Customer Reviews

Sid Meier's SimGolf

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Links and other golf-realism fans look elsewhere. This is not about accurate golf. It's a money management and resource gathering sim along the lines of Theme Park or Sim-Coaster. Those expecting this to be as involved or detailed as Meier's Civilization or Alpha Centauri games will also be disappointed. It's not necessarily challenging, but still fun to play.

Like most games of this type, you start out with a blank piece of land and a small sum of money and your job is to build up your course hole by hole until you raise enough money to err... go on to another blank piece of land. Detail is sacrificed for simplicity in this game. You can raise/lower terrain, add fairway, green and various traps rather intuitively but you can't make the sandtrap the exact shape you are looking for. You can win awards for a number of different achievements such as completing dog-leg holes or hitting the 9 and 18 hole marks. As your course becomes popular and the money starts pouring in, you can also sell prime real estate which celebrities such as "Curtis Weird" will move into.

Once you get a hole or two built, you can open your course to the familiar Sims who travel the course, speaking their gibberish, and showing their enthusiasm (or disgust) at your creation. A well designed course is also necessary to impress the city officials who, after a pleasing round of golf, will allow you to buy additional parcels of land to expand your course. If your course is particularly well designed, a pair of sims will start an elaborate story you can follow along with as they play. A pair may fall in love, start a business together, or whatever. If the story reaches a conclusion, a bonus item (usually some kind of course decoration) will drop from the sky and on to the course. It's interesting to follow, but after about four or five stories, they'll start to repeat themselves.

A weaker aspect of the game is the tournaments you play against fellow sims to build up your skills such as putting, driving, etc... It's *very* basic. You may make a mouse click or two on the initial drive, but the computer takes over from there right down to the final putt. You might as well be rolling dice. I wonder why it was ever incorporated into the game.

It's a very easy game, so if you're looking for a challenge straight out of the box, skip the normal level and go straight to difficult. There's also a nice feature that allows you to import your face in the game; the readme.txt file details how to do it. It's tricky, but you can import three different faces (happy, normal, mad) using a program that edits .bmp files (such as Paint Shop or Microsoft's Photo Editor). Then your face will appear in the giant photo of yourself as you pull up your character's statistics (I was hoping my mug would appear in the game itself, but alas...)

I killed an entire evening playing this game right out of the box. It sucks you in very quickly with its simplicity. However I don't find myself coming back to it that much the way I did playing The Sims. Perhaps it's because it's easy or maybe it's just because I'm sure I've probably seen everything already. So the next chunk of land is a wooded area instead of a tropical beach. What's the use of continuing if you're just going to create another course and listen to the same jabbering sims over and over again?

Still, if you ever wished you create your own Pebble Beach or Mauna Kea resort, this game delivers.

...is electronic 'crack'. I am not joking. I enjoy the 'Sims' games but am not a giant fan of them; however, this game...? UNBELIEVABLE. I could not stop playing it the first 2 days I had it. I actually skipped 2 days of work (...cough cough... sick boss, sorry...) and played the he** out of it! I cannot wait to play the full version. The role playing elements are great, I can see that there will very likely be scenarios and specific challenges in addition to the career and 'tycoon' aspects of the game. This game Roxor!

While you read this review you are missing out on valuable time you could be playing this game. This game by the makers of The Sims is on par with fun. You make a golf course then you can change the holes, or even play your own golf tournament. That is right; you can play your own golf course as you could with Roller Coaster. It is like 2 games in one. This game also has many different possible courses so replay is endless. You also don't need to look for those codes to get more money; there is a mode where you can play with infinite money where you try to get your fun and skill rating up. You can even sell homes to Movie and Music Stars on your golf course. I knew that the programmers at EA were having a lot of fun creating this game when a "Britney Agulara" bought one of my lakeside homes. I also enjoyed playing a 9 hole tournament against a "Fuzzy Navel". I am not joking if you play this game, you will come across many funny names including the ones I have mentioned here. This game is a lot of fun!

I'm a big fan of Sid Meier's previous games - Civilization and Civ II being some of my all-time favorites! I can't even count the number of hours I've spent playing those two games - probably well in to the hundreds. Anyways, I normally would never pick up a golf game, I don't usually play sport-type games, but since it had Sid Meier's name on it I decided to give it a try. I was not disappointed!

It plays like most other Sim/Tycoon games - you start with your basic empty plot of land and build it up to a huge golf course. You build golf holes, hire staff, get different buildings and attractions (driving range, etc). One feature that I really enjoyed was selling plots of land to celebrities - they're a lot of fun to watch! You also can play in a tournament against another golfer, which is pretty easy. I am not skilled at golf games, so I enjoyed it a lot because it was not too complicated.

Another fun feature is to watch the patrons of your course.. because sometimes they'll start on a funny story. If you watch them the entire time they're golfing, they'll keep going on with the story. If they finish (a sign of a good course I guess!) then you get a special prize (some kind of decorative item usually).

