It’s in the game. The EA Sports slogan is one of the gaming industry’s most enduring marketing slogans — though for the EA Sports PGA Tour, perhaps something else is more appropriate. Maybe “Game On”?
I’m not saying this because of anything in the game — pardon the phrase, but because of the context of EA’s new golf game launch. Reasoning and decision-making is complicated, but the short version is much simpler: EA stopped making golf games. 2K started making them. Now EA is back, taking on the upstart PGA Tour 2K. But it’s not as simple as Return of the King. EA basically starts from scratch.
In fact, that fact is a major caveat for EA Sports on the PGA Tour. You can tell it’s exhausting for the first time — a new franchise, a hard reboot and not picking up the ball anywhere Rory McIlroy left off on the PGA Tour in 2015. That puts some serious constraints on what this title can achieve – but it’s a huge positive in other areas too.
Take the game’s 30 courses as an example. Each one is painstakingly scanned with lidar technology — used in everything from archaeology to proximity sensors in cars — a lengthy and expensive process. This, combined with EA’s consistently gorgeous Frostbite engine, makes for some truly fantastic courses.
A certain level of fun in golf is being on the course on a good day, and for my money, this latest release from EA captures the sense of wonder that a course can have on a good day. The fact that most of these 30 courses are difficult or almost impossible for ordinary people to play is of course a bonus.
Players are also scanned, but this is where the fresh-started nature of things starts to rear its head. Rory and Tiger, the predecessors of the EA series, do not appear in the game. Despite being billed as a game of “Road to the Masters,” neither is current Masters champion Jon Rahm. For the most part, this has to do with 2K exclusively licensing these players — which ironically has left our digital video game golf bouncing back and forth between the PGA Tour and the new Saudi-funded LIV Championship.
Probably the worst thing about golfer representation on the PGA Tour is the creation of a golfer system that is crude and crude. You’ll be lucky if you can make anything that actually resembles yours, not the roughly correct color. Once you’re in career mode, there are hooks to improve that golfer through skill trees, experience points, and gear. It’s all familiar sports game content, but it all feels superficial, like practicing your golf swing.
Still, the heart of the game is the action on the pitch, and I really like that. There’s a familiar feel to it, but ultimately it’s the new default swing mechanism, plus the recently patched three-click swing. Every shot takes into account wind, loft, spin—all of these factors. It’s a realistic simulation, and getting ugly and slippery on the greens feels every bit as accurate as the real game — even if it frustrates some.
The arcade game, meanwhile, has some concessions that just don’t feel connected to the highly accurate golf vision the game presents. Older Tiger Woods players will remember to press the button during the backswing and while the ball is in midair to add extra spin and affect how the ball moves after it hits the ground. It’s totally unrealistic in class, unless you’re Obi-Wan Kenobi – but it’s here, embedded in EA’s no-nonsense simulation. It feels like a hangup from a bygone era.
However, by the same token, you feel the need to use it. Part of this is because of how ruthless the golfers you create are at the beginning of their careers – this combined with the ruthless nature of the master swing mechanics makes those early rounds brutal and merciless. As you gain EXP and improve your golfer, it makes the system more forgiving to less-than-ideal inputs – but that comes after hours of potential pain.
That sounds like a lot to complain about. I think so. But how can I stress that I’m still enjoying EA Sports’ first golf outing in the better part of a decade. The company seems committed to improving the game through patches and updates. A sequel is inevitable, tweaking and building a strong pitch.
In a sense, one could argue that this sets the stage for the future of EA’s Golf series. To keep the harrowing analogy alive, they’re still on the practice field — but when they do hit the field, the groundwork will be in place, which could lead to a more fully-featured game next year. EA has launched Several strong patches, so it’s not like you should wait for the sequel. You just have to understand that once you get into the game, this isn’t going to be as feature-packed as you remember the golf game from.
As a basis, the simulations and flashy courses of the EA Sports PGA Tour win. On top of that, it’s exciting to have two competing golf games that will now inspire and push each other. Since 2K is also developing some kind of licensed NFL product, it’s likely that this war will spill over into other areas. EA, 2K – Game on. For EA’s first rebuttal, the PGA Tour is a strong attempt.
