 Golf
is a game of time. Take the afternoon or morning off and you can get
a complete round of 18 holes in, if you like. Or, if you can't spend
the time, take an hour and trudge around the latest offering from Links
- Champion Edition. Either way, you need to find the time because whether
you choose the real deal or the new Mac OS X version, you'll need every
minute.
My fascination
with Links goes back eight years when I first picked up a copy of the
Links Pro CD and continued right through Links LS, and on to Links
LS 2000. With each new edition, the courses grew more and more lush,
the player's reactions grew more intense, and, unfortunately, my Mac
bogged down under the hefty processor requirements that were levied
aganst  my
system. This latest edition is not one for those of us who are still
in the land of G3's, even though the manufacturer claims
state we pack enough machine to play. Don't kid yourself. Without a
G4 and a half a gigabyte of RAM, Links - Championship Edition will
keep your CPU in the hazard. At times,
the animation became quite sluggish, while at other moments (mostly
while playing as Annika Sorrenstam, strangely enough) the animation
grew cartoonish and jerky as if playing too fast.
As for the
game itself, Links hasn't changed much, outside of the ability to run
on OS X and improved graphics. Putting and chipping is still
extremely
difficult, while driving and hitting iron shots from the fairway is child's
play.The courses are quite nice, but I could not find away to update any diskette-based
Links courses which is a shame considering they have rendered such fabled courses
as North Carolina's own Pinehurst
No. 2.
 Another
aggravating issue with Links is the tournament mode. While the play
is the same as individual play, the competition is ridiculous as
Links tries to mimic names of PGA and European PGA tour members (notice
Dante Montgomery instead of Colin Montgomery). I don't what makes
me more frustrated, the fact that Links has obviously tried to skirt
some of the licensing issues with the Tours or the fact that some
guy named Juan Greco is $120,000 ahead of me on the Tour.
No problems found.
Golfers are an
odd breed, and I say that with conviction, knowing that we are devoted
to our game and consider it a passion. I just wish Links would make
the game more realistic (and quicker) and leave off some of the features
that drive the game down quicker than I three-putt the No. 18 green. [Editor's
note: this game may run on a G3 iBook, but you will achieve
more acceptable results using a Mac with a G4 processor of at least
450 MHz or faster.]
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