PGA Tour 2K21 Impressions Thread

[scagwi]

Re: PGA Tour 2K21 Impressions Thread

Trying this out (don't ask)

Am I the only who hates this short game?

It simply "looks wrong" with how the animation and swing are and what ends up happening with the ball, etc.

[lowpaiddonkey10]

Re: PGA Tour 2K21 Impressions Thread

Trying this out (don't ask)

Am I the only who hates this short game?

It simply "looks wrong" with how the animation and swing are and what ends up happening with the ball, etc.

No you are not. I have seen my avatar take a full swing with a putter when putting from the fringe on occasion. There are some niggling problems and glitches to be sure but they are working with an old engine. Hopefully something can be done with Unity because if they decide to go with a new engine all of the user created courses will be lost.

Looking to see if EA gets back in the space but until then this will do.

[hyacinth1]

Re: PGA Tour 2K21 Impressions Thread

posted before that the series in the past has been too hard for the casual golf player like myself.

finally picked it up and i really like how they made the game more accessible for casual golf gamers like me.

it's not as user friendly has the tw series was on last gen, but it's much much better than 19 and other previous versions.

starting PGA tour offline and so far enjoying it.

step in the right direction.

[bigkev]

Re: PGA Tour 2K21 Impressions Thread

Trying this out (don't ask)

You what?!?

[afrakes]

Re: PGA Tour 2K21 Impressions Thread

After having the game for a week or so now, and being a semi-regular TGC 19 player, I gotta say I’m really liking this new version. Took me a dozen or so fails on the opening tournament before I placed top 50. I ended up turning the meter at the bottom to “putt only”, made a world of difference. To the point we’re I placed second on the following tournament shooting 5 under.

Couple of complaints/bugs I’ve had issues with so far:
The putting isn’t linear. On TGC 19 you had to “feel” the length of your putt, and if you drew your putter halfway back, you would in turn get half of the max power for that particular green speed. This isn’t true of 2k21, at all. I tried with the putting power meter turned off and there was seemingly no ability to perfect power, just a slight controller vibration to indicate when it was time to downswing.

Also, putting from the fringe/fairway is broken. The power is always wayyyyyy to strong compared to putting off the green. You input a 20 foot putt and stroke it perfectly, it rolls 55 feet. Simply ridiculous.

The cutscenes are also terribly unrealistic. I witnessed Bryson DeChambeau hole out 5 separate times with chips ranging from 20-125 yds on a single round to beat me by one stroke.

Other than that I’m loving the challenge and ability to choose clubs, getting better with time too. As it should be.

[mkharsh33]

Re: PGA Tour 2K21 Impressions Thread

Bought this (and F1 2020) to just play for the fun of them. I'm too hard core on sliders and rosters when it comes to other games, so these two will allow me to just enjoy them and not get obsessed with perfection. I want to thank you guys for the comments here - I've been keeping up with them, and I appreciate you helping me spend more of my money..... (sarcasm noted)

[scagwi]

Re: PGA Tour 2K21 Impressions Thread

You what?!?

Had to get some first hand experience with it..

Not buying it based upon what I'm seeing.

Nice steps forward here and there, but still so much of the classic "TGC experience" that I simply don't enjoy.

The short game is dreadful and just kills all the fun for me.

I'm still holding out hope about that EA rumor for next Summer. It's clear to me that, 2K involvement or not, the HB golf games are likely never going to appeal to me. It must be something about the how/why of their design and implementation choices.

[bigkev]

Re: PGA Tour 2K21 Impressions Thread

Am I the only who hates this short game?

It simply "looks wrong" with how the animation and swing are and what ends up happening with the ball, etc.

Hate it, same as putting. I can fully understand others writing they used the power bar for putting. It's so far away from my real life putting stroke, it's not even funny.

Having said that, they did a lot of good stuff with this game. The graphics are definitely upgraded. The challenge is there starting at pro difficulty and for the casuals just wanting to have fun, amateur is perfect for them. The game is for everybody, tons of options to set up how we want to play.

[scagwi]

Re: PGA Tour 2K21 Impressions Thread

Hate it, same as putting. I can fully understand others writing they used the power bar for putting. It's so far away from my real life putting stroke, it's not even funny.

Having said that, they did a lot of good stuff with this game. The graphics are definitely upgraded. The challenge is there starting at pro difficulty and for the casuals just wanting to have fun, amateur is perfect for them. The game is for everybody, tons of options to set up how we want to play.

Yep - totally agree. I think with their goal of expanding the base and attracting more casuals they've done a mostly great job.

It really doesn't appeal to me any more than 2019 did honestly, but I'm quite happy for those that do enjoy this title and series to be getting another iteration to enjoy.

For me - more golf games being developed is always better than fewer.

