Like the game of golf itself, we have a love/hate relationship with the Tiger Woods franchise that fades and draws between intense satisfaction and immense frustration. It's the best golf experience currently available, but a few serious problems hacked great ugly divots out of its lush 2003 fairway - divots rudely not replaced for this 2004 Tour.

The mid-flight spin system for instance, is a fantastic concept. It maximises steady involvement by making sure that you're still to some extent in control of events beyond twonking the ball off the tee. Tapping the Black button while the ball splits the blue accelerates spin, with rotation controlled by the Left stick. In theory this allows you to rein overzealous hacks with hard backspin, or roll gently pin-ward on touchdown should the head or side-wind be stronger than you judged.

All good stuff. But nothing has been learned from the detrimental camera angles of the 2003 version that still plague actual implementation of spinning in 2004. Too often you still cut to a facial close-up of your Pringled avatar as he/she watches the ball disappear with a mildly concerned expression. What you actually want to see at this point is your ball's flight over the fairway or green, so that your ability to correct with spin is meaningful, not blind guess-timation.

Even when you are granted ball-cam, the pursuit angle can be excessively oblique, especially when hanging over the green, and denies all but the roughest idea of where the ball will drop. Whether this is a deliberate temperance of the spin feature to stop it becoming too easy (spin is one of the attributes you can add skill points to), or just laziness to correct a basic flaw, it's a frustrating lack that might have easily been addressed.

Even more negligent is the total failure to improve the putting in this year's edition. Tiger Woods again eschews any form of target measurement system, with no fixed grid overlay or quantifiable aiming distances for greens. There's only a wide grid system that moves with your chipping/putting cursor and is supposed to lend a little more interpretation to gradient - something that the greens' texture maps alone still fail miserably to provide, even with fly-by.

It wouldn't even be so hard to judge putts if the camera remained a fixed distance - at least you'd have the single reference point of the hole's diameter to extrapolate. But the further you drag the putting cursor, the higher the camera climbs to accommodate, bending all scale round its knee and throwing it petulantly into the gasping crowd. Add wildly inaccurate caddy advice to this tantrum-inducing experience and a good walk can indeed be spoiled into a grumpy stomp. At least the superb animations lend a little wry humour to your golfer's exasperation.

So those are the essential gripes. The faults of Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2003 have just been raked over in their bunker for its annual update. Camera angles and putting remain bugbears in the Woods, the tutorial is identical, the engine is the same so there's no appreciable graphical advancement. Award screens still appear for just too long and can't be skipped, neither can the other players' shots in Tournament modes (you can again accelerate time slightly). Often invisible crowds cheer improbably and teeing off is still just a little on the moronic side of idiot-proof, with even power boost too quick to master.

But despite all this, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2004 is still a joy to play. It's accessible to a fault, the commentators (David Feherty and Gary McCord) are delightfully gentle in their lilting sarcasm, the steady accumulation of skill points to raise your various sporting attributes is perfectly paced, with a far more extensive Tour Shop allowing total customisation of clubs and couture. The seven new courses are beautifully arranged and varied and you can create your own custom course from any of the unlocked holes. The character creation is great fun (if little more than a Sims 2-inspired gimmick), and there are many new play modes including World Tour, more Traditional Games and an inspired Battle Golf feature where you play for each other's clubs.

It's just that at the end of the round, you'll be sipping a G&T at the 19th hole and wondering why you spent £40 on what is basically an update that provides seven new courses, some fun new modes of play and blankly refuses to fix any of the problems of last year's Tour. Tiger Woods either needs to admit it's an update and employ a budget retail model, as the excellent Ghost Recon: Island Thunder does, to fix the few niggles that could make this great franchise unassailable. And with the good-way, Tiger Woods will now have to earn looking, Live-enabled, Links 2004 on its stripes before they're stripped.

1. Excellent customisation
2. Top new courses
3. Fun new modes

1. It's got the same game engine
2. Putting still weak
3. Camera angles are frustrating

Power
Smooth as the greens you'll play on, but you'll be rankled by the poor camera angles

Style
Verging on the cartoon due to the Tack of texture detail, with exciting Arcade touches.

Immersion
Totally and immediately addictive. Play with your mates for guaranteed arguments.

Lifespan
Massive, with 19 full real courses and four fantasy ones. No Live support though.

Summary
Not so much a sequel as a full-price update, if you own Tiger Woods 2003 think twice before you fork out.