Rodster wrote:JC does TGC 2019 look better than TGC 2?
Based on the limited assets they had in use for the Stress Test beta, I'd give it an overall nod over TGC 2. I wasn't as stunned as to how much better it looked as I thought I'd be, but my impression is they've opted for a SpeedTree LOD that's a bit modest, in the interest of attaining a higher frame rate performance, and the result is that the trees - in general - don't look as good to me as those of TGC 2.
HBS received a lot of feedback about this during the beta and I'm sure they'll react to it in some manner. There was also a sort of washed out look to the game that a number of testers saw, including myself, and HBS responded to that criticism with the fact that they haven't done a final lighting pass on the game yet. That will no doubt help it out and erase my concern there.
The light and heavy rough textures looked better, as do the the bunker textures. If your ball rolls in the bunkers now, it leaves a trail behind it that looks very convincing. I like seeing the divots flying on approach shots. They've also got on offset, opponent view camera option that I think is going to add some immersion to the game. If I've got turn base play enabled, I lose my third party playing perspective, watching my playing companions play their shots from their swing camera perspective.... I'm not playing the shot, they are and I shouldn't be seeing what their seeing at that point, IMO. The angles need some expansion for that as they have you standing at like a 60 to 70 degree perspective, rather than a 30 to 40 degree perspective behind them. It sounds like some changes and additional options are coming there.
TGC 2019 plays so much better than TGC 2 in the rough and chipping game play. Both of these phases are very realistic now. The rough shot distance penalties are more realistic and I can take my intuition into playing rough shots now rather than knowing I'll have chop it back into play. Chip shots roll out without a hint of a false "checking chip" like we get now 10 to 15% of the time in TGC 2. It's also easier to hit a chip shot offline, scuff it, or pop it up, depending on your tempo and swing path errors... I totally loved the way this played out.
The normal shot swing difficulty was too easy, overall. I find it easier to make a larger array of tempo errors with the swing, but the penalties for the tempo errors are not what they should be here. It's also just as easy, if not easier, to keep the club in a non-punitive swing path, even with the harder clubs, now called "Masters" instead of "Tour" clubs. HBS got a lot of feedback on this also, and they've indicated tuning for it is in the works.