70 replies to this topic

[karma4u]

I thought this was a PP forum. However, there is, go to settings...click / mouse.save ....exit.....U are playing. True swing only.....

[Dazmaniac]

I thought this was a PP forum. However, there is, go to settings...click / mouse.save ....exit.....U are playing. True swing only.....

 

It is, but the topic was started in the General Discussion forum, which seems to allow discussions about genral topics, not necessarily PP related.

 

[deerhunter716]

Here are my impressions folks:

I have played roughly three rounds and started my first golf course.

Gameplay -

The gameplay is a bit clunky in my opinion. The only way to play is with a 360 or ps3 controller because playing with the mouse and keyboard is almost impossible. The game definitely does some things right. The putting and chipping is difficult, but sometimes does not respond correctly and also can be very difficult to judge. This however is an initial build. 

There are no hazard drops only a rehit which can be annoying when playing a course with a lot of water. There is also no out of bounds.

For me it is also difficult to take half or 3/4 swings. This is partially because the game is a little slow, but also because the controls seem to need a little tuning.

The game does not give you a good idea of the winds effect on the ball.

Uneven lies are not shown with any GUI that lets you know how much the ball will move. This however is rumored to be apart of the full game.

The game does allow for the fairways and greens to be different speeds which is great, but I would love to see a game incorporate the stimp meter.

 

Course Designer -

I am thoroughly impressed with the designer. You can easily create a course in a few hours and the designer is VERY EASY to use.

Pros - Easy to use, graphics are good, very easy to change elevations

Cons - Not fully custom like APCD which prevents you from making real courses, can be slow, limited settings and trees but more to come with the full game, only allows you place one pin per green.

 

Overall this game is very good and a blast to play. The game is going to be popular especially when it comes out with a final version. People who have never considered designing a golf course will easily be able to make a course in less than an hour. It is also really enjoyable playing other peoples courses. I am very happy I purchased the early release

Agreed - using mouse/kb here until I get a xbox 360 controller BUT this game has a ton of potential and is quite fun to play in this very early stage as is.  Once this is fully done and released I also think this will be very popular.  Having a blast so far.

[Barry]

I'm quite enjoying the game while the wait for PG continues

[Parboy]

I purchased it yesterday, loaded just fine, and played a few holes. Will give it a better look tonight.

[fran21356]

I'm not computer savy so I wanted to ask, do you have to go into Steam to launch PP or TGC and play or can I play the game  automatically without going into Steam first?

[MERACE]

It runs through Steam but I believe you can have a desktop shortcut to the game when you download it for the first time.

 

 

-MERACE

[fran21356]

Thank you!

[PurpleTurf]

Here are my impressions folks:

I have played roughly three rounds and started my first golf course.

Gameplay -

The gameplay is a bit clunky in my opinion. The only way to play is with a 360 or ps3 controller because playing with the mouse and keyboard is almost impossible. The game definitely does some things right. The putting and chipping is difficult, but sometimes does not respond correctly and also can be very difficult to judge. This however is an initial build. 

There are no hazard drops only a rehit which can be annoying when playing a course with a lot of water. There is also no out of bounds.

For me it is also difficult to take half or 3/4 swings. This is partially because the game is a little slow, but also because the controls seem to need a little tuning.

The game does not give you a good idea of the winds effect on the ball.

Uneven lies are not shown with any GUI that lets you know how much the ball will move. This however is rumored to be apart of the full game.

The game does allow for the fairways and greens to be different speeds which is great, but I would love to see a game incorporate the stimp meter.

 

Course Designer -

I am thoroughly impressed with the designer. You can easily create a course in a few hours and the designer is VERY EASY to use.

Pros - Easy to use, graphics are good, very easy to change elevations

Cons - Not fully custom like APCD which prevents you from making real courses, can be slow, limited settings and trees but more to come with the full game, only allows you place one pin per green.

 

Overall this game is very good and a blast to play. The game is going to be popular especially when it comes out with a final version. People who have never considered designing a golf course will easily be able to make a course in less than an hour. It is also really enjoyable playing other peoples courses. I am very happy I purchased the early release

Nailed it, nicely said.  I love the game, but hate the game at the same time.  Never swore so much over a 5 foot putt in any game, but marveled over the detail on the green contours and landing spots of the green.  If you play some of the user created tough courses you will see that you really have to pick your misses to the green.

[spikel]

I have to agree with mjhamilton and say that I love the game so far. I actually think the physics resemble World Golf Challenge 2010 (aka CPG 2) which used real data for the physics. Sometimes a wood going into a soft green does look a little off though. I applaud the developers for resisting a putting meter or any meters for gauging swing power, they seem to want their game to challenge players a little. Very happy with my purchase it is a lot of fun and the designer is so easy to use.

