Links 2000
MacPlay
Rating 4/5

Me? Playing golf online for several hours at a time with someone across the country? Never! Well, I have been doing just that over the past few weeks with this new version of the venerable Links golf-sim franchise.

Links 2000 is absolutely stunning to look at. Each course is lovingly detailed. Most striking for me was St Andrews, which is as beautiful here as in real life. If you play this game and then visit the course for the first time, you'll feel right at home in the home of golf... although you might wonder where the Microsoft billboards are along the sides of the fairway. I'm sure that blimps and balloons are rare sights in St Andrews as well, given the windy nature of the area, which is well accounted for in the gameplay. Some of the other courses included with Links 2000 seem to have lots of wind as well, but that fits, since they tend to be on islands, including Hawaii.

Another stunning aspect to this game is the animation for the individual golfers. The flowing motion looks as real as possible, and you quickly forget that the golfer is a computer character on the screen. Your doppelganger and your opponents display pleasure or pain when they make shots? everything from the fist in the air to dropping the head in shame. Even the spectators are beautifully detailed.

There are a few minor graphic glitches, however, when your player gets near the edge of the screen or next to a tree. Then again, this is not the object of the game, so if you are half-way decent you will never see this particular problem.

Links 2000 has all sorts of options to cater for everyone from the casual golf-sim player to the golf-sim nutcase. The gameplay is so easy that the Quick-play function literally takes two clicks till you are on the green and playing. The full interface can be a bit of pain to learn, though, so there is an in-depth lesson system in the game. If you like diving into the game right away, it will take you a bit of time to figure out what the icons on the side mean. It would have been nice to have some way to get the speed of the wind in m.p.h., rather than a frequently inaccurate little bar. Also, it is sometimes difficult to tell exactly the slope of the green even if you have the grid set up.

Both of these quibbles are minor, though, as the game usually gives you a large amount of information and options during play. One the most useful is the ball trail, which allows you track the exact trajectory of your shot and helps you gauge your aim and targeting.

One of the nice things about Links 2000 is the choice of single-click, double-click, triple-click and Power Stroke. This avoids the annoying button mashing antics that have marred golf games in the past. If you wish to have a nice simple game, you can select either one or two clicks and not have to worry about perfect clicking technique or whether or not your USB mouse talks to your Mac fast enough.

Among your opponents are Fuzzy Zoeller and Arnold Palmer. Their avatars look very realistic. Of course, your player can suit your style as well, from the grey-haired retiree to the young tour boffin ready to take on the world. You may choose what tee to use as well. At first, you can choose an easier tee until you feel good enough to go Pro. The truly brave can try Fuzzy Zoeller's Wolf Challenge. Playersinterested in the inane chatter of commentary can include the voice-over talents of David Feherty (CBS) and his booth colleague.

You can choose to play solo, on a LAN or with others on the Internet, either via GameRanger or direct via TCP/IP. In addition, there is a "rejoin" function that enables those who have real lives or patchy phone lines to pick up where they left off. This would be particularly useful for those who have to pay for Internet access calls and don't want to spend three hours straight online. (I was unable to get this function working on my review copy of the game but I have been assured that it will work in the shipping version of the game.)

The reason this is so important is that the online element is what makes this game so special. It's fun to play solo, but the real challenge is playing against human players from all over the world. There are, however, some problems with online play. For one, the sound is totally out of sync, so there is a tendency to get random cheering and crowd reaction before you actually get to see your opponent's action. It would have been nice if there were an option to turn off crowd noise but leave in some of the other ambient noises (birds, jets, your shot etc.); it seems only the crowd oises don't travel over the Internet well. During a tense 18 hole game this lack of synchronisation can get quite annoying.