The Golf Club (PS4/XB One/PC)

[VR46]

Main article text from link below, love the idea of a course editor, and the multiplayer aspect.

http://www.pushsquare.com/news/2014/01/ps4_putter_the_golf_club_comes_out_swinging

Personally not played a Tiger Woods game for years so quite fancy a different take on the genre from a different developer.

EA Games may be spending this year in the clubhouse while it finds another big name to brand its next PGA Tour title with, but that?s not stopping Canadian company HB Studios from having a crack at the tricky genre. The developer quietly announced The Golf Club for the PlayStation 4 this week, and it sounds like a solid alternative if you know your woods from your wedges.

Unlike the abovementioned giant?s series, the title will boast a complete Course Creator that will allow you to build the next best thing to The Belfry with a DualShock 4. You?ll be able to make your construction as simple or complex as you like, with sliders allowing you to alter foliage density, hazards, and more. In other words, you won?t need a degree in landscape architecture to get started.

Much like other do-it-yourself releases such as LittleBigPlanet, the game will be heavily social to boot. For example, you?ll be able to upload and share any of your creations with other players, and all of your shots will be stored in the cloud, meaning that you?ll have the option to ?compete? against friends and strangers who may not even be online at the same time.

There?s a demonstration of the title?s Course Creator and gameplay embedded below. The studio?s aiming for a Spring 2014 release, though we can?t help but feel that it?s got a lot of work left to do if it wants to hit that window. Don?t get us wrong, the title?s showing plenty of promise ? but there are some nasty frame-rate and pop-in issues noticeable in this footage. Hopefully the outfit can clear them up, however, as this may prove your only chance to hit the links on your PS4 for a while.

Couple of Youtube video's on that link.

[BIG EDD]

Does look good I'm partial to a bit of golf

[MartyG]

It seems to have been a while since a golf game included a course editor, hopefully these will be shareable. Things have come a long way since World Class Leaderboard on the C64 (that had an editor too). It's definitely the direction to go to counter the EA series whom I can't see offering such a feature.

I'll definitely be keeping an eye on this one.

[Brad]

The developer made tiger woods 10 for ps2 so they jave some experience at it anyway.

[hudson]

Out today on PC and Xbox One. Is it true PS4 is 1080p, but Xbox One 720p? Someone mentioned this to me, but I couldn't find an official comment.

Waiting patiently for PS4 release. Grrrrrrrr

[VR46]

Least we'll have some reviews before PS4 version drops if nothing else, we're only eight days later anyway hudson, kick back and chill

[hudson]

Has there been a confirmed date for PS4 release then?

[Brad]

Out today on PC and Xbox One. Is it true PS4 is 1080p, but Xbox One 720p? Someone mentioned this to me, but I couldn't find an official comment.

Waiting patiently for PS4 release. Grrrrrrrr

Devs said they couldn't get the framerate they wanted on XBox One at 1080p so it's 720p on that console. PS4 version is 1080p but delayed til later this month. Framerate is 35 - 45fps on Xbox One and 30 - 45fps on PS4. Input and graphics are separate threads so the input thread runs at 60fps, separate from the graphics rendering. It's a golf game so FPS not that important IMO.

[VR46]

Has there been a confirmed date for PS4 release then?

Indeedy, was confirmed a couple of weeks back for the 26th August ie. next Wednesday.

http://www.pushsquare.com/news/2014/08/the_golf_club_swinging_for_26th_august_launch_on_ps4

[Kron]

I'll disagree massively with the comment that frame rate doesn't matter in a Golf game (this vs something like Powerstar Golf is night and day in smoothness) I've been playing this today and it's the most lazy PC port I've come across in a long time, The devs have said on the official forum that the Xbox One version has a higher frame rate than the PS4 version and if that's the case avoid all of the console versions.

They don't deserve your support with ports like this. Dreadful.

[hudson]

Don't think I've played a 60fps golf game on a console. At least I don't think so.

