It’s been said before here on Arcade Heroes, that it’s that time of year again for a look at the newest Golden Tee. We all know it’s coming, it would only be a shocker if for some reason Incredible Technologies decided not to release an annual update. This week IT has been busy releasing the newest screenshots for Golden Tee 2014 (which will be released later this year). The have released the shots on their Livewire website, where you can find more if you so desire. They also will be releasing a few more shots over the next two days. Click on the images below to enlarge.
It’s a perfect example of having blue sky in a modern, popular video game. For those who may not follow the progress of Golden Tee, you may be wondering why the game doesn’t look all that amazing for a game coming this year and will be found in locations through most of 2014. As it has to be admitted, it could look much better.
The reason why is that the hardware for the game hasn’t really changed in a few years. This is by design to keep costs low for operators. If you look back to Golden Tee 2009 as one example, graphically there are a few improvements but overall it’s not a night-and-day difference like you might see between Big Buck World and Big Buck HD. This has been beneficial to someone who bought the game in 2008 or so and has just done a software upgrade since but as you can see, it’s not doing the GT game itself any favors as far as looks go since it doesn’t appear that the existing hardware can be pushed any better. How much longer they will keep the current hardware base is unknown and without any other golf games on the market coming close to the success of GT, there isn’t a competitive edge to offering the latest in cutting edge graphics.
Of course it’s not proper to just obsess over looks – IT has added numerous other features to the game including online features and other play modes to keep the game interesting and fresh. The have also been at the forefront of pushing online features for arcade games, something that the industry is still lagging on for the most part. So far they have not announced which new features will be added to GT2014 but it can be assumed to carry over the best features of the most recent updates while adding some new stuff. It also usually sells in the $3000-$4000 range making it one of the more affordable brand new games on the arcade market. I think the straight hardware upgrade is around half that cost or better. That’s always a bonus, when most new games are around $7500/avg.
Based upon past releases, Golden Tee 2014 will probably get a release around September/October this year.
The 1990s called….. They want their graphics back…..
The 1980’s faxed…. they want their interface returned…!