Links Review

July 1, 2003 | | format - Other (ar.) | viewed - 6x
rating -

(14 votes) | category - -

Links Review

>Introduction

Most people at some time in their computing lifes have come across an incarnation of a golf simulation, some have been better than others. Links energed many years ago as a clear leader in the market offering many true to life sounds and actions and real time rendering.

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Getting Started

When you first start playing a new game the last thing I personally want to to is spent time setting up lots of user options, so I was pleased to see a quick start option on the main menu. I found the game very intuative and I instantly knew how to play. The Game automatically selects the best club and points you in the right direction so all you have to do is hit the ball acurately using the 2 or 3 tap method... for those of you new to golf games the 3 tap method is the same method to other previous PC games where you press once to activate the shot, a second time to select the power and the third click controls the accuracy of the shot. Pocket links also supports the Double Tap swing where you tap and hold to set the power and a second tap sets the accuracy. One of the really nice features of the game has to be the sound, I used to love the way PC Links simulated birds chirping after random time periods yes Pocket Links does the same.

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More Involved Gameplay ??

So you think it sounds to automated? no room for skill? Wrong Pocket links has Wind, Manual Club selection, Shot Style options, not mentioning the outstanding graphics to keep you interested. The Game comes with one Player Sergio Garcia at Chateau Whistler golf course but you can also get expansion packs including Craig Stadler at Mesa Roja, Dan Forsman at Princeville and Mike Weir at Westfields. So can the game hold your attention? I found that the more I played yes the more interested I became trying out different shot styles etc I still find putting just as frustrating as in real life! its a real art, so easy to miss even with the 3D grid turned on to help you.

Available Options

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The Graphics

Links has really set the benchmark with amazing graphics, they are realtime rendered and squeeze every last bit of juice out of your hardware...Hexacto describes it as "State-of-the-art graphics engine for stunningly realistic visuals....with Accurate ball and shot physics that factor in terrain, green conditions, and even wind for every shot on the course". No matter where you hit the ball the background is realistic to the course and the gameplay reflects the balls location, for instance if you are in the rough you really notice it when you take your shot. When I first showed my friends the game they thought they were looking at a photo selection until the ball was hit, the graphics are that good. But that is the only annimation...I had expected to see the player jump around when a ball is sunk but nothing, I hoped for a cheer from spectators but nothing :-(

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Cost of ownership?

The Graphics are the best I have seen on a Pocket PC Game but I found that my HP1910 struggled to cope with the game there was long delays between the 3 taps of the stylus and the ball being hit, also similar delays between shots and holes. I decided not to give up and loaded Clear Speed I found that by running Links at 300mhz made it much more acceptable. So allthough 200mhz arm based devices are supported I would run the demo first to see how it performs. As far as memory usage Links requires 6.7 mb and a further 9mb free space to run but it does run fine from a memory card.