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Xanadu
by Dave (Moldy) Mackey
| Links Corner Course Database ID Number - 326 |
Release Date |
CRZ Filesize |
Par |
Course Length |
| 2001-01-30 |
4,755,844 bytes |
72 |
7074 yards |
| Type |
Style |
CRZ Filename |
|
FICTIONAL |
MOUNTAIN |
Xanadu.crz |
| Course ID |
Course Key |
| 2188a7c1f64411d4a860e4315143ba2d |
d421943ff6bb5b77ccc525dbe682cbcb |
|
LINKS CORNER REVIEW |
Reviewed by Dave Campbell on April 2001
Expectations: Xanadu means 'Idyllic, beautiful place'. I liked the name as soon as I saw it. The 4.3 mb file size led me to believe otherwise.
First Impressions: Don't judge a course by its file size! This is Dave Mackey's second course and was posted on 2/2/01, his first offering being Optimus Hills. It is a fictional course in the Whistler mountain panorama setting. The planting fit the mountain theme, although a bit repetitive at times, with good under planting. This course grabbed my attention from the very first hole and held it the whole round.
Elevation changes are ever present throughout the round to enhance the mountain feel. Many tee shots are from on high with gorgeous views of the course. Believe me when I tell you that the driver is not always the best option. On the 5th hole the tee was so far above the fairway that my 3W went 310 yards. This is not a criticism, quite the opposite. It is a very well planned and laid out course. Creative risk/reward opportunities abound. Many downhill, uphill and sidehill lies to constantly make you think. I had between club lies on many occasions and I believe this was by design. No shot came easy.
The greens were undulating with nice elevation, but not unfair. I didn't have a straight putt the whole round. Greens of varying sizes and shapes with one well done Island green.
There was plenty of water on the course in the form of many small lakes and a few creeks. One thing to mention is the creek water texture is reflective rather than stock running water texture. I've often thought if I designed I would use the reflective property in a creek or river rather than the bad looking APCD texture.
There are definitely scoring opportunities on this course. Of the four par 5's I birdied three and eagled the last. I was staring at an eagle putt on one of the others as well. There were great par 3's and 4's scattered throughout. The whole course layout was dynamite.
Drawbacks: Many tee boxes were elevated in a slanting pyramid sort of way. This caused the texture to look pulled and stretched.
The bunkers are the sore spot on this course and it's too bad. Many had a wavy, unrealistic look with the occasional shadow thrown in. All appeared to have a slight extrusion and lip but many looked flat. If this is the designers intention then I apologize, but nicely shaped bunkers would have made this course fly. Then on the 18th green approach the bunkers framing the green looked good. Perhaps Dave's next course will benefit from his bunker experiences on Xanadu.
Transitions between textures seemed very harsh in many cases and I found my eyes drawn to these seams. Not sure if this is a 'edge turn' or a 'sharpness setting' issue but it does detract some from the appearance.
As I mentioned previously the planting was repetitive in some areas but overall done very nicely.
I thought the fairways would have benefited from a first cut or fairway border. It would have looked nice coupled with the mow lined fairway texture. This is certainly a preference on my part and not an error.
Best Hole: There were many, in fact most were good enough to mention here. I will go with the par 4, 5th hole. My screenshot shows your approach to an elevated green. Notice the natural land bridge splitting the lake, very appealing and creative.
Comparable courses: Timber cliffs, the original Belmont Hills, POGA South.
Overall: This course is proof that you can't pick your good courses by file size alone. I must admit I passed on this one completely myself when it first came out. Trust me when I say this one just misses being a great course but is still good and fun to play. Of all the small file size courses I've played only POGA South is better, in my opinion. If you have a 56K modem this course is just right for you. If you have cable or DSL what are you waiting for, it took me 1 minute flat to d/l and the good things in this course far outweigh the bad. Keep at it Dave, I believe you are on the verge of designing something very special. Remember to take your time and get all the small details right and don't forget the cameo, splash and readme's.
Filesize 4MB
Course Info :
Splash Screen? No
Cameo Screen? No
Text file? No
Hole Previews? No
This review will be based on playability, aesthetics and originality. Please keep in mind that this is only my opinion following my play-testing of the completed course.
I fully understand the hard work and immense skill that is involved in the designing of these courses and my comments will try to be constructive and without bias.
Tested on Power Stroke swing - Champ level - from the back tees - N/M/M Mod
PIII 667 / 256 meg memory / 32 meg GeForce2 MX video card / Hardware Rendering |
|
CLIPNOTES by Ben Bateson (ousgg) |
Description
Fictional, woodland course |
Location
TBA |
Conditions
TBA |
Concept 5/10
If prizes were given for the greatest course packed into the smallest file
size, surely Xanadu would take the award. It's not a great course by any
means, but it's amazing that's it's been packed into a 4MB file. It's a
course that takes no prisoners, with very hilly lies, impenetrable forest and
rough, and hole design that serves to punish, rather than challenge. Miss
your snaps, and a large score is guaranteed. |
Appearance 3/10
Obviously, in a small file, the look of the course is going to suffer. It's not completely terrible by any means, but the textures are
stretched, elevations are improbable, clones are frequent and the water features look laughable. The panorama, too, is out of match
with the course, which shows what happens when you use stock. |
Playability 3/10
I lost count of the number of times I had to play a 'rescue' chip back onto the fairway during my practice round. The design of this
course clearly hasn't factored in for wayward players, and it makes a frustrating and irritating round. There's too much emphasis on
target golf at Xanadu, not enough strategy and too much punishment for those who don't play perfect golf. Those on advanced swing
types will want to steer clear. |
Challenge 3/10
With punishing rough, trees crowding onto the fairway, and near-unreadable greens, scores are likely to rocket. I scored just one birdie
4 in my +7 test round and found the course more of a frustration than a fair test. The elevations were most to blame, and you'd be
extremely lucky to get a flat lie in this hilly arena. |
Technical 2/10
e technical work is quite coarse, to be honest. The water areas are most in need of attention, closely followed by the bunkers and
need to vary the planting some more. A custom mountain panorama would help no end. With some fine tuning to the difficulty levels,
this would be a much better course. |
| Overall |
Rough, ready and very hard, Xanadu might be an acquired taste, a bit like the
Olivia Newton-John song. |
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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