Tiger game above par, critics say

Tiger Woods can walk on water? Apparently so -- a bug in an older version of the PGA Tour games let you walk across water hazards to play a shot from the surface. Publisher EA took the chance to recreate the feat with the real Tiger in this smash hit viral video, and the Jesus comparisons inevitably raised some hackles.

"It's not a glitch -- he's just that good" says the ad, as Tiger strolls casually across the water to take his shot, but what do the critics think of his new game? It hit the links this week, and it's already a hit with the critics -- Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09 is currently averaging a decidedly healthy 88% score on review aggregation site metacritic.com.

1up.com's Joe Rybicki was particularly impressed, calling it "one of the best Tiger games yet," and awarding it a top-flight "A" grade. PGA Tour 09's club tuning system, its seamless community integration, and its new skills system all came in for particular praise.

Aaron Thomas, a critic at GameSpot, liked the game's new swing controls -- "much more forgiving", and the appearance of Tiger's real-life coach, Hank Haney -- "simple and worthwhile". He also joined Rybicki in praising the dynamic skill system, which upgrades (or downgrades) your golfer's stats in response to your performance out on the course. Thomas scored the game at an 8.0.

TIGER WALKS ON WATER

Meanwhile, the Official Xbox Magazine joined in the praise, awarding Tiger a very respectable 8.5/10, and crediting it in particular for not cramming itself full of pointless minigames. Instead, says OXM, it "reformulates its approach to your golfer's skills and gear with dramatically improved results."

All that, and you can walk on water, too. Not a bug, but a feature, says publisher EA -- and let's be honest, Woods hit his first hole-in-one when he was six. If he says he can walk on water, we're not arguing.

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