Customer Reviews

Links Championship Edition 2002

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(13)

 

 

I too played this game quite a bit at MW SF. It was the best, most realistic golf game that I've ever seen. Still waiting for it to be released. And waiting, and waiting. MWSF was in January, btw. They've been delaying the release of this game quite often. Not sure why. In the 20-30 minutes that I played it at MWSF, under OS X, it seemed quite polished and stable. Not a single crash. Can't wait!

I was one of the main beta testers (Links Golf Community) to test and see the progression of CE, and all I can say is, this game is heads and tails above Links LS 2000. There are some small OS X issues, but rest assured, Green Dragon, the company that ported the game to the Mac, will be releasing patches to make this game work perfectly.

I also tested LS 2000, and after the game was released, Green Dragon stayed on top of updates for months after release, and made the game right. They will do the same for Links CE.

With any graphics intensive game, one must trim some of the bells and whistles often to get the performance they want on their systems. Linsk CE is no exception. Go into graphics settings, and turn OFF flag animations and background animations. If you really have the need to watch birds fly by, then maybe a walk to your local park with some binoculars may be a better alternative. If you want performance, turn these off. Also, just turn down rendering a little, and you'll be fine.

The stunning courses included with Links CE make the older courses in LS2k pale in comparison. Also, if you've played LS2K a lot, you're probably pretty tired of all those courses. With the Arnold Palmer Course Designer (APCD) included in Links CE, you can design your own or download (Links Corner) hundreds of well done, fun to play courses.

At the LGC (linksgolfcommunity.com), we play all our matches online, and Links CE has a very cool 'spectator' feature that allows non players to tag along with the players and watch the round without playing. The spectators can also chat to the players if they want. Neat feature.

Overall, don't let a few sour grapes ruin your plans to play Links CE. It's a beautiful game, it's harder than previous versions (a good thing), and it hasn't crashed on my in 2 weeks. In fact, it crashed only twice in 6 months of beta testing!

Go for it, then come buy the LGC, and join us in a free, fun group of online players involved in tourneys and ladders. See ya there!

Links 2002 for Mac is OK, but not great. First, if you are an IMac user like me, you'll need to change your screen resolution to 800x600 for this product to even work. The IMac system has the right graphics card, however the program just cannot take the high quality resolution and it bombs the whole system if you don't turn down the resolution.

The second irritation of the software is you need the CDs to make it work. I'm all for protecting intellectual rights, but come on. CD Swapping? You need disk #1 to start the program and you need other disks to do other steps (like loading golf courses). In all a very clumsy way to handle what should be a great game.

Bottom line, it's graphically appealing, fun to play, but very clumsy and does not take full advantage of the IMac graphics capabilities.

First the details: My ancient system consists of a PowerMac 7300 upgraded with a Newertech G3 400/200 processor card, and an ATI Rage VR 128 graphics card. I am running MacOS 9.1, and I'm using the June ATI driver update.

I had many problems with graphic artifacts when I first tried to play this game, but they were cleared up by increasing virtual memory to at least 256 MB. Giving the system more memory seems to be the key.

To date, I have played many rounds at various courses (those that came with the game, user made courses, and converted courses from Links LS 2000), and I have had very few problems. A few of the user made courses give me error messages about missing sound files, but most work correctly. All of the other courses that I have tried worked fine. Be warned that some of the more graphic intensive user made courses, like Pacific Breaks, might require you to increase your system memory a little more to be able to play them.

The graphics in the game are incredible. They are better than any of the previous Links games on the Mac. I am able to run the game at 1024 X 768 X 32 bit, with the picture quality setting just below maximum. Screen redraws take a little longer than they did in Links LS 2000, but not to an extent that they are intolerable. Note: To see these wonderful graphics, make sure that you are running the game in hardware rendering (OpenGL) mode, not software rendering mode.

I have tried just about all the new features in the game (panoramic view, dynamic camera, etc.), and they all work. Also, virtual tournament works better than it did in Links LS 2000. I replaced all the fictional names with actual names of players on the PGA tour, and I've been having a blast playing a fictional tournament against Tiger, Sergio, and the rest.

Is the game perfect out of the box? No. Depending on your system, you will probably have to do some tweaking to get it to run just right, but it can be done. Believe me, it's worth it. There are some issues that need to be addressed (the divot leaves a trail on the screen, the speed of some animations is a little fast, the course designer needs some work, and the course converter that comes with the game is PC only), but those will probably be fixed in future patches.

Bottom line...I recommend giving this game a chance. If you run into problems, there are places on the web where you can get help. Few, if any, computer games are released any more that are perfect out of the box. With a little tweaking, you will be glad you didn't give up on this game.

