OK, so we might as well just say it. TW10 is one of the best sports games ever. EA got it spot on. The swing mechanics are superb, thank you Wii MotionPlus (WMP), and there is so much content you’ll OD on golf before you get through it all.

The Mechanics

We felt a bit let down by EA’s use of the WMP in Grand Slam Tennis, but TW10 is brought to life by the near 1:1 movements the little add-on allows for. When playing you physically stand as if you were addressing a golf ball. As you begin your backswing your movements are translated accurately on-screen. The satisfaction that this alone brings is staggering. When you discover that the speed of your swing and the angle of your club face translate as well, you’ll feel like doing a Tiger air punch.

The other major improvement to the game’s controls involves the putting. The new Precision Putting mechanic really captures the art of putting. You need to consider the ball’s distance from the hole and the lie of the green, and then putt as you would on a real green. You can, however, revert back to the previous putting system if Precision Putting isn’t your cup of tea.

Content

While the WMP is a revelation, it isn’t solely responsible for our double thumbs up review. TW10 is bursting at the seams with content and features. When you first load the game up a \\\'What’s new\\\' presentation appears. While such a feature has the potential to be patronising, it isn’t. Truth be told, once you realise just how much is new you’ll be grateful for it.

To begin with Hank Haney, Tiger’s coach, covers all the new swing mechanics and controls through a number of tutorials. These lessons really help you get a hang of the controls and aspects like drawing and fading the ball.

TW10 offers 27 courses that look fantastic. The addition of real-time weather effects (online) and crowds bring a little more authenticity to the game. The game’s career mode is more impressive than before with a souped-up player creator and the addition of the US Open to the available tournaments.

Best of the Rest

If you’re not interested customising a player or building a career there is always Play Now, Golf Party and Disk Golf. Play Now allows you to play a round of golf without having to customise a player or worry about tournament standings. Golf Party offers up 10 mini-games including golf cart races and accuracy competitions. Lastly Disk Golf, exclusive to the Wii, replaces balls with frisbees and holes with baskets. The objective is the same, but you can play Disk Golf on all available courses which is pretty impressive.

TW10 also features an enhanced online mode. You can play solo matches to rank on online leaderboards, play along with the PGA Tournament in Live Tournaments or play basic four-balls.

TW10 is the ultimate golf simulation game. We found little fault with the game, our only real criticism being the fact that the look of the game could have been more noticeably improved upon compared to last years instalment. But that’s just it; TW10 is the game TW09 should have been. It has many of the same features, but those features have been better put together thanks to the WMP adding the simulation component.