With the Open Championship coming to a close just yesterday what better time to review perhaps the king of golfing games, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10.

Right from the get go you know this is going to be special when a welcome screen appears on loading up the disc, telling you that the weather in the game matches that of the real courses around the globe at that time. You can’t help but wonder why EA went to all this effort for a seemingly random weather feature but you know what, who cares! It’s just one of the many things that make this the most accomplished golfing title yet.

With the MotionPlus it became clear that if any genre were to benefit most from the added accuracy of the little add on, it would be the sporting genre. So it came as no surprise that the first onslaught of titles using this technology would all include sports of some sort. Grand Slam Tennis, Virtua Tennis, Wii Sports Resort and Tiger Woods are those offering an improved experience and having gotten a taste for MotionPlus with the impressive Grand SlamTennis, I decided to try my luck with a much more familiar franchise, Tiger Woods PGA Tour Golf.

It really must have been a no brainer for EA to decide to include MotionPlus capabilities in their latest title as we’ve seen countless golf games on the Wii before that work reasonably well with the remote alone. While without it the game is still okay it feels a little jerky and you really do need it to fully appreciate just how accurate Tiger can be.

Like any game that uses new hardware, chances are you’re going to be most interested in how well it uses it and if the controls are any good. In short yes. They are perfect. Swinging feels fluid and natural and putting (one thing that was complained about in previous Wii efforts) is now a fun and rewarding way to end a hole. Just hold the remote in both hands and swing as you would a club. The amount of backswing and power will determine the distance of the shot and how you twist it during the swing will verify if the ball fades or draws. Putting can be done in two ways. The old way and the Precision way that uses only one club and simply relies on how hard you hit the ball. A preview shows the line to make things easier but this can only be used once per shot and not when using the Advance control scheme. There are three control schemes that should account for all types of players so anyone should get the hang of the game and find one that suits them best. As I said it feels totally natural and you won’t ever want to go back to a joypad ever again.

There is so much to be done in Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 and I can safely say it’s perhaps one of the bulkiest sports titles I’ve ever played. What’s more impressive, is that the added modes are almost, if not as good as the main golfing itself. While you can play any of the twenty seven courses with up to four people and tackle the main career mode (more on that later) there are some features you may not have expected to see. While playing courses regularly is fun, it’s also nice to try some of the unusual takes on golf. Shooting through rings, hitting targets, playing H-O-R-S-E are just some of the other options available to try alone or with friends. Next up is the party mode. This is your mini game style mode where you and up to four people play games, use power ups and try to gain the most points. You’ll juggle golf balls on clubs, drive around buggies and even hit a few holes while playing under different rules. It’s great fun and is entertaining for those who don’t want to go through the front and back nines.

I’ve given this next feature its own paragraph, because it is that special. EA could have sold this as a standalone game and it would still be worth it. I’m talking about Disk Golf. Using a Frisbee instead of a club and ball you use the Wii Remote to flick and throw a Frisbee over any of the twenty seven courses. Same rules apply and with the MotionPlus this is unbelievably accurate to the real thing. If when using a real Frisbee you curve it to the left, you will likely do the exact same thing here. While a lot of time went into my career and party mode with my friends, this has also seen just as many plays too.

Bottom line is that no single mode feels like a throwaway that was added in to simply just make mode number higher. Each feel fun and offer the most varied golfing experience on any system to date.

As for the career, this too is very large in content. First off you create a golfer to look how you like, give them stats and buy them clothes and gear with your limited supply of starting cash. From then on it’s up to you where you start. You can tackles the challenges which mimic real life events that have taken place in order to unlock more goodies and improve your skills or start off making your way through the ranks of the PGA Tour. The amount of tournaments is vast and with nearly thirty courses, you aren’t likely to grow bored any time soon. It would have been nice to see some training missions or wacky games (a la Virtua Tennis) but what’s included is definitely more than enough. Then there is a great online feature where you can play against randoms and friends in a simultaneous fashion or participate in daily and weekly tournaments for leaderboard places and also to see how you rank on the courses against the professionals in real life.

It’s hard to make a realistic golf title look amazing. All you have around you are trees, greens and the odd sand traps, so I’ll give EA the benefit of the doubt here as the courses themselves look okay. There are rough spots especially when you are close up to the trees or the longer grass areas, however I definitely prefer this to a cartoony look used in Grand Slam. The golfers themselves look good and animate well too. The music in the game is well suited to the feel of golf, soothing and calming and I’m glad EA decided against licensed soundtracks and went for an original option instead. The announcers aren’t too good though and often repeat the same phrases time and time again.

EA are slowly taking over my Nintendo Wii offering great titles like this that use the MotionPlus so well and more importantly make the experience overall more fun. While Microsoft and Sony’s versions may have the looks, this definitely has the feel of golf and really that’s what’s important. One of the best sports titles this year.