Hot Shots Golf 5: Out of Bounds Review

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For people in the rest of the world this title is called Everybody's Golf

Graphics: 8.5/10

Hot Shots Golf 5 is the first installment on the Playstation 3. It offers some much improved graphics over previous installments. The golf courses are lush and beautiful. Charachter models, while still holding to a very cartoony look (on purpose), are excellently rendered and have very much detail to them. Now there are a few bad things. The vegetation on the course could be better. Its definately not Drake's Fortune. Some of the tree leaves look 2d to me. The putting green has detail to it, but when you get down close to it, you will notice it is competely flat, there is no 3d texture to it. There are quite a few jaggies to it also. It outputs at 720p. Framerate is solid.

Audio: 7/10

R-E-P-E-A-T-I-T-I-V-E the characters say a lot of the same little comments over and over and over again, gets kind've annoying. The music is nice, kind of disappointed it doesn't come with custom tracks. The sound of the ball, green, trees ruffling, iron, etc. is all very good though. Not a whole lot more to say.

Gameplay: 9.5/10

This is where this game shines. The first noticeable difference is the new swing mechanic. The traditional meter system is still there, but now you have the option of two different systems. The new one has no meter and simply blinks as you take your swing at the 50% and 100% when hitting a drive or at the 25-50-75-100% when putting. When at the max. potential you hit X. Then, there is a little circle that gets small and you try to hit it perfectly into a little target icon on the screen. Its more difficult, especially for more traditional/older players with this franchise. However, I have noticed that when you hit things right, the new system is more rewarding and you hit balls farther.

There are quite a few different modes. Its a blast to play offline with players (ill get to online later). The Challenge mode is also a lot of fun, where you play in a bunch of tournaments against bots and for doing things well you get to play a little card game at the end where you win prizes that improve your player (new clubs, balls, caddies, more power shots, etc.). At the end of each grouping of tournaments, you have a 1 on 1 battle with a player, if you win, that player is unlocked in the game now. Its quite enjoyable and fun.

One thing I really like about these tournaments is that some have altered rules. For example some force you to learn and play with the new hitting system. Some have different penalties etc. for OB and WH shots. Gives a nice little variety to the game.

Mechanics are very good too. Both systems of hitting the ball work very well. They reward you for doing good and penalize you for doing bad in a very fair way. The physics of hitting the ball are good. Physics are accurate for a cartoony game and adjusting your shots works very well, just like previous installments.

Presentation: 9/10

There are only 6 different courses which is kind of disappointing. More would be nice, hopefully there is some downloadable content.

Quite a few unlockable characters, I'm sure there will be more via PSN.

The menu system is simple and easy to use.

HUD is a little complex, but easy to understand.

What I really love is access to the messaging part of my XMB. Yes, this game supports semi-In game XMB features. Very nice and suprising addition.

The game keeps a nice running tally of all of your stats too.

Online: 8.5

The first thing you are presented with when you go online is a Mii (yes, like the Wii) type person, you can customize him with quite a few options. You win more options by how well you do online. For example I got an eagle and it unlocked a new outfit. There are a bunch of different lobbies where you can go and talk to other users while waiting for your game. The cool thing is that there are actually 3d environments for you to walk around in with your Mii (thats what I'm calling it, I don't know what Hot Shots calls it, but it looks like a Mii). Its better than just a bland lobby. Now here is when problems start to creep in. There is no voice chat. You gotta write everything out. Now the other problem I ran into, and maybe it was just bad timing, but I had to wait nearly a half an hour to the next game to start. There are pre-set times and you have to sign up when to start your tee time. The online system is that every player plays seperately, but the same hole. You never see the other players, just your own. Which is probably the best way to do it as otherwise it would take forever. There is usually about 90 seconds per hole. After you are done with your hole you go back to a screen where you see the other players result. Here is the annoying part. Lets say it takes on average 40 seconds for everybody to get done. Everybody has to wait the remaing 50 seconds of the time allowance before the next hole launches. It drags the game out. A game could be done in about 20 min. but instead takes 50 minutes.

Now the very cool and interesting thing, that doesn't get done that often with games is that offline play effects your abilities online. I unlocked some stuff offline, such as better clubs. I got to use them online. However, other people had unlocked even better clubs and got to use them against me, so I was at a disadvantage. You can't just play this game online like with some other games, you need to complete and unlock everything offline too, because it affects your online abilities.

Replay Value: 9.5/10

Sports games have infinite replay value technically, however its nice after you compete the Challenge Mode, you can go back and replay courses with your new unlockables to improve your scores, stats and records on the course.

Online provides quite a bit of fun over and over and over again too.

Other Thoughts: After each game offline, there are some scenic pictures that come up, sometimes I have found them to be quite random like a picture of some fish, other times its of a golf course which seems more fitting.

This game requires a 5GB install.

Overall Score: 8.7/10