This is an early review. At review time, I have about 2 hours of gameplay, and about 25 hours of watching YouTube video.

I have sufficient knowledge to give a good review..so bear with me.

First, I am a life-long golfer, and first played in 1974. I am also a lifelong PC and X-Box golfer, having played just about every golf game ever made, from PGA Tour golf for my Pentium 1, up to all the Links series golf games, all the Tiger Woods, and especially every game that ever sported a golf course designer.

Sid Meier (Civilization, Colonization) had a game called Sim Golf, back in the day. It was brilliant, and I put HUNDREDS of hours designing course after course. This game is clearly a spiritual successor to Sim Golf. But better.

How is it better? OK...

First, the actual layers of the course, the greens, fairways, sandtraps, various types of roughs, can be told to over-write the underlying terrain, or to leave it alone. If you like the size of your green, but want to "paint" a sandtrap that leaves your green alone, you can do that. If you want to shave off a too-large green, and replace it with a sand trap, simply tell the terrain tool to over-write the green. Simple, intuitive, and done with a single click.

So...designing the physical hole is a start. What about if it is on the side of a hill? Get rid of the hill, raise the surrounding terrain, work around the hill, or use one of the special tools to have the ball bounce off the hill. Endless possibilities here.

You start with a clubhouse, and three holes. As you gain money, you can increase your clubhouse size over time, and this opens up the ability to produce more holes. From 3 to 6, then 9, and so on, up to 18. There are nine sections of the map you can unlock and purchase. Each section has sufficient room to produce 3-6 holes, so your 18 hole course has plenty of room. Heck. I could probably produce three full courses on the available map space.

This gives you plenty of room to place the ancillary techs of your course..driving range, putting green, etc. Planning is the key. You probably don't want to crown holes close to your clubhouse. You want the support structures, and some decoration to "rank up" your beauty score.

Your 200 golfers are persistent, and will golf over and over. If your course isn't improving, they they're not upgrading their memberships. If they don't upgrade their memberships, you ain't upgrading your clubhouse. If you aren't upgrading your clubhouse, you aren't going to be allowed to product more holes. SO.....not only do you need more holes, you need to continue to upgrade the holes you already have. It isn't a matter of create, and go onto the next one.

I suspect that the end game will be hard. My first game, I am on hole 5, and a severe thunderstorm decided I was done for a bit..but I will fire it back up here directly.

Buy this game. I am an old-time strategy gamer, with several hundred games in my account. Take a look at the games on my list, and you will see that I like deep, complex games. This is deep, but not complex. I have found it to be fun, refreshing, and accessible. Today is day one of release. Note the hours played, over time, and you will see that I like this game, A LOT.

Day one purchase for me, and I simply cannot recommend the game highly enough.

This is an early review. At review time, I have about 2 hours of gameplay, and about 25 hours of watching YouTube video. I have sufficient knowledge to give a good review..so bear with me. First, I am a life-long golfer, and first played in 1974. I am also a lifelong PC and X-Box golfer, having played just about every golf game ever made, from PGA Tour golf for my Pentium 1, up to all the Links series golf games, all the Tiger Woods, and especially every game that ever sported a golf course designer. Sid Meier (Civilization, Colonization) had a game called Sim Golf, back in the day. It was brilliant, and I put HUNDREDS of hours designing course after course. This game is clearly a spiritual successor to Sim Golf. But better. How is it better? OK... First, the actual layers of the course, the greens, fairways, sandtraps, various types of roughs, can be told to over-write the underlying terrain, or to leave it alone. If you like the size of your green, but want to "paint" a sandtrap that leaves your green alone, you can do that. If you want to shave off a too-large green, and replace it with a sand trap, simply tell the terrain tool to over-write the green. Simple, intuitive, and done with a single click. So...designing the physical hole is a start. What about if it is on the side of a hill? Get rid of the hill, raise the surrounding terrain, work around the hill, or use one of the special tools to have the ball bounce off the hill. Endless possibilities here. You start with a clubhouse, and three holes. As you gain money, you can increase your clubhouse size over time, and this opens up the ability to produce more holes. From 3 to 6, then 9, and so on, up to 18. There are nine sections of the map you can unlock and purchase. Each section has sufficient room to produce 3-6 holes, so your 18 hole course has plenty of room. Heck. I could probably produce three full courses on the available map space. This gives you plenty of room to place the ancillary techs of your course..driving range, putting green, etc. Planning is the key. You probably don't want to crown holes close to your clubhouse. You want the support structures, and some decoration to "rank up" your beauty score. Your 200 golfers are persistent, and will golf over and over. If your course isn't improving, they they're not upgrading their memberships. If they don't upgrade their memberships, you ain't upgrading your clubhouse. If you aren't upgrading your clubhouse, you aren't going to be allowed to product more holes. SO.....not only do you need more holes, you need to continue to upgrade the holes you already have. It isn't a matter of create, and go onto the next one. I suspect that the end game will be hard. My first game, I am on hole 5, and a severe thunderstorm decided I was done for a bit..but I will fire it back up here directly. Buy this game. I am an old-time strategy gamer, with several hundred games in my account. Take a look at the games on my list, and you will see that I like deep, complex games. This is deep, but not complex. I have found it to be fun, refreshing, and accessible. Today is day one of release. Note the hours played, over time, and you will see that I like this game, A LOT. Day one purchase for me, and I simply cannot recommend the game highly enough.