HB Studios Next-Gen golf game: The Golf Club

[Aristo]

I was pretty unimpressed with the very little bit I played last night. For one, it crashed twice on me, both times due to the network conning out.

The first time was during the tutorial, and I finally had to go back to the console dash and quit out because it was hung up. When I went back, I loaded up a coursecto give it a try, a TGC official course, and it crashed after my second shot, again because it lost connection to the server. I don't know why a single player game needed the network so much.

I'm also pretty annoyed that they left in the moronic commentary guy. He sounds awful, and says really dumb stuff. It just sounds cheap. Will be turning that crap off.

I thought it looked good, but it made RMPGAT's pop in look like nothing. The shadows would radically change as the ball was in flight. This isn't a big deal, but it's pretty clear they have no idea how to optimize for consoles.

I'm going to give it another go, and hopefully find a nice balance, and hope the network stuff was just first day jitters. My network was fine. I even checked it via the console, and it was the usual 130 Mbps down. And the game of Madden I played after was smooth and perfect.

Honestly, this just increases the odds I keep my PS4 around, because Sony's new Everybody Loves Golf looks like a stunningly beautiful and polished game of golf, albeit more of the arcade variety.

Maybe it will play better on the XOX.

[RobVarak]

I'm also pretty annoyed that they left in the moronic commentary guy. He sounds awful, and says really dumb stuff. It just sounds cheap. Will be turning that crap off.

Wow, I thought the commentary was one of the cooler, more refreshing parts of TGC. I do wish they had added some elements to his repertoire, bc it does mostly sound the same as the last game though.

[Danimal]

Game is getting pretty universal positive reviews around the internet today. Can't wait to try it tonight, love that is sounds challenging something lacking from EA offerings for years.

[pk500]

I'm also pretty annoyed that they left in the moronic commentary guy. He sounds awful, and says really dumb stuff. It just sounds cheap. Will be turning that crap off.

Wow, I thought the commentary was one of the cooler, more refreshing parts of TGC. I do wish they had added some elements to his repertoire, bc it does mostly sound the same as the last game though.

Agree with Rob. We LOVE snarky Canadian John in this household. His regular-round commentary is identical to TGC 1 -- wish there were a few new lines. But I read where he provides new, much more conventional, polished commentary in the Tour mode of TGC 2.

[Diablo25]

I'm also pretty annoyed that they left in the moronic commentary guy. He sounds awful, and says really dumb stuff. It just sounds cheap. Will be turning that crap off.

Wow, I thought the commentary was one of the cooler, more refreshing parts of TGC. I do wish they had added some elements to his repertoire, bc it does mostly sound the same as the last game though.

Agree with Rob. We LOVE snarky Canadian John in this household. His regular-round commentary is identical to TGC 1 -- wish there were a few new lines. But I read where he provides new, much more conventional, polished commentary in the Tour mode of TGC 2.

Co signed. You can always turn him off

[Aristo]

Yeah, he is like nails on the chalkboard for me. Like trying to play golf with a d***** that just won't shut up. And yeah, nothing is better for me.

But that is also just another ding. But I guess that's part of the price of the game being $40. They go cheap with every bit of licensing. I don't need TV commentary and presentation. I don't even need a real life person. Just anybody that actually gets paid for lending their voice to a project. So instead I will play with silence, and that kind of sucks.

I expected less jankiness, and learning that voice in seems to be a gift for those that decided to embrace that "little developer makes good" jankiness that was part of the "charm" of the first game.

On the plus side, I think it looks great. The pop-in is pretty bad, but that was an issue in RMPGAT, too. I think the sound is fine. I like the feel of the play tee to green. I think it may end up playing a solid game of golf and the social features and career progress features will help give it a rounded out feel sorely missing from RMPGAT. But I expected more polish from them in their second outing.

We'll see on putting. The little I did in the tutorial was pretty dreadful. Hopefully I can get a feel for it.

But I can't get over how little they seem to care about the console version of their game. This is the biggest reason I'm now looking forward to Everybody Loves Golf. I don't play early access games. I rarely play demos. I'll let others help devs nail down their games. TGC2 still feels like an early access game that I'm paying to help fix.

[Diablo25]

BTW, LOVE the driving range and chipping area.

[Danimal]

I don't play early access games. I rarely play demos. I'll let others help devs nail down their games. TGC2 still feels like an early access game that I'm paying to help fix.

