Jack Nicklaus Golf & Course Design: Signature Edition

Computer Golf games have a come long way since the early days of pc gaming, when PGA Tour Golf ruled the roost. Links set new standards with stunning graphics matched with exciting gameplay, but suffered from infuriatingly slow screen redraws. Jack Nicklaus Signature Edition is a sort of happy medium between fast-paced gameplay and exciting graphics. Many of the courses included on this cd are digitised and, while they still take a while to redraw in between shots, it doesn't affect the flow of the game to any noticeable degree. Anyone who is familiar with Links will feel at home with the point-and-click interface implemented in Jack Nicklaus. It's well designed and intuitive and most people should become familiar with all the game controls fairly quickly. Accolade have gone right over the top for the cd version of the game. The signature edition has a total of 16 courses, two of which have never been released before in the uk. It also has a rather smart course designer, which lets players create their own courses and fully-digitised male and female players, including the computerised swing of Jack Nicklaus himself. There's a new tournament mode with an option to play against the computer or human players. As with all computer golf games, playing against the computer is reasonably challenging, but there's nothing quite like sitting round your pc with a couple of mates and a few crates of beer (optional) and getting stuck into a major tournament. There are other significant "tweakings" for the cd version too. The power-bar interface has been repositioned to allow a wider viewing screen. The courses have digitised horizons, trees and objects, and fully-contoured bit-mapped fairways, greens and bunkers. Finally, the new version has digitised sound effects and crowd responses throughout the game (the crowd clap when you do a particularly smart shot). As golf .. games go, Jack Nicklaus is not the best example of the genre around. It's certainly no match for Links in the graphics department, and it doesn't have the ease of gameplay or wide range of user-definable options to be found in David Leadbetters Golf, but despite all this, it's still well playable and 16 courses should be enough to keep anyone going for a reasonable length of time. One thing it has got going for it over every other pc golf game in the entire universe is the price. $20 for a cd game of this quality is excellent value for money. It's also the best bet for anyone looking for a golf game that doesn't require a ninja pc. Links may look amazing, but if you're running it on anything less than a 486, you'll fall asleep waiting for the screen to redraw.