Links 2004

"For Semi-Realistic Golf, Links 2004 is a Great Choice"

Links 2004 is a brand new game for XBOX from the people who have been making the best golf sim on the pc for over the last 10 years. I was highly skeptical they could make this game anywhere near as good as its' pc counterpart but it has far exceeded my expectations. While not being a complete sim of true golf, it is the most realistic representation of the game I have seen to this date. Links 2004 captures the essence of golf like no other game I've ever played before. Essentially, this game thrives on realism in many ways but also incorporates many of the things that make arcade style golf games just plain fun to play.

You swing using the left thumbstick, much as you would in the popular Tiger Woods game, by pulling back and then pushing forward. However, instead of making it extremely easy to hit a straight shot, the developers deepened the swing out. If you are not careful, you will find that it is quite easy to shank a shot. You can fall into a pattern of shanking and sometimes it will manifest itself just at the wrong moment in your big XSN tourney. Once you have played the game a ton, you will likely devise ways of swinging where you can reliably hit a straight shot. It does take time to master the swing fully and even then it only takes one bad swing to land you in a whole lot of trouble. The basic swing is well done and the added sensitivity of the stick compared to the Tiger Woods swing heightens the tension of each and every shot.

In addition to just pulling the stick back and pushing forward, there are many things that will influence where your shot goes. The tempo of your swing is a significant factor in your shots. A good rule of thumb is that you must follow thru at twice the speed you pull back to obtain a completely smooth swing. Once you have put a good amount of time into the game you'll become quite adept at sticking the ball close in easier course conditions.

The lie of the ball will also greatly influence where your shots end up. Shots that are on a downhill or uphill lie will have their trajectories impacted and must be accounted for when deciding just how hard to hit the ball. Shots where you ball lies on a sideways slope will also be affected and you will need to gauge just how much you need to aim to the right or left of the pin. The wind, as in any golf game, will also play a significant factor in the flight of the ball. In extremely windy conditions, it can become quite the guessing game to determine where you should aim, especially when your ball lies on a decent sized slope.

Spin was implemented in this game extremely well and stays fairly true to real golf. It is applied before your swing by utilizing the right analog stick. You may apply backspin that will help stick your ball on the green or even back up depending on if the green is hard, wet, and sloping downhill or uphill. You may also try to hook or slice the shot using the right stick. In extremely windy conditions or holes where you’re trying to cut out the dogleg, a shot utilizing a hook or a fade can be of a great help. There is no topspin in Links as it is not possible to get topspin on a normal shot in real life. The only time topspin happens in real life is on a bad shot where you top the ball and it goes 50 yds. However, you may reduce backspin on your swing by pushing up on the right stick. This will help you gain maximum distance on drives or help a ball stay on the green where it would of normally spun back and possibly off of it.

Adding up your lie, the wind, the speed of your swing, any spin you choose to use, and then hitting a completely straight swing with the stick all help to deepen the arcade styled swing the game chose to implement. I didn't think it was possible to have a semi-realistic golf game utilizing an analog stick but the developers have proven me wrong. I do still find the swing to be just a bit on the easy side. However, the swing in Links 2004 is a big step forward over past games that have tried to utilize a similar swing. I do hope they continue to deepen the swing in future years but I'm extremely pleased with the results achieved in Links 2004.

Putting is a huge feature of any golf game, all real golfers know this is where you either cut numerous strokes from your score or kill your rounds. The putting on links is extremely difficult and the developers may have gone a bit on the overboard side to try and make the game more difficult.

The game uses a line and various grids that will help you read the green and line up your shot. The line will narrow and become longer as you add skill points (which I will discuss later) to your player. However, this line doesn't mean just lining up the shot and then putting as it is not extremely accurate. As your skill increases and you develop a better knowledge of the game, you will notice that sometimes you need to aim more or less than the line is saying. As such, the greens also have great cameras allowing you to look at your shot from a variety of angles. The only problem I have with the putting is one simple thing; too many balls will lip the hole or bounce off the back of it. It is as if someone went up to the hole and stepped on each and every one ruining the lip of the holes. You need to be extremely precise on the distance you hit your putts. While this sounds like it could be good as it makes the game harder, it is also unrealistic and at times will dispel your sense of actually playing golf and not a game. Many real golfers know the tactic of purposely putting the ball hard to ''putt thru the break'' some and this is a for sure miss in Links. When you do actually hit some extremely tough putts, it is that much more rewarding though it is equally as frustrating to miss shots that would have fallen on a real golf course.

The single player mode is very enjoyable offering a wide variety of challenges but it is short of what the competition offers in its' games. It does provide enough to enjoy the game thru 50-100 hours of playtime in just its career mode. In career mode you will take part in chipping contests, putting contests, sand save contests, approach shots, recreations of famous parts of past golf tournaments, and various others challenges such as scoring par or under over 9 holes. The challenges are great fun to play and greatly help you develop your skills but of course the highlights are the tournaments you'll play in.

