The Golf Club: Impressions Thread

[DirtyJerz32]

With the approval of a mod, I figured this would be better than the 3 threads that people of posting in.

Post away people.

[kehlis]

This can be used as impressions for all platforms for now unless there becomes a need to differentiate them at some point.

[SportsNut84]

this game is fun....but hard as hell.

[Hunkerdown]

I played about 4 rounds yesterday, not sure how people find ways to have -15 rounds in this game? Especially how touchy putting and chipping is. Best I managed was a E after 18 holes.

Love it so far, very challenging, for me at least. Worst part is graphics. 2nd would be turn off announcers.

[JayBee74]

I reiterate and expand in this impressions thread. I love the game, but after 5 online rounds I'm trying to figure how my 15 random ghosts opponents are shooting the scores that they are shooting. No major mistakes, perfect fairway percentage, and near perfect greens in regulation. Their scores also indicate near flawless putting.

Is there a point where your swing will routinely always land in the sweet spot? Is that the problem? That wouldn't account for some of the putting I'm seeing.

I asked a guy in the other thread, "Was he using a standard XBox controller", when he complained about the ease of hitting the fairway. He never got back to me.

[brandon27]

Here's what I'll say...

I thought I would miss officially licensed PGA courses. However, so far... I don't. That may change in time, but it's a blast to play on so many random courses. The course creator essentially makes sure you have unlimited courses really. It's simple to open it up, select a few main attributes, and within 5 minutes have a beautifully generated random course. It's pretty awesome. I haven't gotten into the customization of actually doing it myself from scratch, I've placed a few objects here and there on a randomized course which seems simple enough ,but that's about it.

The gameplay itself... If you're used to EA's TW series and some of the assists that were there, it will frustrate you a bit at first. However if you're also a real life golfer, you'll appreciate it. No power boosts, no post shot spin etc. etc. Which is nice to see, even though I never used it in the TW's games, but the swinging mechanic is nice, I do find it a bit too simple to consistently split the fairway and get perfect swings off the tee. It's when you get into the fairways, and less than 100% shot distances that it will challenge you since you're left on your own to figure it out. There's no aiming marker. Just a distance to the pin, and the carry distance of your club. Once you get the hang of it, you're fine though. Putting on the other hand. It's been a nightmare for me to adjust to, but the more you do it, the more you get a feel for it. I've still had many 30 foot putts that I've still left 10 feet short since I havent figured out the right pull back distance on the swing yet. It comes, slowly, but it comes.

The visuals however are where I begin to hate this game. Quite frankly I think it looks awful for being a next gen game. It looks more like an early XB360 game IMO. Some of the visuals next to your golfer, and close to visual point look good, the visuals in the far distance for example mountains on the alipne theme, and the desert in the far distance on the horizon look good, but many of the trees in the fairways look pretty awful to me. The water looks good, but that's about it. I'm very disappointed in the graphics when you compare them to the screen shots which must have been taken using a high end gaming computer or something.

That being said, to have a truely challenging, fun golf game is a good thing. It's fun, there's no doubt about that, and it should give tons of replay value, but the visuals are a disappointment. Not enough of a disappointment to ruin it completely, but it does take it down several notches. The audio is good though, aside from the kind of awkward commentary, but turn that off and you're good to go. Just like spending an afternoon on the real course.

[kamackeris76]

I find it so easy to hit the fairways off the tee... I jumped straight in and hit virtually every one. Yeh putting is hard. I just feel so dissapointed... I'm Xbox One and the graphics are so poor and Jerky too. I wonder if this game can be optimised further for the x1 and possibly get it to run at a higher resolution in the future? It has so much promise but I hate the ease of the game.... I know that when I master putting I'm gonna be scoring ridiculous scores.

[DirtyJerz32]

After playing a few rounds last I have realized that this game does what's it supposed to do and does it well.

Does the game look bad, no, does it look like TW14 or NBA 2K14, haha no. But what it does do is play a good game of golf without any fluff. By fluff I mean no sponsors, real golfers, courses, events, etc... And I could care less about any of those.

The Golf Club is a game with endless possibilities... With companies charging for DLC, Ultimate team modes, VC, etc... TGC let's gamers create and endless amount of courses for FREE!!! Combine that with only being $35, TGC is a breath of fresh air IMO.

I made 2 courses last night within 3 minutes, all with a press of a button. I added more trees and hills to one and more water and deeper rough to another. If I wanted to jump in and change the shape of each hole I could, but didn't. The key is, I was able to do anything I wanted to do without having to pay extra. The last course I made was a Par 3, 9 hole pitch and putt type of course. All by changing how many Par 3's and holes. Tell me another game that lets us (gamers) do that type of customization.

Another OSer (Flightwhite) made a comment the other day about how this game made him feel like he was just playing a few rounds with his friends. I couldn't agree more. Just you and course...

I'll be back with more later. I'm sitting at work looking for some course designs for when I get home. Today's work day will be wash...