I too looked forward to this release, having gotten sick of the same 3 courses on Links LS. Great variety of courses here, great graphics, but if there were a ranger on the course, this game would be warned for slow play. It simply takes forever (I guess with Sergio Garcia in the package, that should be no surprise). I don't mind flip-flopping the CDs all the time, but I've played REAL rounds of golf in less time. My system isn't the fastest but I didn't expect anything like this.
Also, sometimes the golfer will hit shots to places no where near the spot to which they were aimed. I've aimed the marker straight into the hole on a 3 foot putt and the stupid guy hits it almost directly to the right.
And those comments! Awful! My golfing buddies would laugh me off the course if I said most of those moronic lines. "I am the spanker"! I think I know what THAT guy is spanking, and it ain't a golf ball.
A fun game but too slow--not worth the money. And if anyone has figured out that course designer (someone without a degree in computer design/graphics, that is), I'd like to know about it!

Is it perfect? No. Rarely have I ever bought a [$$$] software product that was bug free. However, I've had a blast playing and would recommend Links CE to anyone. I've played it successfully in both OS X and 9.2.2 with relatively few problems. Most of the problems that have been reported in other reviews has to do with the reviewer's inability to read documentation, make a simple trip to a web site to update software, or use of older/limited equipment. This game is graphics/sound intensive so some tweaking of individual machines is to be expected! There are some issues with OS X, but I am confident that they will be worked out in short order. Links CE for the Mac is a great game...the best computer golf simulatin around!

I have a G3/350 512MRam ATI Rage 128 running OSx.1.5 & 9.2.2. The game installed and ran right out of the box, there that's a few myths dispelled. It does run in X (better than 9 actually), it does work with a Rage, it doesn't require a Dual 1.25Ghz G4.

For the reviewer from Watertown, USA - the remaining animations are on the CDs.

For Marcus Lingl - read the readme, get the ATI updated drivers for X and it will run just fine, better than in 9 actually.

For the many peope who want to know why it took so long take a look at http://www.greendragon.com/links.html

For anyone who is curious to learn more and maybe find more help for their problems with CE, come and join us at http://www.linksgolfcommunity.com

All we use are Macs and all we play is Links

I was at MacWorld the other day and Links was being displayed. I watched as they demostrated the game. I was able to get a chance to play it and to be honest, I played it for some time there and then found a computer set up with the game installed spent the rest of the day playing the game. Love the stragedy in it and the ability to change the settings of the game.

I have been using the Links game since the 1999 version, initially on a PowerMac and then for the last several years on a PC since that was the only platform side that seemed to be advancing the state of the game. At some point I started having all sorts of bugs with the Links 2003 PC version. I installed patches, changed machines and yelled at my monitor a lot. Then I gave up. Recently I bought a 2.16 GHz 24' iMac. I have Parallels installed and thought I might try Links 2003 again but ran into disc verification problems. That's when I found that there was a sort of updated version for the Mac, Links CE 2002. It's a bit of a step backward from L 2003 but it does work and so far I have had no glitches at all. I read a review in here about having to load a disc to play each time and spotty success in loading extra courses but I have not experienced either of those issues. I did trash the annoying Gator movie. I also have had no issues running at 1600 x 1200 resolution. It doesn't go entirely wide screen but it looks great.

I believe there is a patch available for this version but am not certain; I will hunt around the Links Country Club or Links Corner and find out.

Links CE is not as advanced as Links 2003 PC but it's the only links I have that is working. I do not care for the Tiger Woods games so I guess this is it for me for now. Unfortunately it does not appear that the Mac users are going to see any upgrades anytime soon if ever. That's a shame; this game was (and for the most part still is) ahead of everything else that calls itself computer golf.

Question: Does anyone know if the .crz files will work on both PC and Mac platforms? I have about 40 courses for the PC and would like to be able to use them. Send me a note at rgharrison@gmail.com if you know.

I play this game usually in downtime on the train or just to kick back and relax for a challenging round. Graphically it is a pretty good game but nowhere near the graphics level of PS2 or XBox. The physics of the game are fantastic and the courses rather challenging. Seems extremely difficult to get a hole in one. I run this on my Powerbook G4 with 768 megs of ram and the 8 megs of video running OS 10.2.4. It runs flawlessly when no other apps are open, but if you have a few ram intensive apps open, close them before you begin the game. One enhancement that I see as a neccessity is the ability to still navigate the dock when the game is running. I run iTunes at the same time as playing usually, and if I have to close the screen for some reason, iTunes stops playing and cannot be restarted without going to the dock.