Golf
Sim
Publishers:
Microsoft
Release date: out now
Price: £25
Type: Golf Sim
Official Website: www.microsoft.com/games/links2001/
Minimum Specs: Pentium II 266, 48MB RAM, 4MB Video.
Tested on: Celeron 566, 256MB RAM, Geforce2MX 32MB.
~Introduction~
If you're interested in golf games, but have always been
put off by them for one reason or another, then read on
for a review at one of the most comprehensive golf games
that's been released for a while.
~Installation~
This game comes on 4CDs so the installation time is quite
long (about 15 minutes), and if you chose to do a full
install (i.e. you don’t have to put the CD in whenever
you play the game – you play off the hard drive),
then the total installation space needed is about 1GB
of hard drive space – so make sure you have enough
getting this game!
When you finally get the game up-and-running, you should
go straight into the options screen and fiddle around
with the resolutions and graphical detail, to most suit
your processor and graphics card. If you are used to 3D
gaming then you will have a general idea of the settings
you will use, if not, then have a play around until you
find the best one for you. Although the default settings
should be suitable for most machines, as this game only
requires quite a modest set-up.
~Options~
* Modes of play: There are so many modes of play in this
game, that you will probably never use them all. You can
play skins (Win money for each hole you win), Match play,
Stroke play and team games. Each different type has many
different varieties, which you would not find in standard
golf, like “Bingo, Bongo, Bango”, where you
earn points for hitting Fairways and greens in regulation.
* Courses: If you have used the full install, then you
will find that there are six courses, which all have their
own different quirks. Such as “Mesa Roja”, which
is in the middle of a desert, so if you stray off the
fairway, then you are straight into the sand!. The great
thing about this game though, is that you can download
so many courses off the Internet that you can never get
bored of this game, even real ones are available. So if
a tournament is happening in real life, then you can download
the course and play on what the Pros are playing on (Like
“Southern Hills” in the US Open last year)
* Conditions: Here you can pick the green speeds and hardness,
the pin placements, the wind strength. Making this game
very in-depth, as you can never play the same course exactly
the same way. For example on a par 5 you may be able to
reach the green in 2 if the wind is going the right way
for you, but if it is blowing in your face, then you have
to lay-up and chip to the green for example.
~Graphics~
Now you can actually progress into the game itself, and
you will find that as soon as the first hole has loaded
up, you will be astounded by the realism of the graphics;
the players look almost photo-realistic, and the scenery
is superb – with many different trees, bridges, rock
overhangs and cacti!.
~Gameplay~
The gameplay is simple enough – pick a club that
is most suited to the place you are (Driver for a long
tee shot, sand wedge playing from the sand etc), or you
can just let your virtual caddy pick one for you. Then
you click the mouse at the right time to get optimum power
and direction, (one click to start, one click for the
power, one click for the direction.
Although in this 2001 version, there is a new type of
swing called “power swing”, which is more innovative.
The club in your player’s hand will react according
to your mouse movements. Move it backwards, and the club
will go up in the air, and move it forwards, and you swing
through the ball. The amount you accelerate the mouse,
and any slight lateral movements will change direction,
spin and power.
I have tried this method out, but I find it much too complicated
– but if you are good enough and persevere this method
can be very rewarding.
One little feature I like is that after every shot you
take, you have the option to save a replay of your last
shot, so that you can treasure that hole-in-one forever
and share it with mates, as it actually saves the replay
as a small file on your hard drive, so you can easily
e-mail your favourite shots to people with this game.
~Online
play~
As well as playing against the computer and yourself –
you can actually play online, which is when this game
really comes into it’s own. You can go to the Microsoft
zone.com website where you will find many people you can
play with. You simply enter a room, and the host will
start the game up, and pick the course/conditions etc.
This is fun to do, because you are playing against real
people and you can chat at the same time (by text and
voice).
As well as this, there is a “VGA tour” on the
zone.com website, in which you can participate in tournaments
to actually win money and prizes. You simply sign-up,
and then go to the section in your game which says “online
play”, and pick VGA tour.
There will be many events happening at the same time for
different skill levels and for differing amounts of points.
At any time during your participation, you can go to the
website and see live stats of how you compare to others
in the same tournament.
~Course
designer~
Earlier I mentioned that there are 4 disc, well the last
one is actually for a course designer called “Arnold
Palmers’ course designer” which I believe the
actual coders at Microsoft use to make the courses. This
is a very difficult program to use, as there are many
different things you can put on your course, not to mention
ground undulation and course shape etc.
Although it is made easier by having a check-list which
will tick off what you need to do for each hole to make
the hole playable (You have to create tees, fairways,
a green and pin positions – then you can add hazards
in later if you so wish).
This is also the program that people will use when you
download courses from the internet, so theoretically you
could make your own masterpiece and upload it to the many
websites. Saying this though, you would have to play about
with it for hours to make even a simple course, as it
took me 20 minutes to make just one hole, that had no
hazards or hills.
~Conclusion~
Great golf sim, with so many options, downloadable content
and online play, this will keep you busy for months.
Review
Score: 9/10
Review
by Mark Jones
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