To say I am a golf enthusiast would be an understatement. I love golf. I enjoy watching the pro’s on the TV, I enjoy playing a round with my friends (very poorly), and I especially love playing golf games on the Xbox. My love of golfing video games is mainly due to the fact that I can be good at them, which makes up for my lack of ability to play the game in real life. Since the launch of the Xbox One, there has been a noticeable void in this particular genre, except for the whacky, over exaggerated Powerstar Golf. It has to be said Powerstar is hardly an attempt at a serious golf sim. With that in mind, plus the absence of the annual EA Tiger Woods offering this year, the door has been left wide open for a new contender. The Golf Club
The Golf Club (TGC), developed by HB Studios, is a first attempt at a golfing sim by the experienced sports game developers. Casting aside over elaborate abilities perks, aiming systems and stupid attire, TGC is simply the closest attempt at a real golf sim EVER on a console. This game is not only designed for gamers, but for golfers as well.
Gameplay & Features
Before we begin to de-construct the finer details, let’s start with the important part- the swing. The swing mechanic in this game is brilliant. Every shot you take you almost ‘feel’ the connection. You know when you have blistered a drive straight down the fairway, and you know when you have completely fluffed your chip. Controlled by a pull back, then a push forward on the right thumb stick, much similar to the EA games previously mentioned, however that is as far as this comparison goes. Whilst Tiger Woods games give you an helping hand with visual aids such as a large target on the fairway to give you an idea of where your ball will land, or a predictive line where your putt will go on the green, TGC throws all that out of the window and makes the gamer rely on instinct and their own judgement.
With practice, players will learn to ‘feel’ each shot, much like the pro golfers do playing the real deal. There are no perks, no attributes to boost your distance, no projected paths for your shot- just you, your clubs, gut instinct and a basic understanding of golfing physics. It feels so close to the real thing, you can actually take real life experience onto the virtual course. An example of this was when the ball was lying above my feet, I know in real life I would naturally pull the ball to the left instead of hitting a straight shot. Did the same scenario play out in TGC? It sure did! HB Studios have certainly nailed the authenticity factor in the swing, the connection and how the ball behaves from leaving the club face. No crazy after spin can be applied after your shot is taken either. Very rarely can you take lessons from playing the sport in real life and use them in a virtual representation. Variations of shot type such as flop, pitch, punch and chip are all available to the gamer. You also have the ability to ‘club up’ or ‘club down’, which is an altering of your distance dependant on what club you choose from the menagerie in your bag. Putting is solid, but does take a bit of getting used to, but once mastered is very satisfying. Reading the greens becomes vital to posting a decent score. These are all the tools you need for a good round, after all that’s only what the pro’s have at their disposal as well.
Ok they are all good points, so what is missing? Well there is no career mode. Nothing- nada- zip. You basically have a choice of around 20 official courses to play, plus thousands of player created course’s (more on that later), you post your best score, and move on to try the others. Your score is stored on the online leader boards, in which your friends can see the scores you have posted on every course you have played with the main aim of trying to try to beat them. Worldwide gamers scores are also available, so you can see what the world record is on each particular course. When you choose a friends score to play against, they become a ghost ball on your round in which you can see every shot they played during their meander on the links. Xbox Live friends can also join you in real time as well, again all you will see is their ball flying across the fairway, but it is a satisfying attempt at the multi-player experience. Plenty of banter is to be had in the Xbox Live party that’s for sure. Local multi-player is also supported for up to a four players, great when the boys (or girls) come over for a bit of virtual competition. The problem with no career however is there is no feeling of progression. It never gets serious as there are no attainable goals. The golfer you control starts at the top of their game, no attributes to improve, no attire to change, just a basic representation for you to play as. It is quite refreshing to not have to worry about gaining XP to improve your golfer, it never gets unrealistic. You can’t boost your strength to drive 500 yards for example. That said I would have liked a goal to aim for whilst playing alone. Another problem worth mentioning, at the time of writing this, my friend scores didn’t seem to be posting on the leader boards. After a chat with HB Studios its seems it may be due to the fact I have over 200 Xbox Live friends, so be warned if you are a popular gamer. HB assured me they are looking into this niggling problem for a solution.
