playing Tiger Woods golf game online

Occasionally we’ve posted links to online games for your gaming enjoyment and for comparing high scores, and this time we have a great one for you.  It’s Tiger Woods PGA Tour Online.   In the demo, you get to play 3 holes.

Now you may be thinking this will look generic, like many Flash games, but it’s better than normal.  You have to install a plug-in called Unity 3D, which allows for 3D graphics to be rendered in your browser.  After that, there’s nothing to (permanently) install.  The data for the game streams to your computer as needed.  Some think this may be the future of game delivery.   Anyway, you can try it here for free.

Here’s the link to the free demo.

I’m not an avid golfer, but I can enjoy playing golf games, if they allow me freedom to hit bank shots off trees and buildings.  I like flexing my creativity to make a shot.   Below is a picture of a building I hit, and the ball actually landed on the upper deck balcony, then rolled off.  This was out-of-bounds, of course, so the next time I cranked it over the clubhouse.

Apparently the windows are unbreakable.

There are plenty of sites that have full reviews of this game, along with “normal” screenshots.  I decided to have some fun with it, by seeing what it would allow me to do.  Following are a few more screenshots of some other interesting areas, including one where my golfer was trying to hit a shot while crouching, and his hands and the club would have to pass through his knees to pull off this angle.  But somehow he hit it.

I'm sure they tried to recreate realistic physics, but something here ain't right.
Believe it or not, this was the default view after one of my shots.

Feel free to post your high scores (or low scores) here for everyone to contemplate (and/or talk smack about).

As far as my review of the game (based on the 3-hole demo), I would prefer better graphics.  (I know, realistic graphics aren’t the most important thing — no need to start that rant.  But I’ve played older golf games with better graphics, so I expect more, especially since golf doesn’t require the same amount of graphics and physics processing of some other games.)  I don’t know if the full version has announcers or not.   Of course, they can sometimes get annoying, but they’re sometimes funny, and to me it was missing in the game.   I like the idea of them adding content (such as more courses) with it being online, but that can be done in the PC and console versions in most cases.  From what little I saw, I would prefer to install the game on my PC instead of having it “portable”.

Regarding gameplay, the advice it gives you on how much power to use made it easy, except on putting, where it doesn’t seem accurate.  I suppose that can be turned off, though.  Hopefully the camera angle can be adjusted, because sometimes the ball just disappeared over the horizon and I never saw where it went (even if it was onto the next hole, it should show me).

On a semi-related note, there’s a post here with numerous comments about how to make golf less boring.  If some of these had been incorporated into the game, it would be even better.  🙂

caption contest, many satellite dishes

I sure could go for a caption contest right now…  Fortunately, I have the power to make it happen.  🙂

This week’s photo features a house with quite a few satellite dishes on it.  Figure out something funny to say about it, from any angle, and share the laughter with us all.  Just keep it clean.

(To see the other caption contests, click on the “Say What?” category in the sidebar.)

the world could be destroyed in 6 minutes

In the news this week, scientists set the doomsday clock back 1 minute.  So now we’re 6 minutes from the destruction of the world as we know it, instead of 5 minutes.  That doesn’t mean the world is about to end in 6 minutes.   (I hope you haven’t already soiled your drawers!)   It just means that humanity could be wiped off the face of the Earth in 6 minutes.

The doomsday clock was setup in 1947, with just 7 minutes until world destruction.   In 1953, we were just 2 minutes away from obliteration.  So obviously it has changed several times.  But most of the time, this is a clock where time stands still.

So what does it all mean?  Well, if World War III starts, most of us get an extra minute to live.  Perhaps they should work on extending that number a little more.  But there are a lot of different doomsday scenarios… it just shows how fragile and temporary life on Earth can be.

The moral of the story is, life is short, so you should enjoy it.  (Of course, you should also consider the afterlife and be prepared to give an account before God.)  The purpose of this blog is to make you laugh, which can improve the quality of your life.  Some studies even suggest laughing heartily each day can add years to your life.  You should tell your friends about Buffet o’ Blog, so they can laugh more and thus enjoy life more.   The world would be a better place if people would lighten up and not be so quick to get offended.  So do what you can to share the humor.

food critic, fancy minimalist plate

After an unintended break in this series, here’s another entry in our food critic category.  If you’re new here, it’s easy to play.  I’ll post a picture of food and you be the food critic.  You can discuss what works with the dish or what doesn’t work well, and you can make suggestions about what should be done to make this dish better.  Simple enough, huh?

FYI, I don’t know what this is, exactly, so just use your best guess.  And have fun with it.  (If you haven’t noticed, randomness is the usual order around here.)