It’s been a long time since EA’s Tiger Woods PGA Tour dominated dormitories in the early 1940s, but although that series faded harder than a crooked tee shot – perhaps bringing along the main popularity of virtual sport with it – golf games have never completely gone away. The developer HB Studios has continued to quietly cultivate a loyal following of diehard ties with his The Golf Club game series in recent years, and renaming his latest version for PGA Tour 2K21 is opening the doors of his club house for both amateurs as well as for future professionals alike.
Since I hadn’t played a serious golf simulation since Rory McIlroy PGA Tour in 2015, I definitely liked the full training mode that greeted me when I started playing PGA Tour 2K21. I was quickly able to grab a control system intuitive enough to easily shape your shots and make micro adjustments to the rotation of the ball, but still fast to punish you with a hook shot in the tall grass if you were to hurry your swing, which it’s exactly how it should be.Whether you are a beginner of golf games or a fan like me, it is clear that PGA Tour 2K21 is eager to roll the ball as easily as possible. I opted for the second of the three difficulty modes on offer and managed to make my way in my first PGA tournament before a miraculous eagle in the last hole allowed me to overcome Sergio Garcia at the top of the ranking with one shot. Yet, already from the second tournament on the tour, I was already starting holes with a certain regularity, thanks in part to a system of dynamic suggestions that identifies the mistakes you make and suggests the ways in which you can improve on the fly. Most hardcore players shouldn’t feel too worried, since all of these tips and assists can be turned off if you want to play as a purist. But since my virtual game was more robust than your grandfather’s 7-iron, I definitely found the tips to get back to speed.
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The first signs would indicate that PGA Tour 2K21 not only does a good job of getting you on a leash, but also keeps you there. I found that the specific hole challenges that arose during each round of the tournament helped me focus on every single shot to earn extra XP. In the meantime, the Rivals mode, which confronts you in beating a series of real-life professionals during the PGA Tour which culminates in the number one in the world Justin Thomas, seems that it could make the career mode more compelling for its long duration. It was certainly satisfying when I eliminated my first rival, Cameron Champ. Who is the champion now, Cameron? I bet it gets a lot.
There are also some presentation touches that add to the PGA Tour 2K21 show. The breezy back and forth between commentators Luke Elvy and Rich Beem serves both to entertain and to offer valuable information on each shot, and I appreciate the way the transmission occasionally checks with other golfers during the round as they try to nail chips and putts. With that said, there have been some occasional cases of wobbly physics present in the game’s almost final preview build – particularly on occasions when my rebel movements bounced off the trees – which will hopefully be resolved before launch day.
There’s still more to discover in PGA Tour 2K21, including the full extension of career mode, a powerful field maker and a multitude of multiplayer modes, and I can’t wait to drive deeper into its fairway once the game is over. But for now, I’m very happy that getting on the dance floor of the PGA Tour 2K21 is a very simple approach. Christan Ogilvie is the video producer in the IGN AU office and if he had spent more time playing golf this past week he would have been the president of the United States. He hardly ever tweeted Here.
