Remember 2015 - When Golf Gaming looked so bright?

[scagwi]

Boy oh boy.
Do you guys remember about mid 2015 when this genre of gaming seemed to really be on the come?

Rory was releasing, TGC 1 and Perfect Golf were developing, growing and expanding ...

FF a couple years and we have Rory dead and EA done with golf, Perfect Parallel sold to Trackman and their game "Perfect" Golf was never really finished and is just sort of languishing as the user numbers die off over time and HB and TGC 2019 are "a thing" but missing so much that many would want out of a PGA titled release -- and even their updates have dried up for now.

It's all so sad. I love the golf game genre and have literally been playing it longer than any other sports game genre - and maybe longer than any other gaming genre period (back to very start of 90's).

I really hope there's another renaissance coming at some point.

I thought Perfect Golf had a good general angle of "build a great base" and then expand out the features over time. They seemed to have the wrong leadership that didn't know how to build the business side out unfortunately...and thus they sold.

Sadly they sold to a company that's not a gaming company and likely will just keep all the IP silo'd for their Sim hardware customers (understandable - but sucks for us).

I know some of you love TGC, but I'm really ready for a ground up refresh of what that looks like and how it plays and finally some fixes for the "ugh" parts that have persisted since TGC1, through TGC2 and still exist in 2019.

Maybe 2k will be the savior. I wish EA was still in this space, simply to move things forward and provide competition if nothing else.

Just bummed basically..

[OnlookerDelay]

2015 was definitely a more promising point in time for computer and video golf games, overall. I had extremely high aspirations for Rory on the XBox One, but was really disappointed at how poorly it played. It just didn't have a cohesive flow about the whole package, IMO.

JNPG got the job done for me until I saw and felt the mo-capped golfers in TGC 2. I don't feel as integrally linked to the Hacker Harry animation in JNPG. TGC 2 and 2019 took some more strides in presenting rough, heavy rough, and sparse rough and that put more distance between it and JNPG. I simply find the carpet underlayment, patchwork rough in JNPG to look too 2004'ish.

I'm still enjoying TGC 2019, but I know it could be a lot better. It's tempo dependent swing interface provides enough of a multifacted feel component that I don't get bored with it. The downside is the way the tempo is utilized by the interface doesn't fully compute in an analogous way. A slow downswing after a perfect backswing tempo results in a 'power fade' that misses the target long!? That one irritates me every time it happens.

Anyway, TGC 2019 will tide me over until something better comes along. I certainly couldn't say that about TGC 1, which I bailed on for JNPG after 9 months, and I don't think I could have said that long term about TGC 2.

[pietasterp]

I think the troubles and bleak outlook for golf games reflects the overall down-market in sports gaming in general. This has been discussed elsewhere, but you could argue that it's never been worse across-the-board in the sports gaming market than it is right now. I don't see anything on the horizon that is likely to improve the situation, either. These are the dark ages of sports gaming (I mean, graphics aside).

[scagwi]

Quote: Originally Posted by pietasterp

I think the troubles and bleak outlook for golf games reflects the overall down-market in sports gaming in general. This has been discussed elsewhere, but you could argue that it's never been worse across-the-board in the sports gaming market than it is right now. I don't see anything on the horizon that is likely to improve the situation, either. These are the dark ages of sports gaming (I mean, graphics aside).

It’s so ironic and depressing that the graphics and hardware capabilities are the best ever...yet sadly sports gaming is in the darkest time ever.

[kp2025]

The golf game I actually enjoy the most out of all the latest ones is Everybody's Golf on the PS4. It's definitely cartoonish and some of the DLC courses are pretty ridiculous, but it runs very smoothly and I always have fun when I play it.

I just wish they had more swing options like they had in the past Hot Shots Golf games that preceded Everybody's Golf.

[OnlookerDelay]

Quote: Originally Posted by kp2025

I just wish they had more swing options like they had in the past Hot Shots Golf games that preceded Everybody's Golf.

I know... why on earth did they drop the Advanced Swing options from the previous two Hot Shots games? They were real time plus they had an analog component in the swing interface that allowed me to forgive the cartoon look of the game. I'd be playing Everybody's Golf on my PS4 if it had the Advanced Swing options. That horizontal, non-real time 3-click meter is out of the Stone Age!

[inkcil]

TW 14 Historic Master's Edition coupled with all the additional DLC courses and characters is still the best golf experience to-date, IMO.

Wish I had downloaded all the DLC before it was removed from the stores.

[scagwi]

Quote: Originally Posted by inkcil

TW 14 Historic Master's Edition coupled with all the additional DLC courses and characters is still the best golf experience to-date, IMO. Wish I had downloaded all the DLC before it was removed from the stores.

It’s definitely hard to argue against it in terms of the complete package and presentation and the licensed content, no question.

I do have to say that the more I have played perfect golf the more I have appreciated their physics model. I’m not sure how great that is in the Tiger Woods series.

When I do fire up my PlayStation and play TW 14 again, I am also struck by how easy the game is off the tee. They really didn’t insert much challenge in putting the ball right where you want off the tee unless the conditions are totally crazy (unrealistic).