This game makes me love my Wii again. Wii motion controls at their best!
I am not an avid golfer in real life or video games. I can't really compare this game to previous incarnations on the Wii or elsewhere. But what I can say is the Gamespot review is 100% spot on, and I am now addicted to this game. At first it is pretty hard to get your swing perfected to avoid accidental draw and fade shots, and I felt it had a harder learning curve to use the precision putting, but the motion gameplay just kept me dedicated to getting it right. Now I'm finally playing very well and am slowly upgrading my character, and I'm playing 2 to 3 rounds a night every single day. The motion controls just feel so right, you feel like you are completely in control and immersed in the game. Played in front of a large TV, it feels like the greatest in-home golf simulator of all time.
There are flaws, but they are minor. The graphics are very disappointing. And I'm not saying that compared to a PC or other console, I mean compared to previous Wii games. The Wii is capable of far more vibrant graphics than this game lets on. But it's all about gameplay, so that's not a big deal to me. The other obnoxious issue is the commentary. Sometimes it is helpful, like the overview of a hole at the beginning, and the comments on whether a green breaks right or left. Sometimes it is accurate and rewarding, when they acknowledge an amazing shot. But what you will really take note of is when it's just flat out absurd. They might heavily criticize a so-so shot as being terrible, and yet turn around and say you had a good approach. Or the reverse, talk about how amazing your shot was, then turn around and start saying it's awful. Similarly you could make the same putt on multiple holes (say a 46 foot putt that stops 1 foot from the hole) and either get a nice compliment or a savage insult. The problem is simply that the commentary is so varied and generally accurate, that the occasional cases that are flat out wrong really stick out and affect the immersion level. Otherwise repetition isn't a problem, with the sole exception of the extreme overuse of "What a rare gem this is!"
Perhaps that's acceptable though, simply because Tiger Woods 10 really is a rare gem itself, and has now become my most played Wii game I've ever owned since Wii Sports.