Here comes a new 2K signed PGA Tour in the name of the strongest and most popular golfer of all time: Tiger Woods. 2K Games and HB Studios have resumed the collaboration with the tiger of the green who at the time was linked for several years with Electronic Arts, only to abandon the franchise following his personal vicissitudes. In addition to starring on the cover, Tiger is also executive producer on this 2K23 edition of the game and oversaw every single aspect of the gameplay to make sure it was as accurate as possible.
Now it will certainly not be all thanks to him but it must be said that the steps forward made in PGA Tour 2K23 compared to the edition two years ago are more than evident. Last year’s break served to expand the offer and to refine the gameplay that now embraces a much wider potential user base. The easiest change to notice concerns the control system, which has always been a cross and delight of virtual golf enthusiasts. The system that uses the analog stick (right or left according to your inclinations) to simulate the swing has remained intact, criticized in the past by a slice of the public for the lack of precision due to the too short “pitch” of the sticks and the excessive sensitivity of trajectories.
It was joined by the more permissive “three-touch” method, introduced in its primordial form by arcade masterpieces such as Neo Turf Master and brought to success by home releases such as Everybody’s Golf. Here we find it in a slightly revised and … improved version? This will be up to you to decide but to us it seemed effective as long as you budget for a certain period of practice.
It works like this: holding down the firing button (X on PlayStation console) starts an indicator that progressively fills the circular interface from the center. The goal is to stop him when he reaches the white ring that represents ideal power. As always, this depends on various elements: chosen club, type of shot chosen, “lie” of the ball (ie its position with respect to the ground and feet), climatic factors and other little things. Once the power has been selected, a second bar will start quickly by rotating counterclockwise and passing over two sections within which you must try to stop it to give the ball the best trajectory without effects.
As always, practice works better than theory and explaining how this control system works is much more difficult than practicing it. At the beginning of the game you will have trial lessons that you can repeat as many times as you want until you have mastered all the details. These also concern the effects that you can give to overcome obstacles more easily and other techniques that will allow you over time to compete with rivals and champions to get to the top of the ranking.
This is the ultimate goal of PGA Tour 2K23, beat everyone and raise the FedEx Cup to the sky. Before you can, however, you’ll have to go a long way and eat some weed. First you will have to create your golfer in the renewed MyPlayer section, which has become so extensive and articulated that it resembles that of an RPG rather than a sports title. There are so many customizable variables that describing them all is almost impossible. You will start by choosing your type of player among some archetypes that define the basic attitudes, while playing you can also change it according to your style and customize it in many different ways.
The exclusive Clubhouse Pass is again in three different levels and allows you to unlock rewards based on the level reached. The first tier is free while the other two cost between 10 and 20 Euros per season and offer exclusive content. In addition to being able to change / modify / upgrade clubs, balls and clothing, the accumulation of positive results will allow you to gain experience and special “powers” that will exponentially increase your danger in the field.
Once you have completed the choice of your golfing alter ego (which you can still change at any time) you will make your debut on the circuit, on which you will find some familiar faces of professional golf. In addition to Tiger, you’ll cross paths with champions like Bubba Watson, Justin Thomas, Jon Rahm, Rickie Fowler and a couple of basketball guest stars you’ve probably heard of before. You will make rivals over the course of your career and by beating them you will get extra rewards, sometimes even higher than those received in tournaments.
Career progression is pretty straightforward and doesn’t get lost in too many frills. After choosing the level of difficulty you can start from the bottom by entering the Q-School, opt for the Korn Ferry secondary circuit or aim immediately for the PGA Tour. will let you pass by allowing you bogey upon bogey. You will have to conquer the first positions to the sound of birdies and placements and then aim for the big target and challenge Tiger with (almost) equal weapons.
PGA Tour 2K23 can count on a good number of competitions, which take place on 20 first and second tier tracks such as Bay Hill, Copperhead, Eastlake and a generous handful of courses on the TPC circuit. A couple of golf sanctuaries such as Peeble Beach and Torrey Pines will follow in the post-launch period. However, the appeal is lacking prestigious names, one above all the Augusta National which apparently will instead be at the center of the experience of the next EA golf.
This year’s Career has been accompanied by an absolute novelty, namely the Top Golf mode, which allows a maximum of four players to compete in a closed Driving Range with the aim of winning the highest score. This is achieved by centering colored targets placed at different distances and angles that determine their value. The number of balls available is limited so these are fairly short but still fun games. The online challenges are also articulated in the inevitable personalized challenges, in quick match-making and the Divot Derby, already present in the 2K21 edition, a sort of shootout in which speed and precision are essential to prevail over rivals.
Finally, if you are feeling particularly creative and the spirit of Arnold Palmer should take hold of you, you can unleash your ambitions as architects by creating paths from scratch or modifying existing ones. The editor is significantly more complex than that of the past edition but has maintained a fair ease of use. As per tradition, once you have completed your creation you can test it in first person and wanting to share it with players from all over the world.
The gap year that 2K and HB Studios took to improve the 2K21 edition of PGA Tour served to refine all the playful elements, from the user interface (which still has room for improvement) to the customization of the experience to get to the core of the gameplay, the practice on the field. The experience obtained from it is richer and more multifaceted, suitable for players of all types: from those who do not miss an appointment of the competitive season and want to prove their skills in the virtual field, to those who follow golf only occasionally and he wants to have a fun but not too complex title in his hands.
Technically we are on good levels but not excellent, even if the Quality mode available on PS5 gives a not bad glance. The tracks are made very well and even the polygonal models of the stars are rather faithful to their real counterparts, less inspired by those of the customizable players who, above all in some details (see beard and mustache), are a bit false.
Good animations while you could do much more to shorten the loading times, a bit too long even on new-gen consoles. Also missing are the “pluses” to which the Sony machine has by now accustomed us: the haptic feedback could be exploited to emphasize the impact of the shots, while the 3D audio could have been amplified to better immerse the player in the bucolic atmospheres of the tracks.
Despite these shadows, the progress made with PGA Tour 2K23 are evident but resting on our laurels would be dangerous because yet another challenge is looming on the horizon with Electronic Arts, which not long ago showed the teaser of “his” PGA Tour scheduled for next spring.
For many years the two rival publishers have battled on the NBA courts, now the parquet has been replaced by the greens and golf enthusiasts can only gloat because the competition has always stimulated the contenders to do their best.
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