The Golf Club Closed Beta Impressions (Q&A Inside)

[bluengold34_OS]

So here is another video. New user created course, and new outfit. There is actually quite a decent selection of clothing. This course will give you an idea of how difficult the putting can be - in a good way.

[Perfect Zero]

I thought that they weren't going to have clothing options. Interesting...

[bluengold34_OS]

Quote: Originally Posted by Perfect Zero

I thought that they weren't going to have clothing options. Interesting...

They were always going to have clothing options, just unsure if they are going to have licensed clothing options -

[mike24forever]

Loving the videos. I like seeing bunker play and you working around the greens. This should be one of the mist difficult parts in the game, but also the one part that if you practice at it, a player should be able to shave a few strokes off his game.

[Bruinboy]

Love the videos ... Very thoughtful of you to post. This may have been answered elsewhere, but any idea how long the beta will be? Not that I'm impatient, but I am. The way HB communicates regularly with its future customers is refreshing. The fact that they let beta testers share their experiences in the beta keeps us in the loop. Cheers to you and them.

[bluengold34_OS]

Quote: Originally Posted by Bruinboy

Love the videos ... Very thoughtful of you to post. This may have been answered elsewhere, but any idea how long the beta will be? Not that I'm impatient, but I am. The way HB communicates regularly with its future customers is refreshing. The fact that they let beta testers share their experiences in the beta keeps us in the loop. Cheers to you and them.

Happy to do it Bruin for the community here, and to help support these developers. Please don't quote me on this, but I believe the closed beta will run until the end of March, than the open beta will start for the PC.

I will have a new video up in the morning showing not just the game, but different types of shots how they work and how they can fail.

[OnlookerDelay]

Quote: Originally Posted by bowld

The gameplay itself looks great but the actual golfer animations themselves look pretty ugly

HBS said last week that they have more animation work scheduled over the next few weeks. I'm pretty sure we'll see some improvement with the golfer animations, and hopefully, their postures on uneven ground.

[OnlookerDelay]

I didn't really get to put in much time with the beta until Friday evening. Bob's assessment of it has been pretty much my take on it as well, although I can tell he's got a much more powerful gaming PC than me. I'm having to run the game at 1280 x 720 @ Low detail graphics. Even at that, I'm seeing between 21 and 26 FPS on most courses and in the high teens on the tree dense alpine course.

I'm probably having a harder time gauging the gameplay difficulty than Bob, because of my slower frame rates, and lower resolution and detail settings. The grid lines on the green are sparse in the settings I'm having to use. I cranked the graphics up to 1600 x 900 @ Medium detail (where I got 7 to 9 FPS), but saw a huge difference in the overall look of the game and the grid details. Secondly, I've always been a left thumbstick swing controller in thumbstick golf games and the beta forces you to use right stick only. I have no sense of feel or rhythm with the right thumbstick in a golf game and it feels totally foreign to me. I've only broken 80 one time on the easiest course. Most of my current difficulty comes from having to swing the right thumbstick.

Even with the handicaps I'm current strapped with, I see a lot of potential for this game. I can create an error condition which aborts the game during the loading screen and brings up a new mini-window that's about 1/32nd of the full screen size. The game runs a 65 to 75 fps in that window and it feels like a totally different game! I think that you really need at least 30 - 35FPS to make the game feel playable. 45 plus FPS would take it to another level though!

I like the commentary during the game, but I would prefer to throttle it back a little in frequency. The holing out effects are a bit loud, but that's something they can tweak. I like the fact that I can put what feels and looks like a good rhythm on the swing and get a good result. Even the impact sounds vary with the quality of the swing you've made. A rhythmic swing actually sounds, and to a degree "feels" better than a jerky/punchy swing that yields the same power... there's a unique dimension here with this game and I'm really intrigued by it.

All I can say is come on optimization (or maybe even the Radeon HD 7750 1GB video card I've got coming Tuesday... I'm ashamed to reveal the rest of my system to you guys if this 'moderate level' video card is the highlight of it) and left thumb stick swing and I'll be one step closer to the promised land!

I'm really curious to see what res and frame rate this game ultimately plays at on the PS4 and XB1. I have a gut feeling that it's so graphics processing intensive that it'll be one of those where the PS4 version runs at a higher res or a higher frame rate... hope I'm wrong though - it really needs to shine at 1080p/60FPS on both consoles to give this game the glory it deserves.