Realism is a very important concept in videogames. While debates rage over the fashion for casual titles and whether fighting games are the new black, realism is always in vogue. It used to be primarily a visual thing, a department in which the Wii is a perennial underachiever. Compared to the saccharin sweet eye candy of the 360 and PS3, Nintendo's console appears to still believe it's 2001 - either that or it's into the ironic kind of retro kitsch that would result if Gok Wan was possessed by the evil spirit of Ian Poulter. Recently, however, realistic feel has become a more literal idea in the industry, thanks to the tidal wave of peripherals that have kept plastic manufacturers afloat through the tough economic times. We've had dance mats, steering wheels, guns and guitars, but the question now is can EA combine a golf game with the Swiss Army knife-like properties of the Wiimote to outdo everything that's gone before?

The golf game in question is, of course, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10, and much of its promise is down to its inclusion of the new Wii MotionPlus device. While it may look like nothing more than a small plastic cube that locks onto the end of your Wiimote, what makes it special is that it contains magic powers. Inside its shell lies a hocus-pocus of sensor-based technology that enables games to recreate the movements you make with the Wiimote on an almost one-to-one basis, avoiding the large amounts of dramatic interpretation they previously had to do with a player's vague, and often desperate, fallings with the device. In short, what this means for Tiger 10 is that if you stand holding the Wiimote as you would the handle of a normal golf club then swing away with an air shot at the invisible ball at your feet and your onscreen golfer will hit his ball in exactly the same way.

Another feature new to Tiger 10 is the Play the Pros online mode. If there's a real-life PGA Tour tournament taking place, Play the Pros allows you to actually take part in it, as the game imports and continually updates all the scores from the competition so that you can see where you would come on the leaderboards and upload your results to the EA Sports website. It seemed like the ideal place for the ultimate test of the Wii MotionPlus, and it just so happened that the tournament available during my review was a little event called The Open Championship being held on the stunning Ailsa course, Turnberry, which sits right on the wild shores of the Firth of Clyde.

After spending not long enough with the robust suite of golfer-creation options, I ended up with an avatar who looked worrying like Jason Gardiner, the camp judge from Dancing on Ice. Once I'd dressed Jason in an appropriately metrosexual combo of black trousers and an aubergine coloured turtleneck, I found myself standing on the first tee, with a biting wind at my back and eighteen of the toughest holes in links golf ahead of me; and the great thing about MotionPlus is that it really does make you feel like you're standing there. It isn't just incomparable to sitting on your sofa and pressing buttons - it's infinitely more involving.

The first thing that hits you is just how responsive the system is. Every time you pull back the Wiimote, a small box appears in the corner of the screen to show the exact angle at which your club head will make contact with the ball. By under- or over-rotating your wrists as you follow through, you can put varying amounts of draw or fade on the ball, although it's also pretty merciless at detecting any flaws in your swing. Even after a couple of successful practice shots it still made the fairway on the relatively benign first hole seem to narrow as I looked at it, and the coffin-like bunkers that loomed ominously down either side grow wider and deeper.

This enhanced awareness of yourself, the course and the elements around you also causes you to think like an actual golfer rather than just swinging away without a second thought. Playing the angles is now more important than ever. On the par four second, I was so keen to set up an approach shot with a trap free line to the pin that I sent my ball too far right and into the rough, but on the seventh, where the natural topography of the course is against you, I managed to cut the corner of the dog-leg, making the green reachable in two and avoiding the need for a tricky landing on the tightening fairway that funnels up to it. Unbridled power is far from the answer to every problem however, with judgement of distances and knowledge of club lengths much more important. Early on in the round my attempt to hit the putting surface at the fifth with my second shot came up short, leaving me needing to execute a difficult sixty percent swing with my nine iron to punch the ball the last few yards. If I'd only been more conservative and laid up then I would have had a much easier full shot with the same club, a lesson that I remembered well on the sixteenth when I realised that I wasn't going to be able to carry the wee burn that winds a path in front of the green.

