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Summary: As convincing and playable a golf game as you'll find anywhere-if you've got the horsepower to enjoy it.
Golf may be the sport of kings, but it's a quiet sport. And generally, the computer golfing experience has been just as quiet. As good as EA's PGA Tour series has been, there haven't been many golf games you could call a truly immersive "sim"experience.
That all changes when you open up Access Software's Links LS, the long-awaited evolution of the classic Links 386.
Links LS (that's Legends in Sports, if you're curious) shoots to the top of the leader board in PC golf games. It's safe to call it a golf sim--a truly absorbing round of golf played in the den. I found the experience so realistic that my real-life golf game seemed to be translated onto the computer. Drive a par-five green in two, then five-putt. Arrgh! But golf requires two things for its fullest enjoyment--an appreciation of beauty and loads of patience. The beauty comes in the package; the patience is something you'll have to supply.
The manual makes no attempt to soft-soap you; it takes effort and time to master the game, and in this respect, Links LS is a simulation as much as entertainment. I'm the leading money winner in my copy of PGA Tour '96 with little effort. I've played a dozen rounds of golf in Links LS and have yet to shoot par for a course.
But I've had a blast trying. The graphics are amazing, almost photorealistic, and very involving. The meticulous terrain construction, convincing foliage and sky--everything is correct, right down to the neighboring cabins and concrete cart trails. You kick up divots, send broken tees flying, and scrape the grass with your wedges. Everything about the visual experience is top-notch, and on a fast system, the redraw rate isn't bad at all.
Links LS uses the classic arcing swing meter, which, in my opinion, ranks up there with the light bulb and steam engine as a stroke of sheer genius. Just like the real game, however, the poetic simplicity of play hides the incredible skill and control needed to consistently hit well. Placement is controlled by aiming a marker just before your shot. You do this taking into account wind factors and whether or not you intend to draw or fade. The game's amazing ball-flight and ground-roll models take care of the rest.
The golfers are a treat. Arnold Palmer and three anonymous weekend warriors are video-captured, and their swings are unique and flawlessly rendered. Arnie tees up with his deep knee-bend, the young woman makes a sweet, compact swing, the middle-aged guy has a nice, classic motion. Each also has unique animations and vocals for good and bad shots. It's up to you to determine if they pump their fists and give a hearty "Crushed that one!" or "That's on," or toss their club in frustration with a groaning "I quit."
Past golf games have had wonderful elements but just weren't great games. Anyone who's seen The Skins Game at Bighorn saw a truly photorealistic course, although the game was superimposed over the photo and seemed as interactive as an instructional video. Other games have had solid playability but an unsatisfying environment. Links LS finally offers the best of all worlds.
The three courses included are stunning, particularly the Hawaiian Plantation and Village greens at Kapalua. Arnold Palmer's home course at Latrobe Country Club is not only pretty, but as tough a round as you'll ever play.
Best still, all of the Links 386 Super VGA courses you may own are fully compatible and playable. They've been pre-converted for Links LS, so all you need to do is load your Links 386 courses and run a simple conversion within the game. Then you're on the first tee.
Access also plans to release new courses for Links LS in packages featuring PGA pros at their home courses, along the lines of Arnold Palmer at Latrobe. You'll get not just the course but the player as well, fully animated and ready to hit some balls with you. Real golf junkies will love the ability to tour the pro's office and workshop. Access even plans to do celebrity player add-ons.
There are a couple of things about Links LS that I wish could be mulliganed. For one, there are no tournaments to play in. You get a wonderful round of golf, but the only pro competition is Arnie, and he's only playing for fun. You can play a skins game for money, but so what? There's a pleasure in the PGA Tour that nothing else can match. Links LS doesn't even let you play tourneys against a list of made-up names.
But the real cloud dogging Links LS, the one that keeps you nervous about being struck by lightning, is the absolute bear of a load it puts on your system. You'll need a Pentium-- ignore the 486 "minimum requirement"--to enjoy the game, and the faster the better, and the more RAM the better, and the more megs on your video card the better, and...the list goes on and on. How long does it last? There are no fewer than 26 pages of a small-print manual devoted to performance, optimization, upgrading info, trouble-shooting FAQs, modification, drivers--you name it. Links LS is a beast, and Access recommends that you have at least 32MB of RAM. A Pentium 90 with 12MB RAM could barely run the thing and crashed repeatedly, croaking each time for more memory. Holy divots, Batman!
So, to put it in a philosophical way that we duffers find reassuring, let's put forth a little analogy: the game requires care and attention, much like a course needs meticulous watering and grooming. Sound painless and zen-like? Good. Because the Links LS manual actually contains an entry in its technical section called "Buying a New Computer,"which pretty much says all you need to know about recommended requirements.
Whew. With all that out of the way, let's get back to what makes it all worthwhile: It's the best golf game on the market, and a sporting delight. If you're a golfer--and if you're this deep in the review, my guess is you are--Links LS is your game. It has the gorgeous environment, classic control, lifelike ball flight and roll, and the you-are-there experience. You just supply the lifetime to master it. Old Website Recovery