Honest question, why did you buy this game? You didn't like the first one and preferred Rory over it. You've stated in the past you like licensed courses and golfers etc, even complained about TGC's user made courses. With the number of pre-release videos and twitch streams. that should of told you everything you needed to know about buying this game.

I mean honestly, did you think the commentary in those videos was somehow going to magically change in the release version?

[J_Cauthen]

I also like John's commentary and never get tired of it. He changes is tone to a more subdued, TV golf broadcast announcer when you're playing in Society tournaments. He does a great job to taking on that persona, IMO. I like having both styles in the game!

[pk500]

Played a round at lunch on Scrublands, and the framerate was MUCH smoother. So I'm not sure what happened last night, whether the course I selected wasn't optimized or whether the servers were getting pounded.

But I'm much happier now. The only bummer was that I gave up four strokes on the final two holes, dropping from minus-4 to even at the end of the round.

[pk500]

Question: How do I find or import my favorite courses from TGC 1? Is that possible?

[AcemanPR]

I finished up my first round and shot a stellar 91! Then I started my 2nd round and start off birdie-birdie (lipped out my eagle putt on #2), and go on to shoot a +6 42. Not sure what clubs you all are playing with, but if you are shooting Even with Tour clubs, then I better get to the practice facility!

I am really enjoying this game, it really feels like golf! I was getting in a groove driving the ball, then got complacement and sliced one badly to the right. I sculled a chip shot, failed to get a shot out of a bunker, missed a couple 4 foot putts. It really feels like it is me playing golf in real life!

Haven't experienced any disconnects and I turned off a couple graphical features and didn't experience any framerate drops. Also applied for the DSP Society.

Overall, I am very pleased with TGC2, can't wait to try out some additional courses.

[Aristo]

I don't play early access games. I rarely play demos. I'll let others help devs nail down their games. TGC2 still feels like an early access game that I'm paying to help fix.

Honest question, why did you buy this game? You didn't like the first one and preferred Rory over it. You've stated in the past you like licensed courses and golfers etc, even complained about TGC's user made courses. With the number of pre-release videos and twitch streams. that should of told you everything you needed to know about buying this game.

I mean honestly, did you think the commentary in those videos was somehow going to magically change in the release version?

Short answer, yes.

I thought they would have new commentary. I don't remember the commentary being on during the videos. I certainly didn't think it would just be copy and pasted over from the last year's. But I already said I will just turn it off. It will be like playing Links in the olden days. I knew that was a possibility when I pre-ordered it. But its still a part of the game I really don't like. Others do, so I guess it's part of the charm that misses the mark for me.

I also thought the game would not be an unstable mess because of an over reliance on a network they don't have locked down. I thought that after the first game, they would have a better understanding of getting it to run on consoles. But I was also beginning to regret pre-ordering it as I started to realize they were basically hiding the the console versions, and that they courses ran off of network instead of being large files on your hard drive.

I thought the game looked significantly better from the trailers and such, and the biggest thing I missed from RMPGAT was the lack of Country Clubs. Societies looked like a great version of that, so that if the game played well, I could overlook some of that stuff. And that may end up holding true.

Seriously, all I have played on the tees was two shots. I hit a nice drive, then on my second shot, it crashed due to a network error. It didn't crash to the dashboard, just ended the round. But that was after a crash due to a network error froze the game during the tutorial section, which forced me to restart the game. I don't expect that to be a constant problem going forward, but that second crash, at 12:30 at night, was enough to force me to move on and play something else.

So if that clears up, the putting is fine, and the gameplay is fun, then I see the career and social play as being something I will like going forward. The idea of playing in an online league or even just some regular tourneys would be enough to overlook a lot of the issues I have. It was $40, and preordering meant bounces that let you level up sooner.

[Aristo]

I also like John's commentary and never get tired of it. He changes is tone to a more subdued, TV golf broadcast announcer when you're playing in Society tournaments. He does a great job to taking on that persona, IMO. I like having both styles in the game!

Honestly, if that's the case, I may be totally fine with the commentary.

[Teal]

Playing now, and not noticing any chugging. The pop in is still there, but maybe the framerate stuff was just bogged down new car smell stuff last night. On another note, I really, REALLY suck. Lol

[J_Cauthen]

I've got the DSP Society created on the PC version now. I tried to model Vader's color schemes and shield to give it a familiar franchise flavor, but I can't get the crossed clubs to appear in the foreground... they're behind the shield and I can't get them out! Can you coach me a bit on how you did that Vader?

