The Golf Club News Post

The Golf Club: Early Access Impressions

05:07 PM - May 5, 2014 by RaychelSnr

For those who have been keeping tabs on the new golf game from HB Studios, The Golf Club, you know that the game has entered into the early access phase on Steam. It's a glorified open beta test, but the idea is to allow any and all users who are interested to try the game in its current state, and relay back to the studios what they like, or don�t like.

As someone who has been lucky enough to play the game from its initial closed beta stage to the most current open access stage of 0.31, I am happy to report the improvements keep coming. While the general individual improvements are smaller in nature, when one adds them all up, they show what this game is capable of when the final retail build drops later this spring.

Read More - The Golf Club: Early Access Impressions

Game: The Golf ClubReader Score: 8/10 - Vote Now
Platform: PC / PS4 / Xbox OneVotes for game: 7 - View All

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Member Comments

# 1 kamackeris76 @ 05/06/14 04:56 PM

i have not had chance to play the beta as i'm xbox one but am so looking forward to this game more than any other....my big worry though is that on every video i have seen it looks like it is so easy tee to green keeping shots straight

# 2 ty5oke @ 05/06/14 06:39 PM

I have found the game fairly simple so far.

One thing I don't like is that you can alter your shot technique (loft) to pinpoint exactly where you want to land the ball. I wish the landing yardage didn't change based on the loft change, I want to have to calculate that myself and have it as feel.

# 3 kamackeris76 @ 05/06/14 07:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ty5oke


	I have found the game fairly simple so far. One thing I don't like is that you can alter your shot technique (loft) to pinpoint exactly where you want to land the ball. I wish the landing yardage didn't change based on the loft change, I want to have to calculate that myself and have it as feel.

This right here is exactly what I did not want to hear .....the game needs to be a challenge

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk

# 4 FBPro @ 05/06/14 07:27 PM

Any word on when it's gonna drop on next gen?

# 5 OnlookerDelay @ 05/06/14 09:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FBPro


	Any word on when it's gonna drop on next gen?

IGN has 6/30/14 listed, but I think that's more of a place holder than anything else. I have a hunch that HBS is hitting some serious road blocks to their plans for not only cross platform play, but cross platform content sharing to boot, and that's accounting for some of the delay, at least.

# 6 kamackeris76 @ 05/07/14 08:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by OnlookerDelay


	IGN has 6/30/14 listed, but I think that's more of a place holder than anything else. I have a hunch that HBS is hitting some serious road blocks to their plans for not only cross platform play, but cross platform content sharing to boot, and that's accounting for some of the delay, at least.

onlooker.....what are your opinions on this title ?? i assume you have played the beta?? i know you were big on TW so i would really love to hear your opinion. are my concerns about difficulty justified??? i am so looking forward to this i can just get by with only sharing with the xbox community....would love to get involved with an online tour too !!

# 7 DaveMN @ 05/07/14 12:35 PM

I've been enjoying the user-generated courses and have dabbled a bit with creating my own (Lofty Pines v1). Some aspects of gameplay need tweaks, but it's an early access, and is still a lot of fun to play at this stage.

Here's one tip I read on the official forum that's helped with the putting. Move the aiming stick back on uphill putts and forward on downhill. For example, if the hole is 5 ft away and 3 inches uphill, move the marker back to 8 ft, then left/right accordingly. Then use the right putting stroke that feels right. Using this technique, I'm lagging better and reducing the number of putts that go 20 ft past the hole and off the green! Maybe this was obvious to other folks, but it wasn't for me.

# 8 OnlookerDelay @ 05/07/14 11:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kamackeris76


	onlooker.....what are your opinions on this title ?? i assume you have played the beta?? i know you were big on TW so i would really love to hear your opinion. are my concerns about difficulty justified??? i am so looking forward to this i can just get by with only sharing with the xbox community....would love to get involved with an online tour too !!

I’m trying to avoid forming a half-baked opinion on the game, but right now, the only phase of the game that is pretty close to snuff is the putting. It’s too easy to hit the ball straight, control your distance with the pre shot loft, draw, and fade setup, and the pitching game is like a game from another universe, one in which you can become superhuman and put as much backspin on a short pitch shot as you want… even from rough. In fact, the pitching game is so precise and easy to dial in that it renders most chip and flop/explosion shots null & void. You can impose house rules on yourself and not use them, but if you’re trying to compete with ghost or live balls, you’ll see that you are severely handicapping yourself.

I couldn’t recommend this game right now to anyone who wasn’t an experimenter and fully understood that they’re getting a fairly raw product. OTOH, I think it is on its way to being a much better game, as the designers are making some changes in the right direction based on feedback. I think they are a little bit overly paranoid about making the game too difficult and they’re going to have to look at the numbers people are posting and realize that it's not too difficult. They’re really got to get a realistic pitching game going for this game to have a chance. I’m enjoying toying around with it and seeing the courses people are creating, but it’s not something I’d play more than an hour and a half in its current state.

# 9 RD_Rabin @ 05/08/14 01:21 PM

Microsoft have always been very anti-cross platform gameplay. They usually insist games use their servers, which is why games like FFXIV refuse to release on their consoles.

Hope they're not sticking their oar into TGC too and messing it up.

Jus' sayin..

# 10 rolltide1017 @ 05/08/14 03:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by OnlookerDelay


	I’m trying to avoid forming a half-baked opinion on the game, but right now, the only phase of the game that is pretty close to snuff is the putting. It’s too easy to hit the ball straight, control your distance with the pre shot loft, draw, and fade setup, and the pitching game is like a game from another universe, one in which you can become superhuman and put as much backspin on a short pitch shot as you want… even from rough. In fact, the pitching game is so precise and easy to dial in that it renders most chip and flop/explosion shots null & void. You can impose house rules on yourself and not use them, but if you’re trying to complete with ghost of live balls, you’ll see that you are severely handicapping yourself. I couldn’t recommend this game right now to anyone who wasn’t an experimenter and fully understood that they’re getting a fairly raw product. OTOH, I think it is on its way to being a much better game, as the designers are making some changes in the right direction based on feedback. I think they are a little bit overly paranoid about making the game too easy and they’re going to have to look at the numbers people are posting and realize that’s not too difficult. They’re really got to get a realistic pitching game going for this game to have a chance. I’m enjoying toying around with it and seeing the courses people are creating, but it’s not something I’d play more than an hour and a half in its current state.

I trust your opinion, our opinions on the TW series were always pretty close, and this is not what I wanted to hear. I feared it was turning out this way based on the user videos I've watched, almost everything is a straight shot.

# 11 Bamafan3723 @ 05/14/14 10:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by allstardad


	Excuse my ignorance but how does one get to play the early access beta version?

Purchase it off Steam.

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The Golf Club: Early Access Impressions