Should players get tired of seeing the same golfers, the game ships with
several "theme packs" which come with different golfers, stories,
celebrities, golf pros, and/or courses. It looks like new theme packs will
periodically be made available, so check the official website for new
downloads. The theme packs are a nice touch that add a little additional
variety to the game.
The graphics in SimGolf are colorful, but many of the structures lack
animation and details. The game can only be run at 800x600, and does not
let you zoom in for a close look at your course. You can zoom out, but you
can't build in the zoomed-out mode and everything becomes so small that it is
not a very useful view of things. The golfers themselves are not very
detailed either, but they do have a lot of imaginative animations as they play
the course - including club-breaking tantrums when their game takes a decided
turn for the worse.
Once your course grows in size, it is very common for there to be a lot going
on at once on the screen. The game provides limited room in which to
build, so holes are often packed closely together. The course will also be
covered with golfers and their little speech balloons. When one of them
makes a great shot, the game takes a "snapshot" of it by placing a
photo border around the golfer. This can quickly grow annoying as several
of these can be occurring while you are trying to expand your course and a click
to close a window may accidentally really be a click to place the currently
selected item. This problem is more annoying when your golf pro is
involved in a game. The player may click the mouse to place an object or
clear a message only to find that the shot selection menu for the golf pro
popped up in the mean time, sending a shot in the completely wrong
direction. After this occurs a few times, players eventually learn that
they need to make slower and more deliberate mouse clicks on built-up courses.
The game seems to suffer from a few bugs which will hopefully be addressed in
a future patch. During play testing for this review, a civil war cannon on
the course was inexplicably changed into a sundial at some point in time.
This was more than an aesthetic change as each of these objects has a different
effect, and the change in objects had an affect on golfers playing the course
that was different than the one intended. Also, a ball washer once turned
into gray golfers that appeared to be statues - whether or not they changed the
way golfers played the hole is a mystery. The game's quirks seem to extend
occasionally into hole design as well. Sometimes a hole that distinctly
curves to the right will be designated as a dogleg left or the optimal play line
will follow a neighboring fairway. These quirks aren't really
show-stoppers; they certainly don't prevent players from playing the game,
but their presence can sometimes affect a player's enjoyment of the game.
If you're a hardcore golfer looking for a serious simulation, you might be
disappointed in SimGolf. However, in the end the simplified design and
financial model help to make it a very enjoyable and addicting game.
Players will find themselves wanting to add just one more hole or host one more
tournament, only to find that hours have passed. The inclusion of theme
pack support and the ability to import and export courses and golfers set the
stage for a lively exchange between fans of the game, and will help to supply a
continuous stream of fresh air to keep the game interesting in the long
run. If you're a fan of simulation or strategy games, you should
definitely treat yourself to this game.
In The End, This Game Hath Been Rated: 87%.
You don't even have to like golf to enjoy this game. It has the magical
ability to make hours melt away in gaming bliss without the player even really
noticing the passage of time. A few interface issues, bugs, and other quirks
stand in its way of achieving the highest marks, though.
System Requirements: 300 MHz Pentium II CPU; 64 MB RAM; 8 MB
Video RAM; 4x CD-ROM; 300 MB Hard Drive Space; Mouse.
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