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Towards the end of the BBC Micro's life, there were some really good games. And when I say good, I mean the word in the sense of that certain games were epic in scope, and the publishing house knew it. Exile is the obvious example, which came in a grand, oversized plastic case with two manuals, a keyboard summary sheet and competition coupons. Repton Infinity is the other obvious example, which included two discs, maps, a comprehensive instruction manual and competition coupons. Holed Out! is a lesser-known example. It also came in the same oversized plastic case, featuring some fairly extravagant claims on the cover. Holed Out! was the golf game to beat all golf games on the BBC and Electron. It was going to do for computerised golf what 3D Pool had done for computerised pool. The game you held in your sweaty hands was something very special.

Or so it seems from the screenshots. In reality, well, Holed Out! is lovely looking, but totally boring. I originally played the Electron version back in the late Eighties and that cassette only version was bordering on the unplayable, with each hole multi-loaded from tape and graphical screens that took over a minute to display. I'll give the BBC version a bit of credit for at least being a bit faster to render its courses, and for being nicely presented (the Electron version had a load of 'rubbish' at the top of the screen). But nice graphics do not make for a good game and, really, you'd need the patience of a Saint to play your way through either of the included courses.

The gameplay itself basically consists of choosing a club, setting a direction, swinging your club and watching the golf ball arc towards wherever you've aimed. Every time it settles, the entire screen is redrawn. This rendering process is undoubtedly very, very clever - and it results in beautiful screen displays - but you really have to ask yourself whether you're content to wait over a minute for it to do its thing every time you've taken a shot. If you play a one-player game, getting through a single hole might take you ten minutes but golf is actually a competitive game. It's not often you see a lone golfer striding around a golf course, is it? Golf is a social sport; you play the real thing with a friend, so it's not unreasonable that Holed Out! offers you the choice of up to four players. But, wait a minute, four players?! Are 4th Dimension seriously suggesting that, if it takes one player ten minutes to get through one hole, that four players might reasonably sit down to play an entire course. A quick bit of mental maths: Four players x 16 holes x 10 minutes per hole... That's a whopping eleven hour play session! Who on earth would want to even attempt such a marathon?

Well, considering Holed Out! spawned two additional Extra Courses packs, apparently some BBC Micro users did! All I can put that down to is that there probably wasn't much to do in 1989.

It's rare that I find myself completely disagreeing with absolutely everyone [No, it isn't! - Ed] but I think Holed Out! sucks. It's so boring that you'll probably turn it off before you even reach the green on the first hole. And, yes, I know what you're all going to say - it won't appeal to you if you don't like golf and you don't understand all the little nuances of the clubs and the gradients and the handicaps that the game accurately simulates. Fair enough, I don't like golf and I don't understand all those elements. But actually it's not the golfing bit that's boring. There are many simple 'golf' games on the BBC where you just view each hole from overhead, and I'd much prefer to play these over this much more attractively packaged variant.

It's that terribly slow rendering that just kills any addictive quality dead. If rendering was instant, or took say a maximum five seconds, I'd probably be happy enough to join in with all those reviewers who proclaim the game a technical marvel. In fact, it's likely only the 'sedate' pace of golf in real life (where you obviously have to locate the ball between shots) that allowed 4th Dimension to figure that this snoozeworthy graphical build up was acceptable. Imagine having to wait for a minute every time you exited one room and entered another in a graphic adventure... Who'd be playing that? No-one.

In summary, Holed Out! belongs to the Dragon's Lair school of games. Looks good, particularly in paused screenshots, but as soon as you start to play it, you'll wish you hadn't bothered.