Links 2003?

[kmath47471]

I play Links 2003, But I always come back to play PGA 2000. I find it alot more realistic in so many aspects. For the past 12 years I so enjoy PGA 2000.
You can really shape your shots in PGA so much crisper than in Links.

My wife calls PGA 2000 my mistress. Thankfully this game never gives me a hunny-do-list or nags.

happy golfing

kmath47471

[gova]

Hi kmath,

Nice to hear from a fellow links player, which is still the best game, by far.

Interesting comments on PGA2000 and would love you to elaborate, as I consider the game to be technically deficient in a lot of areas.

1. Aiming arrow little benefit.
2. Some rough like quick sand to get out off.
3. Handicaps useless.
4. Putting extremely difficult.
5. Distances travelled inconsistent.
6. Prize money unrealistic.
7. no wind, but still does not play straight.
8. caddy-mentally deficient.
9. ball sucked into the hole, even sometimes not on a good shot.

After those negative thoughts graphics great and still better than TW series which says a lot, as the designers went to TW02 and improved the game play, but the graphics are too cartoonish and through to TW08, still could not match PGA2000.

Except for the very skilled and dedicated designers and the great members of the community and the web providers, this game would not have survived.

So love to hear some positive thoughts from you for the game or from anyone else.

Cheers
Brian

[kmath47471]

Brian,

Pga and links both have there + and - depends on what you enjoy I think.

1. Aiming arrow little benefit.
I find it more realistic myself
2. Some rough like quick sand to get out off.
true. I try to avoid them
4. Putting extremely difficult.
That is what makes PGA more realistic. Links putting is to easy I think.
5. Distances travelled inconsistent.
At times
6. Prize money unrealistic.
You can easily change it. The season edit is very easy.
7. no wind, but still does not play straight.
That is what I like about pga. You have to be more precise with your swing
8. caddy-mentally deficient.
Spent the night before drinking cleaning fluids
9. ball sucked into the hole, even sometimes not on a good shot.
the ball physics are twice as good than in links I think


You can play with any player you want to, I personally like that. IN round 2, 3 or 4 you can play with a player that is scored with you. Links CM is not as flexible at all compared to PGA. The sound scripts are awesome in Links.

That is just my thoughts.

Happy golfing
kmath

[gova]

Hi kmath,

I appreciate your answers and will follow your advice where I can.

I have improved in this game over the past couple of years from +10 average to +3, so I suppose that is a postive.

Happy golfing!

Cheers
Brian

[sandwedge]

From a designer's perspective, PGA rocks. Take the sound script for instance. The soundscript for PGA can be totally redone. All of the files are in the wav format and are easily edited. Find the sound that corresponds to the comments you want to change and just save a different wav sound under that filename and the script is customized. When you design a course, you can set sounds to play in any location on the course, from any height or distance and as frequently as you wish. No need to have a sound script with nature sounds or a sound script with tournament sounds and have to choose which one to use like in Links 2003 - in PGA you can have both scripts running at once and customized to the designer's preference for his own particular course. Different courses means unique course sound scripts with a tournament sound script that is still able to be edited to taste by the user. The possiblillities are only limited by the imagination. Just because no one has taken the time to do it in our community does not mean that it is not easily done. In fact, some designers have ignored or forgotten sound when compiling their courses - meaning this option is still really underdeveloped as it stands today. Just goes to show you how far ahead of the curve this game was at its end in 2000.

From a player's perspective, PGA keeps you coming back for more. True Swing is the most original swing method in the PC golf game genre even today. It was the forerunner of later developed mechanisms in games such as Links. True Swing dates back farther to the FPS golf days when Links only had a click method of swing. It is what still sets this game apart, lending a unique signature swing to each golfer's shot. In PGA you can have a guy loop his swing like Jim Furyk does in real life golf and still hit it straight. The engine adapts to your own personal style. I use the tri-click method because I enjoy both golf games on the PC and that is how I learned to play, but my daughters and many here prefer the True Swing mehod and the challenge and sense of accomplishment that comes with mastering it.

Career Mode in this game exceeds what any other game offers. You can use real players who perform according to their statistics. You can input their statistics yourself so the game is never out of date. In Links you have to come up with something that correlates with their point system for each golfe to rate PGA professionals in the game. This is a hit and miss guess of a system in Links and not as easy as simply plugging in the statistics for each year like we can with PGA 2000. You can replay an entire season, the Ryder Cup, any type of tournament format you wish. While the tournament is going on, you can follow anyone in the entire field on the course with the unique camera system.

The camera system is fantastic. You can arrange it from any angle you wish. It is easy to use and put to use in the game. There are not cameras from the best angles only but cameras from every angle. In fact your player can tour the course and see every inch of it - even those way out of play. Some of the designers have figured that out and included hidden objects way out of play on their courses but picked up if you "WALK" the course.

The physics of the ball are much better than those in Links. Hit into the trees in Links and your recovery is unrealistic, almost unfair in some ways. PGA has zones tailored in the architect program to each individual object which means recovery from being in the trees or bushes is much more realistic and can even be customized in the Library Creator to reflect the unique properties of the object in question. So local layouts are really local layouts - not just generic objects with generic properties that guestimate and normalize ball reactions.

Then there are the intangibles - the things that make PGA unique. One of the little things that I like that was not a selling point of the game but a nice touch just the same is the ball marker feature. My ball is marked on the green with my color of choice so I know and my opponent knows the length of putt that I have coming up. I have used this ingenious feature to psyche out my girls a little before they putted their own balls (yeah I know, but they win a whole lot more matches than I do ). For us this makes for a more enjoable time on the course. Oh, ohh, ohhhhh and your player falls on the tee or if you delay he sits down or points at his watch - or a heckler says hurry up so he can make it home for dinner - great stuff that only PGA has.

Links 2003 is a decent golf game for the PC. It presently has more involvement from its community so you see more of its features developed - but don't ever sell this game short. It has a lot of stuff that can still be brought out and developed more. For instance, my daughters and I have customized the golf ball. I play a Maxfli Noodle and they play Nike balls. Sometimes for fun we use orange balls or yellow balls or balls with our own custom insignias on them. Consider too that PGA has never had any issues with the various operating systems of Windows and works just fine on Windows 8 without a patch or upgrade. This game that shut down in 2000 will be around for quite a while yet - get to know it and enjoy all that it has to offer.

[gova]

Hi Sandwedge,

Thanks for a very informative outline of the positives of PGA2000 and I appreciate your opinion of the game.

Cheers
Brian

[Polslad]

Now that's a post!

[kmath47471]

sandwedge, very good post. For years my daughters and I would play PGA all the time.

Happy Golfing

kmath