hey, @schlitty !
I see you playing this at the same time I am. Are you playing for fun, or are you in TGC Tours?
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I don’t know what TGC Tours means, so I’m guessing no. Haha. I play way too many golf games and needed one for PC. Picked it up on the Steam sale and just getting my bearings doing the PGA Tour single player thing. I got a good sized handful of nitpicks, but I’m having fun!
I agree with you on those nitpicks, the game is not perfect by any means. My biggest gripe is that the game uses tempo to affect your swing, but its based on client side, whereas the result is server side. So your swing tempo can be heavily affected by bandwidth, and internet lag, which…CHANGES sometimes by the minute. LOL. But all in all this is one of the best choices out there right now for a golf game.
Go to TGCTours.com man.
Thats a website that you can sign up for, and they’ve written their API or whatever you call it, to work with The Golf Club game. It pretty much works just like a real life PGA tour system. Its kinda the same concept as Dirt Rally. There are thousands of people all over the world that play. You start by playing a qualifying tournament, then they put you in a flight, and each week, there is a tournament for your flight. If you want, you go out and play your four rounds during the week, and then it puts you on the leader board with the other people that are in your flight. Its honestly pretty cool.
The other cool thing is the forum there. There are a ton of people that have their own societies, and run them manually. I’ve found one that I really enjoy, it plays about the most realistic you can get, the hardest level. No loft box, no green grid, no follow or scout overhead cams, no nothing extra. Just you and the ball, just like real life.
But the other thing about that forum, something that would interest you if nothing else… There are tons of guys out there designing and publishing courses, that are way WAY better than the official ones. Some dude even went out and developed a program to use LIDAR (satellite/radar) technology, to grab laser satellite images of real places, and import that into the design part of the game. So now you have courses out there that people are making, that are not only courses in real life, but because they are using this laser satellite stuff, the course you play is ACTUALLY like the real course, down to EVERY BUMP, HILL, AND SLOPE. To me, that is very very cool.
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Wowsers. I’ll definitely check that stuff out. Disappointing to hear about the tempo/bandwidth though, that demotivates online play even more.
I’m finding myself in a love/hate relationship with the tempo swing. I like it, but I cannot keep things straight enough to use anything but the beginner clubs. At least with mouse controls anyway. But then the beginner clubs are so easy, I’m already playing on hard difficulty with the AI. I wish there was an intermediate club between beginner and pro to work with.
That no loft box and stuff doesn’t really sound up my alley. Irons and chipping are my favorite part of playing golf and I use and abuse loft/spin in games. That’s my bread and butter. I’d need some way of knowing I adjusted it. No green grid would actually interest me if you could get a crouched view or something. But I wouldn’t be interested in putting blind from the overhead angle this game gives. Green speeds and action is one of my biggest complaints as far as the physics go. Pretty sure I’d throw my virtual golf bag in a lake within three holes of that style! haha.
Custom user courses is definitely something that sold me on pulling the trigger but I didn’t think there were that elaborate of t hings out there. That’s pretty rad. I was just expecting somebody making the NES GOLF course or something. Please tell me somebody has made the NES GOLF course…
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oh yeah man, playing without a loft box or green grid is definitely not for everyone. I do it for a realism kick, and there’s only about 30 or so people in that society. To compensate for no loft box, you have to do it all with your swing speed, and tempo. It took a while to learn to play that way, like months and months. ( I been playing this game almost daily for over a year now! haha) But learning to use swing speed alone to control the distance, really helped me, especially on chipping. And with the green grids on, I just look at the grid and putt. with them off, I have to crouch, (yes, you can do that!, not sure on mouse, with a controller its the B button) and then walk all the way around the pin, looking at the shot from every angle. Using master clubs, in normal play, my handicap is somewhere around +12 right now. In hardcore mode, its regular 7ish. Thats almost a 20 stroke difference!
I haven’t checked to see if there is an NES GOLF course. haha.
But if you want to see some masterpieces, look up Scarlett Inn, by ArticFury, and Lake Sofia GC by SinderRev. Man, those two are at the top of my list, in aesthetics and play-ability, those guys are amazing designers.
If you wanna play any of those LIDAR courses, just search on that. They are putting (LIDAR) or (L) in the name of the course when they use that technology.
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Oh nice, good to know there is crouch and walking around. That makes that mode more intriguing. Still think the loft box actually adds to realism though. You know how you’re trying to strike your ball in golf. Either way, I gotta complete at least one Tour season. I’m a single player nerd on games.
Also, I really gotta try playing a few rounds with the controller. Probably easier to move my thumb more consistently rather than the whole mouse up and down my mouse pad every swing. Because yeah, I go from -5 ~ -8 every 18 holes to like +2 ~ +13678931 when I try Pro or Masters clubs. Sure do enjoy the extra distance, but I’m sure not hitting things straight… Ever. Haha.
Still digging it though. I’m barely ankle deep. I mean I didn’t even know I could crouch!
!Edit: Nice, controller is way better for keeping things straight! However, tempo is a LOT harder. With nouse I was perfect tempo 99% of the time once I got used to it, but controller I’m getting about half the time. Will have to play with the sensitivities some on the thumbstick. But I’d definitely rather relearn the tempo while hitting straight than continue to be stuck with beginner clubs on the mouse. B button was overhead/map view BTW. Left stick click cycled the views but I wasn’t able to walk around the green or anything. Maybe it’s the settings on that mode.
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Used to play Tiger Woods Golf 2004 on the PS2 all the time, nothing like that it years.
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@schlitty try the A button. I may have gotten it mixed up. its one of the buttons though, will give you a worms eye view while on the green, and you can walk around. BUT, I’ve only got it to work when the grids are off, it won’t do it while the grids are there. That may be the difference.
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First ace of course happens during an awful round. Salt in the wound was it was a lucky two bouncer off the flag pole that shoulda been 30ft far. But I’ll take it! Managed my first bunker chip in later in the round too… A round that ultimately ended +10…
I think my new pet peeve with this game is ball lie. Angle/slope. It’s so damn quirky! I never know whether it wants me to take that into account or not. Some shots it ends up more important than the wind, fade, or precision. But then most of the time, it just doesn’t factor in at all. Maybe it’s dependent on the club or something. But it’s all over the place.
Also the tempo battle on gamepad has gotten to me for the time being and I’m back on mouse+beginner clubs. Precision headaches with mouse, tempo with thumbstick. I dunno which one I can conquer and overcome.
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