Andy Smith
walks about and slaps small balls of plastic and
rubber with big metal sticks. What larks, eh?
But it's just how you slap those little
balls of plastic and rubber that counts. It's in
the challenge of being able to hit those little
balls well, under the player's control, that
makes a golf game fun. After all, make it dead
easy and things are very boring (hey! just like
real...) but make it too difficult and
frustration outweighs the enjoyment.
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![](pic2.GIF) That
tree just before the green means you're
going to have to hit to the left of it
(onto the fairway) and sort of make a
dog-leg out of this hole.
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What you need is a balance between giving the
player the chance to either screw up or do well.
That balance is usually found in the variables
the player has to tinker with -- things like
which club to use, how much power to hit the ball
with, which way the wind's blowing, whether to
hook or slice (or in Pro Tour language, draw and
fade) and what terrain the ball's landed in. Pro
Tour gives you all that and more. Plenty of
spin
As well as all of the above, Pro Tour gives the
player the chance to put spin on the ball -- so
it either skips along the green or stops dead,
depending on the amount -- and to 'punch' the
ball. This is a little chip shot that's ideal for
getting you out of trouble or for playing chip
and run shots onto the green (that's where you
chip it and it runs onto the green -- see?). One
other major addition Pro Tour has that you won't
find in other golf games is the ability to open
and close the 'face' of the club. Essentially
this means controlling whether you actually hit
the ball 'face on' or not. Normally you'd want to
hit the ball face on because then you've got a
good strike at it and it goes just where you
want. Open up the face and you kind of scoop the
ball a bit so it flies higher but doesn't go as
far. Closing the face has the opposite effect.
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![](pic1.GIF) This
is the leaderboard. It, er, shows who the
leaders are.
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How you actually play is very standard. Point
your little 'viewed from above' man in the right
direction, select your club, add some spin if you
want and then press the mouse to raise the power
meter, press it again and it falls and give it a
third and final press when it's on the mid-line
between drawing the ball to the left and fading
it to the right. If all goes well, and depending
on the weather, the ball should go just about
where you want it to. I mention the weather
because it has an effect on the flight of the
ball. Fine weather means perfect playing
conditions with full ball control. Dry weather
means the ground is harder and thus faster so the
ball will roll further but spin less. Overcast
conditions mean the ground's soft and the ball
will stop quickly. Rain presents the toughest
challenge because the ground's wet and your
visibility is reduced.
Watch the Weather
The condition of the ground is very important --
in the same way as landing your ball in the rough
or on the green is very important -- because it
affects the lie of the ball and therefore how
much control you're going to have over the next
shot. And just what kind of golfing are you
going to be up to? Well, you can play in an 18-,
36- or 72-hole tournament (set over the four
courses supplied with the game). The more holes
the bigger the purse, the object of the exercise
being to win the tournaments and accrue some
dosh. Erm, not that you can then spend it on
anything, so it's a bit like winning points
really. Oh and there's a practice mode too where
you can get used to playing.
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![](pic3.GIF) Adding
spin controls how much the ball rolls
when it lands. Well, that's the theory,
anyway.
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But is it any good? No. The one feature in this
game that absolutely ruins it is the fact that
you can't hit your ball over trees. You can whack
off from the tee and watch as your ball rises
gracefully into the air -- dozens of feet into
the air by the way it looks -- and suddenly it's
going to come crashing down when it passes over a
tree (which all look like small bushes).
Apparently this is a game 'feature' that
"...allows for complex holes which require
thought about where you are going to put the ball
to give the best aim at the flag. It also
requires you to use the draw and fade controls to
shape your shots around trees...". All well
and good in theory, but erm, why not just design
holes that are complex and require thought about
where you're going to put the ball anyway? After
all, you don't actually want to hit the ball into
the trees do you? Avoiding them is what the
game's all about, but then being clever and being
able to whack the ball over the top of them is a
good way to short-cut to the hole. And if you
haven't got the skill to hit over them you go
round 'em. But to make the player have to go
round them is such a cop-out. Not the best
Although it doesn't render the game unplayable,
it takes a great deal away from it and the
'complex holes which require thought' boil down
to about two seconds' worth of thought when you
have a look at the overhead map and see where you
have to hit the ball to avoid the trees. Ho hum.
Not the best golfing game around and certainly
not as good as some of the old classics so, if
golf's your thing, it's worth going for one of
them, especially as Guildhall Leisure are
re-releasing Sensible Golf very shortly.
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