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

OK - I have just been informed that there will be an email sent over in the next few hours that will provide access to the Golf Club closed beta today. Myself and any others who were lucky enough to gain access will provide what information we can in this thread. Asking questions is not a problem, but understand we may not be able to answer them all. I will post in here as soon as I have the game installed and have spent spent some time with it.

We just ask that you be patient - Thanks!

Re: The Golf Club Closed Beta Impressions(QnA)
 

Sweet!!!!! :smile:

Re: The Golf Club Closed Beta Impressions(QnA)
 

Congrats on getting in on the Closed Beta!

If at all possible - could you upload game play video of maybe 2-3 holes of consecutive shot to shot, tee to green video?
Also interested in the different camera options during gameplay and replays.

Have fun and look forward to your initial impressions. I'll check back in 5 minutes........ha,ha.

Re: The Golf Club Closed Beta Impressions(QnA)
 

will do my best to upload something - but it will be later tonight or in the AM.

Re: The Golf Club Closed Beta Impressions(QnA)
 

Nice, looking forward to hearing more about this!

Re: The Golf Club Closed Beta Impressions(QnA)
 

Loaded it up and played 18 holes - early impressions, but please keep in mind that this a beta, and not a final product -


Overall swing mechanic is done very very well. You can feel the weight in in each shot, whether off the tee box or on the green.

Drives off the tee box - They feel great, but a bit too easy to control. I only hit one drive in the rough and that was just by a yard or so. Everything else I pretty much split the fairway with my drive.

Fairway shots - Once again they feel great and my accuracy was not as keyed-in as it was with my drives. There was some deviation in my swing and measuring the length of the shot, combined with the wind, provided a good little challenge(but not overly difficult)

Chips off green - The difficulty level rose for this type of shot, and requires a nice touch to get it close. Not too difficulty to control your swing, but not overly easy either.

Putting - The putting system is just outstanding to me. It really requires one to concentrate and have a feel for the club. The grid is not too intrusive and and it felt great when I dropped a long putt. I lipped some, blew by the hole a couple of times, and came up short often. Putting really requires you to hit the ball solid and on line, but it's fair and mimics real life putting.

Graphics - (PC only)The game gives you multiple resolutions and low/medium/high graphic settings. I played on all three, and all three looked really good. I was only getting 30 to 45 FPS, but my assumption is the game is not fully optimized yet for the PC.

Overall the beta is what I was hoping for. There is a really good game of golf waiting for people, but obviously some tweaks still need to happen, and that's what this beta is for.

Just some quick impressions after only 18 holes. Still haven't touched course creator, and probably wont until tonight.

Re: The Golf Club Closed Beta Impressions(QnA)
 

With the caveat that it's clearly not fully optimized yet, how were the loading times on the game?

How long did it take you to play 18 holes coming in with no prior experience?

Re: The Golf Club Closed Beta Impressions(QnA)
 

Loading times were actually quite short - with just small hesitations between shots. It took me about 25 mins to play a round - Now I could have taken longer if I studied and measured each shot, but that was not my goal on the 1st round.

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

Would also like to touch on the sound of the game quickly -


Very well done. I know people were hoping for broadcast presentation with real announcing, and obviously we all know this is not going to be in this game. The commentary that is in the game is subtle and fun. In no way is it over the top, and sounds like a friend talking to you on the course during a mid-week round.

The striking of the ball with the clubs is also done very well, and sounds very organic.

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

Another very nice touch - I was in the middle of a round and a little pop up box came up and said Millennium has started playing, would you like to join. I chose yes, and almost instantly I was on the course with Chris -

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

So.. jealous. I had sent my beta form before you said to mention I was on OS! I wonder if that would of helped...LOL

Glad to hear these things: Quick question

When you have hit into the rough or had a bad lie, does it greatly affect your distance/accuracy? In TW games, I could hit out of sand, thick rough with ease, just had to go up a club, never affected the accuracy it seemed.

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

Great question Red - and yes it does affect your accuracy and distance. Quite dramatically in some cases -

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

For comparisons sake... Without any difficulty levels how did it play in terms of difficulty on TW. Meaning, did it feel like playing on the Tour settings?

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

It feels challenging from the fairway in - off the tee box its a bit easy. Keep in mind though that this is a beta, and HB is truly listening to the feedback. I have already sent in a small buglist and suggestion list. The first thing on that suggestion list was tweaking the drive difficulty.

I am uploading a video on here of me playing 4 holes on a user generated course - should be ready to go around midnight EST tonight - The video will do a lot more justice than my spewing of words -

EDIT: Sorry video is taking forever to upload, will do it asap in the morning when I get up -

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

OK I was actually able to get the video done tonight - so here it is.


