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The Golf Club News Post




HB Studios has officially announced their next generation golf simulation titled, The Golf Club. Coming this Spring to Xbox One, PS4 and PC. Check out the press release and features list below, as well as the new videos and screenshots.

Press Release

Veteran Sports Game Developer Bringing The Golf Club to Next Gen Consoles and PC

Canadian video game developer HB Studios announced today their next generation Golf simulation The Golf Club. With outstanding, fun gameplay and a gorgeous visual presentation, The Golf Club really jumps into the next generation with the procedural generation of courses and depth of social interaction. There truly will be an unlimited number of golf courses to be created, shared and played with your friends.

The Golf Club Course Creator can generate a brand new, original course in seconds that can be shared and played immediately online with friends and other gamers across PlayStation 4, XBox One and PC. The technique of procedural generation also brings loading times into courses down to next to zero and completely eliminates any waiting between holes. There are also full editing capabilities should gamers want to put their mark on the generated course. Customization extends to Tournaments and Tours, which can be shared along with the courses online.

On the social side you can challenge your friends on a new or existing course in real time or try to beat their best recorded round. Add to this a myriad of stat tracking and personal bests of friends and rivals to beat, notifications, challenges and social media integration and you truly have a golf club worth joining.

Built using the excellent Unity game engine, The Golf Club will be coming to PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC in the spring of 2014. For screenshots, videos and additional information on The Golf Club please visit www.thegolfclubgame.com.

FEATURES

The Golf Club is HB Studios’ next generation golf simulation. Stunning visual presentation and outstanding gameplay are to be expected but what really takes The Golf Club into the next generation is the procedural generation of courses and depth of social interaction. The Course Creator can generate a brand new course in seconds which can be shared and played immediately online with friends and other gamers across PlayStation 4, XBox One and PC. There are also full editing capabilities for courses, Tournaments and Tours. Challenge your friends on a new or existing course in real time or try to beat their best recorded round. Add to this a myriad of stat tracking and personal bests of friends and rivals to beat, notifications, challenges and social media integration and you truly have a golf club worth joining.

Intuitive Control System

We’ve created and fine tuned a swing mechanic that is more about feeling and fluidity above the users’ accuracy of hitting a marker on a power bar. Whilst anyone will be able to pick the controller up and play comfortably, the best players on the global leaderboards will be those with the best feel for the different golf shots and who are able to take into account ball lie, weather and terrain conditions.

Instantaneous Gameplay

No loading times between holes means you are straight back on the Tee after sinking your putt on the previous green. Also, minimal loading times into a new course make for a refreshing change to your typical console game.

Unlimited Courses

No more getting bored of the courses given to you by the developer. With four clicks you can generate a unique course never seen before that’s ready to play.

Generate Courses

With four clicks of a button from the main menu the game will generate for you a never been played before course. The variation is infinite!

If you don’t like the course that’s been generated, one click and you can generate a new one.

If you want to tailor the courses a little more there are high-level options available to you. Examples of these are the number of holes, par distribution, fairway width, number of bunkers, green size, green slope and rough coverage.

Edit and Create your own Courses

If you have a particular course in mind, want to use your creative skills to create something from scratch or edit something the generator has created for you the game also has an in-depth editor.

The editor gives you the ability of create from scratch or mould anything on the course. You can alter the terrain, move tees, move greens, move holes, delete holes, add holes, bunkers, rivers, ponds, trees, foliage, buildings, animals and other objects.

During editing you can play the ball from any spot to review holes and make changes as you see fit. The minimal loading times make this practical and enjoyable.

Large Selection of Pre-Designed Courses Shipping With The Game

Courses for all skill levels and utilizing the best of HB’s creative talents will ship with the game. They can be played individually but will also make up the tournament itinerary for the pre-designed Tour that also comes with the game.

Online Sharing And Play
  • Play others creations - work your way through the huge database of user created courses, each rated by other users to help make the decision easy to make.
  • Share your courses with the World – when you’re happy with your creations you can publish them for the rest of the world to play.
  • Play against others live or from the past - each round you play on every course is saved Online. Choose from Friends Rounds, Record Rounds or Rivals Rounds (others players close to your ability) to compete against. Their ghost balls and scores will be visible throughout your round giving you the feeling of competition without losing the instantaneous game play. Ghost and live balls can be hidden if so desired either selectively or en masse.
  • Compete in Tours and Tournaments – play against other players throughout the world in user made tours and tournaments.
  • Watch others play the courses you’re on live – through our ball trace system you can see other users from around the world on the course that you are playing live, even if they’re on different holes.
Tours and Tournaments

Create and share Tours and Tournaments made up of your favourite courses to test your friends’ or players worldwide over a number of rounds and courses.

These can be Time Constrained or Indefinite. You can choose a start and end date with just one entry per player or, if your tournament or tour is indefinite, you can allow players to enter as many times as they want to try and get to the top of the leaderboard.

