EA Sports PGA Tour - Review

It has been nearly a decade since EA Sports have released a golf title with their last being back in 2015 when they released Rory McIlroy PGA Tour, which didn’t exactly set the golfing or the gaming world on fire and received mixed to average reviews. In the time since EA Sports have been absent from the golfing scene games like the excellent Golf Club/2K PGA Tour series have dominated the virtual greens and fairways of the computer golfing world. Can EA Sports come back swinging and make a hole in one, or will they fall short into the bunker?

With the Masters Tournament having recently graced our TV screens, it seems like it’s the perfect time for EA Sports to re-enter the golfing arena with their new title PGA Tour 2023, developed by Tiburon, the same developers responsible for the Madden series. Much like the aforementioned the developer have set out to give players a realistic experience of being a pro golfer on the PGA Tour.  The first thing I noticed when jumping into the game was there was no practice mode or driving range, which to me seems like a major failure on the part of the developers. As with any sporting game practice makes perfect and it would have been nice to have the option to practice getting used to the swing mechanics of the game before having to enter into competitive play. The other major omission was the lack of a course creator, a mode that its major competitor PGA Tour 2K23 has included for several years. The character creation in the game is also pretty bare bones and basic which makes it hard to create a golfer that accurately represents oneself.

After creating your golfer you can then choose at which point you want to start your career, you can start as an amateur fighting to win his spot on the PGA Tour or elect to start further along in your career. As you progress through tournaments and your career you will gain experience and in game money, which you can use towards purchasing different types of shots to customise your golfer and the areas of their game, such as driving and putting and different outfits and clubs to enhance your on-course appearance. Of course, with this being an EA sports game there is also the option to spend real-life money to purchase cosmetics, and if you splurge out on the deluxe edition you even get an xp boost that immediately jumps you to level 14 and provides in-game currency to boost your golfers performance, effectively making the game pay to win, micro-transactions in a golf game, really EA Sports, Really?

Any golf game is only as good as the swing mechanics driving the game and EA Sports take the same approach that most golfing games do these days, pulling back on the analogue stick pulls back your club and pushing it forward then drives the ball forward. A nice touch in PGA Tour is that you get the option of choosing to use either the left or the right analogue stick to use as the swing stick, it’s great to have this option so the player can customise how they want to play the game. Another unique component of the swing mechanics in PGA Tour is that there is a graphical overlay of a swing meter behind your golfer that is meant to help with your swing timing by showing you exactly when to start the downswing component of your shot.

The problem with this and the swing mechanics as a whole is that the whole process feels rather stiff and awkward and the results of your swing appear to be more random than skill based. With the 2K series of golf games I felt like I was getting better over time and learning more about the swing timings and mechanics with each and every shot I took, I am sad to say that I cannot say the same with EA Sports PGA Tour. The overall stiffness of the mechanics make it hard to improve your game no matter how much you practice. When you reach the green though the story is rather different as the putting mechanics in the game feel great and it was very satisfying to go from being unable to sink a short putt through to being able to sink a 20 foot monster, this is a part of the game EA got right and hopefully with the right adjustments they can also make the driving mechanics feel as intuitive and satisfying as the putting game.

Another frustrating issue in the game is with the overall shot distance, like most golf games PGA Tour will select the most appropriate club for you according to the remaining distance to the flag but several times I had it select clubs that would make me overshoot the mark by a large distance. There seemed to be no way of reducing the distance by performing a shorter swing with the power meter, so at times this left me very frustrated as I felt the game wrestled control away from me by giving me no way to perform a more precise shot. There is a good basis for a golf game here but a lot of the mechanics are very frustrating, hopefully with further updates the swing mechanics and shot adjustments can be altered to become more intuitive and actually give you the sensation that you are improving the more you play the game rather than the feeling like the results of your shots are left up to a random number generator.

Graphically the game looks outstanding, for the most part, the 30 included courses are rendered in absolutely amazing detail and look so real that it feels like that if you got close enough to the TV you would be able to smell the grass. The lighting changes sometimes spectacularly as the day progresses and the grass whips around as the wind changes directions, each of the licensed golfers included also are incredibly true to their real life counterparts and look great, especially on the flyovers before you attempt to take on each hole. With this being said it is unfortunate that the golfer you create to play through the career mode regrettably doesn’t look as good as the included licensed golfers and therefore when playing with them can be quite a jarring experience. This is especially true when it comes to the moments when the game focuses on them after a shot, some of their celebrations can look very cheesy and out of place especially considering the amazingly rendered courses around them.

The Audio is another moment where PGA Tour shines, when it comes to golf games it can be very easy to overdo the audio component of the game, but EA Sports have absolutely nailed it here from the sparse sounds of nature you would expect to hear out on a golf course, through to the crowd who are excitedly talking between each other when you first appear at each hole. Once you step up to the tee though the crowd magically hushes into a sweeping set of whispers and then goes silent as you attempt to take your shot, this is the truest representation of audio I have ever seen in a golf game. Praise also goes to the commentary team of Rich Lerner, Frank Nobilo, Notah Begay III, Ionah Stephen and Sir Nick Faldo, they offer insightful comments about each hole and hazards that your golfer may face in navigating them and also match their tones according to the action taking part on screen. For example when you are going for a difficult putt the commentators will tend to talk in hushed and pensive tones as opposed to how they would when you are driving off from the tee. The team at EA Sports has done a great job representing the sport of golf when it comes to how the game looks and sounds and has really raised the bar in this area.

There is a lot to like about EA Sports PGA Tour, especially when it comes to the amount of courses available in the game and how accurately they are represented, the presentation and commentary when out on the course are also another highpoint not only in this game but for golf games as a whole. This only makes it even more frustrating that the same care doesn’t seem to have been applied to the actual mechanics of playing the game of golf, the swing timing is frustrating, the game isn’t really what I would consider friendly to players new to the game of golf and the included tutorials do nothing to help players come to grips with the game. These are all issues that can be fixed through future patches but unfortunately it is present me reviewing the game and not future me.

If you are a golf enthusiast there is no doubt that the things that EA did get right in this game will probably help you look past some of the major shortcomings it has, if you are a new player to golf and golf games in particular then it is hard to recommend EA Sports PGA Tour due to it not really nailing the hand holding aspect required to help newer players become successful at the game. I wish I could say this was a promising return to form for EA Sports where golf is concerned especially since they got so many things right, but I can’t seeing as swing mechanics are the major part of any golf game and they just feel too clunky and frustrating to be enjoyable.

The Score

6.0

Review code provided by Electronic Arts

The Pros

+Amazing presentation and commentary

+30 courses is a lot of golfing for your money

The Cons

-Swing mechanics are stiff, feel random and leave a lot to be desired

-No course designer, driving range or practice mode

-Character creation is very basic

-The game seems to punish you far too much rather than helping you learn to get better