|
|
The Plot:
It was only a month ago that I discovered "Hot Shots Golf 3" for the Playstation 2. While the game was a bit silly, it also managed to provide courses that were often beautifully designed, enjoyable and generally realistic gameplay and a few little additional aspects to add depth. "Outlaw Golf" is an attempt to build off the kind of humor that was displayed in "Hot Shots" and and add a more PG-13 flavor to the proceedings, with strippers and other "outrageous" personalities to choose from.
"Outlaw" also adds a few other elements to gameplay, one of which is irritating and one of which is quite amusing. The bad news first: I disliked the game's "composure meter". When you hit a terrific shot, your composure goes up. When you hit a shot into the rough (even if it's not too far off from where you wanted to be), your composure can go down into the dumps, leading to inaccurate shots. A way to pull your composure out of the gutter quickly is to choose to beat up your caddy, which sometimes results in a woman vs. woman bout (otherwise known as a "catfight"). While entertaining, the caddy fights rarely happen and after a while, they become a little familiar.
"Outlaw Golf" brings quite a bit of attitude to the table, but it doesn't manage to really succeed that well in the basics. The courses (only 3) are varied - they're sometimes a little sparse, sometimes a little too easy and sometimes a little on the difficult side. "Hot Shots 3" provided more consistently well-designed courses to play on. Given this game's attitude, an additional "mini golf" course (which would have probably easily integrated some of the game's "attitude") could have been a fun addition. The game does offer some variables, including some sub-choices from both the main "exhibition" and "career" modes, though.
Overall, "Outlaw Golf" could have worked a little harder to create a more compelling Golf game. The attitude is funny, but it gets repetitive after a while.
Rating: 7.5/10
The DVD
Graphics: "Outlaw Golf" boasts passable graphics; the players look terrific, while some elements of the courses seem a little sparse. Texture and detail are pleasing, if not great - trees and grass seem fairly well-rendered, while the water looks halfway decent. The player animations are fluid and overall, I found this an enjoyable presentation, if certainly nothing that uses the XBOX's potential nor reaches the potential of how a Golf game can look.
Rating: 8/10
Sound: The sound is one of the more enjoyable aspects of "Outlaw Golf". The voice acting from the characters does get a surprising amount of laughs and "The Daily Show"'s Steve Carell offers quite a few chuckles as the announcer. The game also boasts nice ambient sound (crowd noise, etc.) The music's a little blah, but I didn't mind it that much.
Rating: 8.3/10
Gameplay: I wasn't thrilled with the controls of "Outlaw Golf". Swinging involves pulling the stick backwards and pushing it forwards. If the stick doesn't go exactly forwards, the ball is heading someplace other than towards the green. While I suppose this more realistically replicates an actual golf swing, I prefered the easier "three click" meter swing of "Hot Shots 3". Otherwise, control elements (zooming in on where your shot should land, beating on the caddy) are easily handled. Replay value is mixed: while multiplayer is fun, there's only three courses to choose from.
Rating: 7.0/10
Rating Issues: "Outlaw Golf" is rated "T" (Teen). With the game's attitude and "T" rating, sometimes the game feels as if it's one of those raunchy teen movies that wants desperately to be an "R", but goes for the PG-13 to be able to sell to a wider audience. "Outlaw" feels at times like it could have taken the raunchy tone a bit further, but doesn't. As is, there are certainly some moments and audio comments in the game that earn the "T" rating, but in movie terms, this is certainly "PG-13", not "R".
Final Thoughts: "Outlaw Golf" succeeds more often than not with the humor aspect, but Golf is what counts here and the game needs work in some areas. It should make for a decent rental, but I wouldn't recommend it as more than that.
|
