Review by: Dale Wilks Game: Links LS - Legends In Golf 97 Publisher: Access Software SPS: 35.99 Format: CD-ROM Available: Out now Requires: O/S: DOS 5.0+ or Windows 95 Processor: 486DX-33+ RAM: 8Mb+ HD Space: 10-137 (!)Mb Graphics: VGA+ CD-Rom: X2 Soundcard: All major cards supported Tested on: O/S: Windows 95 Processor: Pentium 120 RAM: 32Mb Graphics: SVGA (2Mb) CD-ROM: Quad speed Soundcard: Soundblaster AWE32 Controls: Keyboard + mouse
Links LS - Legends in Golf 1997
Golf, eh? Funny old game, that one. Walking around an impeccably maintained landscape, thwacking a small ball into a hole with a large metal stick. Somebody famous once said (no, I can't remember who it was) that golf is 'a good walk spoiled'. Some people live and die by it though; particularly middle aged businessmen and a bloke called Fuzzy Zoeller. Obviously then, depending on how sad you are it's either said spoiled walk, or a game of strategy, technique and skill.
Links LS is the most recent in a line of games that have attempted to bring the flat caps and silly trousers to your computer screen. Most people will remember the Leaderboard series - they were omnipresent in the mid 80's, and on nearly every machine known to man you could practice hitting that little pixel around and trouncing The Whirlwind (wrong sport, you plonker - Ed.) and The Great White Shark. Or something. Gone though, are the days when a golf game was on a 3.5" disk or 3 - Links LS comes in a blinkin' huuuuge box, and on 3 (count 'em) CDs! Zoiks!
The reason for this plethora of plastic platters becomes apparent when you've managed to install and load the thing. Sure, the installation routine is a little long-winded, but the game's creators have catered for every little permutation and nuance, and in this world of soundcards, graphics cards, IRQs and DMAs, that's quite a few. What you end up with is an installation which is going to perform well on your system, along with hints and advice on how to improve things. Hell, there's even a chapter in the manual on how to upgrade your PC! As I was saying though, upon loading you're smacked in the face by the graphics. My oh my, they are indeed beee-yootiful. You're going to need a decent graphics card here folks (although the majority of PCs have a reasonably capable card in them by default) - the lowest screen resolution Links supports is 800x600. On my 2Mb Matrox Millenium, I was able to play at 1024x768 with 16 million colours! The trees! The lush foliage! The FMV! I'm going to wet myself! Ahem.
Ah yes, the FMV. Sorted, mate. Loads of it, there is. Links LS is endorsed by one Arnold Palmer, y'see, (he's a once famous golfing celeb, or something. Bit before my time, really) and so there's interviews with Arnie himself (and lots of them, too!) and he also talks you through his favourite courses. There's full FMV histories of said courses, and of Arnies golf career. There's FMV 'flyby's of EVERY hole in the game, and you can even walk around Arnies office, Doom style. Stick a few rabid golfers in there, and you could almost have another game! Yeah, and the end of level baddie could be a slavering Jimmy Tarbuck, all teeth and firing a barrage of naff jokes...errrr, what? Oh yeah, anyway, you can see where all of that storage space goes to, can't you? Still, it all adds up to a really nice package, and what with all that and the flippin' ginormous box, you do feel as though you're getting your money's worth.
The front end presents you with options. Quite a lot of options, in fact. A bewildering array of options, no less. There are a squillion things to look at and change and things you can turn on or off (to make the game go faster, like). Here's an example; let's say that I want to create a player to use in the game, called er, Dale, let's say. First I enter my name. Then I can decide what skill to play at, and also what tee to use. I can also choose my player animation, my shirt colour (!), and which clubs I'm going to use. Phew, eh? Fortunately, this can all be saved, and so then the game is just a click away. Argh! There's several kinds of golf I can play! Skins? Match Play? Stroke Play? (phwoar, eh?) That's the one that most people are accustomed to, so Stroke Play it is then.
On the fairway, the graphics really shine. The trees and bushes are exquisitely detailed, and the grass looks like real grass, not just a 'green blob'. The trees cast shadows on the fairway, and everything. Whilst your eyes take all this in, birds twitter, and the wind blows gently through the reeds. In the distance you can make out the angry squawk of some agitated geese, and as you get nearer to them the noise becomes more prominent, at the same time adjusting its position in the stereo field depending on your position at the time. The atmosphere is awesome, and although I know that the phrase 'you could almost be there' is something of a cliche, in this case I mean it quite literally. To tee off, the ball's direction is decided by moving a marker around the screen, and a standard swingometer at the bottom of the screen lets you control how hard you hit the ball, together with the amount of hook or slice. As the ball is hit, the golfer animates onscreen - very nicely, in fact. The best golfer animations (You can choose which animation to use depending on the capability of your PC. There are four sets of animations; an Arnold Palmer one, a generic male and female and a more middle aged male) are displayed at 30fps (30 frames per second), and there are no ugly black lines around them either. The player whoops and hollers depending on how well the ball is hit, and they often throw the club to the ground in disgust or punch the air in delight.
Also, there is a menu which is accessed by moving the mouse pointer to the bottom of the screen. Phew, more options! From this menu you can choose which club to use - you can ask for a caddy to select the best club for you, but you can use a different one if you like. There are a couple of really handy options here - one of them allows you to change the size of the ball so you can see it better as it soars through the skies, the other lets you see the position of the pin from wherever you're standing, by zooming the flag in from its position on the green to a couple of feet in front of you, then it zooms back again. Neato. The menu has icons that let you see a short 'flyby' video of the hole, too (with voice over from our pal Arnie). What else? Oh yes, the cameras and views are also selected from here, and if you decide that you want to take a practice swing or adjust the position of your feet, here's the place to do it.
So that's it then. Walking around the four lush courses (which should keep you busy for a while, but there are expansion CDs planned with more courses and more celebrity players), trying to hit this ball into the hole in as few shots as possible. As with any game, it's exciting stuff with some chums playing with/against you (you can play it over a modem/network too), and even as a one player game it can be a pretty tough challenge, especially that Arnold Palmer chap - he's a bit good. There's so much to do and see in this game, that this is bound to last and last, and you can rest assured that you'll be getting value for money. I'm not going to say 'You need a fast PC', as that`s pretty much a prerequisite nowadays, but now might be a good time to get that extra RAM, especially as it's not half as expensive as it used to be.
Of course, there are some people that this won`t immediately appeal to, due to the relaxed nature of the sport, but give it some time... There's always the graphics too - they really are that good. Fans of the sport will be in heaven, though.
Right, I'm off to sink a few in the clubhouse.
====================== Rating: 9/10 (Classic) ======================
