Cert: 3+
Platform: Xbox360, PS3, Wii
Genre: Sport Sim
Tiger Woods used to be a reliable man. If there was one thing we could take as a cast-iron certainty, no pun intended, it was that the stone-like façade and exterior that has graced every television screen and the deliberate, monotone voice that's talked into every microphone would always be the symbol of a sport's star, a legend, we were never meant to know. And then, as unexpected as a twenty-eight handicapper's birdie, his wife goes and attacks his car in the middle of the night, thus shattering the infallible statue the world has associated with the world's greatest ever golfer for the last thirteen years. Subsequent allegations were made, and later, confessions released. It's been a rough year for the world's most famous sportsman. But one reliable from Camp Woods that remains is the yearly game from EA Sports, and thus Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2011 steps up to the first tee, refreshingly ignorant to the trials, tribulations and accusations its host has had to endure since the last release.
Tour veterans will initially find everything par for the course. All the regular game modes are here, the usual array of players waiting for selection (including the young Irish starlet adorning the game's cover, Rory McIlroy), and also the added mode that should excite any golf connoisseur, The Ryder Cup – available both in single and multiplayer modes.
The greatest improvements, however, thankfully are found on the course, two in particular. The first is True Aim, a feature that eliminates the option of flying hundreds of yards up the fairway so you can perfectly pinpoint the area you want your ball to land pre-shot; instead the player simply gets a view over the players shoulder, seeing the fairway or green as you would had you really been standing on the first tee. It's a simple yet effective tweak that refreshes the game-play experience while at the same time adding a level of difficulty most veterans will welcome. The other new feature is the focus option: a facility that limits the amount of spin and power you can add to shots, meaning more wayward shots are punished should you have used the power-boost or spin control that bit too much early on in the round. Both are welcome additions to a game whose difficulty, or lack thereof, has always its great detractor.
TW 2011 is much like any other Tiger game gone by, only slightly better. Graphical upgrades, game-play tweaks and the chance to don that shirt for Europe mean this is definitely one Tiger you can bank on.
Buy or Rent: Buy
Graphics: 4/5
Gamplay: 5/5
Replay Value: 4/5
Overall: 4/5
Reviewed By: Simon Rubbathan