Social Feeds and Messages

You will be kept up to date with the world of The Golf Club through a fully interactive social ticker bar and an in-game message feed

To create a truly competitive world the messages will tell you:
  • Friends achievements and creations
  • Friends currently playing
  • When your records on courses are broken
  • Invites from friends to play
  • Major achievements from all players within The Golf Club
With one press of a button you can interact with these messages. Immediately join your friends on a round or regain your record by jumping to the course and / or hole where the record was broken. All rounds are constantly saved so you can return to your previous game whenever you want to and play from where you left it.

The Golf Club screenshot gallery - Click to view The Golf Club screenshot gallery - Click to view The Golf Club screenshot gallery - Click to view The Golf Club screenshot gallery - Click to view
Game: The Golf ClubReader Score: 8/10 - Vote Now
Platform: PC / PS4 / Xbox OneVotes for game: 7 - View All
The Golf Club Videos
Member Comments
# 41 ODogg @ 01/23/14 02:59 PM
With the random course generator this is effectively the Diablo of golf games, lol...can't wait!!
 
# 42 bcruise @ 01/23/14 03:08 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by ODogg
With the random course generator this is effectively the Diablo of golf games, lol...can't wait!!
It's definitely the thing that has me the most interested. I've played many procedurally generated games now, but nothing on this scale. Can't even imagine the algorithms that would go into programming something like that.
 
# 43 ImTellinTim @ 01/23/14 03:19 PM
Their site is blocked at work.

Can someone tell me if this is going to release for Mac? I'm not going next gen console for at least another year. But I would definitely like to check this game out before then.
 
# 44 DivotMaker @ 01/23/14 03:24 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by ImTellinTim
Their site is blocked at work.

Can someone tell me if this is going to release for Mac? I'm not going next gen console for at least another year. But I would definitely like to check this game out before then.
Not at launch due to OSX not running DX11 and compute shaders. They said they might port a version on the Mac, but it won't look as good as the PC or consoles since they do run DX11 and compute shaders. I asked that question on their forums and that is what the Dev Rep told me. Glad I have XBox One and can run Win7 on my Mac using Parallels 9.....
 
# 45 OnlookerDelay @ 01/23/14 03:29 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by ImTellinTim
Their site is blocked at work.

Can someone tell me if this is going to release for Mac? I'm not going next gen console for at least another year. But I would definitely like to check this game out before then.
nm.... Tim beat me to it
 
# 46 bluengold34_OS @ 01/23/14 03:35 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by jmaj315
can you move the holes? And by that I mean, Can you spread the holes out so they aren't so close to each other?
and also, is it possible to play out of the wrong fairway? sometimes i shank it :P
From what I understand you can play your shot from anywhere as of right now. There currently is no designated out of bounds areas - but they will look into possibly implementing that at a later time.
 
# 47 jbd345 @ 01/23/14 03:36 PM
Count me in!! It'll be great to have a different golf game other than the old tiger series.
 
# 48 Maxflier @ 01/23/14 04:54 PM
Buying!
Can't believe such a good looking next gen golf game is right around the corner. Had no idea this was coming until now. Hopefully Golf Club isn't like Drive Club and actually comes out when they claim it will.

P.S. I also hope for a 3-click swing option.
 
# 49 DivotMaker @ 01/23/14 05:29 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Maxflier

P.S. I also hope for a 3-click swing option.
Not at initial release.....
 
# 50 Golf Clubber @ 01/23/14 06:40 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by jmaj315
can you move the holes? And by that I mean, Can you spread the holes out so they aren't so close to each other?
and also, is it possible to play out of the wrong fairway? sometimes i shank it :P
Yes, you can move the holes around. The size of the area available is equivalent to that of a typical real-world golf course. You can pick up a complete hole and move it to a different location in the area, re-angle doglegs, raise/lower terrain using brush-style tools, scale and rotate different shapes of traps, place objects, change time of day and lighting direction, you can even change theme in a couple of seconds for a completely different feel to a course you've made... and lots more
 
# 51 Golfsprince @ 01/23/14 08:55 PM
Hey guys,

I wrote an article about the game on Yardbarker (Nearly 1000 words) so feel free to check it out here!

So pumped for this game! Will definitely get it for the PC first while I wait until I can get a PS4. i like that they'll update features over time too. Very smart move especially after so many sports gamers complain about the yearly releases which haven't panned out well as of late.
 
# 52 thaSLAB @ 01/23/14 09:02 PM
Count me in!

Sent from my EVO using Tapatalk
 
# 53 LingeringRegime @ 01/23/14 09:09 PM
Spring 2014???

Attachment 72171
 
# 54 DivotMaker @ 01/24/14 09:20 AM
Not sure why you are so down on this game......another Golf developer is competing with EA (nonexistent for the time being) and I am pulling hard for these guys to pull off a good game. They don't have the resources of an EA SPORTS, but they do have a vision for what their game is going to look like. How many users complained about the DLC courses and lack of course creator for the Tiger series? Another HUGE PLUS is they are listening to the community and taking in the suggestions and responding to those suggestions. I do not expect them to come out with a fully featured PGA TOUR simulation right off the bat, but I do like the fact they are working on getting the CORE GAMEPLAY and main features done correctly before bringing other elements into the game moving forward. Plus they are going to have Open and Closed Beta tests which certainly gives me confidence they are intending to ship this game with their best foot forward. If EA had taken a similar approach, TW14 and previous versions would have been much better than they actually did. Not sure what is wrong with that approach.....

