Part of what makes hitting a straight ball so difficult in Outlaw Golf is the composure factor. Basically, the game gauges your golfer's frustration level (regardless of your personal frustration level with the game), and depending on that, he or she will be able to perform either better or worse on the course. Whenever your golfer makes a poor shot, his or her composure level will drop a certain degree, depending on where the ball lands, and if your composure level is incredibly low, it's much more difficult to hit the ball properly. Conversely, if you have a high level of composure, then you have a much higher chance of hitting a ball exactly the way you want to. Occasionally, you'll be rewarded with a "beating token," which you can use to attack your caddy, vent your frustration, and thereby increase your composure. It adds an extra element to Outlaw Golf's gameplay. But poor shots take too heavy a toll on your composure, and since they can occur with just the slightest misstep, you'll almost always have to deal with a low composure rating. In certain modes, you can use a mulligan if your shot is really bad, but your composure rating will still drop, or rise, regardless.
Outlaw Golf features full commentary in the form of an incredibly annoying Dennis Miller-like personality.
There's a surprising level of depth to Outlaw Golf's gameplay that even hard-core golf fans will appreciate, even if they're put off by the game's silly theme. In addition to adjusting the trajectory of your shot, you can also put different types of spin on the ball by moving a small red dot around the ball graphic in the lower left side of the screen. The placement of the red dot determines the type of spin on the ball, so if you hit it close to the top, you're using topspin, which will help the ball roll farther if it's out on the fairway. Putting is handled especially well--you're given three chances to look at the trajectory your ball will take depending on where you're aiming. This will show different breaks on the green and whether or not your ball will veer off to the left or right. When taking any shot in Outlaw Golf, you'll see a percentage just above your shot strength, which tells you how hard you should hit the ball. Unfortunately, oftentimes this percentage seems to be incorrect--you'll hit the ball with just about the right amount of strength, and it won't even come close to where you were aiming. This is especially problematic during putting because you can literally see the path of your ball before you hit it, only to find that the ball will actually move far to the right or left of the hole.
The GameCube version of Outlaw Golf looks similar to its Xbox counterpart, albeit not quite as smooth. The character models all look good and animate well, particularly during the cartoonlike caddy combat sequences. You'll be able to see individual blades of grass when the ball lies in the rough. There are some nice water effects, as well as other ambient details within the environment, such as birds and planes flying, cars driving over the highway, and a small gallery of polygonal people. But otherwise, the courses look fairly mundane, which is unfortunate since the game's theme suggests otherwise.
The GameCube version of Outlaw Golf looks similar to its Xbox counterpart.
Outlaw Golf features full commentary in the form of an incredibly annoying Dennis Miller-like personality who says the same exact lines over and over. This is worsened when you're first playing through the game and choose to use mulligans repeatedly, because he has only three or four phrases that reference mulligans. Thankfully, you can turn off the commentary entirely. The individual golfer voices are tolerable, but then again, they usually speak only after a hole has been finished. The music in the game is pretty horrible, though, as part of the soundtrack is made up of what seem like elevator-music versions of popular songs. There's even one track that sounds vaguely like "California Love."
Outlaw Golf is a deceptive game, because while its theme suggests fast-paced arcade-style golf, the actual gameplay really isn't like that at all. In fact, you'll find an incredibly solid golfing engine that has most of the basic elements of a true golfing simulation. That being said, the control can take quite some time to get used to, and there are some other annoying elements in the game--namely the commentator--but even with these problems, it's still a game that fans of golf will probably enjoy.
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