Bobby Jones would be dissapointed

[pskepsilon]

Re: Bobby Jones would be dissapointed

I was curious about this Links version of Augusta National, so I looked around and found you can download a legal copy of Links 2003 for like 5 bucks at "Links Country Club" online (at least after the Father's Day sale), so I went ahead and bought it and a few of the courses that aren't in Tiger Woods.

I downloaded the Augusta course and...wow. Just...wow. It is head and shoulders beyond anything I've seen in the "custom course" scene in the past. The game itself is actually really good...the ball physics and career mode actually seem superior to Tiger Woods. The graphics are better than the Wii version, and although nothing can compare to Wii controls, Links 2003's real-time swing is better than anything I've played on the PC (and a mouse swing is better than analog, to me at least.)

So it looks like I'll probably be playing both games. TW10 for a "golf simulator" of individual rounds, and Links 2003 for a legitimate career mode complete with a real Masters Tournament played at Augusta.

Thanks to the tip for whoever suggested Links 2003 in this thread. I found a bunch of other killer courses, and they seem to still be making new ones. The Bethpage Black HD course is phenomenal as well.

[Drakar]

Re: Bobby Jones would be dissapointed

I was curious about this Links version of Augusta National, so I looked around and found you can download a legal copy of Links 2003 for like 5 bucks at "Links Country Club" online (at least after the Father's Day sale), so I went ahead and bought it and a few of the courses that aren't in Tiger Woods.

I downloaded the Augusta course and...wow. Just...wow. It is head and shoulders beyond anything I've seen in the "custom course" scene in the past. The game itself is actually really good...the ball physics and career mode actually seem superior to Tiger Woods. The graphics are better than the Wii version, and although nothing can compare to Wii controls, Links 2003's real-time swing is better than anything I've played on the PC (and a mouse swing is better than analog, to me at least.)

So it looks like I'll probably be playing both games. TW10 for a "golf simulator" of individual rounds, and Links 2003 for a legitimate career mode complete with a real Masters Tournament played at Augusta.

Thanks to the tip for whoever suggested Links 2003 in this thread. I found a bunch of other killer courses, and they seem to still be making new ones. The Bethpage Black HD course is phenomenal as well.

You will find out very quick that using a ruler to guide your mouse in a straight line ruins the fun. That's how player used to play online.

[DivotMaker]

Re: Bobby Jones would be dissapointed

I was curious about this Links version of Augusta National, so I looked around and found you can download a legal copy of Links 2003 for like 5 bucks at "Links Country Club" online (at least after the Father's Day sale), so I went ahead and bought it and a few of the courses that aren't in Tiger Woods.

It is not actually "legal" in the truest sense of the word as there is no license that Augusta National has agreed to. I was under the impression that this course was free because it claims to be Augusta National (and I agree it is very well done if you like Links 2003 and static screens). At the end of the day, glad you found a game you like to play and courses to your liking....

[pskepsilon]

Re: Bobby Jones would be dissapointed

It is not actually "legal" in the truest sense of the word as there is no license that Augusta National has agreed to. I was under the impression that this course was free because it claims to be Augusta National (and I agree it is very well done if you like Links 2003 and static screens). At the end of the day, glad you found a game you like to play and courses to your liking....

I wasn't referring to the Augusta course as being "legal", but rather the copy of Links 2003 that I obtained. It's pretty clear that these user-created courses that are replicating real courses are at best in a legal gray area, and the community for such mods is so small that it couldn't possibly be affecting anyone's bottom line enough for them to pursue legal action.

As for the static screens, it's really not that big of a deal to me, I guess, because the non-static stuff in other golf games is minimal at best. They may have some minor movement of water, but that's only a big deal on certain courses, and a bird flying around here and there, but other than that, everything's pretty much static. If a game actually would show foliage moving in the wind, etc., that would be something, but Tiger Woods doesn't do that even on the next-gen systems (to be fair, it'd probably be incredibly processor intensive for a relatively low payoff.)

