463 replies to this topic

[nightowl]

From the TGC2Forum:

Confirmed Categories
General: (this section includes items that either do not fit into the other two, or fit in both of the other two)
Engine upgrade from Unity 4 to Unity 5
Character Customization (the whole 9 yards)
New customization clothes (color wheel for 3 preset options: primary, secondary, and something else)
Societies
Upgraded UI (User Interface)
Upgraded overall graphics
Multiple Pins and Tees (belongs to both gameplay and designer)

Gameplay:
3 new tempo based swing options: Tour (hard), Pro (medium), Rookie (easiest) (names may be incorrect)
Short game has been reworked including chipping, flopping, pitching
New practice areas: driving range and putting green (for both putting and chipping)
Updated golfer animations
Updated club selection (what goes in your bag) with added clubs to choose from
Uphill/Downhill lies
Bunker Plugging massively reduced
% removed from post shot information
Practice swing - giving percentage and swing info

Designer:
Waterfalls
Water at any level via water brush
New items such as fencing, walls, bridges
expandable brushes
cart path tool now works with all textures

[JCat04]

John,in your opinion, if you happen to know or can make an educated guess, why do you think Anthony finally capitulated and allowed more difficulty options, ball physics upgrades, etc.? He had always dug in his heels and insisted on maintaining a "level playing field". I doubt there was ever a developer as stubborn.

 

Anthony has parted company with HBS, but he had capitulated on difficulty options well before he left.  I don't know for sure why he did, but I suspect it was a combination of factors.  First of all, I think he came to the realization that TGC 1's swing interface wasn't challenging enough for the upper two tiers of players who play the game.  Anthony acknowledged the feedback they got about the one level fits all philosophy and eventually responded to it, to his credit.

 

Secondly, he found a method to introduce difficulty levels without really calling it difficulty levels.  I'm not sure how much of that method has already been publicly disclosed, so I'll leave it be until I know more about what I can say.  It's a bit of a new wrinkle and I like the approach, but others I'm sure will not.  I'll say more about it after I've done a little more homework on it.

[RobV]

Play it or don't play it... in a time when golf titles are limited and there's no major title to play and purchase, we should be happy there are at least something available.  

[DoGgs]

Well with AK gone they may well have pulled it off, with all due respect i don't think he was a golf man.  BTW how is Jon eric holding up? he must be heart broken now AK has gone, what a strange infatuation that was 

I can't see me playing it to be honest even if they have pulled it off, i don't like the textures, i don't like the feel of the enviroment, the scale always felt off in TGC, any different in TGC 2? I don't think i could subject myself to courses with over sized too numerous bunkers that have to be viewable from every tee, players over there lap up courses like this, but it's just a design trick to make a hole pop, totally unrealistic! and considering i would never use GNCD again, i would have to play these types of courses.  They will never have heightmaps either, i created TPC boston over there and it was the most painful experience, simply not worth all the work involved.  I'm not really playing PG much these days either, i'm playing motorsport manager and having a blast, big fan of driving games in general.  All in all i will be sticking with PG's snail pace progress and see what it brings.

[3199E5kennetharry]

Mac users won't be playing it as we can't get it.

So PP look after us please.

[Jperkules]

This game looks promising for me to play on PS4 with the career mode and more difficult swing. 

For simulator use, I plan on using Perfect Golf.  Why?  Because of height maps.

As I construct my home courses, that takes long enough as it is, and there is no way I want to worry about the height variances, and there is no way I would be able to get them accurate. 

Also, in playing the great real life courses, I don't trust anybody else to get them accurate without height maps either. 

[Drgnslyr221]

I'll probably buy it and make a couple of courses out of sheer loyalty to the PC golf market that needs all the help it can get. Don't see me liking the gameplay as much as JNPG, but who knows.

[Dazmaniac]

Likely a PS4 purchase for me (along with Everybody's Golf) if the game is as big a step up from TGC as is being hinted at. Currently £25.85 at www.base.com

 

If it's no good it can get traded in at my local Gamestation.

PC Golf will be JNPG.

[nightowl]

Any thoughts on today's TGC2 live stream, if you watched it?

