Gamepplay sounds promising!
@Chris Davies have you played the golf club 2019? Is the gameplay different?
Yeah I played TGC 2019 in the TGC Tours leagues for about six months on and off. I didn't like the Career Mode for many reasons, but online was good fun.
In the previous game, the hardest swing difficulty was Master, which was hard to grasp but would give you a distance advantage if you could.
In the new game, the default difficulty (Pro, and that's what you have to use in matchmaking) is even harder than Master was. It's super sensitive, especially if (like me) you keep flying into "overswing" territory.
Hitting a good shot is now the exception, not the rule (for most, anyway - there are still some absolute Gods playing online, as there always will be in any game). That "exception not the rule" is absolutely how it should be.
It feels brilliant to have to keep absolute concentration for every shot, and the sense of accomplishment in getting a birdie is massive - you feel like you have beaten the course.
The Career Mode is as good as it can be - they only have 14 of 33 events on licensed courses, but the fictional courses are of a good quality, and they're realistic designs. Due to the fact they're selling course DLC soon, and 2K don't want to get sued, you can't swap out the fake courses for RCR's (Real Course Recreations made by the game's dedicated community) in Career Mode. You can only use them in private matches, or "Online Societies" (like TGC Tours, which are a brilliant experience).
Matchmaking is completely and totally pointless, and broken, and it was the same last year (and was never changed). They seem to think every player has a heart of gold and is only quitting (when they're losing) because they've left the oven on, or their curtains are on fire etc...
What else is bad? Player graphics are terrible, in all honesty. I'm happy with the golfer I've created but the faces in general are from the PS3 days. Really cartoony, with about eight hairstyles to choose from (which is pretty pathetic) and even skin colour is an issue. Someone has raised a point on the HB forum that their skin colour has been removed. It was there last year...
Also, you can't play AS any of the licensed pros in any mode, and you can't even play AGAINST them in any mode either. You see their highlights during your PGA Tour rounds, and you're challenged with beating them to unlock bigger sponsorship deals. That's it.
(What on earth have they bothered licensing them for, and recreating them for the highlights package that you'll turn off after your first round? Absolutely stupid.)
The commentary is repetitive (and really horribly delivered) too, but that doesn't bother me in all honesty, and Rich Beem has been given full license to come out with whatever random thoughts popped into his head at the record so it can be quite funny. The on-course tournament sounds (the crowd reacting to events on other parts of the course) are pretty cool - it's just a shame that they're so static to look at. The sound that plays can be screaming and hollering, while the people in the crowds are standing there closed-mouthed, clapping softly.
But everything else is fantastic, IMO. The leaderboard have their own AI skill level (which we can't see directly) and there are even sliders so that you can set exactly how challenging they are, and how much their skill level is allowed to vary tournament to tournament - there's even a separate slider for their skill variance day to day.
It's 10/10 gameplay with 7/10 graphics, 7/10 sound and 6/10 licensing implementation. In terms of online play, Online Societies is one of the best and most enjoyable online game modes I've played in any game - and the matchmaking one of the worst - but it deserves an 8/10 for the societies alone. Nothing beats playing the same tournament with friends (all locked to the same difficulty settings) and seeing each other go up and down the leaderboard.
It reminds me of the glory days of PES - the gameplay is a revelation, and that's all that matters...
