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

[Michael Fetterman]

Originally posted by Grumbold

...figure out why Gary Golf can par it and occasionally birdie in practice sessions but almost invariably double-bogeys at tournament time. It must be the pressure

When launching a tournament there are 3 options that may be affecting this... all of them serve to make the holes a bit more difficult for the seasoned pros who will be participating.

Grumbold - Are you using the roll greens flat and smooth (sic) option? This may up the number of putts required, depending upon your putting skill... Note that I have heard a complaint about this particular option creating weird putting situations where it takes 5 putts to make it even with high skill in putting, and we will be looking into it to make sure that it works as it should.

[Grumbold]

Looks like there's a patch out for the tournament problem already.

Last night I had another go and was delighted to get my first top-18 rated hole for a real mean par 5. now all I have to do is figure out why Gary Golf can par it and occasionally birdie in practice sessions but almost invariably double-bogeys at tournament time. It must be the pressure

[yin26]

Here's the Gamespot Review. Seems pretty fair to me so far, though that tournament crash bug has already a few people pretty pissed off. If it gets a lot of fan support as with the Sims, it could really grow into something to keep around a while.

[Comrade Tribune]

It doesn´t surprise me in the least to hear that SimGolf is interesting. But it´s the reason why CivIII is so unsatisfactory. Firaxis doesn´t have enough talent to make 2 good games at the same time. So SimGolf got the best, and CivIII got the rest...

[General Ludd]

If there's one thing I wish this game had, it's anti-aircraft guns so I can shoot down that annoying firaxis blimp that's always obscuring my view.

I still enjoy making courses though... there is quite alot of interesting things you can do, I imagine that after a while it'll become rather simple and run of the mill, though.

I'll give it a try on the hardest difficulty later, and see if it's more of a challange.


I don't know if the demo allows you to do this, but if you want to do a championship on my courses, I'll include them. Scorpion Cove is the first course I made, and Country Kaincide is the second. (provided I zipped the right files, they go in the /themes/championship directory)

[General Ludd]

For the record, I'm not playing the demo, I'm playing the full version.

[Grumbold]

Aha, someone else takes up the SimGolf issue! I tried to start a poll on the Civ 3 General board days ago. I wanted to see how many would eat their words and admit the demo was actually interesting. Unfortunately it got whisked off to Apolyton Community to gather cobwebs before more than a handful could own up. There was a definite swing toward grudging acceptance of the game though.

I have been finding it great fun although one or two of the course design attributes are quirky. Why does one style of fairway grow weeds and not the other, for example? Playing rounds or golf to improve your player stats definitely passes the time well when you are waiting for more cash to clock up in the kitty. Planning the course hole by hole is a novel approach, but not knowing which land you will get to expand into makes planning a whole interconnecting 18 holes very tricky. I hope the players don't mind long walks.

If I had to pick fault with anything, it would be Sid's belief that Stonehenge is in Wales. Next time I visit the States I must go see where President Bush lives in Graceland

I've not seen any graphic glitches, so that may be card specific and no doubt will be addressed in the first patch if it isn't squashed already. The challenge factor may not come through too well in the demo, but you have to get your course to a certain standard in order to allow your player to improve. Even if you keep earning modest cash returns you may never get to compete in the big tournaments if your course design isn't absolutely perfect at the higher difficulty. It was certainly much easier to hit 225 happiness on easy difficulty than moderate.

[General Ludd]

They do get repetitive, everything gets repetitive. There isn't a great more to do once you have made a single golf course, all that's left is different settings (four sets) and landscapes... if that's enough to keep you entertained, then you'll like it, if it's not, you won't.

I've also noticed that there are bugs or just bizzare 'physics' involved in the actual golphing part of it, not to mention that you don't really get to control much... just pick 1 of four swing types, and set where you want it to go.

Another thing that bugs me is that there are sometimes graphic gliches similiar to the ones in RollerCoasterTycoon, where slopes become transparent or just otherwise gliched.

Finally, I've only played on moderate difficulty... but I've never had any challange what-so-ever, merely delays while waiting for more money (Actually, I suppose that is the only real challance in most sim games...).

[Mercator]

I downloaded the demo too, yesterday, and it sure is a fun game. I actually didn't play it yet myself (only saw my sister playing it) but it sure looks good and fun. Those comments the golfers make are just hilarious! (although I'm afraid they'll get kinda repetitive).
But then again, I always thought SimGolf might be worth a shot, since I do quite like both golf and sim games.

[Sarxis]

All this talk and I might just have to go get the demo myself.

Though, I am not a golf fan in the least (was a caddy for a while though).

[yin26]

You know, if the full version adds some significant challenges and even more of the same good stuff, I can see really liking the game long-term. It does seem a bit easy so far, but that's probably because I haven't tried the hard settings just yet.

Anyway, sorry if I in any way helped you lose some sleep!

[Imran Siddiqui]

Just DLed the demo! GOD, Yin, you are right! I lost track of time, and went to sleep an hour later than I planned .

Very fun... I liked it... the 3 hole limit gives you something to shoot for . And I love playing your own golfer. It sounded cheezy when I first heard of it, but it absolutely makes the game!

[yin26]

Well, then: Fantastic work!

[Michael Fetterman]

Originally posted by yin26
I should also say that Will Wright's influence is so clear, and the Maxis team of artist Sid used really did a bang-up job.

Just FYI - All art in the game was created by Firaxis artists.

[yin26]

ravagon: LOL! Well, I thought Gettysburg was genius, too.

Jeje: Hi there, friend. I remember you playing the demo quite a while ago. I don't know why I only waited until now to play. The fact that you can only build 3 holes is really limiting, but based on what I saw, I ordered it. Should come early next week.

I do wonder how much replayability it will have, of course. I worry that once I 'figure it all out,' it won't pull me back in. And I don't know for sure, but will there be a random map option? If there's no random map, it could get dull pretty fast.

That said, I was just so impressed with the overall feel of the thing that I placed the order. I'll tell ya how the full version looks next week.

P.S.: I do only seem able to play for short periods at a time. They are enjoyable periods, but rather short. Is that good or bad, Jeje, and did you get the same feeling?