EA Sports PGA Tour (Multi)
By: EA
GOLF is a good walking simulator spoiled, as Mark Twain would have said - yet the sport’s biggest videogame franchise has wallowed in a bunker since 2015, when EA’s venerable PGA Tour replaced Tiger Woods with Rory McIlroy as its cover star and promptly sank.
To be fair, it was the quality of game rather than Rory’s fizzog that put people off. Eight years on, and PGA Tour emerges triumphant from the clubhouse again. No longer hanging its Lacoste polo on a cover star (it’s the first not to feature a golfer's name in the title since 1998), EA are putting on the Ritz with this swanky gimme that returns to the Tiger Woods glory days.
Whilst lacking the star-power of the aforementioned Woods and McIlroy, there’s still a groaning roster of pros, with LIV Tour turncoats such as Dustin Johnson and Bryson DeChambeau even making the cut. Of course, you can also design your own swinger from a raft of options – right down to the pronoun.
As for its virtual fairways, there are 30 courses at launch, including 28 iconic PGA venues, from Pebble Beach and Augusta National to St Andrews, with the remaining majors to be added post-launch. Every inch of the world’s greatest links has been modelled to perfection by helicopter and drone for the most photorealistic game of virtual golf yet – Augusta even gave EA access to its tree health data for azaleas and pines that’d fool Monty Don.
Of course, this don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing, and PGA Tour’s mix of realism and fun is better than ever. No traditional three button-taps here, replaced with a modern arc where players ape the swing via analogue stick across 20 shot types, each with granular modifiers to add draw and fade.
Career Mode lets players go from zero to hero in a globetrotting tournament schedule, or simply pick a pro, each with their unique, real-life strengths. EA’s ShotLink system has tracked every PGA golf shot since 2001, and this data ekes some incredible AI from their digital doppelgangers.
A wealth of off and online matchplay formats are complemented by skill-testing challenges where you can earn all manner of virtual branded tat via, ugh, lootboxes. It is an EA game, after all. Golf being a solo sport, though, it’s mercifully bereft of any Ultimate Team shenanigans, meaning EA won't be making a smuggler's run for your hard-earned.
As the first EA Sports game not be cross-gen, PGA Tour isn’t handicapped by having to run on older consoles - and boy does it show, with incredible visuals, broadcast quality presentation and seamless commentary hyping your every shot. With magnificent recreations of both courses and pros, licensing that scratches that realism itch and pick-up-and-play fun for casual ball-whackers, PGA Tour is simply essential for armchair linksmen. And in videogame form, it at least saves you the walk.
