IGN
Review
of Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10
You'd have to assume that this will be the last Tiger Woods game to appear on PS2. If that's true, get ready to be disappointed with the series' swan song. It's not a bad game of golf, but it definitely leaves a lot to be desired for Tiger fans. It's light on features, light on gameplay additions and very light on anything that will turn your head if you've seen any other version of Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 (PSP included).
When you sit down to play on the PSP you at least get a plethora of new and inventive mini-games, a cool confidence mechanic, and online play. None of that is included on the PS2. Instead what you get is a broken experience point system and identical control mechanics to what we saw from last year's game.
Experience points are nothing new to Tiger Woods. Granted in recent years the 360 and PS3 versions have gone to more organic styles of progression, but the PS2 is still stuck in the Stone Age. That would be fine if the XP system made a lick of sense. For whatever reason, you'll get a sizable experience boost if you nail a long triple-bogey putt. Just about the same amount of XP as if you nailed the same putt for an eagle. Why? I have no idea. From there you assign points to the usual attributes to level up your golfer's overall rating. It's fine in theory, but earning experience doesn't feel right at all.
There's a clean streak mechanic that feeds into the same busted XP system, but at least that makes a bit more sense. The longer you keep the ball in play and sink putts on par with what's expected, you'll get an XP bump. It's not quite as cool as the confidence feature that's in PSP, but it works better than the usual experience point rewards.
You'll find the exact same modes that you saw from last year's Tiger Woods. There's the EA Sports Cup – a bracket-style tournament – there's Play Now, and there's the PGA Tour Season. Virtually nothing has changed, so if you enjoyed what you played from Tiger Woods 09, there's really no reason to invest in Tiger Woods 10. Why they didn't add the cool Tournament Challenge mode is beyond me.
On the course you'll find an all-too-familiar interface, probably because it's ripped straight out of last year's game. There's still the crappy swingometer and the less prominent power-up meter that sits directly over the ball. Basically the only difference is a slightly skinnier font that indicates if you're on the fifth or third shot for a given hole. The swingometer is troublesome because it fills up entirely too fast to make finite power adjustments. I'm not sure whether it's the swing animation that plays out too quickly or the meter itself that fills too fast, but anything other than a swing at 100% power is very tough to pull off with any kind of accuracy. Luckily there's still 2- and 3-click swinging available; an option that everyone should utilize.
The look of Tiger Woods hasn't gotten any better with age, either. It's the same grainy, shimmering golf courses and players that we saw from the 2009 edition with no real refinements. It doesn't look terrible for a PS2 game, but I would have appreciated – at the very least – some presentational changes from year to year.
I suppose the inclusion of Scott Van Pelt is something. He and Kelly Tilghman do an admirable job of keeping abreast with the action, though they're still a little slower than what's seen on PS3 and 360. They also seem to have a truncated list of expressions and anecdotes.
©2009-06-19, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved
