EA Sports should take it as nothing short of divine intervention that mere hours before the release of Tiger Woods PGA Tour 13, the game’s much embattled cover boy won his first tournament in years; guaranteeing that  he, and thus the game will be on every news cast, sports show and gossip monger’s lips for weeks to come. Truth be told though, the game didn’t need the extra stroke of publicity luck; unlike Woods himself, his golf series has been a long standing benchmark not just in golf games (slim pickings there), but in sports games in general. Sure, if you’re an every year player, the changes may not seem that revolutionary, but the amount of detail and depth found in this year’s Tiger title makes this a must play — for most people.

The biggest addition to this year’s game is the new Total Swing Control system, which adds an incredible amount of depth to the game. You’ll still tee off with the right thumbstick, but now, speed, tempo and control are all taken into account, and actual talent comes into play. It took me quite a few times to adjust to the new control scheme, but after while, it becomes very natural and fluent. Total Swing allows for a lot of strategy, and perfecting is means dropping shots just where you want them, while struggling with it means hooking shots and bending a ton of clubs.

PGA Tour 13 also gives players freedom over just where they hit the ball, adding even more depth to an already stellar experience. Need some height? Aim your shot for the bottom of the ball. Need a line drive for distance? Aim for the middle. This combined with the Total Swing Control System makes for an incredibly deep, system that’s still fun to learn. One could make the case that it’s almost too deep, that it requires an abnormal amount of skill, that its akin to actually being skilled at the game, but PGA 13 does a great job easing you in to its more depth features in a way that it never seems like it’s too much at one time. Everything you’re doing feels like the next logical progression of what you did before it. Does that mean I was any good at it? As in my real golf game — god no.

On top of that, PGA Tour 13 does a great job taking control for players who aren’t quite catching on. Using the caddy system, you’re able have the game line up your shots, select your clubs and do just about everything from take the shot for you. The team at EA Sports has done a remarkable job taking a deep gameplay system and making it accessible for all types of gamers. Is this Hot Shots Golf accessible? No, but it’s still a big step and it will make the game playable by a lot more people.

The game also features full motion support for both platforms, and while Move support has been around for the last few years, this is the first time Kinect is fully supported by the title. It’s functional enough, and the first few times, it’s really cool to swing in real life, but it gets old, especially when you take into account how twitchy it can be. The voice control works well, I was able to change clubs on the fly and was able to ask my caddie for assistance — and it was very responsive. Just take one piece of advice for me — don’t try to use Kinect to navigate the game’s menu system. Tiger Woods always seemed like one of the most natural fits for the peripheral, and it’s good to see it implemented, even if it doesn’t always work as it should.

PGA Tour 13 is easily the best looking of the series thus far as everything looks phenomenal. As a yearly Madden player (go ahead — flame), I found myself getting jealous at how good some of the players looked in the game. How come Tiger Looks so much like Tiger, but we get an Aaron Rodgers that looks like a whacked out freak? That doesn’t compare to the courses though, which are filled with sweeping vistas and remarkable lighting effects.

Unfortunately, the new modes available in PGA tour 13 are less than stellar. There’s the Legacy Mode, which finds you recreating the career milestones of the game’s coverboy, and is very underwhelming and oddly uneven. Why am I sinking a putt on national TV before I even practice in my dad’s backyard? There aren’t any real “money moments” that are worth writing about, and my guess is that the legacy mode will be a last ditch effort for most of the game’s core players. The online suite also allows players to create their own country clubs, which will appeal to those who really enjoy the experience, but it will be lost on those who don’t. Plus, you can’t create Bushwood authentically — I tried.

The Blast Factor: Like any good golfer, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 13 capitalizes on its errors and accounts for them to create a complete game. It’s deep, yet accessible. It takes skill, but never loses it’s fun.  Tiger Woods PGA Tour 13 is easily the best of a remarkable series. It may not be a hole in one, but its a solid birdey.

One of the best computer golf games is still Links LS 98 and subsequent versions for Windows, released 11 years ago by Access Software.

Access made some very good games in the 80s and 90s, including the Tex Murphy series, before they lost their identity — and eventually their existence.

Links: The Challenge of Golf was released in 1990 for Amiga and DOS. When you think of computer golf, and how far we’ve come with an amazingly popular genre from Links to Tiger Woods 08, “The Challenge of Golf” is nothing less than a piece of history. Until recently, it was a lost piece of history.

“The Challenge of Golf” was the first realistic golf sim. It had amazing graphics and based itself on real professional courses. It was the kind of game that took a lot of machine to run 18 years ago.

