Links 2003 demo released
It’s a Trial Version actually – la-di-dah!
Microsoft Game Studios has released a trial version of Links 2003 this morning, the perfect way to gloatingly remind everybody around you that Europe just regained the Ryder Cup. Featuring the back nine holes of fictional golf course Skeleton Coast, the Links 2003 Trial Version gives you control of Sergio Garcia (one of our heroes) and five different methods of play, including online options via Zone.com.
Links 2003 boasts a new Real Time Swing option not unlike the manual swing option found in EA's masterful Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2002. If the player wants to do away with the more traditional three-click swing option (which still endures, sadly), he or she can use the mouse to measure out back swing and follow-through - the action reminds us rather a lot of Virtual Pool with its prosthetic cue.
The full game features "photo realistic graphics", which translates to very high-resolution backgrounds and spectator sprites, judging by the screenshots, along with improved ball physics and other minutiae. Links aims to go head-to-head with Tiger Woods when it's released on Xbox early next year.
The Trial Version weighs in at a whopping 166MB, and can be downloaded from here.