Now the coup de grace, the killer blow, what makes TGC stand out amongst all the others? The Greg Norman course designer. The tool to create your own course has simply never been an option in any other golfing simulation. To start you choose the type of landscape, the difficulty, how many holes, what is the courses par score, how much water surrounds the course and how many trees your course will comprise of. The software will then generate your course from the specifics you set out, from which you can edit any hole you want once the course is created. Change the gradient of the landscape, add extra bunkers, add clubhouses and even throw in some wildlife around the green. Then jump in and have a go to see how your creation plays out. It’s very similar to Rollercoaster Tycoon in that you can dabble with your creation, try it and then when it feels right publish it for others. The amount of customisation is daunting at first, but very user friendly with practice. I made a course and was practicing on it in literally ten minutes. It’s brilliant. This makes TGC replayability factor almost infinite. You can create the course of your dreams and post it for the world to play. The fact you can play courses other users have created as well makes this game so unique, it never feels like you have played the same round twice. Even after you go back to playing a course you have already played, the variation and creativity of the official courses, coupled with the diversity of the content other users have created, this is truly an original golfing experience. Here is an early video showcasing the course creator, the game is fully developed now and it works great.
Graphics and Setting
Graphically TGC is….ok. Let’s be honest, the original images we saw when The Golf Club was announced were breath taking. It looked superb. What we have is far from the standard I expected. Don’t get me wrong, the lighting is great, the fairways and greens look good and the golfer animation is top notch. However, the game at the moment suffers from some serious screen tearing, especially in the transition of the ball strike to it landing. There are also some rapid frame rate drops where the performance visually stutters on the screen. The background reveals jaggy edges to trees and shrubs, and the surrounding backdrops look a little grey in comparison to the immediate course. These are all fixable problems, and I am sure a patch is in the making, but when compared to the PC version, the graphical performance is quite a distance behind on the Xbox One.
The sound whilst playing the game is relaxing. Birds tweet, wind blows, it makes you feel calm. Soothed. The sound of the ball strike is awesome. You know when you have spanked a great shot with the sound of a hefty thwack, and you hear when you have hit a duffer from the toe or the heel of the club with a clunky thud. The commentary is basic but acceptable, portrayed by a heavily set Canadian accent that does the job of letting you know what your shot was like, what the wind is doing etc. At times there seems to be issues, especially when moving between menus the sound becomes distorted although this is momentary.
Weather plays a part, but is not as dynamic as you would think for a simulation. Wind is a factor but there are no ultra-effective gale force storms that spoil the gameplay that other titles have incorporated. The most noticeable emission is rain. Rain plays a big part on how you play the game in real life, so the fact that the game does not have rain as a gameplay feature is quite surprising. Other course hazards are well represented. Sand bunkers are unforgiving and very difficult to get out of. Water Hazards are an instant shot dropped should you be unlucky enough to lose your ball in one. Impressively there is no loading times between each shot, or each hole for that matter. This is an instantly pleasing feature as past golfing titles have become irritating by slow loading times. Before our conclusion let Villz take you hands on with his first experience of The Golf Club.
Conclusion
Despite the few superficial problems regarding to the graphical and sound issues, The Golf Club is quite simply the closest representation of the beautiful sport I have ever played. It’s magnificent. The gameplay is both challenging and rewarding. The way in which you almost ‘feel’ each shot you play is something that up until now could only be replicated by playing the real thing. The course editor is not only easy to use but intuitive, fun and ultimately the reason you will be playing this game for a very long time. You could argue the big hitters such as Tiger Woods could integrate a course editor of its own to continue its domination in the genre for the next generation of gaming. However, due to the amount of money EA make on DLC and microtransactions, you can be almost conclusive that TGC will be the only title to utilise this unique feature for the immediate future. Graphical issues will hopefully be ironed out in time, along with the sound and social issues. They are the only niggles I have from giving this title a solid 9.
Practice makes perfect is definitely the approach you will want to take when playing TGC. Your ability to choose the right club, shot type, make the right swing, take the wind into account and avoid the course hazards will become imperative to your success when hitting the courses in the game. Exactly the dilemmas the pros face in real life. This has to be a must buy purchase for any golf fan.
Liam contributed 6 articles to ICXM between 2014–2015, covering game reviews, and Xbox news with a focus on hands-on impressions and verified-source reporting. Their bylines on the site span the Xbox One’s first full year of post-launch coverage, including the early days of Backwards Compatibility and Windows 10 gaming. They post on X as @xboxmaduk.