EA Sports PGA Tour review \u2013 A superb comeback EA Sports is finally back in the golf game with EA Sports PGA Tour. A combination of official licenses, attention to detail, and a wealth of gameplay options overshadow some frustrating but permissible issues. Let\u2019s wind back the clock a few years when EA decided to part ways with the PGA Tour and cease production of new golf games \u2013 making Rory McIlroy\u2019s PGA Tour in 2015 the last one for the foreseeable future. HB Studios took over the license and several games later the company found success with PGA Tour 2K23. The prominence of 2K\u2019s franchise has awoken a sleeping giant as EA Sports has risen from its slumber and whipped up EA Sports PGA Tour as a rival competitor in 2023. It\u2019s immediately clear that the company has put serious time and effort into crafting a familiar and tangibly lifelike experience. Like Viktor Hovland\u2019s short game, it\u2019s not perfect, but EA Sports PGA Tour plays like a seasoned pro. EA Sports PGA Tour: Key details Price: \u00a359.99\/$69.99 – Developer: EA Sports – Release Date: April 7, 2023 – Platforms: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC – EA Sports PGA Tour: Trailer EA have locked in those lovely licenses Acquiring full licensing for Augusta National and The Masters is almost impossible. Getting permission to use Los Angeles Country Club, the home of the 2023 US Open, is not easy. Somehow, EA Sports has been able to gain access to both, along with a sizable list of other official courses, PGA Tour Pros like Scottie Scheffler and Jordan Spieth, and some of the world\u2019s leading manufacturers. We\u2019ve seen this before with FIFA and Madden, but even by the company\u2019s high standards, this is impressive. It\u2019s an easy win, but it certainly makes the game feel far more immersive and appealing \u2013 especially to the casual golf fan. The meat of EA Sports PGA Tour comes in the form of Career Mode which allows players to go from zero to hero traversing the globe. You can experience the punishing aqua-friendly nature of TPC Sawgrass, or battle the thickness of the Arnold Palmer Invitiational\u2019s foul rough at Bay Hill. It\u2019s a full-season schedule of tournaments featuring all four Majors in their entirety, the FedEx Cup, and all the usual favorites on the calendar. My biggest gripe, though, is the fact that you can\u2019t pick how many rounds you want to play per tournament. Instead, you\u2019re stuck with either a handful of randomly selected holes, with the AI simming your other holes and potentially, and unfairly, punishing you, or you\u2019ll have to play all four rounds. Casual fans simply might not have time for this, and it\u2019s an option that needs to be added for long-term player retention. You\u2019ll never be starved of content though as EA Sports PGA Tour has a ton of variety to choose from: Career Mode, Training Challenges, Sponsorship mini-games that include 1v1s against the world\u2019s best, Daily, Weekly, and Seasonal Online Tournaments, as well as the new simultaneous 16-player Online mode. I sadly didn\u2019t get much of a chance to test out the latter of these modes, but if the concept is nailed, then it could be a winner for the game. Did I also mention that the Ryder Cup is being added as content later on down the line as well as returning fan-favorite fantasy courses? A ton of birdies with a few mishits This is a different game from the one that many fans will remember from the classic \u2018Tiger Woods PGA Tour\u2019 days, and in many respects, it surprised me with how tough it can be \u2014 in a very good way. 2K\u2019s golf games have carried around a moniker for several years now as being a golf game for purists. EA Sports PGA Tour still carries a lot of the arcade nuances that made the early games so popular such as adding boost to drives and applying after-spin. But it\u2019s the almost frenzied commitment to deliver the most accurate ball physics and inch-perfect, real-life course conditions that players will love. It\u2019s hard to describe how satisfying it feels to watch your ball roll off the green through multiple layers of rough and plop remorselessly into a water hazard. Why? Because it\u2019s realistic. The devs have passionately described the lengths they\u2019ve gone to to make EA Sports PGA Tour\u2019s ball mechanics the best in the business, and they certainly have. Random wind gusts will play havoc with your shot and the contours of firm, immaculate greens will send your ball careening on its way to danger. Courses are all preset to share the same characteristics as their actual counterpart. For