MEMBER PROFILE FOR sreeceab
Average Overall Score Given: 9.00000 / 10
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Reviews
Links 2004
Overall: Before I start to review this game, some background. I own Tiger Woods 2003, Tiger Woods 2004, and now Links 2004. If you have ever played Links on the Computer, you will find Links 2004 for the Xbox to be very similar. You have just about every shot option you can want at your disposal, including 'blast' shots out of bunkers, which is one of the things that sets this game apart from Tiger Woods 2003/2004. The game comes with only 8 courses, which is a bit of a drawback in my opinion, but if they put lots of downloadable ones on the 'net then it may not be an issue. The biggest difference about this game from Tiger Woods is that it is far more realistic. I would call this a golf sim, whereas I would call Tiger Woods an Arcade Golf type of game. Both are great, but they are different enough that if you already have one, owning the other will give you totally different game play.Gameplay: Gameplay for Links 2004 is very very nice. The controls are fairly straight forward, but not as simple as they are in Tiger Woods. One of the things that is nice about this game is that button mashing is not required. Simply aim your shot, and then try to get the power that you want on the power meter. You have far more control over your shots though in Links 2004 as compared to Tiger Woods, mostly because you have more shot types available. In addition, the control you have is more realistic. It doesn't appear to be possible to land the ball and spin it 90 degrees to the side like you can in Tiger Woods. I also find the game play harder in Links 2004 than in Tiger Woods, which is a GOOD thing. Shooting consistently around 50 out of a par 72 in Tiger Woods gets a bit boring.. just too easy.
Graphics: The visuals for the courses are nice. They are definitely more realistic than in Tiger Woods. Having played Grey Wolf in real life, I can tell you that it is very close in the game. The visuals for the characters are NOT as nice as in Tiger Woods. This is one of the areas that I think the game is lacking- they could have done a far far better job at creating the characters and making them more realistic. Also, you can create your own character in Tiger Woods 2004, making it look just like you if you want, whereas in Links 2004 the characters are stock models with only the clothing being customizable.
Audio: This is the biggest disappointment for me. The comentary is just plain horrid. It is very choppy, making it plainly obvious that they had different words recorded separately and then try to splice them all together into a sentence within the game. I am actually turning the comentary off it is so bad. Definitely better commentary in Tiger Woods.
Suggestions: Change the commentary. It is terrible. Absolutely terrible. The words don't even flow together, they have different pronounciations and different levels of sound. If you have ever listened to a phone service where it says "you have now pressed ONE." and the one sounds really goofy, well, that's how this game sounds when they say "He is going with a FIVE iron" or " has finished up with a PAR." Terrible. Add more options for character creation like in Tiger Woods. The character models are not very good. Very disappointing considering EA Sports has better character models than Links. Add more courses! Only 8 with the game? Give me a great, other golf games come with double that.
Overall Score: 9.0 / 10
