GAME
Jack Nicklaus has been called the greatest golfer ever, and now the one-man links industry offers another high-end golf simulator: Jack Nicklaus 6: Golden Bear Challenge. This time out, armchair duffers can play not only against the Golden Bear but also actually as him in round after round of broadcast-format virtual golf, complete with camera-in-camera course views and running commentary by CBS sportscasters Jim Nantz and Gary McCord.
Playing either as Jack or as an imaginary persona with customizable skills, you'll take to the green on six world-famous courses: Shoal Creek, Mentecastillo Golf Resort, Sherwood Country Club, Nicklaus North Course, Cochise at the Desert Mountain Club, and Muirfield Village. Motion-captured 3-D golfers have smooth swings, as well as some 15 unique moves and gestures. The ball physics are also top-notch.
On both the standard courses and those created with the in-game Course Designer, players can turn on and off the ambient detail, including birdsong, crowd reactions, and comments not only from sportscasters but from Nicklaus himself. Hardcore golf nuts will probably turn off these audio goodies as they lose their charm - avian chirps and crowd moans trigger all too predictably, and the shot-by-shot commentary, while a well-meant concept, is downright embarrassing at times. A competent escape from the rough will sometimes elicit a crack like, "That shot had a lot of ugly on it," while a putt in the wrong direction will go unnoticed.
Alas, the wealth of detail and the abundance of options will only confuse casual players. The game lacks an intuitive online tutorial, and if you're not 100 percent sure about the meaning of golf terms like bogey, birdy, gimme, mulligan, and bingo bango bongo, you'll find yourself, to use golf vernacular, in the heavy rough. But if you dream of laser-thin slices and chip shots, this game will put you on the green.
Jack Nicklaus 6: Golden Bear Challenge: $39.99. Activision: www4.activision.com/games/jack.
STREET CRED
Basement Area Network
Hacking the Vacuum Tube
Free of Attachments
Polaroid's Sticky Portal
Burnt Rubber, Chicago Style
Booting Up Beelzebub
Out of the Celluloid Closet
ReadMe
Music
Saar-Sighted
The Transreal Thing
I, Nicklaus
American History f/x
Just Outta Beta
Little Big Screen
"It Was Just the Law of Large Numbers at Work"
Contributors