In the DOS days, it was an art-form to increase your amount of free system memory so that you could run games like Links and later Doom and Wolfenstein and many other golden aged titles. Access actually included a letter to its players in the “readme.bat” file:

LINKS-The Challenge of Golf
echo INFORMATION ON HOW TO INCREASE FREE AVAILABLE MEMORY
echo Last update 11-10-90
echo .
echo Dear LINKS owner,
echo .
echo We believe LINKS is the most realistic and most technically advanced golf
echo simulator ever developed. In creating such a sophisticated program, however,
echo we have had to push your computer to its limits. LINKS requires a large
echo amount of memory to manipulate terrain data and to reproduce accurately
echo all of the intricate details of the game. At least 530K bytes are needed to
echo run the program. Player comments require another 8K bytes and wildlife
echo sounds require an additional 17K bytes. Thus, 555K bytes are needed to see
echo and hear all that LINKS has to offer.
echo .
echo To verify the amount of free memory on your computer, run the DOS utility
echo called CHKDSK. The last number displayed is the amount of free memory. If
echo the number is less than 555000, then some of LINKS’ digitized sounds will
echo not be heard. If the number is less than 530000, you will not be able to
echo run LINKS.
echo .
pause
cls
echo .
echo Your 640K machine actually has 655360 bytes available. When your computer
echo boots, it loads DOS (which takes about 55,000 bytes) and then uses a file
echo called CONFIG.SYS to automatically set aside memory for file buffers and
echo other things. It also uses a file called AUTOEXEC.BAT to AUTOmatically
echo EXECute user defined instructions. Both CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT can (and
echo usually do) contain programs known as TSR’s. TSR stands for Terminate and
echo Stay Resident. These programs install themselves and then stay in memory
echo to be used when needed. A mouse driver, print spooler, keyboard enhancer,
echo disk cacher, memory manager and DOS shell are all examples of such programs.
echo THESE PROGRAMS USE MEMORY. If there are too many of them resident at one
echo time, there won’t be room for LINKS or other large programs. TO INCREASE
echo FREE AVAILABLE MEMORY, YOU MUST REMOVE OR DISABLE SOME OF YOUR TSR’S.
echo .
echo If you have more than 640K (1Meg, 2Meg, or more) this can be used as extra
echo memory for preloading sound and graphics, but not for DOS. LINKS still
echo requires at least 530K free of your first 640K.
echo .
echo LINKS AND WINDOWS
echo You must exit completely from Windows to run LINKS. Do not exit Windows by
echo way of the DOS PROMPT icon.
echo .

Microsoft bought Access games in 1999 and kept it in sort of a protected status for a few years. Access was renamed Salt Lake Games Studio and put out golf games and expansion packs, including Links 2004 for Xbox. They also repackaged their excellent DOS Links 386 game into a Windows version.

Take-Two Interactive bought the Access/Salt Lake studio in 2004. They built a few console games including the Top Spin tennis series. They also split the Amped Xbox/Xbox 360 snowboarding series between MS Games and Take-Two. Take-Two renamed the studio to Indie Built but closed the shop in 2006.

Links resurfaced in the July 2000 issue of PC Gamer, one of the best magazine CD’s ever released. The “Classic Games Collection Volume One” contained full version of Duke Nukem II, King’s Quest, Descent, Terminal Velocity, Alone in the Dark, Wing Commander, X-COM, Links, Monkey Island, Ultima Underworld, Ultima I, and Road & Track Presents: The Need for Speed. It was a stacked collection of classic games.

Download Links: The Challenge of Golf free from Blast

California-based uPlay is launching a new handheld golf GPS rangefinder with advanced graphics and capabilities they are billing as “the iPhone of golf GPS technology.”

Now if that’s not a hell of a statement, I dunno what is.

“The uPro distance measuring device … gives golfers the best of both GPS and laser technologies in a small, easy-to-use system,” uPlay said Wednesday in a statement. “With aerial photography, video flyovers and easily viewable high resolution color display, the uPro is the most functional, effective and intuitive hand-held rangefinder in the industry.”

It looks like a big, expensive toy for one of the world’s elite games. The device allows golfers to determine distances to holes from their present location. It also maps out courses, hazards, fairways, etc.

“It was our goal to develop a distance-measuring device with the most advanced features and optimum usability,” said Joseph Balardeta, co-founder of uPlay LLC,. “The uPro allows golfers to see the course and the game from a whole new perspective.”

The uPro lays out detailed course maps, video flyovers and aerial views of every hole on the course and allows golfers to get exact distances to and from any point on the course, according to uPlay.

“Want to know how far you can hit the ball and still lay-up in front of a hazard? The uPro will show you. Want to go for it? The uPro will tell you how far you have to carry the hazard.”

The uPro will debut at the 2008 PGA Show in Orlando January 16-19.