I’ve played a lot of video games over the years, from Links 386 Pro on my first home PC (yes, I’m getting old) to Links 2004 on the original Xbox to Tiger Woods PGA Tour on the Xbox 360 era. I have played golf. Excellent Golf His Sim was always cool and fun with his friends, just like in real sports. But just like the real-life set in my garage, my virtual club set has been gathering dust over the years. The fact that I felt at home with both the 3-click swing and swing stick control options inside is a testament to developer HB Studios. Even if you haven’t played the video game version of this sport in a while, it’s easy to pick up and enjoy.
This is not to say that PGA Tour 2K23 is an easy game, or an arcade-like game. Of course, you can customize the experience however you like, with assists and difficulty up or down to your liking. , everything you need to enhance realism is here.
I started with an easy round of top golf. It’s actually a video game version of a real life driving range game that feels like it was ripped from a video game. This gave me the feel of 2K23’s default 3-click swing system. Aside from the 10 mph wind affecting the ball more than expected, it was a good way to get used to this year’s game. After that, I tried to recreate my geek self with MyPlayer. It felt rushed due to the game’s limited time, but MyPlayer did a friendly job creating a quick dirty version of the real-life radio face. Player In his creator, you can tweak everything from the depth of your jaw to the roundness of your cheeks. It also sets the golfer’s archetype and expends his points on the first skill.
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I played Round 18 at the fictional Craggy Heights course against a field that included my chosen professional rival, Rickie Fowler, but HB Studios has over 20 real and player-created courses. I promise. Navigating the course will be familiar to golf sim veterans, and both of the aforementioned swing control types work well, though the three-button-click approach punishes poor timing on slice or fade shots. , swing stick users suffer the same fate if they off-center their backswing or follow-through in either direction. On the green, on the other hand, you’ll see a grid overlay showing the direction of the slope, and holding the X button will also show a one-off putt preview. Older Lynx and Tiger Woods players will instantly feel at home.
In fact, HB Studios said that Xbox’s Links 2004 was the studio’s “most referenced” game during the development of 2K23, and I tend to believe them based on how easily I was able to get used to it. He told me, I finished at the top of the leaderboard after the round, easily beat my professional rivals on the PGA Tour, and scored a lot of birdies in the process. I missed an easy putt or two. So I only missed a few eagles.
I headed over to the locker room and spent my earned XP on some new duds, also assigning the fittings I unlocked. You can exchange it. I also had enough income to level up. That means you have one more skill point to spend. To this end, HB Studios promises loads of situational skills that can be activated, for example, on the next hole. I haven’t been able to try it myself, but if it works as described, it definitely adds some spice to your gameplay.
Still, I think 2K and HB Studios are likely to attract a lot of people like me, a retired player of EA’s Tiger Woods game. In fact, it’s called the PGA Tour, and given that Tiger is on the cover, some of the more casual gamer dads don’t even realize it’s another game from a different publisher. So it’s up to HB to make sure it’s a really good game that you’ll want to come back to next year. So far they seem to be off to a great start.
