Links 2004

by Microsoft

Product Features

• The thrill of real competition: Take your golf swing online, using Xbox Live. Enter one of the most comprehensive online golf arenas ever created. Compete against the best players from all over the globe, track your stats, or simply play a social round of golf with friendsall from the comfort of your living room.
• Playing like the pros: Compete in tournaments broadcasted in a remarkably realistic TV-style presentation.
• Tour of duty: Work your way up the professional ladder online or in the challenging Tour Mode. See who really is the best in the world. Crowded galleries of fans will cheer you on, as you compete for tournament purses and tour recognition.
• Championship courses: Links 2004 features some of the most luxurious and challenging golf courses in the world, including Greywolf (Canada), New South Wales (Australia), and the Four Seasons Resort Aviara (California).
• Detailed golf environments: Hit the sweet spot for a 300-yard drive, and roll in a 20-fnique physical characteristics, skills, apparel, and personality. Be aggressive and take risks, or be conservative and lay up. Links 2004 has a personality to suit every type, and each character's celebrations and audio commentary will match their personality.oot putt for a birdieall while enjoying the dew-covered fairways and crosscut greens. Links 2004 is the ultimate golf experience. The top courses fr

Product Details

• ASIN: B0000C6FJ1
• Product Dimensions: 5.4 x 2 x 0.6 inches ; 5 ounces
• Media: Video Game
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #24,121 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

This game is playable on the Xbox Live Online System. For a full list of Xbox Live products, click here! Links, the best-selling golf franchise for the personal computer, has been rebuiltfrom the ground upexclusively for the Xbox video game system. Links 2004 delivers one of the most realistic

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tiger Woods 2004 -or- Links 2004...???, December 27, 2003

By 

Dang Phung (San Diego, Ca USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Links 2004 (Video Game)

If you are deciding between Tiger Woods 2004 or Links 2004, I will tell you the differences.

GAMEPLAY:
Both games are set up very nicely. Both have the great analog swing. The only problem with Tiger Woods is once you have your player stats maxed out it becomes unrealistic because your drives go 370 yards consistently, which makes the game too easy. Links, it takes awhile to max your stats, and once you do its still realistic, meaning you'll need a good drive and good second shot to make it on the Green in 2 on a par 5. As far as putting, Links has Tiger beat by a huge margain. On Links you get a nice chart layout and the analog putting feels so real. On Tiger it gives you a caddy tip and the grid really stinks. To spin the ball, Tiger still has the arcade feel where you spin the ball after its hit. On Links you choose the spin before you hit it, just like in real life.
ADVANTAGE: LINKS 2004

COURSES/GOLFERS/ITEMS(UNLOCKABLES):
Tiger Woods has a ton more courses, compared to only 9 on Links. Tiger also has a lot more PGA Golfers on the game, like Tiger, Vijay, Daly, Furyk, and more compared to Links 3 golfers. Tiger Woods has THE BEST create a golfer ever!!!! Links you choose a player model and change his clothes. In Tiger you can create your player (identical to you!) and have all kinds of unlockables to fit to him including clubs, shoes, gloves, hats, etc. There is just so much.
ADVANTAGE: TIGER WOODS by far!!

CAREER MODE:
In Links you play in a series of Tournaments to earn cash to buy attributes. In Tiger you can play through an entire "almost real" PGA Tour season with the real events, like at Kapalua (the Merceds Championship) starting in January in Hawaii. Also included are the 4 majors, just named something different. This gives Tiger a major advantage as far as replay value.
ADVANTAGE: TIGER

OVERALL:

Tiger Woods has a ton more options, courses, golfers, unlockables. The gameplay is a little more unrealistic (not like Mario Golf or Hot Shots Golf though) and the putting is not as good as Links. The create a player and career mode is awesome.

Links has the better gameplay but lacks the options and unlockables cool stuff found in Tiger. The gameplay is so much more realistic than Tigers though, and the graphics are better.

If you are looking for a game with better gameplay and don't care about the options, get Links. If you are someone who loves the all the good unlockables and true PGA Tour season play, get Tiger.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A putting system that works!, November 14, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Links 2004 (Video Game)

Links 2004 has a putting system that works. You can click a grid on/off and then swing around 180 degrees from your ball to look from behind the hole and line up your put according to the break of the green. On a long putt, pick a spot on the green about half way to the hole (using the tracer) and hit over that spot. Just like real golf. I didn't like the putting at all in Tiger Woods 2003 XBOX, and if the putting system is not enjoyable I quickly lose interest in the game. After all, putts are 40% of the strokes taken. I have not tried Tiger 2004 yet, so I don't know if it's been improved. Driving and chiping are easy to pull off in golf sims....thank you Links 2004 for bringing a good putting system to the XBOX.