instance, if you hit a long straight drive on St Andrews\u2019 Old Course, you\u2019ll need to have a nap to wait for the ball to stop rolling, whereas Augusta\u2019s softer nature will produce nowhere near as much roll unless you catch one of its two billion slopes just right. To lessen this burden, you\u2019re encouraged to make use of the game\u2019s 20 different shot types to negotiate the perils of a round of golf. Stingers will give your shot a piercing, low ball flight to scoot under the wind, a Hack will allow you to muscle the ball out of the deep stuff, and a Spinner will allow you to nip a nice approach shot which will check and stop dead much quicker. Players can create their own golfer from the beginning, and how you mold your golfer will have a huge bearing on the game. I favored power, putting, and approach play, meaning I could dominate longer courses, but my short game would be found wanting when it came to shorter shots at Riviera. The feeling of control you have over your golfer\u2019s direction and playstyle is solid, but the less said about the swing animation the better. Whichever swing prototype you pick will look and feel like a sluggish Hideki Matsuyama swing being played at 0.5x speed. It can be very off-putting when it comes to timing too, with the fast\/slow nature of a swing being another troublesome issue in itself. The seemingly imprecise nature of the mechanic can be wildly inconsistent and detrimental to some shots with a loss of 1 yard being the difference between hitting a worldie and going in a bunker. You also can\u2019t make more than a Triple Bogey on any given hole, a decision that makes absolutely no sense given EA\u2019s push for fervent realism. Again, these are minor nitpicks, but they might make your eye twitch from time to time. The prettiest golf game ever, period It\u2019s been well documented that the development cycle for EA Sports PGA Tour has been extensive and exhaustive in its quest for photorealism. This has meant capturing the essence of every course down to the most minute details. It was hours into the game and I was still blown away by the graphics and how hypnotically gorgeous they were. EA have spent years photographing and mapping every course using drones and state-of-the-art technology to present the world\u2019s most iconic courses in unparalleled fashion. Fairways have been manicured to precision, the compacted nature of heavy rough getting sprinkled into the air after a venomous iron gouge is mesmeric, and the overall aesthetic of every course I played felt genuine and TV-like. Could I be critical of wedge shots sounding like a flushed 2-Iron? Sure. But that\u2019s forgiven as EA has done such a wonderful job with its commentary and the hundreds of hours of lines recorded for the game. Player models are solid, the soundtrack is varied and vivacious, and EA Sports PGA Tour flaunts around like a game made by people who know how to present a living, breathing sports title. Verdict \u2013 4\/5 It\u2019s not quite the bogey-free round that enthusiasts would hope for, but EA Sports PGA Tour does an amazing job of being one of the truest tests of virtual golf yet. You\u2019ll be captivated by the sights and sounds both on and off the course, and there\u2019s so much to keep you busy. Some questionable design choices and gameplay fractures don\u2019t taint an otherwise solid package of content that should keep you busy for the remaining months of the golf season. Reviewed on PS5 We have a bunch of other Dexerto reviews for you to check out down below: Hogwarts Legacy review | Dead Space review | Deliver Us Mars review | Forspoken review | Fire Emblem Engage review | Need For Speed: Unbound review | Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion | The Callisto Protocol review | Marvel\u2019s Midnight Suns review | Metroid Prime Remastered Review | Atomic Heart review | Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty review | WWE 2K23 review<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
EA Sports PGA Tour review \u2013 A superb comeback EA Sports is finally back in the golf game with EA Sports PGA Tour. A combination of official licenses, attention to detail, and a wealth of gameplay options overshadow some frustrating but permissible issues. Let\u2019s wind back the clock a few years when EA decided to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-80517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80517","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80517"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80517\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}