I think it boils down to the goals of the game from the outset and what compromises are willing to be made in regard to the original vision compared to sales you might make. I can tell you at PP we had zero interested in making an arcade game that would probably have sold more and got better reviews and to be honest our arcade game would probably have sucked anyway because we have limited experience in what they are all about anyway.
TGC set out to make a fairly easy to play pleasant game with an easy to use but limited course design program which would create maximum sales on all platforms. They did a pretty decent job with that goal in mind. They had more experienced graphics guys than us and so their UI, avatar and lighting was better and none of that was surprising. The thing is when I look at their graphics now and in this upcoming game they have, they simply have not moved on IMO apart from a slightly better avatar and hairstyle system
I do know that every single update we have made to PG was to make it a better and more realistic experience and while we were learning as we went our knowledge and skillset got better and better as we worked more on it.
We didn't court publicity like HB studios did, We didn't not have any contacts in the game industry or online magazines and we had no idea how to get them. We went into the whole PG experience with half the knowledge we really needed to make the game a complete success.
Over the last 5 year though it has been a success but our roots are still mainly planted in the real golf game which we try and simulate and not a fictional arcade world which HB produce which sells at higher volumes and will sell even more with their new PGA license. We still have virtually no gaming contacts now but our integration with virtually every facet of the real golf world is pretty much complete. When you load up the PGA webcasts you will still be seeing PG graphics and not the HB studios ones because they and we know the accuracy and physics as well as our shotlink integration are currently the best out there. We're still trying to make them better.
I have previously purchased and played buth TGC 1 and 2 and I'll buy this one too but I'm not expecting anything but more of the same . I'm not actually sure why ADX doesn't come here more often as I'm 100% sure that we are actually trying to make the exact game that he wants to play but we're just not there yet!
Mike,
I've ALWAYS respected your course design history, enjoyed our back and forth back in the PGA Champ/Links days, and do appreciate your input. I even LOVED the idea of you monetizing your courses and would like all designers to be able to do so.
The reason I don't play your game is very simple. It looks and feels like Links to me, and I stopped accepting Links the moment PGA Championship Golf came out. I only want to use a controller swing and I just don't "feel" like I'm doing anything that I can see on the screen. With that said, I don't feel that way about TGC anymore either with their idiotic tempo butcher job (side bar, did you know there's only one tempo possible to hit good golf shots? I'm a +1 handicap and have been around scratch my entire life and this was news to me! I hope HB doesn't get someone to take Nick Price's trophies and winnings back because he had what they'd consider a "fast fast" tempo and he'd hook everything and give up the game).
When I load up your game I feel like the Links days, I'm looking at an avatar that's being popped in to a post card and I do some things to make him move but I'm not really "inside the post card". I don't know if that makes sense, but that's the barrier. And the putting engine, I really don't like how it works or feels.
But you knocked some things out of the park - the look of bunkers is the best we've seen, the mp interface is great, and the stats are awesome. I do think your highest level of difficulty is a bit artificially difficult but that's why there are different levels.
This isn't intended as a jab and I don't think saying there are Links similarities is an opinion that isn't accepted by most (and loved). I've got a hole where a golf game needs to be that will not be filled by the next TGC game and even have this in my basement for one that doubles as a sim. If you do pull out PG2 and I can feel immersed, I'll buy (and I did buy PG despite being pretty confident I wouldn't like it)