PGA Tour 2K23 review

PGA Tour 2K23 is making a stronger comeback to 2K’s one-year hiatus series, taking the name Tiger Woods with it. As someone who has never played many golf games in his life and never played sports, I enjoyed PGA Tour 2K21 (PGA Tour 2K21 review). Let’s go back to the golf courses with 2K23 and examine together how much the makers have improved the game.

PGA Tour 2K23 review

Hit the Ball in Three Moves

At first glance, PGA Tour 2K23 doesn’t seem like much of a difference from the previous game. But one of the biggest innovations comes with a new kick mechanic that affects the gameplay of the game. Thanks to the new ball hitting technique called 3-Click Swing, hitting the ball becomes much easier.

If you ask what the 3-Click Swing system is, it’s a shooting mechanic similar to that in old golf games. First you determine the power of hitting the ball, then you determine the flexibility of the direction it will go and finally you complete the kick. It takes a while to explain, but we actually do it all in 1 second. As the difficulty increases, the time you have to perform the action decreases, making it a system that looks simple but is open to challenge.

I love this new system. Even though 2K21 has a very good training system, I can’t achieve the successful shots I want in the analog shooting system. Even if I was sure that I had really thrown the analog or the mouse straight, I could see at the last moment that it was running around and the ball was going the wrong way accordingly. Of course, my hand may be out of order, but it was annoying. 3-Click Swing has been a great system, especially for those who will enter the series for the first time.

If 3-Click Swing is too simple for you, the old hitting systems are still available, you can turn the aids on and off as you wish, adapting it to your own and play it that way. I usually go back to 3-Click after returning to the analogue system and sending the ball into the lake once in a while, “I wonder if I can hit it straight”.

Living the Fighting Spirit

Developing our player is a really detailed and enjoyable feature. We can play in any mode and gain experience points and improve our character with this. There are a lot of options, such as playstyle, our proficiency in the sticks we use, power and accuracy. With the improvements being player-focused, we can have a little more freedom in golf club selection. There is no need to choose the new one among two sticks of the same type just because it is stronger.

We said that our character gains experience points in every mode we play, so what are these modes? Among the game modes we can play are MyCareer, Competitive, Casual and Topgolf. The first three, as the name suggests, are modes that include standard golf competitions and you can play a game or two comfortably if you want. Topgolf, on the other hand, is a mode where you can score points by throwing the ball at the targets on a special field set up on top of a building.

Glowing targets give double points, your goal is to get the highest score. Of course, the real pleasure of Topgolf mode, which you can play alone, is to play against other people. Since there is local combat support, you can also fight against your friends in the same house.

PGA Tour 2K23 offers the chance to customize our player, which we created with the MyCareer mode, in a very detailed way. We start our career with simple tournaments and work our way up to tournaments with high level players. There isn’t a lot of interaction in this mode, other than minor interactions against your opponent and seeing sponsors’ offers, all you do is play golf. Golf fans may be offended that the top tournament is actually the FedEx Cup, which not many people follow, but it hasn’t been a huge problem for me. Anyway, the game generally doesn’t give the air of “you are doing a great job” in its activities.

To explain my last sentence in a little more detail, I would like to mention the new Rivals feature. When we participate in a round, we choose a main opponent and try to be better against him. It is a good idea, a situation that we always encounter in sports competitions, also in the game. But this rival event is made so shallow that all you have to do is get a high score from it. Anyway, I’m coming with the aim of being the first, what happens if I choose a rival?

When they win, they say “Here, squeeze this in your pocket” and give extra money, there is no excitement. I come across a top golfer (Tiger Woods, the only player I know) and I win against him and they send some money into my pocket. We had to play drums and horns for that victory.

I understand that golf is a quiet sport, the favorite of a more elite group, but they need to work a little more to keep the feeling of success alive. As I said for 2K21, what will happen if I come first after I can’t experience that feeling of victory? Get some life, players.

Let’s move on to the in-game purchases, which are the scariest part of recent 2K games. Things that will give you an advantage or make you stronger in the game are not sold. Almost all of the items sold are cosmetic ingredients. There is a season pass in the game, and it consists entirely of cosmetic content. There are some balls that have their own characteristics, but they are not overpowering things and are designed to balance the advantage of one side with the disadvantage of the other. So if you want to spend money in the game, the only reason is to change the image of your character.

Sounds and Graphics

PGA Tour 2K23 offers a very successful performance visually. Actually, there isn’t a huge visual difference between 2K21, minor improvements have been made and the animations look a little better, but I’m not sure if I can separate the two games side by side. It’s not bad, but there isn’t a quality difference that would make you say “wow, new generation”. Some background images (especially trees) and the audience can be glaringly bad at times, but they are not disturbing.

The game has done a very good job in terms of sound and music. When we hit the ball, it’s nice to be able to distinguish the sounds made according to where it is, it’s nice for the commentators to interpret our movements live, and the music isn’t bad either. But after a while I started playing by turning them all off and turning on my own music. Although the comments were good, after a while they started to bore me.

Conclusion

In the game, we can control not only the characters we created, but also famous golfers like Tiger Woods or basketball players like Michael Jordan and Steph Curry. It is necessary to buy a DLC for Michael Jordan, though. One may think what is needed, but why not? We already know how much MJ played golf, even losing the game against a Celtics player before a game and narrowing the field the next game (63 points) for being teased. He’s a pretty decent player.

PGA Tour 2K23 is back after a one-year hiatus and remains one of the best golf games on the market. It’s a detailed game that can appeal to both players who want realistic gameplay and those who are just starting out in this genre. For that reason alone, I can easily recommend the game to anyone. I know, I’ve said this before for 2K21, but with 3-Click Swing they managed to take it to a much higher level.

PGA Tour 2K23 on PC via Steam It has debuted with a price tag of 699 TL. The Crossgen package, which includes the Playstation 4 and 5 versions of the game, is from 849 TL. while on saleonly the PS4 version is set at 799 TL. Xbox versions It is on sale with a price tag of 849 TL for the Crossgen and 799 TL for the old generation version. If you’re not a huge golf fan, I’d suggest waiting for a discount. It is a game that can be played and enjoyed for a long time, but the final choice is still yours.