However, I will purchase PP day one and will no doubt love it. TGC is not directed at people who want turn based multiplayer, and so PP will satisfy that I am sure.

[Blackadar]

I've been playing PC golf games for longer than many folks have been alive. I started with Mean 18 for the XT back in 1986 and have been playing (and designing) since then. I had a large number of designs for JNSE, was one of the top 10 players on Cases Ladder for Links 97 and so forth. 

I've been waiting for a good golf game for years, ever since TW came on to the scene with it's gimmicks and chased every other golf game off the market by name recognition. It wasn't that bad, but it wasn't great either. 

So of course I bought The Golf Club, just because anyone who makes a PC golf game is getting my money. I want people to buy these games so I have more of them to play. It's been a long dry spell since we've had anything.

Yet I can't recommend this game at this time.

I love the swing. It generally works well, though I get some weird glitches sometimes where a swing will only go 54% (it's ALWAYS 54%) when it should be going 100%. But as a 3-click fan, I really like this swing meter. Putting and chipping are hard and need to be dialed in for feel. It feels too variable right now. I've had chips at 45% go 2 feet and the next chip at 55% go 30. That shouldn't happen. The physics can get wonky a bit but overall it's ok. But overall the control scheme - something crucial to a good golf sim - has oodles of potential. This is, of course, with an X-Box 360 controller. The mouse and keyboard controls are miserable. 

There are bugs to be found, of course. Like the 54% bug. Or numerous ones I encountered in a short time while trying to design a course (placing objects especially - they vanish and I don't know if they placed). The voice-overs try hard but are fairly dull and every approach outside of 10 feet is a "long way to the hole". There's never any excitement or emphasis put into the voice overs. They make Jim Nantz sound like Eminem they're so bland. But again, it's ok. I appreciate the effort. The refinement isn't there but that's to be expected. It's Early Access after all.

But what isn't acceptable is that it runs like an absolute dog. Even on low settings, it's so chunky it's giving me headaches. I don't have a top of the line computer. Just a Raedon 6750 1G DX11 card with an i5-2500K @ 3.30 GHz and 8GB of RAM. It's fine for pretty much everything except this game. I'd love 25-30 FPS, but I'm getting like 8-10. On low. And on low it doesn't look any better than Links 2003, but still runs horribly. I understand it needs optimization, but this is entirely unacceptable and pretty much unplayable because of the frame rate. I'm not one who requires 60FPS, but I need something that's at least smooth and The Golf Club isn't. As a result, until they optimize the engine so it doesn't require Deep Blue to run the game, I can't recommend it. If they do manage to get it so it's not a system-killer and get the mouse/keyboard controls working well enough to design a course, then it will have my wholehearted recommendation. 

To the devs, good luck and keep at it. It's almost there.

[shimonko]

I think I remember reading that even Joe was shocked (maybe early beta though), and his graphics card is four times the speed of yours. I'm running onboard graphics and although no-one should expect much from onboard graphics, I was still shocked how poorly TGC did perform. I think I was at 640x480 at low detail before it was acceptably smooth. My onboard graphics are pretty much top-of-the-line as far as onboard go too, about half the speed of your 6750.  At the resolution and detail I had to run it at, TW08 looks and plays far better on my pissy netbook @1280x720.

 

I just wonder how many people are similar to me in that they're golfers rather than gamers--firing up a golf game because of the love of golf rather than the love of video games, rarely playing other games so not investing in highend video cards,  consoles or gamepads.

 

Merge PP and HB together and there'd be one special game. Each seems to have what the other misses!

[Davefevs]

I think I remember reading that even Joe was shocked (maybe early beta though), and his graphics card is four times the speed of yours. I'm running onboard graphics and although no-one should expect much from onboard graphics, I was still shocked how poorly TGC did perform. I think I was at 640x480 at low detail before it was acceptably smooth. My onboard graphics are pretty much top-of-the-line as far as onboard go too, about half the speed of your 6750. At the resolution and detail I had to run it at, TW08 looks and plays far better on my pissy netbook @1280x720.

I just wonder how many people are similar to me in that they're golfers rather than gamers--firing up a golf game because of the love of golf rather than the love of video games, rarely playing other games so not investing in highend video cards, consoles or gamepads.

Merge PP and HB together and there'd be one special game. Each seems to have what the other misses!

I'm in your camp......play golf, love sport full stop. Play video games, but only PC golf or Football Manager.....all I'm doing is trying to be a pro golfer or a pro football manager, as in real life I ain't good enough! Therefore I'm not going to invest in a state of the art PC or laptop to play a couple of games when the main purpose of kit is email, web and MS Office.

I also have a budget for next laptop and that will probably only be able to get me intel hd 4400 onboard.

