| Links Corner Course Database ID Number - 812 |
Release Date |
CRZ Filesize |
Par |
Course Length |
| 2002-03-13 |
17,586,548 bytes |
71 |
6839 yards |
| Type |
Style |
CRZ Filename |
|
FICTIONAL |
OCEAN |
VillaSantaRosaV2.crz |
| Course ID |
Course Key |
| edbbf06cb4cb43509aa764dd0346ae8d |
0d63addec97b7cb5bc813f2a35af6f1c |
|
LINKS CORNER REVIEW |
Reviewed by Chuck Clark
Background: This is the second golf course released by Mr. Coat to Links Corner. His first course was MacKenzie Mtn., which I am not familiar with. This is also a version 2, there being some issues with rendering times causing the revision. I did not play version 1, so I can't tell you what the problem was. I had no problems with version 2 though, so whatever the problem was it seems to have been cleared up. The read-me is touching, to say the least, and I suggest you to read it for yourself.
Overall Impression: As the read-me tells us, this course is meant to look like a California coastal course set in a retirement community. It succeeds at this attempt. This course is very pretty and quite interesting. It is generally routed through lots of houses, including some under construction. As a California resident, this looks perfectly natural to me, since housing construction seems to be a never-ending industry in this state. Unfortunately there are a few too many errors and playability issues for my taste, but you may think differently.
Playability: This is the main area that this course fails. The fairways are narrow, the greens small and severely sloped and some of the bunkers are not well done at all. I would never recommend this course to champ players, it is just too tight and difficult for them.
Shot Values: Well, if you do hit it in the fairway, this is a really interesting golf course. There are lots of interesting shots with deep bunkers, well-constructed lakes and tall trees to shoot around, under and through. The bunkers, despite their problems, test you pretty severely.
Visuals: This is the best part of this course. It is really nicely done. The planting looks very natural. The lakes in particular are very nicely constructed. They are mostly surrounded with nice planting and rail fences. They look very good and realistic. The pano, although a stock one, fits in very well. The houses look real good and this really reminded me of a number of golf courses I have played in real life.
Technique: This is another area I had some problems with. Many of the bunkers were not well done. As you can see from the picture below, the bottom of this bunker is sloped severely towards the high lip. This makes this shot impossible to even attempt. If this were a real bunker, the golfer would have to pick up and head for the clubhouse. You just could not play this shot. It was obvious to me that the mesh in the bunkers was never cleaned up. There were also many sharp texture transitions, bad edges and other sloppy things. Another issue with me was the housing areas. These areas were not out of bounds. I have never played a golf course in real life where the houses were not OB. Now this may be a small issue, since it is pretty hard to go into the houses, but it is an important one to me. It shows a lack of attention to detail.
Summary: This is a beautiful looking golf course, but it just screams out for fixing up. If the bunkers were cleaned up, the fairways widened and the greens made a bit bigger and subtler, this would be a top course. As it is, I can't give it a wholehearted recommendation. I would say that you slow connection guys should take a look if you are a pro player and don't mind the technical issues mentioned above. For fast connection guys, I would say take at least one look, just to see how pretty this course is. For the designer I would say take a glance at the work done by the top guys. If you brought this course up to that level, with a version 3, it could be one of the tops!
Course Info :
Cameo Screen? Yes
Splash Screen? Yes
Text file? Yes
Hole Previews? Yes
Reviewed March 2002 |
This course is available as a FREE download.
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