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EA - Medal of Honor release date, Dragon Age sequel, Sims 3 on consoles | Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing demo out now | Did Dante's Inferno topple Mass Effect 2 from charts perch? | Multiple Deals of the Week on XBLA | Aliens vs Predator scores 8/10 | Free Mass Effect 2 DLC hits tomorrow | Exclusive Left 4 Dead 2 Gamerpics with OXM issue 57 | Need For Speed: Shift Ferrari DLC announced | BioWare talks Mass Effect 2 sex scenes | Sega talks Alpha Protocol delay | X10 Fable III news will make you "super pissed off" | Final Fantasy XIII DLC all but confirmed by boxart | Modern Warfare 2 'care package glitch' being zapped | Bungie has last Halo 2 hoorah on April 14th | PS3-exclusive LA Noire confirmed for 360 | Brock Lesnar the face of UFC Undisputed 2010 | Iron Man 2 trailer flies in | Grab Mass Effect 2 'Dr Pepper' DLC the free way | Dark Void gets its own Horde mode | Microsoft turning off Live for the original Xbox | Could Microsoft be raising the Friends List cap? | Just Cause 2 demo on the way | Watch Super Street Fighter IV bonus stages in action | Watch debut Fallout: New Vegas trailer | Monday Night Entertainment trailer crashes in

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Review

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2009

8.0

Format Xbox 360

Developer EA Games

Publisher EA Games

Genre Sports

11-Sep-2008 A sequel that's worth revisiting time and time again

4 Comments

The surprise isn't that this is a good game. Tiger Woods has never really been bad, even though it hasn't had much competition since Microsoft gave up on Links. The surprise is the feature that keeps us coming back to it like no other sports game: EA Gamernet.

This allows you to record interactive replays of your best shots and upload them to Xbox Live for other people to compete with. It's akin to climbing inside the TV during the US open, snatching the club away from Ernie Els and shouting at the top of your voice, "I can beat that!"

Whether you succeed at Gamernet challenges is as much about perseverance than anything, as some of the replays are incredibly flukey.

However, that just makes them more surprising to watch, and more entertaining to try and replicate. One challenge we downloaded had the player bouncing his ball off a mountain-top and still landing on the green.

Unsurprisingly, we've yet to beat that one. Gamernet did appear in Tiger Woods 08, but it's far better implemented here. Daily leader boards and challenges that suit your ability level crop up unexpectedly in career mode, adding a bit of extra spice.

We love this fusion of single-player with multiplayer elements, although standard multiplayer has been equally well catered for. In Xbox Live matches, up to four players can take their shots simultaneously, with others' shots appearing as coloured lines.

It might not be realistic, or necessarily in the spirit of golf, but it certainly speeds things up. While a four-player round used to take all afternoon, it can now be completed in a couple of hours. Much more practical.

Complete beginners will get a welcoming feeling from Tiger's coach and mentor Hank Haney. He introduces all the game modes, gives advice and helps you to fine-tune your golf clubs to compensate for your natural swing.

The analogue control system is pleasingly precise, and helped considerably by a new indicator that displays the exact motion of the thumbsticks. You're never left scratching your head as to why a shot went awry.

This isn't just an excellent introduction to the series, but a great expansion of it to keep veterans interested. Without Xbox Live you'll miss out on some of the really cool stuff, but for everyone else 2009 is definitely the year of the Tiger.

OXM Staff