<iframe src="//www.youtube.com/embed/yWfxQo6IgsM" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" width="560"></iframe>

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

Better be an option to turn the voice off. I'd rather play the game without it to be honest. Seems forced and doesn't seem natural at all. I like listening to the background sounds, club sounds, etc much better.

I can't wait to see the course creator. I already have some good ideas in mind for the first course I'm going to build. Mix a bit of Augusta with some U.S Open flair.

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

All the sound effects do sound great, aside from the putter. Maybe it's just me, but it sounded a bit cheap.

Just something I've noticed, but most all the fairways seem to be pretty narrow. Probably in there, but really hope we have the ability to widen fairways.

Can't wait to get my hands on it.

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

Looks good. Hope I am able to easily create my local courses.

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

You can definitely widen fairways. The dev team has repeatedly said the difficulty will come with how the courses are designed. Does that mean we have to have 10ft wide fairways to make it real difficult, etc? Don't know, hope the beta testers can shed some light.

My oh my that looks great. Cannot wait to get my hands on the final product. Biggest decision will be what console to get it on.

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

I will get a full 18 hole video up early this afternoon.

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

Yeah the commentary doesn't do much for me either. I know they are trying to do something in that regard, but one of my favorite parts about getting out there and playing golf in real life are the sounds of nature. Maybe they can open up the bird song variety, squirrels barking, woodpecker pecking, etc.

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/uFN_Yfx6fUM" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>


That said I was impressed with the sounds off the tee and the fairway for that matter.

Thanks Bluengold for uploading these. I know it takes a lot of time and bandwidth. :)

Can't wait for the final product.

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

For those concerned about turning the commentator off - he can be taken down to 0 volume in the settings, and you can max the game sounds out - what you hear in the video is the game sounds at 85. In the beta though, the settings are disabled, so commentary cant be disabled.

Few questions...

1. I noticed a lot of texture popping, especially with the trees. I assume this will be corrected before release?

2.This may have already been answered but will this game be a full $60 retail game or will it be more in line with a $15-30 downloadable game?

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

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

Thanks for the vids, bluengold. I'm really excited about the social aspects. Playing OS tourneys with limitless course selection? Sign me up.

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

.............

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

So here is a 10:00 minute video(7 holes) This is the best round I have had so far.
<iframe src="//www.youtube.com/embed/WGLbTZ_GexM" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" width="560"></iframe>

Thanks for the videos. Game looks like a ton of fun, just hoping its a downloadable title as opposed to a full $60 game

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

It is a lot of fun, and the more you play it the more you enjoy it. I just spent about an hour with the course creator - holy hell is that a robust piece of software. Still learning the in's and out's of it - but I was able to create the first hole of my local course I grew up on almost perfectly - almost.

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

This is all great to read. I'm excited for this game, and have no problem paying full price for a game if it's of proper quality.

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

Have they tweaked driving already? It seems that you have a natural draw in the first video ;) and the wind kept it in the fairway until hole 4

Can you make a video of you re-creating your home course? that'd be awesome!

...And honestly I'd pay $60 for this.

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

The sound of the ball falling into the hole is overdone much too loud. It doesn't really sound like that IRL.

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

Agreed - it is overdone, but you don't even notice it after playing a bit.

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

I don't think they tweaked anything yet - I am starting to hit my drives in the rough a bit more as I increase my power, by it still needs to be harder. I can try and get a short video of me using the course creator uploaded tonight or tomorrow.

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

I'm more excited about this game than any other golf game. Looking forward to more impressions.

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

Once they get some issues ironed out, it will make for one hell of a golf game, and find some nice longevity here on OS with clubs and tours. It does take a way a bit the fact that you only get opponents balls on the course and not a digital representation - but still just an outstanding game of golf.

I talked a bit about this earlier - but once you get your hands on the course creator, and get the hang of it, it is just an awesome piece of software.

Do we have the option to choose post putt celebrations/anger? I think it would get old quick watching an NHL 94 goal celebration after every birdie.

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

It may be in there, but I haven't seen it yet. Keep in mind a lot of the options are still not accessible to us in this early stage of beta testing.

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

Probably will not make it into the first year of production but it would be nice to see the players stances change depending upon the lie and the distance from the hole. On some of the longer shots from sidehill lies it appears as if the player was pasted onto the screen. Maybe choke up some on chip shots things like that. For an early build the game shows promise. I might have missed this but will there be a course vault where you can download created coursed like 2k and Sony have for their rosters?

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

HB does have a system in place where user generated/created courses can be uploaded and shared online.