Really keen to support PP and buy PG, but worried that kit-wise I may be priced out!

Having said that, I've heard they want to run on Ipad, so must be some options to reduce settings????

[Kablammo11]

I'm not playing TGC because they don't do Mac. But hearing about their performance issues for a game that has a lot less graphic detail than PG will have is quite astounding. Either they really - and wrongly - assumed that everybody on this planet has a top-notch gaming PC at home or they are trying to create a game that works on PC and 4th gen consoles equally well - and the PC can't keep up.

 

What with the gamepad control (and no 3-Click), the theme-based course designer with limited features and all those gliding menus, I suspect that TGC is more of a console game and that the PC version is indeed a bit of step-child. Perhaps the game studios, no matter which one and for which game, need to stop dreaming about games that can span the PC-console-divide and understand that each of the two has different input devices, different GUIs and require different technologies to work well inside their own environment... that, in fact, the same game for different platforms needs to be two different games altogether.

 

As for those ghost balls and tracer lines, I mean, really.... that's just utterly lame. No excuse for that - but at least it gave me a mirthful little rofl moment.

[Acrilix]

@ k11 - I don't think HBS are too bothered about the PC performance for the long term. I know that I'm cynical, but I think they are just using the PC users as guinea pigs to test out the game before it hits the consoles. There are already many inconsistent issues among PC users, and I think that the devs will soon tire of having to throw resources at them once the console market is established. They will soon concentrate on this 'golden egg', and the PC version will be slowly forgotten about. Even if I'm wrong, and it is not their intent,  I still think it will happen. 

[PurpleTurf]

Game is good and fun.  Spent about 4 hours playing deep last night.  Exploring user created courses is fun and some are really great, close to 2000 made so far with sort options to pick through most played or highest rated.  Ton of bugs but Ive seen an update a day so far and seem to be ironing out some of the quick ones with tougher fixes probably coming later.

And yes you do need dedicated graphics to run this, and fairly powerful dedicated graphics.  Geforce 460 or higher or Radeon 6770 or higher.  Game runs smooth on mine and wouldnt be fun unless it did.  TGC is gonna kill themselves financially unless they optimize the graphics better, as they are making a game for only 20% of PC golfers than can manage system requirements.

[Sinewiz]

I'm not playing TGC because they don't do Mac. But hearing about their performance issues for a game that has a lot less graphic detail than PG will have is quite astounding. Either they really - and wrongly - assumed that everybody on this planet has a top-notch gaming PC at home or they are trying to create a game that works on PC and 4th gen consoles equally well - and the PC can't keep up.

 

What with the gamepad control (and no 3-Click), the theme-based course designer with limited features and all those gliding menus, I suspect that TGC is more of a console game and that the PC version is indeed a bit of step-child. Perhaps the game studios, no matter which one and for which game, need to stop dreaming about games that can span the PC-console-divide and understand that each of the two has different input devices, different GUIs and require different technologies to work well inside their own environment... that, in fact, the same game for different platforms needs to be two different games altogether.

 

As for those ghost balls and tracer lines, I mean, really.... that's just utterly lame. No excuse for that - but at least it gave me a mirthful little rofl moment.

I couldn't agree more. Its been obvious from the get go that TGC is a console game that can also be played on a PC. (somewhat). I had originally planned on buying a copy for both my PS4 and for my PC but my plans have since changed. I'll still be picking up a copy for my console but will bide my time for my PC golf fix until PP is completed.

[Dazmaniac]

@ k11 - I don't think HBS are too bothered about the PC performance for the long term. I know that I'm cynical, but I think they are just using the PC users as guinea pigs to test out the game before it hits the consoles. There are already many inconsistent issues among PC users, and I think that the devs will soon tire of having to throw resources at them once the console market is established. They will soon concentrate on this 'golden egg', and the PC version will be slowly forgotten about. Even if I'm wrong, and it is not their intent,  I still think it will happen. 

 

I'm with you Lez.

 

IMO, the initial testing is being thrashed out on the PC, whilst they try to get the contracts with Microsoft and Sony sorted for the console versions of the game. Once these are done, I see the main focus switching to consoles and the PC seeing token updates, whilst development time is thrown at the consoles.

[GolferMike]

The Golf Club is a very good golf game and it is still in beta it will be a great golf game in full version you do need a some what good pc to run it I have no problems running on high with my HP radeon hd 5700 16gb ram intel i7 930 3ghz and it does play better with a controller and it does seem to made for consoles but I think the full version will hit pc first and go to consoles and I will get PG when it comes out but I think that will be a very long time I mean come on how long have they been working on PG and they still can't give some kind of REAL time frame of when this may be out IF EVER very hard to buy into and with all the golf fans that are waiteing???