The announcement of The Golf Club earlier this week has been met with quite a bit of intrigue as it fills the void for golf this year and debuts on the new systems with what seems to have been significant development time behind it. HB Studios has released a feature list and have answered some questions relating to the game to go along with the initial details and videos. It’s a significant amount of info and has helped establish it as a legitimate title to consider.

Built as a simulation the game features an extensive Course Creator (and sharing of courses, Tours, and Tournaments) plus significantly reduced load times of courses and no time waiting between holes. Other specifics known now include the lack of a career mode, all golfers are human-controlled, all golfers have the same attributes which can’t be edited or improved upon, there are no difficulty settings, and swings are handled through the analog stick.

INTUITIVE CONTROL SYSTEM

We’ve created and fine tuned a swing mechanic that is more about feeling and fluidity above the users’ accuracy of hitting a marker on a power bar. Whilst anyone will be able to pick the controller up and play comfortably, the best players on the global leaderboards will be those with the best feel for the different golf shots and who are able to take into account ball lie, weather and terrain conditions.

INSTANTANEOUS GAMEPLAY

No loading times between holes means you are straight back on the Tee after sinking your putt on the previous green. Also, minimal loading times into a new course make for a refreshing change to your typical console game.

UNLIMITED COURSES

No more getting bored of the courses given to you by the developer. With four clicks you can generate a unique course never seen before that’s ready to play.

GENERATE COURSES

With four clicks of a button from the main menu the game will generate for you a never been played before course. The variation is infinite!

If you don’t like the course that’s been generated, one click and you can generate a new one.

If you want to tailor the courses a little more there are high-level options available to you. Examples of these are the number of holes, par distribution, fairway width, number of bunkers, green size, green slope and rough coverage.

EDIT AND CREATE YOUR OWN COURSES

If you have a particular course in mind, want to use your creative skills to create something from scratch or edit something the generator has created for you the game also has an in-depth editor.

The editor gives you the ability of create from scratch or mould anything on the course. You can alter the terrain, move tees, move greens, move holes, delete holes, add holes, bunkers, rivers, ponds, trees, foliage, buildings, animals and other objects.

During editing you can play the ball from any spot to review holes and make changes as you see fit. The minimal loading times make this practical and enjoyable.

LARGE SELECTION OF PRE-DESIGNED COURSES SHIPPING WITH THE GAME

Courses for all skill levels and utilizing the best of HB’s creative talents will ship with the game. They can be played individually but will also make up the tournament itinerary for the pre-designed Tour that also comes with the game.

ONLINE SHARING AND PLAY

Play others creations – work your way through the huge database of user created courses, each rated by other users to help make the decision easy to make.

Share your courses with the World – when you’re happy with your creations you can publish them for the rest of the world to play.

Play against others live or from the past – each round you play on every course is saved Online. Choose from Friends Rounds, Record Rounds or Rivals Rounds (others players close to your ability) to compete against. Their ghost balls and scores will be visible throughout your round giving you the feeling of competition without losing the instantaneous game play. Ghost and live balls can be hidden if so desired either selectively or en masse.

Compete in Tours and Tournaments – play against other players throughout the world in user made tours and tournaments.

Watch others play the courses you’re on live – through our ball trace system you can see other users from around the world on the course that you are playing live, even if they’re on different holes.

TOURS AND TOURNAMENTS

Create and share Tours and Tournaments made up of your favourite courses to test your friends’ or players worldwide over a number of rounds and courses.

These can be Time Constrained or Indefinite. You can choose a start and end date with just one entry per player or, if your tournament or tour is indefinite, you can allow players to enter as many times as they want to try and get to the top of the leaderboard.

SOCIAL FEEDS AND MESSAGES

You will be kept up to date with the world of The Golf Club through a fully interactive social ticker bar and an in-game message feed. To create a truly competitive world the messages will tell you:

♦Friends achievements and creations

♦Friends currently playing

♦When your records on courses are broken

♦Invites from friends to play

♦Major achievements from all players within The Golf Club

♦With one press of a button you can interact with these messages. Immediately join your friends on a round or regain your record by jumping to the course and / or hole where the record was broken. All rounds are constantly saved so you can return to your previous game whenever you want to and play from where you left it.