[hudson]

Just watched some vids of Xbox One version. The framerate looks fine. Screen tearing looks pretty dodgy as the ball takes flight though. Hopefully that's just an Xbox One "feature" only.

[VR46]

Jeepers didn't realise it was twenty eight quid.

[hudson]

Haha and I always thought it was a full priced title, so the 28 quid price tag sounds nice.

This is destined to be guff though. Any game I show a real interest in seems to end up balls.

[VR46]

Detailed list of the problems with the PC version posted in a user review on Metacritic

Blackadar - Aug 19, 2014

Score 4

In short, steer clear. It's not worth the money.

As a lover of golf games, I'm an optimist about this genre and I'm willing to give most any golf game the benefit of the doubt given that the genre hasn't had much love the last decade. I believe TGC has potential to be decent. But as a warning to customers regarding the 8/19 release, this game is not ready yet. There are some major issues with TCG that you should be aware of:

1. The game is still poorly optimized on the PC. It still runs poorly on medium on my PC (which is pretty decent) and there are numerous reports about poor optimization and the game cooking video cards or vid card fans having to run at 100%. Supposedly an optimization patch will come out upon release, but be warned that this game may not run worth a damn on your PC. And frankly it doesn't look that good to work the PC that hard.

2. The game is not immersive and there are a host of reasons why. The voice overs are still lifeless and amateur. No crowds. There's a noticeable lack of good environmental sounds and even the course backgrounds are pretty dull. The trees are fairly uniform. Also, there aren't weather effects or things like that. It plays like you're hitting into a screen, not that you're on the course. In short, the golfing environment isn't very good. It's not ugly by any means, but it's most certainly not immersive.

3. If you can't play on max resolutions, your green grid won't work from more than 20 feet outside the cup. Faced with a 40 foot putt? You're screwed - you have no idea how it's going to break. On low resolution this radius is only about 8 feet from the cup. They've known about this issue since putting the game out on EA and haven't fixed it yet (and according to them, won't until sometime "after release").

4. There's still the mystery long/short putt issue. I've played TCG for 20 hours or so. I know how to putt and get it close to the hole. My last round was -14. But there's still the mystery but (happens every round or two) where you draw back, hit the ball and the putt that should go 25 feet goes 4 feet. It's been around since the game was released on EA and still hasn't been fixed either. It probably has something to do with lag in the game engine due to it not being optimized, but it's a PITA having your round spoiled like that.

5. The wind and physics are still weird at times. I've seen a 6-8 MPH wind blow wedge shots 25 feet from side to side. I've played golf in real life for 30 years now and haven't seen that on the course. Also, the ball physics are wonky when it hits a slope. Low, hard shots like with a 3 wood don't bounce right when they hit an upslope. They'll stop dead and bounce backwards rather than pop up and forward like they should. It's like the ball velocity doesn't count when figuring out the physics on a ball hitting an upslope. Hit a 3 wood into a 55 degree rise and the ball will bounce backwards in this game. That doesn't happen IRL.

6. Want to play an honest game online? Forget it. There's so much cheating from edging to other forms that it's not enjoyable. The swing motion in TGC may be novel, but it lends itself to rampant cheating and artificial "assists". People will outright admit it on this forum and this is probably not a solvable problem. If you want an honest MP game, TCG isn't the game for you.

7. There's no character progression, no tour, nothing like that. This is hitting balls into a moderately attractive backdrop. That's it. Now I applaud TCG for not putting in a half assed version of progression (which is worse than none), be aware that that's all there is - that and the designer.

While future promises are nice, TCG really needs quite a few more months of baking before it leaves Early Access. So what you're getting on the 19th is really not much more than what I got 6 months ago on EA. Do I regret my purchase? Not really because there's nothing else out there. Do I think it's a good game or a good golf simulation right now? No. So for those who haven't purchased the game, know what you're getting before you fork over your money because it's not that good of a game right now. It's only a fair representation of golf with a mediocre golf designer and no career mode or progression

http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/the-golf-club/user-reviews