If someone could hack Links 2003 to use the Wii control scheme somehow, I don't think I'd ever leave my house. As it is, they're both superior at different things (TW for controls and Links for graphics/course availability/career mode.)

Hopefully the PS3 motion wand will allow TW to eventually take over the graphics crown, but the career mode will need a serious overhaul if it's going to come close to matching Links. But there will obviously never be anything like the Arnold Palmer Course Designer for use with an EA-branded golf game, so course availability/creation will likely always be in Links' favor, unless EA just adds such a massive number of courses over the years as DLC.

One interesting thing Links did is that over the course of its long release history, they pretty much kept all of the supplementary courses at least somewhat backward compatible, in that you could import your old courses into new games (with minor automated graphic improvements, etc.) If EA did something like that and had a roster of 50-100 courses, then the need for custom courses would pretty much go by the wayside. I'd be willing to pay good money for accurate courses in a next-gen motion-controlled TW game.

[DivotMaker]

Re: Bobby Jones would be dissapointed

1. As for the static screens, it's really not that big of a deal to me, I guess, because the non-static stuff in other golf games is minimal at best. They may have some minor movement of water, but that's only a big deal on certain courses, and a bird flying around here and there, but other than that, everything's pretty much static. If a game actually would show foliage moving in the wind, etc., that would be something, but Tiger Woods doesn't do that even on the next-gen systems (to be fair, it'd probably be incredibly processor intensive for a relatively low payoff.)

2. Hopefully the PS3 motion wand will allow TW to eventually take over the graphics crown, but the career mode will need a serious overhaul if it's going to come close to matching Links. But there will obviously never be anything like the Arnold Palmer Course Designer for use with an EA-branded golf game, so course availability/creation will likely always be in Links' favor, unless EA just adds such a massive number of courses over the years as DLC.

3. One interesting thing Links did is that over the course of its long release history, they pretty much kept all of the supplementary courses at least somewhat backward compatible, in that you could import your old courses into new games (with minor automated graphic improvements, etc.) If EA did something like that and had a roster of 50-100 courses, then the need for custom courses would pretty much go by the wayside. I'd be willing to pay good money for accurate courses in a next-gen motion-controlled TW game.

1. TW10 is far more immersive to me personally than Links 2003. Links reminds me of a beautiful postcard. TW10 reminds me of an actual living environment. The fact that TW10 has animated dynamic trees is a huge improvement over the 2D static trees of Links. Not to mention the animated 3D grass of TW where there is nothing moving in Links 2003 other than the ball, flag and golfer.

2. Console, yes. On the PC, are you sure? Lets just say I know the answer, but can't talk about it right now.

Can't say I agree with the Career mode comments either, but then again, we are probably looking for different things.

3. So did EA with their PC versions...NO console game has ever done this.

[MHammer113]

Re: Bobby Jones would be dissapointed

If you wanna see some really realistic courses Mike Jones is the best. His Augusta version on Links 2003 is so real that I promise you if you stand 5 feet from the computer with a real and Links screenshot youll be confused on which one is real. If you guys are interested check out www.linkscorner.com

This site has hundreds of courses for free download. I have almost 80 courses from them including courses like Augusta, Bethpage, Shinnecock, Oakland Hill, and Pebble. I have also uploaded two courses of my own.

[ocat]

Re: Bobby Jones would be dissapointed

If you wanna see some really realistic courses Mike Jones is the best. His Augusta version on Links 2003 is so real that I promise you if you stand 5 feet from the computer with a real and Links screenshot youll be confused on which one is real. If you guys are interested check out www.linkscorner.com

This site has hundreds of courses for free download. I have almost 80 courses from them including courses like Augusta, Bethpage, Shinnecock, Oakland Hill, and Pebble. I have also uploaded two courses of my own.

