EA Sports PGA Tour 2023 Review (PS5, PC, Xbox Series X/S)

Year in and year out, gaming sports giants like EA Sports dedicate themselves to a life of annual releases. It’s a lot to ask, given the rising demand for constantly updated games that match modern standards. It’s, even more, to ask when you have an equally powerful developing giant releasing the same sports simulation. No doubt, gamers frequently draw comparison tables to decide which franchise did it better.   

Perhaps that’s why EA Sports put a hold on releasing further PGA Tour games in 2015. That the competition with PGA Tour 2K games got stiff, and they bowed out of the race. Nearly a decade later, EA Sports is back in the running with its latest EA Sports PGA Tour 2023 release. Given the huge gap since the last one hit the stands, I’m going to compare its quality with competitor PGA Tour 2K23, as well as review it as a standalone entity. 

So, stay tuned to this EA Sports PGA Tour 2023 review to find out whether it’s worth the buy or sinking precious gaming hours into.

A Bird's Eye View

Professional golfer or not, EA Sports PGA Tour 2023 needs to be capable of providing gamers from all walks of life with quality hours of gameplay. That’s largely offered in the content. The, “what can I do” here question EA Sports PGA Tour 2023 needs to answer, quick-fire style. Well, there are quite a few modes players can jump into, including career mode, sponsorship mini-games, multiplayer online mode, seasonal online tournaments, and training challenges.

How Deep Does It Go?

Individually, while the modes provide a wealth of content and things to keep yourself busy, they don’t necessarily provide the kind of depth that PGA Tour 2K23 offers. The training challenges are quite a bunch, enough for newcomers to learn and perfect their virtual golfing craft. However, they don’t provide feedback to help drop bad habits or strengthen good ones.

Missions are curated around real-life golf performances. Each has unique tracks and gives you rewards for successful completion. You can do daily challenges to unlock more loot. If you have a competitive spirit, you’re free to join online tournaments that rank players on leaderboards. You can also shift your playstyles from the usual to more outlandish styles, regardless of whether you’re casually gaming or competing on high-stakes missions.

That said, the online options on offer are still pretty limited compared to PGA Tour 2K23. The latter offers more ways to customize players, create courses, and even advance your player’s skills using a skill-tree-based progression system. If these are your cup of tea, then PGA Tour 2K23 is better placed to serve you what the doctor ordered. 

However, EA Sports PGA Tour 2023’s career mode is pretty in-depth, unlike the rest. It’s the type of offline play that demands lots of grinding and honest work to reach the top. Since more updates will come through, perhaps these issues will get ironed out to offer players a more seamless and rewarding experience.

Any Campfire Stories?

Well, no. Neither PGA Tour 2K23 nor EA Sports PGA Tour 2023 have any compelling stories or any form of a story for that matter. If you think about it, it’s somewhat of a lost opportunity. I mean, even other sports simulations have a story mode, albeit a rather subpar one. Stories are a perfect way for gamers to care about the characters. Without them, gamers rely solely on their passion for golf.

Presentation Matters

To much surprise, EA Sports PGA Tour 2023 runs at just 30 fps on PS5. This drastically affects the swing mechanic, which you may have heard gamers complain about. There’s a weird drag between swinging and the time it takes to actually hit the ball, which is pretty slow. Besides affecting the “look” of the game, the lag issues also affect the gameplay itself because you find yourself having to account for the slight lag when timing the swing mechanic.

Otherwise, EA Sports PGA Tour 2023 looks stunningly beautiful. The lush green grass carpets and botanical features jump out of the screen with ease. Even sound audio isn’t left to chance, with 3D audio perfectly simulating commentaries, audience cheers, and even nature’s birds chirping and water streaming nearby. Time of day changes across playthroughs, with the weather playing its part. You can even see clouds start to clear allowing you to spot the sun's golden rays as it sets. 

The Real in Surreal

The EA Sports PGA Tour series kicked off with Tiger Woods. Since then, they’ve been headlining golf stars, with 2015’s taking Rory McIlroy on stage. While EA Sports PGA Tour 2023 doesn’t shine the spotlight on one star, it does feature an impressive number of popular golfers, including members of the LIV golf tour.

Thanks to official licenses, EA Sports features the most impressive number of courses so far. They add up to 30 of the most iconic courses in PGA Tours, so far. You’ll find some real-life courses like St Andrews, Bay Hill, Augusta National Park, Pebble Beach, and Tara Iti. Additionally, EA Sports adds fantasy locations that look just as surreal as the ones in real life.

Most of all, the ball mechanics are as realistic as they can be. You can see the effort put into mimicking the most accurate ball physics, from how it rolls over the green to how it drops into water hazards to how wind hurls and land contours affect its movement. Realism helps immerse you into the game. You feel like a real-life golfer who has to take into account all of nature’s wonders in their gameplay. 

What’s the Play Here

With today’s technology, almost any sports game can transform into a virtual one. The only secret is how well a developer simulates the look and feel of the actual game into the virtual one. 

EA Sports PGA Tour 2023 does a great job of simulating golf club mechanics and consequent ball mechanics on various courses. The ball takes a lifetime to reach its destination in the St Andrews old course. However, it takes lesser time on Augusta’s softer courses and myriad slopes.  

Gameplay

The gameplay is also deep, fluid, and unique. It’s deep in the sense of incorporating strategic gameplay. EA Sports uses a stick swing system where you use your mouse or analog stick to control the swing of the golf club. This is the same notion used in PGA Tour 2023, which allows you to easily transition from one to the other.

In future updates, EA Sports plans to release a button press control scheme. Whether that’s a better route to take will depend on personal preference. Worth noting is EA Sports PGA Tour 2023’s swing system is more in-depth compared to PGA Tour 2023. It incorporates several factors in determining accuracy. 

Some shots are taken from rough surfaces and courses just like in real life, which you’ll have to factor in your swing. Also, factors like wind play a role in whether to slow or take a high swing, as well as slope levels and weather patterns that make the ground firm, or otherwise.

You have 20 shot types to choose from. Each one is unique from the others. Feel free to experiment with all the shot types because different gamers have different play styles. Overall, there are a lot of factors that come into play, all of which create a depth that makes the game as much fun as it is satisfying to pull off a big hit moment.

Verdict

EA Sports PGA Tour 2023 has a lot going for it. From the visuals to the gameplay to the realism exuded on all fronts. It looks stunningly beautiful and features stellar sound as close to real life as it can be. The gameplay not only feels good but it also follows the rules of physics such that the swing and ball react as they would in real life.

The major letdown, it seems, is the swing mechanic, which frankly gets tiring to talk about. It’s just too sluggish, whichever swing prototype you choose to go by. Hopefully, that gets ironed out in future updates because no real-life golf takes that long to swing.

The other is the timing, which is a consequence of the sluggish swing. If you want a fast or slow swing, it’s a nightmare nailing it down because of how inaccurate the swing mechanic is. 

That said, EA Sports PGA Tour 2023 remains the most stunning, most surreal gold simulation there is. With a few touch-ups here and there, this game will no doubt reach unmatched heights.