[mebby]

I watched as much as I could but I got interrupted by a conference call in the middle. The lighting looked good (although it has some warts that I understand they are still working on) and the character creator was far more robust that I expected. It's really hard to gauge the gameplay of any golf game from a video so I won't really even attempt to pass judgement yet other than to say that the flop still seems to easy to execute. But it's the same way in JNPG so maybe it turns out not to be a big deal.

I fear with the robustness of the character creator that maybe TOO much time was spent on that and not enough time was spent making the swing better but there's no real way to even opine on that without getting my hands on it so I'll just wait and see.

[nightowl]

I saw some of it, too. Did they say what difficulty level they were playing at?

[DoGgs]

Still hating the carpet textures, and those bunker lips could give you a nasty paper cut, awful design flaw...not for me.

[mebby]

I saw some of it, too. Did they say what difficulty level they were playing at?

One was playing on the medium difficulty (using Player clubs) and the other was playing on the most difficult level (using Tour clubs). It seemed to me like the swing was fairly forgiving but it's hard to tell from a video.

[nightowl]

Still hating the carpet textures, and those bunker lips could give you a nasty paper cut, awful design flaw...not for me.

The clouds look good, the water looks good and the terrain around it, but, yes, I agree about the pool table textures and the bunkers. Also, is every TGC course designed using the same angle of light?

[nightowl]

One was playing on the medium difficulty (using Player clubs) and the other was playing on the most difficult level (using Tour clubs). It seemed to me like the swing was fairly forgiving but it's hard to tell from a video.

OK, thanks. I wasn't sure.

[Crow357]

What are societies?

[nightowl]

Well, I watched a replay of the stream. I thought for sure I'd order this game. But now I'm undecided. Something about it just doesn't feel organic. Hard to put my finger on it.

[Dazmaniac]

Well, I watched a replay of the stream. I thought for sure I'd order this game. But now I'm undecided. Something about it just doesn't feel organic. Hard to put my finger on it.

 

Felt the same way and have cancelled my pre-order for PS4. I hope those that buy it and play it enjoy it, but I won't be one of them.

[Buck]

Well - I found that pretty unimpressive and am really rather underwhelmed, at least right now.

I was never in the pre-order camp so I'll just have to do the purchase/test/possible refund route w/ Steam I think.

 

The lighting looks great, graphics are great/good/meh, just depending upon what we are looking at (or not).

 

I am totally disappointed about:

 

- The bunkers got basically no love and have the awful edges still

- The loft meter grid thing is essentially the same/there - I hate that thing and concept I stand corrected - It was adjusted a lot.

- Despite the new avatars, something still looks "off" on some shots.  My main example is when they are chipping - The swing just doesn't look like a chip.  I can't figure it out, but it looks "off" - It's all I can think to describe it.

- Despite one guy playing on the hardest mode, man there was a ton of "perfect/perfect" swings basically just firing right at the target with little concern.  Maybe this one isn't fair and these guys are amazing since they work on the game all the time - no idea.  My one thing I wanted from TGC 2 was a level of play that was compelling over the long term and I am now super skeptical that something like that is coming.

 

All of this being said - The swing and challenge and feel are absolutely the hardest to judge from a video and the NDA still isn't lifted so we can't hear what Divot or JC think nor have I actually played it, so I'll try to keep the mind open.

 

That said - I think my long term feel of this really being TGC 1.5 with more social/avatar stuff is basically accurate, which disappoints me.

 

C'mon 3D grass & updates in PP!  We need you!

It's our only hope for a challenging game of golf in the long term I think.

 

P.S. - I think we just saw why they waited so long to show any gameplay - There isn't much to see that "wows" just looking at it if you'd seen/played TGC1.  One must get hands on TGC 2 which makes it pretty frustrating there's no demo (on consoles for example).

[Buck]

Checking in to HB forums, it looks like even their own crowd has plenty of complaints.

 

1.  FPS "hopefully" will be 30fps on Consoles

2.  No specific Scorpio or PS4 Pro optimization (huge bummer and mistake)

3.  Lighting still not working right w/ avatars with under a month to go (yikes)

4.  Lots of concerns about many areas of play still being too easy

5.  Regarding #4, plenty of people noticed that even the hardest swing still seems to be on some form of rails where even a bad bad swing still isn't nearly as bad as it should be.