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GAME REVIEWED: Actua Golf 3

RELEASED BY: Gremlin

PRICE: £44.99

REVIEWED BY: Kelly

REVIEW: -

Following two previously successful releases, this review will come as no surprise that there is now a third Actua Gold title now available in the shops. The very first Golf games featured the control method of clicking a button twice, once to set the power of a shot and once again to set the accuracy of a shot. this game still uses that, now ageing, control method but it has improved with each release. there has also, unsurprisingly, been additions to and improvements to the game.

The main additions to the game are the new game variations such as driving comps where you can earn more cash, clock golf and flag golf. The first game variation is pretty self-explanatory, but if you are wondering, clock golf allows up to four players to compete in a point based game, with the added challenge of a time limit for each shot. Flag golf is a one player game, where objective is to play as many holes as possible within a limited number of shots. There are now also three difficulties on Tour. you start off on the Amateur Tour and then progress to the Pro Tour and the Pro Tour +. The Pro Tour + now provides a more extensive professional season featuring more competitions, better prizes, and professional sponsorship.

There has also been some good improvements to the game. For a start the visuals have been polished up and boasts birds fleeing trees whenever a wayward shot finds itself in the trees (obviously) and crowds dodging divots, which is a very comical sight. The AI (artificial intelligence) has also been improved and the the CPU players seem to have a variety of shots resulting in them being less predictable. And now the deadly commentating duo of Peter Alliss and Alex Hay have over 3,000 witty phrases for the in-game commentary.

But the game does suffer a little with the glitchy textures and a low-resolution graphic appearance. The thing most players will find is that if you ever so slightly miss-strike a ball, the eccentric ball physics send the ball a lot further in a wayward direction than it should and the balls still roll a bit much than what they should. You can still make your own player which is good,but female gameplayers will be disappointed that you can't make female gofers (yes, women do play golf, so take not all you arrogant pig-headed males out there, ay ladies!). This time with your own player, you get to choose their nationality. There are hundreds of obstacles for your golfer to get by to get the ball in the hole and whenever you pull off the shot of a lifetime you can watch it again from the numerous camera views on offer.

Although there isn't much change from the look of the first two game, there is now lots more options to keep you occupied and with eight new courses this time compared to two for the first game and six for the second, at least you won't get too bored with playing the same courses all the time. Not a totally bad effort, but for the next game let's hope the visuals will be better.

 

SCORE:

83%

LINKS: www.gremlin.com


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Last updated: March 13, 1999.