Links 2004

Links features 10 courses to tackle, with 5 available at the outset, the rest unlocked via certain parameters. Highlights include Greywolf, Oakmont, Superstition Mountain (a course in Arizona that has owned me personally once or twice), and best of all, Old St. Andrews. There's also Ocean Mill, a fantasy course that's full of crazy, crazy stuff. You can tackle these courses in many different game modes; Single, Career, Multiplayer, or Challenge. The Career is the main solo mode - you create a golfer, and take them to the top of the world rankings by climbing the tournament ladder, starting with the rookies and moving your way up to the Legends tournament. Each gets progressively more difficult, with tougher pin placements, more challenging competition, and longer tournaments (the Legends tourney has 4 18 hole rounds, like real golf). As you win, you earn cash that goes towards upgrading your player in 4 different skill levels, to tackle the tougher competition better. Your goal is obviously to win everything and become #1 in the world (and unlock a golf ball skin to take online to show you beat career mode, and to bow before you and lick your boots clean).

There's also some challenges included, based on the Challenge mode of Links '04. Basically, the Challenge mode is a skills competition that tests your abilities in all kinds of different areas. As you progress through skill levels, the demands are higher and the margin for error gets slimmer. The challenges range from how close you can get to the pin on an approach shot, or getting through 5 holes of chipping and putting using as few strokes as possible, to even replicating certain classic events at St. Andrews (1990), and Oakmont (1983 US Open), or coming from 2 strokes behind on the final 4 holes at St. Andrews, which can be akin to pulling teeth with a rusty set of pliers. The entire Challenge mode is incredibly addictive and can occupy much of your time, due to its depth and challenge.

In the Single event, you can tackle many different kinds of play on all the different courses, be it regular stroke play, match play, skins play, even the Stableford scoring system, where you earn points for playing well instead of the usual under par stuff. This can be played with up to 4 different people at a time, making for some fun multiplayer with friends (or a way to finally kick the crap out of your one friend who always beats you on a real course).

Finally, but definitely not the least important, is Multiplayer. Thanks to Xbox Live and XSN, you can play full tournaments or special events against friends or unwitting strangers (and since most of the Unwashed Losers Chapter of Xbox Live wouldn't bother with a golf game, there's a great crowd online to play with). There's also some downloadable content, most recently the Plantation course, home of the Mercedes Championship. Be warned, however, as there is a $5 cost to download the course to your Xbox, which isn't much given you get 18 holes of bliss on a pretty sweet course to play on.

On the course, things only get better, thanks to the spot-on control and superb pace of play. Links uses the now standard analog swing mode, which lets you use the left thumbstick to resemble the backwards to forwards swing motion of a real golf shot. In this particular case, the swing meter is absolutely brilliant and spot on, as you will get much better accuracy off the tee compared to other golf games that tend to be touchy (most especially the erratic swing system of Outlaw Golf). Granted, if you don't get the motion down right, you will be hooking and slicing like O.J Simpson at Brentwood. Depending on your difficulty level, a power suggestion is shown on the swing meter, letting you know where you should stop your backwards motion for maximum distance. I tend to go a bit less on the power compared to the recommendation, because you have to take wind and the appearance of the area you're shooting at into account. However, just like real golf, you can never be too careful lining up your shot, and every shot is actually a risk that can go awfully bad if you screw up.

And that's just the thing that makes Links great - it accurately displays the incredible pressure that is playing competitive golf, where every shot counts, and nobody is there to save your behind when you flub it. When you have a 2 shot lead with a couple holes to play, all that's on your mind is breaking even and being as careful as possible; yet if you're down 2 with 2 to play, you will take crazy risks for a chance to get a birdie or even eagle a par 5 if you rip it hard enough. While it's not a 100% accurate golf sim, Links is damn close to the real thing - imagine all this pressure on a huge XSN tournament that Microsoft just might be hosting and giving away some serious cash to the victor. And Links plays very streaky - if you're playing well the game is a breeze, as you get into a zone and start gaining spots or distancing yourself from the leaders. However, if you start playing poorly, it's very tough to shake the bad play for a couple of holes. The psychological aspect of golf is also here, and it's pretty much perfect.

