{fh400C000Virtual Golf
{fb1000000Now, I haven't played golf since just before my GCSEs, when I occasionally had a round on Durham City Golf Club's course, "Roseberry Grange" (home of some famous golfer, but I can't remember his name off hand) with my dad or some mates. I had "Holed Out" for my BBC B, but I wasn't too impressed by it; it was great for the beeb, but not as a golf game. Anyway, walking round the _Acorn World '94_"Features.ShowReport" show, I spotted Virtual Golf for a tenner. Can't go wrong I thought, and opened the wallet.

Back home, when I first loaded Virtual Golf, I wasn't impressed. The desktop front- end was a very garish multi- coloured display of windows. Luckily, I was swiftly taken into the main part of the game, using the Wentworth course disc supplied. Up to four players can take part in stroke play, or you can do match play. What you get is a highly faithful representation of the Wentworth course, including the full topography, even the tree locations (there is over 1Mb of data per course!).

The computer automatically selects the club it thinks appropriate for the distance from the hole, but you can never reach the full range of a club,so you often have to change your club. You can have a look around the hole using the 'Set Direction' function. Once you have decided which way you intend to face, and which club you want, you can get down to the important bit; hitting the ball. You are presented with a person who can only be described as Nick Faldo. He is allowed practice swings, and then you can move forward to the ball. You swing by moving the mouse from right to left, as you would do if you were playing golf (and are right handed of course - there is an option to change a user to left-handed play). It is far too easy to hook, slice or draw the ball (hit it badly), but with some practice (a couple of rounds) I was able to get clean shots most of the time. You can do special low-power shots, where you don't swing the club back so far, but you must always remember to follow though with the shot.
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Your shot is traced on the overhead view at the side, and you can also watch your ball disappear into many hazards, such as water (great ripple effect), tress, bunkers and rough. If your ball lands on a hill, chances are it will roll down it (usually into a bunker). Hitting a path will make the ball bounce extra high, useful for crossing large rough areas.

Putting isn't the usual overhead view of older games (eg. "Holed Out" by the same author, Gordon Key), but keeps the view of our Nick (similar to the method used by PC golf games such as Links and PGA Tour). Of course, as everyone knows, putting isn't the easiest thing in the world, but surprisingly, considering the difficulty of the rest of the game, putting is a cinch. If you are anywhere up to about six feet away, you just can't miss! A resounding plop noise tells you the ball is in the hole.

I got a golfing mate (he plays golf at least once a week) of mine round, to see what he made of it. We stayed up 'til two in the morning to get a full eighteen-hole round in (it takes a long time, as in the real thing), and I think he was suitably impressed. One of these days there will be a proper virtual reality golf game, but for the moment you're going to have to live with the third best thing.

The fairways are well kept, the sun almost always shines, you don't have to replace your divots, and there isn't the long slog of walking to get your ball when it goes in the trees etc. This may cost 35, which is a little over priced for any game (in my opinion), but I got it for 10, and that is a bargain. Buy it, and you'll never have to pick up your club and balls again; just don't mention Finbarr Saunders.

Rating: 9/10
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Product: Virtual Golf
Price: 34.95
Availability: All Acorn 32-bit machines with 2Mb+ RAM
Contact: The Fourth Dimens- ion (01742) 780370/ 769950

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