You will progress thru five different tours each with it's own tournaments, do well enough and you qualify for the championship tourney at each level. After you play the championships, you will also have a skins game available to play. Money for your career can be earned in any way of playing including online play though the majority of your cash will come from single player tournaments. The money you earn can then be used to boost your players’ spin, power, putting, and recovery. Spin and power are pretty obvious in what they do and I do feel they went a bit overboard in allowing the maximum distance you can hit. It isn't completely crazy but it is too much. Putting is the line I talked about earlier and all it does is make that line on the green longer and narrower. It is helpful to have, but you will be just fine without maxing it out. Recovery to me is the most useless of the four, as I couldn't notice any improvement when using it. It is supposed to make it easier to hit out of the rough and such, but it is already easy enough that I don't get the point in wasting a whole category on it.

The multiplayer aspect of Links 2004 is a huge bonus for this game. While the game can easily be enjoyed just by playing in single player, there is nothing like the prospect of true competition against real people. The game is online and allows you to play various forms of games such as skins, team 2v2, stroke etc against online competitors but it also utilizes the XSN network. XSN allows for tournaments of stroke or match play with the vast majority of tournaments being stroke play. Anyone signed up can host tournaments. XSN allows for up to 64players with up to four rounds and cuts if you so desire. Once a tourney is launched you basically go get the codes at the XSN site for the tourney you joined, enter them when asked at the appropriate screen, and bam your playing a tourney against real people. One other option in tourneys allows you to play the rounds by yourself, this makes for a great way to compete against others without having to schedule matches and the hassles that can sometimes ensue. If you are in the mood to play with someone else you still may, but sometimes I think we all just like to plop down and play a game without being bothered by anyone but still be competing. This nice little option is quite a welcome addition to the game. I've received nothing but pleasure from taking part in XSN tourneys and anyone with live I highly recommend you pick up this game. The added pressure of playing in tournaments against real people would make this game worth its' price tag even if there was no single player at all. I cannot express to you all how much depth online play and XSN adds to a golf title but I hope I have gotten the point across. In this reviewers thoughts Links 2004 is easily the best game to utilize XSN to date and also one of my favorite live games.

The graphics in Links 2004 are simply stunning as you might expect from a console exclusive product. Links 2004 is easily the best-looking golf game out there. The courses have so much detail in them that for once the game versions of real courses actually do the real ones justice. If you want to see exactly what I mean, play St. Andrews on Links and then Tiger Woods. The amount of shrubbery and the look of the grass, trees, and just about anything on the screen are extremely well done. One of the only complaints I have is not technical but that they went for some matrix styled animations and various effects when you hit your shots and the ball is in flight. Some people enjoy them, some do not, and I fall in the category that does not. It would of been nice if you had the option to turn them off but unfortunately there is no option. The only other flaw graphically, and it's not really graphics, is it doesn't have a good create a player. You’re basically stuck with altering one of the stock players the game comes with. I frequent a forum where one of the developers visits and they have said that in next year’s version this will definitely be improved upon, but for now it is an annoying aspect of this year’s game.

The sounds in the game are quite pleasing to the ear all except for one big part, the announcers. They are incredibly annoying to me and I elect to just turn them off. The game supports custom soundtracks in game and I would highly recommend to all that play the game to just listen to your own music instead of having to listen to the dry and boring announcing. I deeply hope that next year they don't bring back these lackluster announcers that were quite frankly terrible. I have on occasion seen a few people who actually like the announcing but most despise it as I do.

Many of the things in this game I hope to be improved upon in future years. It has laid down a very solid foundation to build upon but there is much room for improvement. The game needs to add more real players and real courses to it. There were only nine courses included in the game at the time it shipped. It's not way too small of a selection as they all provide fairly unique experiences, but it could of shipped with more. They are coming out with new courses for download but they will cost $5 a course. The putting also needs to be altered a bit with too many balls bouncing off the cup. The skill categories for your golfer could be better done as power just outweighs any of the other options in usefulness. The max power of your drive could stand to be toned down also. Recovery is fairly useless, putting and spin have their uses but just are far outweighed by the almighty power. Many of these things I'm bringing up are nitpicky as all in all the gameplay is a whole lot of fun. For people who enjoy a fairly realistic styled golf game it delivers. I expect perfection from Links as I've been playing this series on the pc for many years. Hopefully in future years, it will work out some of the things that hold this game back from being perfect. Until then, it is still by far the best golf game on the market. If you want a semi-realistic fairly challenging golf game than the only choice is Links 2004.

Gameplay - 8.8 (great mix of arcade and sim golf)
Graphics - 9.2 (beautiful game to look at)
Single Player - 8.6 (solid but not the best career mode)
Multi-Player - 9.7 (amazing online experience)
Fun Factor- 9.4 (a blast to play online or off)
Overall - 9/10 (not perfect but highly recommended to golf fans)

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 11/17/03, Updated 01/08/04