not sure if you guys have seen this

[gabagoo]

Hi everyone, been a long time.... Hope you are all well.

I thought I would come by and let you know that as a former PGA2000 player and more importantly as a designer, that there is a new game out that I stumbled upon and from what I can tell I think it may have many elements of what PGA2000 would have been had it survived. I am pretty sure the game designers came from the Tiger Woods platform which used to be PGA2000 way back when. In any case they have released a game called... The golf club.... This game is purchased online and runs online. I have been fidelling with it for a few weeks and outside of needing a fairly up to date computer with good graphics card, it is also available for xbox and playstation. Game play is superb but best of all it has a course architect. I am still looking through countless uploaded videos , but you can see that it is what the PGA2000 architect would probably have morphed to, had the game survived. The design elements have been made so that either you can design a course in a matter of minutes or you can spend 50 - 100 hrs designing a gem. The real beauty as an ex designer is that you can actually test the course by simply clicking a button and it takes you directly in... I urge you to check out this game.... it has given me new hope to be able to design again.

http://thegolfclubgame.com/

[Pyecraft]

Nice tip gab, been expecting you Leafs fans out on the course since the all-star break!
Checked out the site and registered, just waiting their obligatory 24 hours before being able to log in and presumably find out the cost involved. First impression is of excellent visuals, but at this early stage, it looks very complicated to navigate. Read through a few forum posts which seem to be 50/50 split regarding the gameplay, but that wouldn't be as important to me as the design possibilities, which do look stunning.
Haven't yet found any architect tools, probably have to buy in first. How much did you pay, have you been able to design anything? If so, a screenie would be appreciated.

Interesting history for HB Studios, doesn't appear to have any past with Headgate.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HB_Studios

[gabagoo]

the game play is great with the right video card and the proper chipset, I have watched so many tutorials on designing and it really is amazing how much easier they have made the design process and the testing process

[Terry Grayson]

Saw Gabs post here a while back bought the game: Interestingly enough I still have my old computer from years ago, so I decided to build another a few weeks ago... Nice fast computer

Anyway, so far its a very good game... Im impressed with it

Pye asked for a screenie.. I designed a little last night to see how it would look

It will never take PGA's place for me, but the gameplay and the designer are top notch...

[Pyecraft]

Hi Terry, nice to see you back with the spades and wheel barrow .... the right tools in the right hands can create a little magic
I have to admit to not giving the program enough time when I followed Gab's lead into it, but I think the results look too good for me not to go back and try harder to understand the set-ups involved.
Still use some of your pga tutorials trying to complete Snowdonia my friend, but with still a half dozen holes to plant and greens to contour, the design is maxing out at 669,792 points and refusing to respond to further shaping with any minimum optimizing anywhere on the course only causing titling elsewhere. PGA has its limits after all, but what a ride - 15 years obsessing over tiny red dots, lol.

9th tee.jpg

(519.11 KiB) Not downloaded yet

Be well.

[SteveHorn]

Pyecraft! Hope you can complete Snowdonia soon so I can try and hack in a round or two.

[Terry Grayson]

Ahhh Snowdonia.... I remember that course, you have poured your heart into that course my friend.... Glad to see you are still at it

Ive spent the better part of a few days tinkering with this architect program... The only problem is , is that you have to have a monster setup computer wise to even run this game... it looks fantastic...
I started off shooting horribly but there like here someone has some charts and such and tips and I am getting better each round.. I cant shoot -15 to -18 every round like I did here YET.. ha ha

Currently scrapped that plot you see in the above pic, working on a course that is tropical (Themed) really nice program... PGA is and always will be home to me, but this new game is as close to PGA as
any game I have played yet... And it is beautiful to look at.... No three click, all tru-swing so to speak

[Jared]

Hi everyone, I haven't posted here in awhile but was wondering if the news of TGC made it over here.

I have been playing the golf club for about eight months now, and it's the closest thing to PGA2K I've found. I'm playing off of a PS4, not PC.

The game is still in many ways a work in progress.

As far as the course designer goes, there are pros and cons. The randomized planting is controlled with a slider setting, and it is fantastic. Natural and a real time saver.

Water can only be created at a single elevation. There is a water table set at 0 elevation. So anything below zero elevation becomes covered in water, anything above is covered with land. I don't love that, but its a limitation of the game engine.

The main thing I miss about the architect in PGA is the ability to draw your own shapes. There are 50 or so stock shapes to choose from, but putting down your own shape and then deflating/inflating for bunkering and fairway to rough transitions was so much better.

You are also limited in terms of pano and textures to the theme you select. There are about 8 or so (if memory serves) and they are adding more all the time.

What I miss most of all is a lobby, ladders and head to head play. My best memories were playing this game with friends from all over the world, some of whom I still talk to regularly.

[bryce]

I've watched numerous YouTube videos of the gameplay and design tools over the course of the last year, even before they got Greg Norman to jump on board. It had very nice graphics, but as Jared mentioned, it looks like you don't get your hands dirty, so to speak. Undulations are what I like doing best on THE PGA architect, and it looks more like a shaving tool in TGC. I may break down and get it for the Xbox one day.

It still won't have 1000 or so libraries to play with.

[Terry Grayson]

You are correct Doron, no libraries just what the current themes offer... So far its been a real treat to work on some ideas and feel my way around with their architect program... PGA still my all time favorite but this is pretty cool too