up.

However the continued concentration on stat-grinding rather than creating a game where player skill matters and the lack of real change in the sport really does make me believe that the Tiger Woods franchise needs to take a vacation next year while the whole basis of the franchise is rethought.

Will EA Sports' Peter Moore be brave enough to do this? We hope so.