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Review written by Shaun Beane

Absolute eye candy. That was my honest first impression of Hexacto's latest addition to their ever expanding power packed line up of sports titles. With so many golf games on the market (iGolf, iGolf2, ZioGolf, ZioGolf2 and Tiger Woods PGA Tour Golf) it will take more than just some fine tuned graphics to stand out among some very polished games.

Screenshot Screenshot



Hexacto has been pretty consistent about releasing quality titles into the Pocket PC market. While there were some definite "issues" with the beta version I was given for review, Links seems poised to take over the top seat of Pocket PC golf games.

Graphics of this quality do not come cheap, as far as memory is concerned. Links will chew up 7.5MB of storage (not bad considering the graphics) and will require 15MB of ram to run … wow. I was able to install Links on my 128MB SD card. I tested this game on my iPaq 1910, running Clear Speed at 300MHz.

I hope that the load times certainly improve before the final release. Loading Links on my 1910 with Clear Speed running at 300MHz took 30 seconds - yes, that's three - zero. Without Clear Speed, it took about 40 seconds. In between each stroke, rendering would take between 4 and 8 seconds, making game play painstakingly slow. I would be very interested in seeing what performance is like on other machines.

Screenshot Screenshot

I’ve liked Hexacto’s controls ever since the first time I played Tennis Addict – easy to use and very intuitive, Links is no different. However, nothing really ground breaking in this game, controls were pretty much the same as other golf games. Tap once to start the power meter, tap to set the amount of power to use, and tap once again for direction. I really don’t like games that I have to spend too much time figuring out how to play. With Links, I was pretty much right at home from the start.

The options screen had some cool looking features. Unfortunately, most of them aren’t working yet. Even sounds weren’t available. The different views were certainly a welcomed addition. I don’t think any of the other golf games (on the Pocket PC) have that many views. The most of the tracer modes worked ok. I’ve always been a fan of the tracer – whether golf or baseball. The permanent tracer makes it easier to follow the ball when it goes off course – which unfortunately seems to happen a lot for me.

Screenshot Screenshot

I’ve already mentioned that the graphics are eye candy. They are easily the best I have seen on my iPAQ. The only gripe I have is that the further away an object is the grainer it is. Mountains, trees, and the sky in the background are very low quality. Now I understand that this is probably done to save memory or storage space, but it is definitely noticeable. Still, I think most people will now be using Links to show off the graphics capabilities of their favourite Pocket PC.

As far as game play is concerned, I can’t really say much more than it is your typical golf game. A VERY good one, but how much can you change the game we have played for years? The features that Hexacto adds will make Links stand out from the rest of the golf titles. The screen can be rotated (not the orientation) so that the player is pointing in whatever direction you want. The animations are VERY smooth (I’ve been playing Tiger Woods on my 1910 for quite a while and the animations are certainly not perfectly smooth). And with new courses being added in the coming months, this will add to the replayability factor!

Hexacto continues to make a name for themselves by releasing high quality games for the Pocket PC platform. If you love golf, you’ll definitely get a kick out of Links. While I haven’t heard about a release date or even pricing, I expect the release is just around the corner and pricing to land somewhere close Ziosoft’s Tiger Woods (pretty observant aren’t I ;) ).

Screenshot Screenshot

My only gripe right now is the load times. There were a few lock ups during game play, but that is certainly to be expected with a beta version. I look forward to seeing the final product. Considering that this is a beta, I’m going to score this game a solid 8 out of 10 – it will probably earn another point if Hexacto can polish this off to be as fun as the desktop version. Nice job Hexacto!

Pros:

    • Graphics – wow!!

    • Smooth animations

    • Ease of controls

    • Array of options
       

Cons:

    • No sound

    • Long load times

    • Lock ups during game play

 

Overall Score: 8/10

Many thanks to Hexacto for providing us with our review copy.

You may wish to search for more reviews of games from Hexacto. Alternatively, you can view all the reviews written by Shaun Beane.