Stealing my thunder a bit mate, check post #9, thats cool though :-) I think you'll find it's Andrew Jones that made Augusta, Mike Jones only builds is own courses, no real ones. But i do agree he does an amazing job, his new Pilgrim Trails is awesome!

[MHammer113]

Re: Bobby Jones would be dissapointed

yeah i saw that post lol i wasnt trying to steal your thunder just trying to open peoples eyes to my favorite game

[pskepsilon]

Re: Bobby Jones would be dissapointed

1. TW10 is far more immersive to me personally than Links 2003. Links reminds me of a beautiful postcard. TW10 reminds me of an actual living environment. The fact that TW10 has animated dynamic trees is a huge improvement over the 2D static trees of Links. Not to mention the animated 3D grass of TW where there is nothing moving in Links 2003 other than the ball, flag and golfer.

2. Console, yes. On the PC, are you sure? Lets just say I know the answer, but can't talk about it right now.

Can't say I agree with the Career mode comments either, but then again, we are probably looking for different things.

3. So did EA with their PC versions...NO console game has ever done this.

1. It's kind of interesting that I've never really thought about the "static" issue before, probably because I've been playing computer golf for so long that it doesn't seem odd to have little/nothing moving on the screen. But I can say that unless the next-gen versions of TW10 made significant strides in this particular area, I scarcely noticed the difference in the recent Tiger Woods' games. A few frames of animation is hardly worth the sacrifices that are made in order to achieve it. The foliage and shrubbery in TW (at least the 08 & 09 versions on PS3) hardly moved at all, and it didn't look particularly good either. The advantage to the Links' rendering method is that it can essentially produce a nearly photorealistic still of the precise spot on the course. What TW gains in "immersiveness" (which is minimal in past versions), it loses in detail and the sense of majesty of some of golf's finest vistas.

On the Wii version, the trees and graphics in general are so bad that it's hardly even worth talking about. The gameplay is so good that you force yourself to overlook it.

2. I'm aware that there have been custom courses for past Tiger Woods games on the PC, but I don't think the software for it was provided by EA (and if it was, it was heavily crippled), nor did the quality of the recreations rise to anything like what I've already seen in Links. Maybe that will change, but as far as I know EA didn't even release last year's game on the PC and I haven't bothered to check if they are this year.

As far as career mode, what exactly are you looking for that Tiger Woods does better? The only thing TW10 does in Career Mode that Links can't is give you a laundry list of absurd challenges to unlock courses and let you play against superhuman juggernauts in tournaments (of which all but the FedEx Cup and U.S. Open are fictional), forcing you to play the game in a totally unrealistic manner to have any prayer of ever winning anything.

[baa7]

Re: Bobby Jones would be dissapointed

Can't say I agree with the Career mode comments either, but then again, we are probably looking for different things.

What's to disagree with? We're talking about a career mode in Links with unlimited customization, versus TW's featureless, optionless and completely unrealistic (CPU golfers shooting -30 and -40) alternative. It's one thing to argue gameplay and graphics. But TW's career mode has been a joke for years now. The moment there was no competition, EA began to systematically remove customization options from season/career mode -- in the same way they systematically eliminated course creation tools and the ability to use those courses in season/career mode. Again, there's nothing to agree or disagree with here. Those are the facts.

[MHammer113]

Re: Bobby Jones would be dissapointed

Once again think of how cool it would be on TW to set every tournys greens, pins, wind, tees, and other things like you can on Links. It would totally change the dynamics of the game

[pskepsilon]

Re: Bobby Jones would be dissapointed

Holy crap. I played Mike Jones' Pilgrim Trails last night and was absolutely blown away. I didn't think I'd want to bother playing anything that wasn't a recreation of a real course, but this one could easily be a real course, and it looks gorgeous to boot.

[MHammer113]

Re: Bobby Jones would be dissapointed

Try some of his others like Atlantic Point, and Crystal Pines just go to linkscorner.com you can download them for nothing they are AWESOME