What if Golf Video Games had Great Story Modes? All would be great with the world

[Golfsprince]

Hey what's up guys?

Hope all is wonderful!

I wrote an article for Fox Sports affiliate website, Yardbarker.com discussing golf video games and what it would be like if they had great story modes in them. Here's my article at this link: http://network.yardbarker.com/golf/a..._head_15369037

I hope you guys enjoy the article. I put a lot of thought into it and I wanted to get people thinking about something like this.

Thanks guys, let me know what you think!

[iseedeadpeople]

Re: What if Golf Video Games had Great Story Modes? All would be great with the world

Golf story modes... Presented to you by Ambien and John Daly.

Pass.

[rolltide1017]

What if Golf Video Games had Great Story Modes? All would be great with the w...

No offense but, I don't like that idea.

All I want in a golf game is an accurate, realistic presentation of the game, a realistic presentation of a PGA season, real courses and a good player creation mode. I don't even care about having real pros in the game because I never use them, I create my character and go.

I don't want to have to walk around towns, go to shops and other things like that. The most "story" I want in a golf game is starting in a lower tour and earning your PGA Tour card. Anything else would just get in the way of enjoying the game of golf. My real life is always getting in the way of enjoying real golfing, I don't want a digital life to live as well before I can hit the digital links.

Also, requiring me to like you or follow you on FB and Twitter is a quick way to guarantee that I'll never read your site. I hate that crap and wish FB and Twitter would die. I read what I could before the "you must like me" box got in the way but sorry, I refuse to support sites that require that crap.

[Golfsprince]

Re: What if Golf Video Games had Great Story Modes? All would be great with the world

No offense but, I don't like that idea.

All I want in a golf game is an accurate, realistic presentation of the game, a realistic presentation of a PGA season, real courses and a good player creation mode. I don't even care about having real pros in the game because I never use them, I create my character and go.

I don't want to have to walk around towns, go to shops and other things like that. The most "story" I want in a golf game is starting in a lower tour and earning your PGA Tour card. Anything else would just get in the way of enjoying the game of golf. My real life is always getting in the way of enjoying real golfing, I don't want a digital life to live as well before I can hit the digital links.

Naw it's cool bro, it was just a fun little idea I had to extend golf out of its roots, especially since traditional golf games like Tiger haven't been selling recently. But, heck why not have both? Just because one game is made doesn't mean a traditional golf game couldn't be made.

I couldn't agree with you more. If there's a way you can start off in Q-School or in your senior year of college and move up in the ranks to reach the PGA Tour and add a few custcenes maybe to have a bit of "Story" to it then I'm all for it but the way EA did the career mode was sooo boring and repetitive. I want to feel every moment of my career. I want winning the Masters to be a true highlight and not just a pitiful green jacket ceremony. Yes, there's things I liked about the later versions of the Tiger Woods series (R.I.P.) but it got worse and worse. I thought 2004 was darn near perfect in terms of a full game and 2010 was near perfect in terms of swing mechanics.

I want a career mode that actually means something. Like in NBA 2K14, although it's also fairly repetitive (The PS4 version's career mode is really good I heard), I actually feel connected to my player and the superb broadcast presentation helps. I love Jim Nantz and David Feherty but my goodness they say the same stuff all the time and don't mention anything about your golfer.

Trust me, I know what you mean, I'd LOVE a career where you start from the bottom and make it to the top but EA just did a terrible job with that. Probably the worst career mode in sports gaming except for that awful new NBA Live game where that game all around is a train wreck.

But I hope that HB Studios could make a great game with a solid career mode. I want to be CONNECTED with my golfer and feel like you're going through a legit career. I mean, how has Tiger Woods sales been in recent years? TERRIBLE. Only 200,000 worldwide sales all year long for TW14 and the poor career had something to do with it including all of the bugs.

