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Volcano Island Golf Club
by Andrew Jones
| Links Corner Course Database ID Number - 310 |
Release Date |
CRZ Filesize |
Par |
Course Length |
| 2001-01-11 |
32,284,372 bytes |
72 |
7417 yards |
| Type |
Style |
CRZ Filename |
|
FICTIONAL |
UNCLASSIFIED |
volcano island golf club.crz |
| Course ID |
Course Key |
| d1ac7770ebdc4f82bee5b8415532571b |
7c59e45dfd25f29dacf495ce909ef6f2 |
|
LINKS CORNER REVIEW |
Reviewed by Ian Downs on January 2001
The Course -
As the image above shows, this course has the feature that you may ask whether it has what it claims. The rest of it lives up to fair expectation too.
Without wanting to compare it to any other course, it does feel like a Devils Island course, and certainly gives a good challenge to any player who visits too. Set mostly on a lava terrain, the course has quite a few added textures and objects. It also has some good sounds throughout the course when approaching hot flowing lava streams. Mapping on alot of faces is also good through most of the course too, making it visually very good. The hole layouts are tough, make no mistake. Detour from the fairways and all sorts of problems will destroy your round. There feels like a nice variation too, but don't rest on your laurels on any holes, including the tough 18th hole featuring some small island greens.
Making this course couldn't have been an easy task with the various features found, and at the filesize it comes, it is quite a grand effort. Although the right boxes are ticked, it is a shame you still see your ball when it lands in the hot lava. Not sure why though. There are odd things here and there that I noticed, like trees in the lava and rocks, but these matter little in playing. Not sure about some things though, like the shell path lip to a bunker on the 1st hole. The odd annoyance found when the ball goes astray and lands in front of an object, causing a complete blockage of view of the golfer. There was the jagged edge of the plot clearly visible in a few holes, 13th and 14th as the hole layout neared the edge of the plot. The 11th green had a bulging fringe, which could have been intentional, and a few dark shadows were seen on the odd hole, mainly the 14th. The 16th has a pin position barley on the edge on the green, when ideally this would be better no closer than 8ft to any edge of green. And it was annoying to survive what I thought was a good tee on the 17th, to find the bushes out of the bounds. Not sure why that area should be so designated. All in all though, very little of these problems interfered visually or playability wise.
Filesize 26MB
Course Summary
Par 72
Tees : 5 (5)
Cameo Picture : Yes
Splash Screen : Yes |
|
CLIPNOTES by Ben Bateson (ousgg) |
Description
Imaginary, tropical course |
Location
TBA |
Conditions
TBA |
Concept 5/10
Even the best designers should let their hair down once in a while.
Volcano Island is an old, old Links design, but surprisingly one which
Andrew Jones has recently re-vamped with some improved textures. The
course does exactly what you might imagine, twisting through the cliffs,
lava streams and a - rather perilous - village on the eponymous island.
There are a number of interesting ideas, not least the 'black hole' bunker
on the 6th, but as a whole the course is less than memorable.
Nevertheless, it was a terrific idea that has been copied umpteen times since. |
Appearance 3/10
Even with the new high-resolution textures, it is hard to think of this course a work of art. The poor out-of scale 3D objects and some
bad hard edges are mostly to blame. The riot of colours and a lot of planting (should there be ANY plants on this course?) are notably
out of place. Unlike its newer brethren, this is a course I find very difficult to believe in. |
Playability 3/10
This should be all-out fun, by any rights, but there's just too much about Volcano Island that isn't. There are a lot of forced shots,
hidden hazards and difficult carries. Penalty strokes are inevitable, and with it the sense of dissatisfaction. Using this for competitive
play must rank up there as a form of sado-masochism. |
Challenge 2/10
It's not as hard as it used to be, thanks to some toning-down of the greens, but there are still a great deal of challenging shots here and
a morass of penalty strokes are inevitable. You frequently are forced to throttle back, and are left with massive carries and greens that
are effectively islands. Take plenty of Mulligans out on the course with you, and cross your fingers. |
Technical 3/10
The texture update has restored a little current credibility to the course, but the lack of overall coherence really counts against it. Just
because Volcano Island is an imaginary environment doesn't mean it has to be an unconvincing one. |
| Overall |
I'm always delighted to find there's a still a market for imaginary courses, but
Volcano Island just doesn't have enough good golf to really fit the billing. |
16/50 |
Please remember that Clipnote reviews are the opinion of one person and do not constitute an 'Official' Links Corner review of the course. |
This course is available as a FREE download.
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