Game Review: Tiger Woods 11 for Xbox 360

I'm not sure how many of my readers are avid video gamers, but if you are, I'm going to assume that you've probably played at least one or two iterations of the Tiger Woods franchise for either Xbox or Playstation, and am not going to waste my time going into the details on how the game is played. For the past 10 years it's been pretty much the ONLY golf video game to have (at least for Xbox) and to be honest, I've not seen a whole lot of revolution in the game in that time. My all time favorite version of the series is still the 2004 edition. Don't ask me why. I just think it had the perfect mix of controls and personality.

Since then, like any other franchise, the Tiger Woods series has been bogged down with the need to add new (useless) features, tweak swing mechanics, etc, in an effort to get previous owners to buy next year's version. While I don't blame EA for this (they are running a business after all), it can't help but give me a little frustration every year when I plop down my $60 for the next evolution in video game golf, only to find it's not really that much different, or if it is, I don't like it as well as the previous versions.

A few years back I decided to start buying every other version of the franchise, and to be honest, I might not have even bought this year's had it not been for the inclusion of the Ryder Cup mode (finally!). This is something I had been looking forward to for years, and was really excited to finally see it had been included in the game.

In short, it's kind of a disappointment. I mean, it's fun and all. But there's really not a lot to it. There's no challenge. You don't have to "earn" your way onto the team. You can start up a Ryder Cup match right out of the box if you want. Something about that just doesn't seem right. There should be some kind of process for making you earn your place on the team, just like in the real world. Now, that said, if you do start up a match with a created golfer right away, you'll probably get your butt handed to you because you haven't yet taken the time to build up your stats. But still, if I want to go into the Ryder Cup immediately and play as Tiger, I can do that. While that's fun on some level, it takes away some of the enjoyment for me personally.

Don't get me wrong. Tiger Woods 11 is a solid game. And worthy of a purchase, especially if you don't have any other versions of the franchise, or perhaps if you haven't bought one in the past couple of years. But if you have the '09 or 2010 versions... I'd save my money. It's not worth it for the Ryder Cup alone.

* if anyone wants to add me to play online, my Xbox gamertag is zilegati