Also, I have a one day, 18 hole DSP tournament set for today at Dunholme Manor. It's a TGC 2 showcase course, IMHO!

Oh, there is no password... all you have to do is request to join than the admin will accept your application. I'll be gone tonight from like 5:50 to 8:30 PM EDT, so I won't be around to accept requests in that time frame.

[J_Cauthen]

Question: How do I find or import my favorite courses from TGC 1? Is that possible?

You can't import them yourself. The creator of the TGC 1 course has to manually publish the course from TGC 1 to TGC 2. It gives them a chance to make minor changes to the course, which in some case are really needed. What I do is search for my favorite courses from TGC 1 by name in the course search screen. I found that Dunholme Manor has now been published in TGC 2 that way... you'll want to go out of your way to play that course, BTW!

[DivotMaker]

I'm also pretty annoyed that they left in the moronic commentary guy. He sounds awful, and says really dumb stuff. It just sounds cheap. Will be turning that crap off.

Wow, I thought the commentary was one of the cooler, more refreshing parts of TGC. I do wish they had added some elements to his repertoire, bc it does mostly sound the same as the last game though.

Agree with Rob. We LOVE snarky Canadian John in this household. His regular-round commentary is identical to TGC 1 -- wish there were a few new lines. But I read where he provides new, much more conventional, polished commentary in the Tour mode of TGC 2.

Keep playing, there is quite a bit more commentary in this game versus TGC1 according to John HB....I've heard a number of new lines in Beta...

[DivotMaker]

I've got the DSP Society created on the PC version now. I tried to model Vader's color schemes and shield to give it a familiar franchise flavor, but I can't get the crossed clubs to appear in the foreground... they're behind the shield and I can't get them out! Can you coach me a bit on how you did that Vader?

Also, I have a one day, 18 hole DSP tournament set for today at Dunholme Manor. It's a TGC 2 showcase course, IMHO!

Oh, there is no password... all you have to do is request to join than the admin will accept your application. I'll be gone tonight from like 5:50 to 8:30 PM EDT, so I won't be around to accept requests in that time frame.

I will join as soon as I get back home and fire the game up Friday after installing my new WiFi system and reinstalling Win 10....

[AcemanPR]

On another note, I really, REALLY suck. Lol

Woot, someone else is in my club!

[J_Cauthen]

I posted earlier that Dunholme Manor was found in my course search on the PC. I searched for it on the XBox One version to see how well it translated there, but it came up empty. The creator of that course (Han) was on PC, so it must not have migrated over yet. There was a migration period for cross-platform courses in TGC 1, so this isn't unusual. Sorry for not issuing that stipulation earlier.

On another note, the PC version just lost connection to the server and is continuing to tell me I need to reconnect... although it won't let me. Reminds me a bit of TGC 1, although I don't quite recall it being this bad.

[Danimal]

I've got the DSP Society created on the PC version now. I tried to model Vader's color schemes and shield to give it a familiar franchise flavor, but I can't get the crossed clubs to appear in the foreground... they're behind the shield and I can't get them out! Can you coach me a bit on how you did that Vader?

Also, I have a one day, 18 hole DSP tournament set for today at Dunholme Manor. It's a TGC 2 showcase course, IMHO!

Oh, there is no password... all you have to do is request to join than the admin will accept your application. I'll be gone tonight from like 5:50 to 8:30 PM EDT, so I won't be around to accept requests in that time frame.

I'll join tonight but with just me, you and Tim i expect to come in 3rd every round

On a real golf note I'm going for my first professional fitting Friday afternoon and I'm super pumped. This is steps beyond going to your local pro or golf Galaxy. I'm going to be monitored like a cyborg and hit balls for hours. I have to allow 4-6 hours for the whole process and I can't even imagine what the clubs will cost as the session is $350.

[Teal]

I do hope they address the connection drops sooner than later. That'll get frustrating quickly. Otherwise, I like this game of golf much more than the EA offerings.

[Diablo25]

Solid review.

http://www.sportingnews.com/golf/news/t ... 5kasbtonug

[vader29]

Just got home and approved everyone who sent join requests on Xbox One.