The thing that I dig the most about Links is the affects of weather and terrain. If it's a windy day, the ball will fly all over the place, leading to shots not going where they're intended. Thus, adjusting your shot is necessary, if a bit luck based, to wind up in a position to get a good score on that hole. In rainy days, the fairways are slick and the greens are fast, though the entire game has a great balance between fast greens that can reach out and bite you and spit you out off into the rough, and slow greens that suck a ball in like a vacuum cleaner and drop it 10 feet from the hole. Very few golf games can make that claim. The game rewards return players who take the time to learn a course and all it's tricky spots and know how to deal with each of them.

Speaking of greens, Links 2004 is completely loaded up with a great putting system that may seem easy at first, but can be quite difficult depending on numerous things. In a big tournament, the pin positions will be all over the place, from the middle of the green to a hilly corner that's impossible to reach without luck. The variance between pin placements is insane, really. On the green, you're given a line that shows you the path you need to hit in order to find the hole. Actually, it usually isn't lined up perfectly, leaving you to align it correctly, then press X to show the trail it goes into the hole. From there, you can click the left thumbstick in to see a grid showing the layout of the green, or just putt and pray. As your created player increases in putting skill, the margin for error gets larger, and hitting tougher, longer putts increases as well. Even when lined up perfectly, there's a chance that the wind might slightly knock it off the line, or you might over or under-hit the ball on it's way to the green, as the power meter does not take up or downhill putting surfaces into effect - thus the need for the grid.

The only real thing that I find wrong with the game is the inability to adjust your skill level as you get better. If you start off on beginner to learn the ropes of the game, you cannot adjust that even if you're on the Medal tour winning each event by 20 shots, unless you start over with a new player and move up to the other difficulty levels. Being able to do this would create a more balanced game that remained challenging no matter what level (as even beginner can be tough if you have no idea what you're doing, especially with a low skill player with no distance or putting skills). It's an oversight that hopefully is fixed in time for Links 2004.

Otherwise, Links 2004 is as perfect a golf game as you can get. Some might say that the Career mode is a bit short, but the challenges in the skill events will add hours to your time, as will screwing around on Xbox Live, so be it you get in with the right crowd. It's a game that both beginners and experts can play and excel in, but one that will still challenge even the most knowledgeable expert with it's random weather conditions and crazy pin placements. Just like the real thing, the game emphasizes pressure play and risky shots if you want to prevail.

As you might expect with an Xbox game, Links 2004 looks great. The courses are lush and full of the usual golf colors - light colored greens, dark colored rough, and grassy-colored fairways are the norm, along with great looking bunkers and environments such as trees, shrub, a gallery, even road runners beep beeping across the fairways at Superstition Springs. Everything is detailed with loads of textures, though the nice environments don't always look realЕif it's really windy I want to see trees swaying or even coming out of the ground attacking spectators with flash cameras.

All the real golfers are modeled after their real selves well, right down to their swinging motions. The other character designs that you can customize are nice, but there's not many of them, and you'll see the same repetitive characters again and again (If I ever see D. Sleppy again and his magical 80 foot putts, I will stuff my driver up his ass, club end first, and yes, I know that sounds quite bad, you perverts). But since when you're playing tournaments all by yourself, seeing them is not frequent unless you're in match play or skins competition.

There's also a load of awesome camera angles that show your ball flying or sliding across the green, with smoke coming off particularly hard tee shots, and a shaking camera when it shows a behind-the-ball perspective, or a snapshot angle with a close putt. Some are giveaways as to what the end result will be, but all are very cool and add some unique looks instead of the same generic angle for 18 straight holes.

The audio is definitely Links' weakest aspect. Aside from the great sound effects on the course, like the gallery making noise at the right time (and a guy telling them when to shut up), birds chirping, and the sound of club smacking ball, it's disappointing, especially given what they're working with. The announcing is horrible, with constantly repeating phrases that you hear 5 times in one round. Even with one of the best golf announcers around, Ken Venturi, they waste him with pointless one-liners that usually only repeat what was just said, or just plain dumb. Who writes this stuff? On the flipside, it is nice that they remember how you did on a hole in previous rounds, but that's the lone bright spot.

Oddly, Links lets you use a custom soundtrack, but even then they didn't implement it well. There is no way to only let the soundtrack run in the menu screens, not on the course. While it's nice to drown out the bad announcers with music, it's an oversight to not let you be musicless in game. It is funny, and ironic, though, to play rap music or some nice rock & roll while you play a nice quiet round of golf on the links. Otherwise, if you don't use a custom soundtrack, you can listen to decent menu music that probably shouldn't be in a golf game either. It's better than listening to the announcers prattle on.