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Two years to produce a mess...........

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 11 / 14
Date: October 06, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I cant believe Microsoft worked on this for two years and came out with the biggest mistake possible. For those of you who own links 2001, you will be exremely disappointed. ... I couldnt believe it. I hated it, but I wanted to give it time and leave it up to the jury. So I called all my online Links buddies and said go buy it so we can play online. They did and like me couldnt believe they had wasted their money. The graphics in some areas are wonderful, such as the trees and bushes and course layouts. But on the other hand, the golfers look fake, the clubs look fake,the sounds are fake,and the ball flight patterns are not realistic. The first drive I hit it took almost 12 seconds for it to come to a stop. I've never even seen Tigers drive hang in the air for 12 seconds. Unfortunately, the game takes extremely long to render scenes and scroll menu options and I have a pentium 4, 1.8 GH, and 512 Megs of ram. We gave it 2 weeks. As of today 7 of my friends have returned this game and we are now back to playing our 2001 championsip edition "By far this best links game available".I suggest to all links players or wanna soon be links players not to waste your time, money, patience, or computer resources on this huge disappointment. Go out and buy links 2001 Championship edition while you still can and it's still cheap. Thank You Microsoft, once again....

What a fiasco!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 7 / 9
Date: October 12, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Microsoft has ruined their reputation with the Links series by producing this error filled, bug infested fiasco. Unless you are playing at home by yourself, this game is unplayable!

It is almost impossible to go online, and launch a game with 4 to 6 players. And if you are lucky enough to launch, if someone quits, you are out of luck as there is no feature to allow the host to drop the player and continue, or resume without him such as on Links 2001.

And, if you are lucky enough to play a game, but wanted to chat with your buddies, you probably ruined your game by accidently hitting the space bar and causing your player animation to swing prematurely. These bugs, and there are many more, should have been caught if this game was beta tested, but obviously it was not.

Also, this game seems to be "somewhat" incompatible with Windows XP as lots of people cannot even launch from the MSN Zone if they have Windows XP. Or at least, Windows XP is not helpful, even with tons of ram.

People are even having problems launching their game when using unique avatars on their players.

Links 2001 was great! This game is horrible to the 3rd degreee!

Do not buy this game until you read about a patch(s) being available. Someone at Microsoft, if not already, should be fired over this game!

Lousy Links 2003

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 7 / 12
Date: October 17, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I agree completely with the reviewer who panned this game. I own
all previous Links games and all the courses. This was a great
disappointment. Unfortunately, I couldn't return it, since I had
opened it. The graphics are poor compared to Links 2001, and the
players look as though they're painted on the screen. I removed
the game from my machine and am trying to forget how I wasted my
money.

Bugs Galore!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: October 12, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Don't buy this game until Microsoft produces the first patch, but it will take several to fix this abortion. It seems Microsoft did not test this game with a Beta edition, but actually are using their paying customers as Beta testers on this game.

When playing this game online, it is impossible to chat to other participants as on prior editons because your player may start a swing from touching the space bar, a very obvious bug the designers failed to correct.

Also, on Links 2001, a group of online players could continue a game if one player was dropped or lost their connection. Not in this newer version of Links 2003, as your entire group is screwed if this happens! What was Microsoft thinking?

The game also takes forever to launch when playing online, even if you have an optimum broadband connection, and the latest Pentium 4 processors, plenty of Ram and the latest video cards. A few of us are starting to wonder if it is even compatible with Windows XP, as it loads so slow on that OS.

Microsoft should start over from scratch and refund anyone that bought this game. As for me, I broke my CD's out of frustration.

Microsoft needs to explain

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 1 / 6
Date: February 18, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I bought Microsoft Links 2003 and combat flight sim 3 with out reading reviews and the reviews are right, these games are flawed and a waste of money. They are turning out games that are not as good as the past. I am done with Microsoft games unless I read plenty of reviews that give it a thumbs up. It seems that Microsoft would address all these complaints but I see nothing. Are they laughing too hard at the consumer they once again have baffled?

Yuck

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 1 / 7
Date: January 14, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Not half as good as 2001. What good are more courses if the game itself is lousy?

Defective software twice

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: February 21, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I returned the software and the dealer sent me another one and that was also defective. I gave up and returned them. Part of the program would work OK ( the Course Designer) and the bonus Motocross worked Ok. The golf program would not work. Microsoft we are really proud of you!!!

