I hadn't played for a while and to be honest I am starting to wish I
hadn't started again. for a start I still can't fix the issue of my
clubs not hitting as far as they should/used to do. apart from my wedges
that is. it has been suggested that this is because I am only using the
free starter balls, but ever since I started using them I have only
ever lost a yard or two with certain clubs, sometimes loosing no
distance at all. for example, my driver is supposed to hit 280 carry,
which it used to and more with no problems, now my carry distance is as
low as 245 with the extra distance being made up with a lot of roll if
I'm lucky. this is why my average driving distance doesn't seem to
indicate a problem but I can assure anyone who is interested that there
is.
The other issue I have developed, which I did notice a bit
the last time I played but not as much as now, backspin whether you
apply it or not doesn't or does work when it wants to. you apply
backspin to an approach shot, which I know all too well reduces
distance, by how much depends on how the game is feeling that day. the
ball comes up short landing just on or off the green and stops dead with
no roll. or the other scenario is that you hit a shot with backspin
which lands within a foot or two of the pin, only to bounce way off the
green. is the grass on the edge of the green slower than the grass near
the pin? otherwise applying backspin should cause the ball to do the
same thing no matter where it lands on the green. it just seems that
when you need a bit of extra roll the ball stops dead, and when you want
the ball to stop dead it keeps going. I even hit a shot on a round the
other day with my 56 wedge, I applied no backspin (green dot dead center
of the ball) and got 8 yards of backspin after landing the ball on a
perfectly flat green, or as flat as could be expected.
Another
strange one is the fact that the wind now seems to do whatever the hell
it likes. you try to aim left or right to allow for the wind, something I
was pretty good but not great at in the past, and the ball misses left
or right by quite a big margin. in some cases I don't think I could have
missed by so much if I had left the aim point where it was and dinged
the meter. I could have a 20mph headwind on countless holes, and each
time the same strength headwind causes you to loose different amounts of
carry/roll distance, the same applies to distance gained by a tailwind,
also depending on what club you use. I hit a 325 yard drive on st
andrews just now thanks to a 22mph tailwind, 80 yards further than
normal since my clubs started playing up. but the same 22mph only added 4
yards to my 60 yard 64 degree wedge leaving me short of the green. if a
22mph tailwind adds 80 yards to a driver, you would expect an increase
in carry/roll distance with every other club in the bag.
The wind
on st andrews in the round I have just played is yet another annoyance.
I had a 20mph ish crosswind on every hole apart from two where I had a
headwind. have a look at a course map for st andrews, that isn't
possible. I have played st andrews for real and the wind doesn't hit you
from the same direction on every hole. in the round I just played, I
had a 21mph left to right crosswind on the first hole, you would think
that would give you a similar strength tailwind for holes 2 3 4 5 6 7
and 10, but you don't in this game, or I didn't at least.
I just
about made it to 10 consecutive days played yesterday which would have
given me 1055 xp points I think. it could be more or less but I
definitely noticed it was over 1000. usually your consecutive days
played bonus is displayed in the end game screen, so many points for the
game you just played, so many points for your hit the ball experience
and your consecutive days played bonus. I have seen this message
countless times both yesterday, the day before and today. yesterday was
the only time I haven't seen the consecutive days play bonus come up at
the end of the game, even though the main menu screen showed I hadn't
played on the 10th day (indicated by red exclamation mark) followed by a
green tick after playing a round yesterday. for 9 days before and one
day after I have had my consecutive days play bonus displayed at the end
of the first round played that day while the rest of my xp points are
being calculated, but not on the 10th day when there was over 1000xp
points at stake.
Having so many problems with one simple game is
ridiculous. I would have less problems and issues out on a real course.
there are many issues with this game that have been raised many times
over the years I have been playing, and have probably been raised for
many years before I started playing, and will probably continue to be
raised for many years to come. some have been fixed some haven't, some
have raised their ugly heads again and some haven't. I can't name them
off the top of my head but I know from reading the forums there have
been a lot.
I enjoy playing this game but not as much as I did
when I first started playing, or not as much as I did the last time I
played. I'm doing everything the same as I did then and still my scores
have dropped through the floor. if this is just the game makers way of
trying to get me to upgrade my clubs and balls then forget it, when the
game starts playing like it should and like it used to before I took a
break then I may be tempted to upgrade, but as it stands I am not
wasting money buying things for a game that don't do what they
should/used to.