| ***************************** MEDIA
ALERT: OCTOBER 16, 2000 ***************************** IT’S
TEE TIME! LINKS 2001 GOES GOLD Microsoft
today announced that Links 2001, the most significant upgrade to the Links
series in over a decade, has gone gold. This means that the product is
completed and is expected to hit store shelves in the U.S. during the week of
October 30. Links 2001 features an entirely new rendering engine that delivers
unprecedented ball physics and graphics, as well as the Arnold Palmer Course
Designer, which allows PC golfers to re-create their home courses with the
same tools used by the Links 2001 team. Links
2001 offers gamers new tour players — including Sergio Garcia, Arnold Palmer
and Annika Sorenstam — as well as new golfer animations and personalities,
customizable club distances that allow for an even more accurate re-creation
of a player’s actual game, and faster and easier online play. The game also
features courses such as the Four Seasons Resort Aviara in San Diego, Chateau
Whistler in the Canadian Rockies, The Prince Course at the Princeville Resort
in Kauai, Fred Couples’ Westfields Golf Club in Virginia, and the newly
created Mesa Roja located in the canyon lands of the southwestern United
States. A perennial favorite, St Andrews Links Old Course, has also been
enhanced for this version. The
long-awaited Arnold Palmer Course Designer (APCD) makes its debut in Links
2001. The APCD provides users with the power and versatility to accurately
recreate courses in a powerful, real-time 3D system. Players can tweak every
inch of fairway with the APCD and create tunnels and arches with full control
over each point on the course. A robust library of trees, shrubs and other
vegetation allows players to sort for the climate and season that fit their
home course, or they can import their own custom images. Microsoft
will be releasing an add-on course pack for Links 2001 in the coming months.
The add-on will feature Bighorn’s Canyons course, the site of September’s
Battle of Bighorn, where Sergio Garcia defeated Tiger Woods. This represents
the second Bighorn course to be included in the Links franchise, following the
addition of the Mountain course in 1994. Links
2001 will be available for an anticipated street price of US$49. For more
information on the game, go to its official site at: http://www.microsoft.com/games/links2001/ *
* * For
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