Beware no license number with CD's

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: April 12, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Did not receive license number with game can only use temporary!!!!
Other version of same game will not play at all.

Basically both games were a rip-off.

A major step backwards in quality

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 0 / 1
Date: December 31, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I decided to purchase this game because my Links98 was having erratic results when I purchased a new computer with a 1.4gig processor. I hoped that the new game would respond better to mouse clicks. Well - that's the only thing I can say good about the game. Other than that, the graphics are horrible. Making an internet connection is next to impossible. It takes over a gig of hard-drive space if you install it in its entirety, and it will not load your older LS games, even though the advertising says it will.
I would only recommend this to someone I didn't like.

Very mixed baggage and no longer the undisputed champion.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 49 / 51
Date: October 02, 2002
Author: Amazon User

(Having never owned "Links 386" -the first installment of the critically-acclaimed Links series- Links LS (1996) was the first Links golf game that I ever purchased and when I did it totally blew me away: I was in awe of the awesome photorealistic graphics and the incredibly-realistic ball flight and ball-surface physics. The golfers were also photorealistic digital images. The game was a die-hard sim, yet extremely fun and accessible at the same time. I was instantly hooked on LS and as a result I've played more hours of this game and its sequels than all other computer games combined, by far.

Up until several days ago, LS 99 was my current version of Links. I was unable to upgrade to LS 2000 (I was out of the country) or Links 2001. Which brings me to my first "upgrade" in four years -Links 2003. After having played the game extensively for several days now, I have very mixed feelings about this newest installment. In some ways it seems significantly improved over LS 99, but in just as many ways it seems to be substantially inferior. Because I wish to expound upon every component in this dissertation, I've decided to simply list the Pros and Cons.

PROS

1. The graphics are more 3D and much more detailed than LS's: The shrubbery and foilage around trees and roughs is very detailed, photorealistic, and very dense. With a close-up view of your golfer, you can now see detailed blades of grass in fairways and greens. Sand bunkers look great.

2. The addition of the APCD (Arnold Palmer Course Designer) is huge: From my understanding, although it's very complicated and not beginner-oriented, it's hands-down the most powerful course designer in any golf game.

3. The addition of the real-time swing: I've sampled this feature in other golf games and liked the concept but not the implementation. Likewise, I've had little luck with Link's implementation as well and have found it tedious and extraordinarily difficult.

4. A plethora of golf courses: Betwixt the 6 2003 courses, the 20 Championship courses, user courses(from Links 2001 made with the APCD), and my converted LS courses, I have 60 altogether!

5. Options galore: As with LS 99 there are simply smorgasbords of options.

6. Excellent in-flight and ball-surface physics: Links has always been the benchmark in this category and this year is no different. No other game comes close.

CONS

1. No Virtual Tournament: This was a huge reason why I played LS so much.

2. Fairways, greens, and roughs are "too" clean looking -to the point of being "spartan"- and look like artificial turf. The ball even bounces and rolls off roughs like it's a thick layer of artificial turf. It even "sounds" like it.

3. Big, cluttered menu interface: The condensed and organized interface of LS 99 makes 2003's look like a homecrafted Kindergarten design.

4. Extremely ponderous load times: On my 1.7 Ghz processor, screen redraws take forever, adding another camera view on the main window slows the framerate down to a nil, and even jumping from one pregame menu to another takes a long time. Totally unacceptable.

5. Polygonal golfers: I actually prefer digital golfers. These polygonal ones look cartoonish and clash with Link's otherwise photorealism. A motley combination.

6. Unrealistically adept A.I. golfers: Real-life A.I. counterparts such as Sergio Garcia and Parnevik hit every drive straight and birdie every hole. Microsoft did a shamefully-poor job in this area. Even when I created a new computer golfer and set his skill level to the lowest possible, he was still a decent golfer.

Overall, Links 2003 is very mixed baggage. In several ways it seems to be a (close copy) rehash of "Jack Nicklaus 6: Golden Bear Challenge": The fairways, greens, and roughs are more cartoony-looking, the golfers are polygonal and cartoonish (while Links LS's were digital), and most notably, some surface and tree striking sounds are now less realistic and cheesier -similar to Jack Nicklaus 6. The swing meter and other features even seem inferior and (close copy) from JN6.

All things considered, Links 2003 is a very good golf game on its own merits and still the best golf SIM, but with its major shortcomings and horrendously-implemented real-time swing I'm still ambivalent as to whether this latest installment is an "upgrade" or a "downgrade."

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