SimGolf: I eat my words ... it's FUN!

[Grumbold]

I've seen several same-sex stories that appear to be romantic start up in the demo version. Since I understand The Sims was unbiased in this regard it seems sensible that SimGolf has followed the same standard. Or perhaps the storylines only represent close friendships forming? With only 3 holes I've yet to see the concluding scenes ...

Yin, did the game generate the name Britney Aguilera's house or was that some late night fantasising of your own?

[yin26]

Actually: It was both! Darn computers getting smarter all the time... (the comp uses a lot of names like that...it even runs a rip-off track --2 seconds-- from Britany when people walk by the house).

[Steve Clark]

I finished my first course (9 holes) last night on Easy. Ended up with well over $1m in cash (no cheating), 1200 or so in fun and about 14.00 in skills. This includes a win at a $360,000 tournament which I was -3. I think I'm going to wait to the next patch before I try this on Hard, since Sid is talking about making some changes.

Now onto another game of Imperialism II...

[yin26]

Here's the ending of my newly-minted Championship Course. I had some design issues on the 18th that caused some problems, but happiness was up to around 2,300 before this. It will go back up to that shortly, I hope.

Steve: I'll also wait for the next few rounds of patches. Not because I am not enjoying the game despite several issues, but I have a feeling if I gorge myself now, I might be rash and ignore it later.

It really is a great game. Two or three patches from now, it could be stellar.

[DinoDoc]

yin, is SimGolf good enough to make up for the poor way that Civ 3 was handled? If so, I may finally give up my self-imposed boycott of the game and Firaxis itself and give the game an honest try.

[ColdWizard]

as posted in the OT...

after downloading it, i went and tried it with the intention of playing for "a few minutes" and ended up playing over an hour

i made my three holes, first one's a par 4 375 yarder, my best hole, especially after i removed some of the pine trees that were near the tee (i didn't notice the problem until i took my pro on a practice round *bonk*). it was eventually named to the top 100. my second hole was short and not very fun, but the golfers liked the accuracy requirement. short of the green was water, the left was trees, the right a bunker and long was rocks and some other nasty hazard. it was also made a top 100. i don't remember much about my third hole, except that it's fairly long and the second most fun.

my golf pro sucked , on the 3rd hole hit into the water 4 straight times. he kept pulling the ball left (that's a hook, isn't it?).

most of the golfers enjoyed themselves, some guy joined a board of some sort, a woman donated a water mill, and another guy kept asking if i wanted to expand the park.

i built a driving range, a cart building, a snackbar, and a pro shop. i think i ended in 2003 with 50k. the SGA (is that it?) rated my course as 73/100, with all the low scores being related to my being limited to 3 holes

with the fun i had with the demo, and comments of players compelled me to drop $35 on it this morning before work. if i don't like it, i'll blame imran and yin

[Steve Clark]

yin, I guess I take a less critical view compared to you (so what else is new ). In building and playing my 9 holes, I don't think I ran across any bugs or problems at all. All I look for is improvements like more options to toggle (which Sid will be doing in this next patch). But what I will hope for is the additions of scenarios or missions. For example: reach $1m and have a fun rating of 1000 in 10 years on a 9 hole course to win. I've read about the tournament bugs, as well as the snack bar but what else?

BTW, I'll be trading courses with a buddy tonight and I challenged him to beat my score on my course.

[stadler]

With me being in the UK, I get to play the full game sometime in March. The 15th I believe. (Why it's been delayed, I don't know. Maybe someone could enlighten me). Because of this I'm stuck with the demo with which I've become a tad addicted too. Even with the three hole limit, I can easily spend hours just tinkering away, trying to get those holes just perfect. I'll certainly be purchasing it. At least I'll have MOH:AA to play while I wait for SimGolf. That's out on Friday. Yep, even that has yet to be released in the third world gaming country known as England.

[Steve Clark]

stadler, that's funny. I got through the first three full missions in MoH before I took a break to play SimGolf. Now that I got the first course done, now I can go back to MoH. And just think, you can't do either yet.

[Chowlett]

Got the demo, it looks fun! Couple of questions/bugs though...

How do I view the snapshots? After a while, there's just the camera noise, and a flash of a white frame before it disappears - which I can't work out if it's meant to happen or not.

Secondly, in a similar fashion to Theme Park (which it plays a lot like, IMO) one of my golfers got stuck on the corner of a pot-bunker near the edge of my land, and caused a huge bottle neck. I had to remove the bunker and put in some pathing to get him out. Should that happen?

Lastly, minor niggle, but my 1st Top 18 hole award was obscured by the band on the top of the cup, which I'm sure shouldn't happen.

But still, good fun. I must try again. I made errors in building my holes to close to Out of Bounds, and too short. which I shall rectify. Can we save in the demo? If so how? Is it the same as "Saving for Tournament play"?

[Grumbold]

In the demo you can't save a course as a work in progress. Once you save for tournament all you can do is play competition rounds on it.

Yin, your groundkeepers must hate you! It looks like you've got more bunker than fairway Still, I like your huge greens. Thats bound to keep the punters happy as long as they can navigate past your sand traps. I tend to be mean and have narrow fairways and tiny greens. Maybe thats why most of my holes are rated 'precise'.

[yin26]

DinoDoc: yin, is SimGolf good enough to make up for the poor way that Civ 3 was handled? If so, I may finally give up my self-imposed boycott of the game and Firaxis itself and give the game an honest try.

All I can say is that I was dead-set against this title but have never been let down by Sid (keep in mind he had nothing --very little-- to do with Civ3). And it's fun! Give it a try!

ColdWizard: i'll blame imran and yin

Well, if you like the game, blame me. If you hate it, blame Imran.

Steve: yin, I guess I take a less critical view compared to you (so what else is new ). In building and playing my 9 holes, I don't think I ran across any bugs or problems at all.

I've had benches turn into brown marshalls! (the cheap version). They stand there stone still and people sit on them! Black lines occasionally appear across the map. Trees change variety without my wanting them to...benches, too. Connected paths will sometimes disconnect themselves on their own accord. Certain golf shots that look selectable sometimes won't select, and the reverse is also true at times. Weeds will continue to grow even when the game is paused ... sometimes. Certain water additions will flip to the wrong water tiles at times. Then you know about the tournament issues, etc. With the exception of the tournament problem, most of these I can ignore or 'correct' by flipping the map back and forth. Still, I *do* hope these get fixed along with other things. Even with all this, the game is fun.

Chowlett: I had to remove the bunker and put in some pathing to get him out. Should that happen?

If you look at the upper right corver of my image posted above, you'll see a bunch of players stuck there. I had to open the path wider next to them, but since this went unnoticed by me for quite some time, my happiness dropped from 2300 to 1700! Well, I'll have to be more careful in the design phase.

I do think, though, that there should be some kind of little red light (a tiny one) that flashes on the tool bar with each negative (gree for positive) comment with the ability to click on it and jump right to the person automatically paused...

[yin26]

Grumbold: What can I say...I like sand and water! We need a Sid Meier's SimBeach. (*ducks*)

[yin26]

Some graphical craziness: Yes, those brown guys are BENCHES! And the white benches are not standard game options. They just appear sometimes. Note the black lines...

[Smash]

That black line is an elevation difference.You can see the water is lower.

I see you are also getting the wilted trees.

Never seen those benchs.I hope I don't.Looks like your game is using the club pro graphic as benches.
The manual says you get a star for a happy ending or a special "luv bench",I guess thats what those white benches are.