Intelligent Game Reviews

I’ve long been a fan of the Links series of PC golf games. They’ve been the best PC golf games out there for a decade and when I read the feature list for the current release I was excited to see not only a new rendering engine but a course designer as well. It seemed that all my prayers were answered and that the series would just keep getting better and better. But a funny thing happened in the execution…

Basics of Play

For those that haven’t played previous Links titles this section is for you. Links 2001 attempts to accurately reproduce a round of golf on real world courses. There are multiple swing types geared toward beginners, more experienced and expert players as well as variable for controlling things like where you tee off, wind speed, pin placement and green speed for every round.

The game supports standard stroke play as well as a hoard of special modes including Skins Game. You can even create your own variations. This time around there are three pro players represented, until now you had your choice of Arnold Palmer in a red shirt, a blue shirt, or any other shirt. Now Arnold only has one shirt, but you can play with Sergio Garcia or Annika Sorenstam as well.

The computer golfers put up a good score on almost every round, but true to the customizability of Links 2001 you can tune how well they perform in almost every aspect of the game, from putting to chipping, to getting out of sand traps, to create your own custom opposition.

The game is played with the mouse. You choose a club (or let your caddy choose one for you), choose a place to aim your shot at, and hit the ball using one of the three swing types. Repeat until you get the ball in the hole. But while golf is simple in concept it is difficult in execution and Links 2001 has that down as perfectly as it does the photorealistic courses.

There isn’t a lot truly new in this version of the game, rather there are a lot of refinements. The interface is streamlined and I think less obtrusive than it was and the new colored putting grid and slope indicators help putting accuracy on the more accurately reproduced putting surfaces. Other than that you will be hard pressed to notice a lot of differences in the game. It’s a stepwise improvement on an already excellent game design overall.

Courses

Links 2001 comes with several courses. These include the St. Andrews Old Course (Scotland), Chateau Whistler (British Columbia, Canada), the Prince Course at Princeville Country Club (Kauai Hawaii), Westfields Golf Club (Virginia), Aviara (San Diego) and one fantasy course, Mesa Roja, set in the Southwest US canyon lands.

The selection of courses is a good one and with the exception of the St. Andrews Old Course none of these have been seen in previous Links games. They are also quite varied both in terrain, course difficulty and so on, which is great.

While I thought the course selection was generally excellent and the challenge level strong, I did have a complaint about the Mesa Roja course. It is supposed to show off the power of the new course editor included in Links 2001 and in some ways it does. The soaring rock formations are spectacular enough and you can even use the terrain to knock a few strokes off your score. But the course seems half finished. There are no cart paths, minimal foliage along the way, and at least one green you evidently have to swim to since there is no way to get to it otherwise. In the final result this may illustrate more about the editor than was really intended… that being it takes a really long time to craft a good course with.

If you own previous Links LS games or course packs the bad part of the new course format is that you can’t use previous courses with the new game engine. Microsoft has promised a downloadable course converter at some undesignated time in the future, but until that time older courses are simply unplayable. And that’s really disappointing for anyone with previous games in the series looking to upgrade.

Arnold Palmer Course Designer

One of the important new features of this version of Links is the all new Arnold Palmer Course Designer. I’ve long felt the lack of a course designer was the one real weakness in the series, but unfortunately now the course designer itself might be the weakness. Let’s just start by saying this is one highly complex, highly under documented, difficult to use piece of software. Microsoft says it was used to create all of the courses in the game and I believe them… it has more features than you can shake a 3 Wood at. But you might need a degree in 3D modeling or CAD/CAM to use it.

I failed to create even the simplest of playable courses with the tool. I’m no idiot, I have a degree in engineering from The California Institute of Technology to prove it, but this software stumped me. Sure, given enough time I could probably figure it out… but I don’t want to create the perfect course I want to create a good course with reasonable effort and share it with others. This tool will be a stumbling block for all but the most rabid and dedicated aficionados of the game… and the end result will be very few available courses of any real worth. A missed opportunity by the folks at Access Software in my view.

Multiplayer

The Links series has long been an excellent multiplayer game, with one exception. You could not play simultaneously with others you are playing with. This made multiplayer rounds rather slow paced as you waited for your competitors. Thankfully this version allows for simultaneous play and the game is much better for that. Combined with the sponsored online golf tour where you can earn real money playing the game and the many Modes of Play (MOPS) available there is plenty to like about multiplayer Links 2001.

Graphics, Sounds, etc.

Graphically Links 2001 uses an entirely new rendering engine. Let me be honest and say I couldn’t really see much of a difference from the previous version. Even side by side comparisons of the same course in both games (St. Andrews Old Course) showed very little graphical difference. Sure, the new engine supports higher screen resolutions if you have the horsepower and graphics oomph to do it but other than that the base graphics don’t stand out as anything to buy a new game for. Some niceties are in evidence however, the golfers blend better during animation into the background making them look more realistic and you can have them swing right or left handed. In addition, the Microsoft blimps are gone to be replaced by flying birds.

From a sound perspective background sounds are much as before but all of the generic caddy comments have been replaced by comments unique to the golfer animation you are using. The pro comments are generally good, if sometimes a little odd. I really liked Sergio Garcia but Annika Sorenstam just seemed a little wacky sometimes. On the other hand the comments from the other golfer animations are, to put it bluntly, more annoying than anything else. I hated most of the personalities they had. Truly bad. Yuck. If these were my friends I’d slap some sense into them on the course with my 2 Iron.

The Verdict

For long time fans of the Links series this upgrade is disappointing. The new graphics don’t look much different, the course designer is too complex to use effectively and you can’t use your existing courses with the new version. For those reasons I can’t really enthusiastically endorse Links 2001 if you own previous versions. For those that want the best PC golf game around and haven’t purchased any Links game before, I can’t help but think that the Links LS Classic bundle with Links LS 2000 and a whole bunch of courses at two thirds the price is a much better deal.

Links LS 2001 Screenshots

The streamlined interface is attractive and easy to use.	The enhanced putting aides are really needed on the even more realistic putting surfaces modeled in the game.
While animation looks better integrated with the backgrounds most players won’t notice many changes visually.	The new Arnold Palmer course designer was used to create the courses in the package… but it may be more complex than most people can handle.

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