The Golf Club 2 deserves its own thread. It really is that good.

Games
1

EDIT: Join our online Qt3 Society in-game! It’s just “Qt3”, no quotes.

I held off on buying TGC2 for nearly five months. It looked great when @tomchick streamed it a few months ago, but Tom seemed to struggle with the controls, and if you read the “Mixed” reviews on Steam, it isn’t a pretty picture. Lots of people seem to hate this game.

And so I’m here to tell you: this is a great PC golf sim. The best in a long time, maybe the pinnacle of the genre. This game, finally after 16 years, is the beautiful spiritual successor to Sierra PGA Championship Golf 2K, the former greatest golf game ever.

The Golf Club 2 isn’t an easy game, but it isn’t nearly as frustrating as some of the user reviews on Steam make it out, either. There’s one big key to reducing frustration playing this game: don’t use a mouse. Use a gamepad analog stick.

The difference is that notable. Imagine signing your name and either holding the pen down towards the tip…or holding it by the back end. The swing mechanics in TGC2 are based on small movements, and the analog stick on a gamepad greatly reduces the chance you’ll accidentally make some small, unintended movement that will send your shot off in crazy directions. Again, it’s the difference between a surgeon trying to make an incision with a scalpel, or using a broadsword. You want the scalpel.

There’s so much game here though. So many courses, with some great user designs that appear to be under fairly constant scrutiny by the creators and community for accuracy to real life. I’m just now getting into season play with a fake “society”, before I go get myself humbled by trying to join a real-life online society for tournaments and tours to really have my ass handed to me.

Again, though, this is the real deal for golf. It requires you to craft shots, requires you to think tactically about holes, and most of the best courses reward smart play and doing stuff like staying in the fairway and hitting greens in regulation.

Game is sixteen bucks for the next 25 hours. That’s the gaming steal of the year, if this is a subject that even remotely interests you.

2

Can this be played entirely solo/single player if one chooses?

3

Moving this from the golf thread:

You guys (meaning @robc04 and @triggercut) are making me very tempted. As a huge Links fan (386 to LS), I have never found a golf game I enjoyed as much. The Tiger Woods series just didn’t do it for me for some reason. A couple of things worry me though. Controller vs mouse, only because mouse is what I grew up on, and controller sounds much more finicky. Another thing is the Steam reviews are “mixed”, and the negative reviews, while not exactly thought provoking, aren’t the “it sucks” type either.

Finally, the best times with Links were sitting around drinking beer playing with friends. Online isn’t the same, and I don’t have any gaming friends anymore. Is it really fun sitting by yourself playing? Ghosts make it decently fun? (Although it looks like I don’t have any Steam friends that have it.)

4

This absolutely works as a single player game. In fact, that’s all I’ve done, and I’m totally sold already.

But beyond playing ghosts of friends, you can play an entire season of tournaments as a single player game with a “society” (their word for touring pro pools) of fictional golfers. And that is also very satisfying, at least so far…(still bitter about blowing a third-place finish in my first tournament by finding a fairway bunker on the final hole and taking a double bogey.)

As for controller vs mouse, I’ll just say that I’m a mouse and keyboard kind of guy, usually. I can’t play twin stick shooter games or anything of the sort. But for this, the controller feels right…and really the only piece of the controller you’re using with any skill level is that left analog stick.

5

Also, @robc04 should teach putting clinics. He’s very, very good at that!

Also also, just when you’re feeling good about your progress, take on @Reemul’s ghost. He’ll humble you.

6

Well gosh darn it, you’ve sold me too. I love golf games.

7

How does it compare to Links 2004 which was the last golf game I didn’t suck at?

Some links for easy game finding and info:

Qt3 Tom Stream:

Best part where Tom rage quits!

8

I bought in. Do we have a QT3 society?

9

Ok, I’ll give it a try…bought.

10

We do now!

It’s just Qt3. I’ve set it for private, but I think if you search for that parameter, it’ll tell me to let you in.

11

I agree with everything @triggercut has said - except for me teaching putting :-) I admit I can make some good shots, but I also make awful shots missing a 5 footer and end up 4 putting!

This game is about playing golf - not about earning experience points to level up your character. You don’t earn points to make your golfer better. He gets better when you get better. Difficulty is controlled by picking 1 of 3 sets of clubs. The harder ones are less forgiving, but good shots are rewarded with better distance.

I find being consistent with the analog stick difficult, but I always feel like it is on me - not the game screwing me over. If you’re better with the stick than I am, you’ll probably shoot more consistently than me.

Many courses are beautiful. It’s great to play the holes, taking in the sights. If you find a course that the greens are too fast or the pin placement isn’t fair, then don’t play that course anymore. Keep track of your favorites and play the ones you like. You won’t have a choice in the public tournaments if you play those, but you can pick what you want to play in single player.

It’s a really fun, but difficult game.

12

Ha. I’ve been playing the whole time with the starter set of clubs.

Decided I’d better give the “Player” set a whirl. Deep stuff, here I come…been nice knowing you, fairways.

13

Just loaded it up and played through the tutorial. Everything made sense and seemed ok, except the sand shot. It took me forever to get that one, and I still don’t know what I was doing wrong or right. I would get perfect ratings on the swing, with what I thought was max power, and still couldn’t hit the green. And being a little bit off sometimes got me a few yards, but sometimes only went inches. Sure I just need practice and it will be fine.

Look forward to getting a round in later tonight.

14

Offline? Or is this pretty much online only?

15

How’s the putting now? The putting in the original Golf Club made me way too angry to enjoy the rest of what seemed a pretty good game.

16

Once I decided that this game was a keeper, I spent a good 45 minutes to an hour just practicing chipping while listening to a podcast. Sand is absolutely the light brown devil of this game. I am phobic about it. Eventually, I’ve gotten to where I can hit out of it reasonably well though.

And…that’s actually something the game models much better than Links or Tiger Woods/EA. In those games, you could craft unrealistic sand shots by playing with the loft and fade/draw. In TGC2, if you do that too much, the game just says “Uh uh.” And you hit a 5 inch shot and get to whack it again.

And from everything I’ve read with actual pros discussing real golf, that’s as it should be. Sand should force you to overshoot or under hit to the pin, just because it severely limits your shot selection.

17

Not sure what you mean here. It’s offline, as in “I’m not actually playing some of these folks in real-time”, but the online element is “Here’s a course one of your friends played, so you get to compete against his or her ghost if you want.” And then you get really mad at Reemul for hitting a tee shot on a par 3 about 8 feet from the hole while you’re digging out of a bunker.

18

I mean, I’ve seen complaints from folks on Steam, but I don’t get it.

There’s no putting meter. This is by “feel”, and you’ll learn to judge that soon enough. But it always feels fair to me. When I miss a putt, I know why, most of the time. And honestly, 4-foot putts and in feel almost too automatic on anything but the slipperiest greens.

19

I mean, can you actually play the game (without real opponents, of course) completely offline.

The first game was online-only. If you weren’t connected, you didn’t get access to any courses.

20

Ok you bastards. I bought it.

Went through the tutorial and really like the feel of it. Tried to change to full screen and no ultrawide support. BOO. Still, seems like a solid golf game.