ShotForge 2.0 moves to Unreal Engine and adds island ranges and mini-games

ShotForge 2.0 is out, and the biggest change is under the hood. The whole simulator platform now runs on Unreal Engine, so the practice ranges, course play and the new mini-games all live in one app. Burdie Golf put up a 23-minute walkthrough on Tuesday, the morning the update landed, and the short version of his verdict is that the practice side finally looks as good as the courses.

Before this, he says, ShotForge's range graphics "weren't good," and course play opened as a separate module. Now it's one window, with a new interface he calls much more refined. Dual-window mode is still there if you want it.

What's new in 2.0

• Four ranges: Flat, Approach, Island Approach and a Short Game Area. The approach range has 18 flags, and you can drag the ball on the mini map to practice an exact number, like the 74-yard shot he dials in between the 70 and 78 flags.
• Five mini-games: Long Drive, Closest to the Pin, Castle Destruction, Putt Pool and Balloon Bash. Balloon Bash and Castle Destruction are the kid-friendly ones, and he says his kids will "eat that up."
• Better course generation: He regenerated the executive nine where he played his first round. Tree planting and house placement look much closer to the real thing than the version he played the day before.
• Terrain sculpting, listed in the video description.
• A smarter putting camera: You can now have the camera follow the ball on longer putts instead of staying fixed. He asked for it, and he uses it on anything past 20 feet.

He ran everything with a VTrack through the free Relay connector.

Rough edges

He calls it a strong first version and gives two pieces of feedback. Picking an improvement module doesn't drop you back on the flat range automatically. And on approach shots, the camera cuts away after the ball lands instead of waiting for it to stop.

What it costs

He puts the price at $60 a year or about $7 a month, with a seven-day free trial. That's a change from the $6.99 course-play beta we covered in September.

What to watch

Burdie's view is that the missing piece now is community play: weekly closest-to-the-pin challenges, leaderboards and online tournaments. If you already pay for ShotForge, update and try the approach range first. If you've been on the fence, the trial costs nothing.