I'm a bit surprised to read this announcement; I had no idea that HB Studios was contemplating a move into the VR realm. I'm pretty much ambivalent to VR at this point and I'd have to take a golf game or a racing game for a test drive to see if it really would appeal to me. I've already broken an XBox One Elite controller's right shoulder button, getting the controller wire caught up in my feet, I can only image the disaster this would lead to with me at the helm.
There were moments in the video where there were three and four second snippets of actual gameplay with the Vive that I was intrigued by, but I have a hard time judging a computer or video game from these short-lived, scene jumping game videos that don't give the viewer time to settle in and see a complete sequence. Still, I can't see myself dropping $800 on this device unless I played TGC VR in a demo setting and was compelled enough by the experience to buy it.
The Vive's motion controls seem to be the most highly touted in the field. Still, I recall my first golf game experience with the Move on the PS3, and Tiger Woods PGA Tour 13. I didn't like it at first because the Move has so little mass, and doesn't feel like a golf club in my hands. I bought a SimStix, which has a real golf club grip on it with a short shaft that gave the "club" a little more mass. I then wrapped the shaft in lead tape until I got the mass I was looking for... it felt sooooo much better. Without being able to put something together that has a golf club grip and a mass roughly equivalent to a golf club, I doubt I'm going to be able to get into the Vive's motion control. It looks like it would have even less mass than the Move.
Finally, I'm worried about TGC VR suffering the same fate as the early Playstation and XBox Madden football games. Early on, they were always a half generation behind the PC version, which had the advantage of continuing development, as the early Playstation 2 and XBox versions neared their release at the turn of the
Century. EA Sports had the PC version of Madden 2000, ready to go, but they Playstation 2 version was mostly based of the previous year's build of Madden. It seems like TGC VR will be more based on TGC than TGC2, and it will look and play more like TGC. For years I felt like I was playing a Madden game that was not quite up with the times on the Playstation 2, at least for those who had also played the "latest" version on the PC.
I guess the bottom line is I'm afraid I'd feel I wasn't getting the most bang for my Vive bucks ($800 of them by my shopping), playing a version of TGC that's missing a lot of the wonderful advancements in presentation, graphics, and gameplay with TGC 2.
I wish HBS the best with this foray though. It's a bold step, but one that eventually could pay dividends if this generation of VR hardware truly takes hold.
