Darren S
ClioSport Club Member
I'm pretty sure that this is a niche subject - but does anyone play golf games these days - either on PC or console?
I did have Atari Golf on the 2600 going back a silly number of years - which was followed by a title on the C64 which I've forgotten the name of. Besides, I didn't really understand the 'concept' back then and the terminology used within golf - so it was all pretty much meaningless to me.
That said, I got to grips with PGA Tour Golf on the Amiga which was followed up by PGA Tour Golf 486 back in the early days of my PC ownership. This era was perhaps when I played golf games the most - learning the club differences and having fun with weather effects and messing about with draw or fade shots. Good memories from back then - yet no doubt I'd simply quit due to the loading/rendering times on the hardware, if equivalent today.
I tried the Links series and never really gelled with it. I jumped sideways so-to-speak and went playing games like Tiger Woods PGA (2***) on the PSP and again, enjoyed those. However, the precursor of EA's obsession in customising everything was clearly visible with clothing, appearance and equipment all being switchable at the player's whim.
After a good number of years out of the genre, I thought about having another dabble to see what's out there. The golf game section as a whole has dwindled significantly - in fact I think there's only the Golf Club 2 that is most recent and even that appears to have scored mixed reviews. I looked a bit further back to what else was popular and noticed that Links 2003 was highly regarded - especially as it was the last Microsoft 'backed' golf game of the time.
Having not really got on with Links as mentioned earlier, I thought I'd look out for a copy of it on eBay - especially given it's fifteen year vintage now. Turns out that a final version was released called the Championship Edition which included twenty-plus additional courses to the original ones provided in the core game. Better still, I found one on eBay for £3 with no other bids for it. I ended up being the only bidder for it - so £4.40 down including the P&P (it actually cost the seller £2.98 in postage - ouch) - I received it on Wednesday, this week.
Strangely, I didn't have much hope in this working well. It was released back when Windows XP was barely two years old and being a 32-bit game, I was dubious of it being happy on my Windows 10 64-bit PC. Installing the three DVDs (remember those?
) - I'd already downloaded the latest patch for it (33MB - lol) along with a modified .dll file that was supposed fixed a known career issue within the game.
Tried running it and it required Direct Draw to be implemented. Erm, this isn't going to work is it? - but I left it to download and be applied. Re-ran the game and sure enough, the title screen was there but the resolution was poor. Apparently even with the v1.7 patch, the best I could hope for was 1280x1024 and I'd just have to get used to the large black sections around the edges of the screen with my monitor running natively at 2560x1440. Having had a quick look on the internet, there was a regedit tweak where changing the display value from 3 to 15 pushed the game out to standard HD resolutions - even into the widescreen version of 1920x1200. Once restarted, this filled the screen much better and I started a quick practice round.
The rendering times (as expected on 2018 hardware) are non-existent - allowing for a follow-up shot to be taken immediately after the prior one. There's the occasional thing showing the overall age of Links 2003 - the scenery images are of comparatively low resolution and there's eerily little sound in the background such as the rustling of trees, chirping of birds or fans cheering in an active round.
However, the established mechanics of the game are still present and really enjoyable they are too. The appeal and dare I say, slight addiction to the golf genre in terms of games is definitely there - but one factor surprised me was the multiplayer aspect of it. The game is still heavily supported and played by many fans online. Tournaments, challenges and easy-going rounds are all out there for people to remotely connect to and play. I can't say that I'd ever be in a situation where bleary-eyed at 2am, I'm still on the 16th at Banff Springs, trying to work out whether a 4I or 5I would be best for the shot ahead.
But in the current deluge of intense FPSs, racing games, full-on RTSs and mammoth RPGs - it's nice to switch to something far more docile, serene and laid-back. I can see this being a welcome alternative on one of those slightly boring Saturday afternoons, with nothing else to do!
I did have Atari Golf on the 2600 going back a silly number of years - which was followed by a title on the C64 which I've forgotten the name of. Besides, I didn't really understand the 'concept' back then and the terminology used within golf - so it was all pretty much meaningless to me.
That said, I got to grips with PGA Tour Golf on the Amiga which was followed up by PGA Tour Golf 486 back in the early days of my PC ownership. This era was perhaps when I played golf games the most - learning the club differences and having fun with weather effects and messing about with draw or fade shots. Good memories from back then - yet no doubt I'd simply quit due to the loading/rendering times on the hardware, if equivalent today.
I tried the Links series and never really gelled with it. I jumped sideways so-to-speak and went playing games like Tiger Woods PGA (2***) on the PSP and again, enjoyed those. However, the precursor of EA's obsession in customising everything was clearly visible with clothing, appearance and equipment all being switchable at the player's whim.
After a good number of years out of the genre, I thought about having another dabble to see what's out there. The golf game section as a whole has dwindled significantly - in fact I think there's only the Golf Club 2 that is most recent and even that appears to have scored mixed reviews. I looked a bit further back to what else was popular and noticed that Links 2003 was highly regarded - especially as it was the last Microsoft 'backed' golf game of the time.
Having not really got on with Links as mentioned earlier, I thought I'd look out for a copy of it on eBay - especially given it's fifteen year vintage now. Turns out that a final version was released called the Championship Edition which included twenty-plus additional courses to the original ones provided in the core game. Better still, I found one on eBay for £3 with no other bids for it. I ended up being the only bidder for it - so £4.40 down including the P&P (it actually cost the seller £2.98 in postage - ouch) - I received it on Wednesday, this week.
Strangely, I didn't have much hope in this working well. It was released back when Windows XP was barely two years old and being a 32-bit game, I was dubious of it being happy on my Windows 10 64-bit PC. Installing the three DVDs (remember those?
) - I'd already downloaded the latest patch for it (33MB - lol) along with a modified .dll file that was supposed fixed a known career issue within the game.Tried running it and it required Direct Draw to be implemented. Erm, this isn't going to work is it? - but I left it to download and be applied. Re-ran the game and sure enough, the title screen was there but the resolution was poor. Apparently even with the v1.7 patch, the best I could hope for was 1280x1024 and I'd just have to get used to the large black sections around the edges of the screen with my monitor running natively at 2560x1440. Having had a quick look on the internet, there was a regedit tweak where changing the display value from 3 to 15 pushed the game out to standard HD resolutions - even into the widescreen version of 1920x1200. Once restarted, this filled the screen much better and I started a quick practice round.
The rendering times (as expected on 2018 hardware) are non-existent - allowing for a follow-up shot to be taken immediately after the prior one. There's the occasional thing showing the overall age of Links 2003 - the scenery images are of comparatively low resolution and there's eerily little sound in the background such as the rustling of trees, chirping of birds or fans cheering in an active round.
However, the established mechanics of the game are still present and really enjoyable they are too. The appeal and dare I say, slight addiction to the golf genre in terms of games is definitely there - but one factor surprised me was the multiplayer aspect of it. The game is still heavily supported and played by many fans online. Tournaments, challenges and easy-going rounds are all out there for people to remotely connect to and play. I can't say that I'd ever be in a situation where bleary-eyed at 2am, I'm still on the 16th at Banff Springs, trying to work out whether a 4I or 5I would be best for the shot ahead.
But in the current deluge of intense FPSs, racing games, full-on RTSs and mammoth RPGs - it's nice to switch to something far more docile, serene and laid-back. I can see this being a welcome alternative on one of those slightly boring Saturday afternoons, with nothing else to do!
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