At the end of the day, don't buy it until if/when it meets your needs.....many of us what to help them build what we want, not simply what they want in the game....
 
# 55 HustlinOwl @ 01/24/14 09:26 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Seymour Scagnetti
Not too excited about this. While a course creator is something many of us have wanted, if that is what they're hanging their hat on then it could get dull quickly if there is nothing else to draw you into playing. If it has the feel like you're playing a practice round with no crowd reaction, no commentary, no graphic overlays etc....well how often did you play a practice round in TW? And we all complained that game had bad presentation but this game looks to have much less.

A good golf game with replay value needs a lot more than a course creator. You need good presentation, difficult gameplay and good physics and the fact that none of these features is really highlighted then that has me worried. And online is always a crap shoot and most sports games that have been around for years are usually a mess online and to expect a new Dev to have a problem free online set up is asking a bit much. And if the game is not difficult enough than you can have a million courses, it won't mean much if the best scores online are -20 every round because its too easy. And if TW really hasn't nailed the difficulty down after all these years that yield realistic scores online then do you really expect it to happen now?

There's no real career mode and combine that with bare bones presentation then I see the game getting dull pretty fast. Yeah there will be updates but how much can they really add to a career mode or presentation with updates but with no PGA license? You have to code those things in from the ground up, not as semi regular patches or updates.

A course creator is nice but if everything else is lacking which is a distinct possibility from the looks of things then its hard for me to see how you wouldn't be bored of this after a week.
Thats fine and all but highly doubt this game will retail for 60

Sent from my LG-L40G using Tapatalk
 
# 56 Skyboxer @ 01/24/14 09:47 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by HustlinOwl
Thats fine and all but highly doubt this game will retail for 60

Sent from my LG-L40G using Tapatalk
And every start up game has to start somewhere. It's not going to be a 10/10 game day 1.
I'm supporting them as we need another option(and a PC game!!) and if they continue to show improvement why wouldn't I support them.?.?
 
# 57 OnlookerDelay @ 01/24/14 03:50 PM
Check this out gang... apparently, HB Studios was to be the team who were going to code Tiger Woods PGA Tour 15 before EA Sports decided to cancel it:

"The team that had previously worked with EA Sports in the past on games like Madden NFL, FIFA Soccer and Tiger Woods PGA Tour was ready to get started working on the next Tiger Woods PGA title when they received word from Electronic Arts that the company wasn’t going to release a golf title in 2014. So, Wellard, Garcin and the rest of the Nova Scotia-based studio, filled with the urge to build a golf game, knew that the time was now to make a mark of their own in the sports gaming market. It was time to make a brand new, never-before-seen golf game for the, at the time, upcoming next-gen game consoles."

Here's a link to the full article:

http://gamesided.com/2014/01/24/step-inside-golf-club/
 
# 58 Lieutenant Dan @ 01/24/14 04:07 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by bluengold34_OS
From what I understand you can play your shot from anywhere as of right now. There currently is no designated out of bounds areas - but they will look into possibly implementing that at a later time.
Awesome. So I can play like I do in real life; from two fairways over

Quote:
Originally Posted by Seymour Scagnetti
Not too excited about this. While a course creator is something many of us have wanted, if that is what they're hanging their hat on then it could get dull quickly if there is nothing else to draw you into playing. If it has the feel like you're playing a practice round with no crowd reaction, no commentary, no graphic overlays etc....well how often did you play a practice round in TW? And we all complained that game had bad presentation but this game looks to have much less.
Seymour...you represent the Rage of the Golf Gamer and you have kicked EA's *** all over the planet, oftentimes for the better and you're so verbose about it that it probably worked, or at least made it to the board room for discussion and summary denial

However where this title is concerned, I am ALL over it. I will continue my never ending career on TW14 until the next TW game comes out, but in the meantime this game offers something else, a really cool alternative that could create a great OS (and others of course) golfing community where we share courses and hack divots into them!

I can curse out ODogg for that skinny fairway that doglegs right in between my club distances, Bob can curse me out for a cliff side 260 yard par 3 on a links course (heheh, it's coming!)...the design possibilities can bring out the designer (and designer troll) in all of us.

I am so onboard...I can see wasting two lifetimes just creating, testing, and tweaking courses. It's like a sandbox golf game and it looks FRICKIN' fun!
 
# 59 Golf Clubber @ 01/24/14 05:44 PM
There is a post about closed PC Beta testing now on the game's website... I can't post the link with being new on here... but definitely check it out!
 
# 60 OnlookerDelay @ 01/24/14 09:08 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Golf Clubber
There is a post about closed PC Beta testing now on the game's website... I can't post the link with being new on here... but definitely check it out!
Thanks clubber, I sent my request in this afternoon.
 


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