|
Tropicana Ver 2
by Bill Misener
| Links Corner Course Database ID Number - 730 |
Release Date |
CRZ Filesize |
Par |
Course Length |
| 2002-01-13 |
28,538,011 bytes |
72 |
7242 yards |
| Type |
Style |
CRZ Filename |
|
FICTIONAL |
TROPICAL |
trop2.crz |
| Course ID |
Course Key |
| 82e294a9bcf74dc28fe37470bf7973c9 |
54e8d32f74d7a39f7f54fa028038afbb |
|
LINKS CORNER REVIEW |
Reviewed by
Mike Nifong
February 2002
Course type: Tropicana is a tropical, coastal course that makes use of Microsoft's Princeville pano. It is described by its creator as a fantasy course, but seems to occupy that fuzzy ground that lies between the fictional and fantasy domains.
Historical perspective: Bill Misener, as I pointed out in my review of his Serpant (sic) Valley, is the second most prolific APCD designer, behind only Jassi Harding. Like Jassi, Bill has found that profligacy does not insure preeminence; indeed, it likely hinders it if the public reception of these two designers' courses is an accurate barometer.
Tropicana, version 2, which is Bill's thirteenth distinct course (fifteenth if you consider earlier versions), is a remake of his APCD debut. I never played the first version, but it received an official review from Jim Wood, who remarked on its unfinished appearance and profusion of bad edges; he gave it an overall score of 40%. Released on January 13, 2002, a year and a week after the original Tropicana, the new version is about 4MB bigger than its first incarnation. Just what the doctor ordered, or too little - too late? Read on.
What is included: There are two short read-me files, one supplying course identification and statistics, the other describing the motivation for the revision. The cameo and splash screen are derived from photographs. Somewhat surprisingly, considering both the number of blind tee shots and the fact that virtually all revisions now include them, there are no hole previews.
First impressions: Actually, pretty good. The read-me has me on Bill's side, the splash screen was nice, and the view from the first tee is better than I expected: a nice par-3 over a pond, with colorful and appropriate planting and a nice-looking ocean visible to the left. Wait too long to hit your tee shot and a dog begins to bark insistently to hurry you along. A lot of courses get off to a worse start than this.
What comes next: Unfortunately, things begin to go downhill pretty soon after the first hole. There is no big, glaring error (although some of the bunkers come uncomfortably close to that category), but a plethora of aggravating minor flaws ultimately do this course in.
Where do I begin? Well, there are a lot of mesh shadows, some of which are dreadful. It is hard to imagine that Bill did not notice them, so I can only assume he decided that fixing them was more trouble than it was worth (which does kind of bring into question the whole point of this endeavor, doesn't it?). The bunkers are just awful in every respect but placement, which means you may have the opportunity to see up close how bad they are. Not only do they have ugly mesh shadows, and waves where there should be none, but several of them (at least four, and I did not attempt to examine all of them) have red lines (areas where no texture is assigned) along their edges. That strikes me as totally unacceptable in a second final version (or, for that matter, in a first final version). The edges of the ponds are acceptable, but the stream that runs through a few of the holes is one of those painted-on disasters. There are also numerous instances of elevation changes corresponding exactly with texture boundaries, lending both an unnaturally sharp edge and some strange bounces to the situation. In short, the course that looked unfinished to Jim Wood when he reviewed the first version has not made much improvement in that category.
Even the sounds are a disappointment. There are a number of good ones - the barking dog, the seagulls, the jet fighter flyovers - but some of the sounds are preceded by a thump (something like a microphone being turned on), which tends to detract from the experience. On #7 and #8, the stream sound is much too loud, and it sounds more like a hot tub than a stream. Moreover, the sound file is apparently of too short a duration: it stops suddenly and, after a brief silence, starts again from the beginning.
If by some chance none of that makes any difference to you, the course layout is not bad. Some of the fairway slopes and elevations are a little unrealistic (which is at least somewhat interesting, since JW noted in his review of Tropicana 1 that 'the fairways are fairly flat'), and there are too many cases where you are invited to hit your tee shot through a narrow gap between two palm trees (on #11, I found that a fade around the left palm tree resulted in better placement on the fairway than a drive through the alley), but it is playable. None of the par-5's are reachable off the back tees (probably only #18 is reachable from any of the tees), but by way of compensation, #4 is a drivable par-4 in nearly all circumstances - just aim for the flag and hit it hard enough to get your ball over the rocks that lie between the water and the green - the green slopes severely from back to front, so it will hold the shot better than you expect. The longer par-4 #8 is also drivable from the back tees if you don't have a headwind due to its 22-yard elevation drop, although accurate placement will be necessary to avoid the front bunkers.
On the other hand, there are much better tropical courses that, unlike this one, are nicely finished to boot.
The bottom line: I really wanted to like this course, as I want to like any course that the designer bothers to try to improve when its initial execution falls short. I would have to say, though, that I am somewhat mystified that Bill would undertake a revision and leave so much that was flawed the first time uncorrected. Perhaps we, and he, would have been better served had he scrapped version one and started over. However much he may have improved the original, it was not enough to make this new version recommendable. And somehow, that seems less forgivable the second time around.
Course Statistics :
Par 72; 3 sets of tees; 7242 yards from back tees; holes are not handicapped. |
This course is available as a FREE download.
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