Links has some silly and tiresome special effects, slow-mo and others, but fortuneatly, a tap of the green button fast forwards through them faster than can be believed. In fact, if your in a real hurry, you can fast fwd after hitting every shot and play 9 or 18 in record time.

This game may be the one to get me online with an XBOX live kit so I can play against online opponents.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Tiger Who?, November 19, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Links 2004 (Video Game)

Simply stated, Links 2004 is the most realistic golf title to grace console gaming ever. Links has been the mainstay in PC golf for more than a decade, and now enjoys a new 3D engine with its arrival on XBox.

The first thing you might note is that most of the courses on Links 2004 -- St. Andrews and Oakmont being the exceptions -- have never hosted a major championship, in comparison to Tiger, which features numerous major venues. Don't let this keep you from making a great purchase. Whereas Tiger has the majors, Links has variety. The West Coast, the Northeast, the Desert Southwest, Hawaii, Canada, Australia, Scotland -- it's all here, and rendered in incredible detail. Just look at the shadows cast by the tall pines of Greywolf, or the ocean meeting the lava rocks of Mauna Lani. The lighting and texture work is so realistic, there have been times I thought I was watching a real tournament. The galleries are equally impressive -- unlike the PC version of Links, tournament attendees clap their hands and move around, seek cover when an errant shot comes their way, and don umbrellas when the weather takes a turn for the worse. The folks in Tiger don't even do that!

Aside from great graphics, the control scheme is second to none. If you've been diagnosed with carpal tunnel syndrome thanks to the spin system in the console versions of Tiger Woods, or have just found it to be too reminiscent of arcade golf, you'll appreciate Links' use of the right thumbstick to generate ball spin in the direction of your choice. You'll also need to be accurate with your use of the left thumbstick. Any deviation from a straight path will result in an off-target shot. This added challenge in a much-welcome addition to console golf, in my opinion.

Links 2004 boasts a deep career mode. Start off with little, earn new abilities and money in skills challenges, tournaments, and various matches, and graduate from rookie to pro, pro to champion, and ultimately to golf legend. Similar to Tiger, you can purchase distance, control, recovery, and putting attributes with your winnings. You might not be able to buy new socks, reading glasses, or hairnets like you can in Tiger, but that adds nothing to the core gameplay, anyway. Links is the meat and potatoes golf simulation for fans of the sport. Oh, and being able to play as the realistic digital counterparts of young golf phenomenon Sergio Garcia, LPGA sensation Annika Sorenstam, Masters Champion Mike Weir, and the funky hat wearing Swede, Jesper Parnevik, is nothing to laugh at, especially since each model - amateurs included - is given even greater attention to detail only Tiger himself is given in his own game. Amazing stuff.

Commentary might present the only marginally sore spot of the game, and that's only because Microsoft has attempted to do something more with tournament scripting. Just like a televised event, there's the host-figure, a color commentator (played by Ken Venturi), and an on-course reporter. The problems come when they attempt to say something specific about your progress, like "he's won three tournaments to get into this championship here at Oakmont," with "three" and "Oakmont" being inserted choppily into the sentence. But I commend Microsoft for trying to make each event more immersive, much more like these commentators aren't just observing one game, but an entire career, as they do in real life. And unlike Tiger's approach of addressing you, the gamer, and offering advice to you, personally, Links 2004 sticks with addressing players by their user-selectable names or nicknames and comments to you, the viewer, on lie, wind, weather, and other such issues. 2005's edition will need to be more seamless, but this is a great first effort.

Ambient sounds, on the other hand, are well above the standards set for console golf by the Tiger Woods 200x series. Crowds aren't dead silent while you're getting ready to hit -- there's a persistent low murmur that elevates into elation after a great tee shot or putt, or into moans and groans after your ball finds the rough or water hazard. There's also variety in terms of the degree of their response, unlike Tiger, which seems to offer only one flavor of excitement. The sounds of birds chirping and brooks babbling in the background are plentiful and further immerse you into the experience. Links 2004 has clearly raised the bar for audio in golf games.

There will be people who insist Tiger is the better game, that it features more golfers, or that it has more known courses. But if you're a fan of golf and great golf games, you owe it to yourself to pick up this title!