Missing the ability to make the ball spin on command also necessitates a greater awareness of pin positions and the amount of green you have to work with. The camber on the thirteenth at Turnberry causes any balls landing close to the edge to make their way straight off again while, by contrast, the green at the fourth is like a hammock, with everything that hits it just flopping into its centre. When you do finally get the chance to have a putt, the new precision system is as accurate as it is punishing; while Tom Watson was rolling back the years by rolling in a birdie on twelve, I was seriously misjudging the break and speed of a ten-footer on fifteen to drop yet another shot, something that caused Jason to flash me a scornful look from out of the screen. From nonchalant tap-ins to monster putts that seem to pass through several time zones on their way to the hole, the feel is right, just as it is from tee to green, and this adds a new dimension that brings courses to life like never before.

The first shot on the tenth at Turnberry is a nerve wracking drive over the waters of the Firth, and in Tiger 10 it really feels like you're standing in the face of a mighty sea monster that's ready to devour your ball with the rocks its jagged teeth and the rough its briny mane. Thanks to the game's connection with the Wii's weather channel, the game can even replicate the current climatic conditions as well, although these do take a little time to update. While it was still raining eagles and albatrosses on my round, when I flicked the TV over to the live coverage, John Daley was strolling around in the sunshine, sporting a crushed lime coloured outfit that made him look like a misguided viral marketing campaign for Lilt.

What Tiger 10 nails better than any other golf game before are the relationships between risk and reward, decision making and execution. Irrespective of your skill level or dedication, it invests you with more golfing ability than you'll likely ever have, but not so much that the game isn't a challenge. If you're a casual player or don't have MotionPlus then Tiger 10 remains incredibly adept at recreating the fundamentals of swinging a golf club, albeit without the top layer of intricacy that the add-on provides, and a quick glance at the options menu confirms that while this year's focus may have been on the Plus integration, EA continues to provide for all parts of the Wii audience.

As well as the test of working your way from rookie to FedEx Cup champion in Career mode and recreating moments of golfing history in Tournament Challenge - both of which are more likely to appeal to more serious players - Tiger 10 also features a range of more relaxed golf party mini-games of the Wii Sports ilk, including the new Frisbee golf with its diverting just-one-more-go appeal. Besides the Play the Pros competitions, even the remaining daily and weekly online tournaments come in both amateur and pro difficulties, and apart from the special case that is the Augusta National, the game contains the remaining three sites of this year's majors amongst its twenty-seven courses, a really smart move that should be made every year to enhance the game's relevance and curry attention from both the fanbase and those who may get caught up in the real life events.

With this being the first year of MotionPlus in Tiger there are a couple of refinements that could be made for 2011, both of which concern the putting system. Rain has too great an impact on the green, substantially slowing the speed of your putts, and while a downhill lie sees gravity very definitely acting on your ball, there is an unbalance with uphill shot where the gradient has a much less dramatic affect. There's also a list of more pressing things that the Tiger team could improve on, at the top of which sits the visuals. Obviously these aren't going to be on a par with those of the 360 and PS3's high definition powers, but just a bit more standard definition wouldn't go amiss to rectify some of the indistinct blur, jittery frame rates and straight edges so serrated they could do someone a nasty injury. The commentary is also not far short of a crime, with Scott Van Pelt the major culprit, frequently repeating comments or delivering them in the wrong context.

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 on the Wii does something very important and something that all games - but particularly those on Nintendo's console - should pay attention to. While the PS3 and 360 versions have a substantial aesthetic edge, the Tiger 10 Wiilease is easily the most realistic of the three, allowing players of all abilities to seamlessly enjoy a proper round of golf or a party game together, proof - if ever any was needed - that with some considered creative design, inclusion on the Wii doesn't need to involve dumbing everything down for the benefit of the lowest common denominator.

Reviewed by James Hamblin for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).