I was surprised I enjoyed this game as much as I did. I played it for several days exclusively, but haven't played it since. It doesn't have the longevity that some other games do (namely the Sims for me), but it did keep my attention for many hours over the course of a few days and for the price, I say its worth it!

I found this demo on my Hot Date CD and really enjoyed it. Mr. Meier has seemed to combine the fun parts of rollercoaster tycoon and the sims and even simcity. It all comes together and if you're like me you'll find yourself playing this short demo for hours. I'm looking forward to the game coming out next year. I think it will become a big hit!

I enjoyed SimGolf for the first few hours I played it. Building a highly rated course was a fun challenge. I eventually learned the 'template' to creating highly rated holes, however this 'template' doesn't mesh with realistic golf.

I play the traditional three-click swing golf games, and I was not challenged with the method of playing the course presented here.

SimGolf is not a bad game. I got several hours of enjoyment out of it, but it then became quite tedious.

As an avid golfer and "sim" freak, I couldn't wait to get my hands on Sid Meier's "Sim Golf". The initial set up allows you to pick from different geographical locations on which to build your course. Bulding a hole is extremely easy and you area able to open your course to the public after your first hole is complete. After you complete a certain number of holes, your green fees and membership prices go up. As the game goes along and the money starts coming in, your are able to add more buildings, monuments and all kinds of extras for your course. Employees are easy to hire and control. Unlike "Sim Theme Park" you don't have to hire a lot of employees or set any patrol regions. They pretty much go where they are supposed to, but moving them to a different area if needed is very simple. You will soon discover that the most important employees are the groundskeepers. Dandelions and weeds grow rapidly and can turn players off rather quickly. The real estate option is pretty neat as well. Put a couple of lots up for sale and before you know it, you've got a nice little neighborhood going. Over time, your little golf community become's the talk of Hollywood and all kinds of stars start building mansions on your course. From "Shock Jock" Howard Sterno, to fitness guru "Jane Fondue". These stars will add appeal to your course and attract new members to join.(yes, Jane works out on her patio)The graphics, pace of the game and ease of catching on are quite good. However, it is certainly not perfect. Feedback from players becomes maddening. It seems every few seconds you have to click off a pop-up window filled with information from your players. The players repeat the same laughs, sighs, moans and phrases far too much. The option that allows you to play your course is a joke. It doesn't add anything to the game and really shouldn't even be an option. Overall, the game is fun, fast and addictive. If you like "Sim" games and you like golf, this game is definatly worth the money. That's why I give it a "fore" out of five.

If you like sports, you'll like this game. If you liked the Sims and you like sports, you'll love this game.

I'm not the biggest Sims fan, but this game can be played in many different ways. First of all, think of it as "Golf Tycoon". You're offered a basic golf design system and a budget and away you go. But that isn't all. You'll find that you take the role of the course pro and actually play the holes you design. Hey, it ain't Links Pro, but it is fun.

Tournaments and pro challenges come after you've started to maintain a club membership base. Make some alterations to your course to make it suitable for pro play. Or, make it easier for non pro golfers. It's your course, so do what you want.

Also, you have many different geographical locations to choose from, so the replay value is very good.

With all the options and the way to play your course, this game will be yet another prize winner from two of PC gaming's legends, Sid Meier (Pirates, Railroad Tycoon, Civilization) and Will Wright (Sim City, Sim Tower, Sims).

How can you lose with all these factors?

This is certainly not the best game Sid Meier has ever put his name on, a long shot from the civilization series. But I like golf, and I like sims, so this game seemed like a natural. The interface is very similar to Roller Coaster Tycoon, though the game offers far fewer options in terms of locale types and amenities. The "golfing" element of the game is a bit silly as well. The game offers you the opportunity to golf against a "pro" or to compete in tournaments to raise money for your course. The thing is that you are given very little control over whether you win or lose. You click in the direction you want the ball to go, and the computer decides how successful the shot is based upon the abilities your player has earned through various accomplishments throughout the game. Overall, it gets a bit boring after a while as there is only so much you can do to spice up a golf course without driving your sims nuts, and only so many times you can play your own course. It's a good idea, but not quite worth the money they are asking.

Another issue with this game is bugs. This game has more than it's fair share. Out of the last 20 times or so that I have tried to play, I have had to reload the game or reboot my computer at least 3 or 4 times. That's not horrible, but it's certainly more than avaerage and definately enough to ruin the experience, especially after builing up a cool course.

In short, this was the best simulation of a real life "tycoon" sort of game I have ever played. The game allows people who do not play golf to enjoy the exiting aspect of it, and actually play in-game tournaments and matches agaisnt pro's

At first, the most appealing thing of the game to me as a pre-teen was the "Sim" name in the title. Once I started playing, I couldnt stop. I loved the challenge of pleasing my members, the real life golf things like the hazards, and I enjoyed the actual golf games and skills you had.

In short, I loved this game, and I can see why "Sim" is still a leading producer of excellent simulation games!