Hopefully, since EA got rid Tiger, they can focus on the ACTUAL GAME and not Tiger. We want REAL GOLF not Tiger Woods and I agree that we don't care about having pro players. All I want is my created golfer, that's it. Also, there's so many great golf courses you can throw in there like Pine Valley, Cypress Point, Chicago Golf Club (Oldest course in America), Kapalua, etc. EA has exclusive license to TPC courses I think and if they don't then I'm sure they will because TPC is their baby but I could live without them except for TPC Sawgrass created by the legendary Pete Dye (Talked to him, such a great man).

Now, you could go on without a career mode but career modes and franchise modes are the most popular modes in sports games because people feel like their taking charge of a career and that's what we love. MLB The Show's "Road to the Show" mode is another excellent career mode. I feel connected with my ball player. My guy was a closing pitcher (Yes, a closing pitcher) and every time I struck out a batter, it felt so good because I know every strikeout will count for me getting closer to the Majors.

Same thing with a golf game. Make me FEEL the struggle and grind of trying to get to the PGA Tour. Make me bust my behind off to get there and the rewards will be endless. Love your thought man, really do. Oh and ROLL TIDE BABY!

[OnlookerDelay]

Re: What if Golf Video Games had Great Story Modes? All would be great with the world

I have a hard time looking down the road to a story mode in a golf game at this point. Why? The gameplay and especially the presentation has taken a downturn in the games of the last three years, IMO. I just want a golf game that's fun to play and bears some resemblance to the real game. I think EA's decision to incorporate story modes into their game wound up compromising the basic gameplay.

[Golfsprince]

Re: What if Golf Video Games had Great Story Modes? All would be great with the world

I have a hard time looking down the road to a story mode in a golf game at this point. Why? The gameplay and especially the presentation has taken a downturn in the games of the last three years, IMO. I just want a golf game that's fun to play and bears some resemblance to the real game. I think EA's decision to incorporate story modes into their game wound up compromising the basic gameplay.

EA has to do something with their game. As I've mentioned above, they at least need a great career mode because the career mode they had the last few years have been God awful and they need to bring back the Ryder Cup too IMO. I also said that career modes and franchise modes are the glue of sports games because they seem like they're the most popular game modes. You can have a simple golf game but it probably wouldn't get sales if it's featureless. If they have a good career mode where you can feel the grind of going form Q-School to the PGA Tour.

[daflyboys]

Re: What if Golf Video Games had Great Story Modes? All would be great with the world

Successful, attractive golf games would have:

*Good golfer models
*Excellent ball physics
*More random and variable ball landings
*Inability to have people cheat their asses off
*Completely customizeable camera angles that could mimic good TV broadcast

[DivotMaker]

Re: What if Golf Video Games had Great Story Modes? All would be great with the world

Successful, attractive golf games would have:

*Inability to have people cheat their asses off

Good luck with that....developers have been trying to prevent this for years. It is the same as trying to combat steroid usage in some sports....the athletes (video game players) always seem to be one step ahead of the people monitoring for drug use (Developers)......in the online world PC/Console I don't see cheating ever being mitigated completely.

[pietasterp]

Re: What if Golf Video Games had Great Story Modes? All would be great with the world

Nice job on the article, Golfsprince.

I'm with the majority here in that I think golf doesn't need a narrative, per se, and with the general trend of golf games over the last decade, I think it's one of the few sports where the games are actually getting worse over time. I think a "road to the PGA" or something like that would be fun, but in general, I think having a season w/ tournaments and such is all that's really needed. But what's really needed is a realistic, simulation quality golf title, and I don't think we have that in 2014.

On another, semi-related note, of all the sports which exist in videogame form, I would argue golf needs official licensing of the pro body/players association the least. If the game had photorealistic graphics with dynamic weather that affected play realistically, and accurate ball physics with camera angles that are either realistic or user-controllable, with a modicum of real courses to play on, I think that game would have 99% of what most people want/need in a golf game. Everything else is fluff. Hard to believe that game doesn't exist...