[bigkev]

Re: PGA Tour 2K21 Impressions Thread

I'll probably buy it someday but I'm not in a hurry. Back to TW14.

[OnlookerDelay]

Re: PGA Tour 2K21 Impressions Thread

Trying this out (don't ask)

Oh, so this is a "you don't know, and you don't wanna know" situation eh?

Am I the only who hates this short game?

I've heard from plenty of others on this subject to suggest that you are not.

It simply "looks wrong" with how the animation and swing are and what ends up happening with the ball, etc.

I actually find the chipping phase of 2K21 to weaker than that of 2019. It seems to be locked into an animation sequence that plays out rather than a golfer moving proportionally to the stick movement. When I chip in 2K21, I have go more on muscle memory than watching the animation, which doesn't feel like it's truly tracking my movement. It doesn't always look like the ball is reacting to the stroke like it should either. It all too often comes off feeling like it was chili-dipped.

I have mixed feelings on the pitching game, as I now feel like I can occasionally pull off a partial swing pitch. The carries don't match up with the backswing percentage in a reconcilable manner, but I'm learning what works best with time. It will take a learned intuition that doesn't totally jive with physics though.

I'm one of the rare breed that likes the putting in 2K21. I'm using haptic feedback to gauge my backswing length and come out much better that way than trying to watch those annoying swing meters.

I don't use haptic feedback in the way the designers intended it though. What I do is take a swing and note how far back the putter was in the backswing when the first hint of vibration started. I'll then stop the backswing and let it reset. Then when I actually want to play the putt, I'll strive to stop my backswing at the point where I noted the putter was during the 'test' stroke, when the vibration started. It feels kinda cheesy to do it this way, but I've come to accept the shame that goes along with it.

The bottom line is this, if you didn't like the short game of TGC 2019, you're not going to like that of 2K21. I love the putting, like the pitching, and hold my nose and use muscle memory for the chipping. I can see where this would put people off from being able to enjoy the game. I feel like such a simpleton for getting so much pleasure out of this obviously still flawed game, but I have a history of using work-arounds in various games to get to this state. They made such strides with tee shots and full approach shots that I think that helps me turn a blind eye to the festering flaws of 2K21's short game.

[bcruise]

Re: PGA Tour 2K21 Impressions Thread

It seems to be locked into an animation sequence that plays out rather than a golfer moving proportionally to the stick movement. When I chip in 2K21, I have go more on muscle memory than watching the animation, which doesn't feel like it's truly tracking my movement. It doesn't always look like the ball is reacting to the stroke like it should either. It all too often comes off feeling like it was chili-dipped.

FWIW, this is true regardless of the swing type. It's a lot more noticeable with a mouse, but remember I talked about needing a minimum screen space of slightly above the distance control meter for a backswing to even register and start? Well, as soon as I hit that minimum amount of mouse movement, a full swing occurs no matter if I stop the mouse (or I bottom out the mouse pointer on my screen) as soon as the swing starts. The only way I can cut that swing animation short is to move the mouse up and start the downswing early. This swing system is why you get the effect I mentioned before, where bottoming out the mouse on your screen will cause some of your movement to not track and create some really strange looking swing feedbacks.

It's a bigger deal with the short game because it feels like you don't need to let the swing play out for that long in order to get proper distance on a chip, but you do. I agree that it feels weird and unnatural, but once I understood how the swing works in this game in general, I didn't really have too many issues with it. Putting in particular becomes very easy with a mouse once you realize you don't have to draw the mouse back all through the animated swing.

TLDR: Swings aren't 1:1 with Stick/Mouse movement in this game.

[lowpaiddonkey10]

Re: PGA Tour 2K21 Impressions Thread

The putting is not bad but I think it was a bit better in 19.

[countryboy]

Re: PGA Tour 2K21 Impressions Thread

Really enjoying the game.

Love the abundance of settings that I can change to have the game fit my playstyle.

One thing I did was turn off backswing tempo or whatever its called that effects whether you hook/slice, and its helped me hit the ball better.

May not be "sim" but makes the game more enjoyable for me.

Been playing random courses while I get my settings dialed in. Some amazing course designers out there.

[OnlookerDelay]

Re: PGA Tour 2K21 Impressions Thread

FWIW, this is true regardless of the swing type. It's a lot more noticeable with a mouse, but remember I talked about needing a minimum screen space of slightly above the distance control meter for a backswing to even register and start? Well, as soon as I hit that minimum amount of mouse movement, a full swing occurs no matter if I stop the mouse (or I bottom out the mouse pointer on my screen) as soon as the swing starts. The only way I can cut that swing animation short is to move the mouse up and start the downswing early. This swing system is why you get the effect I mentioned before, where bottoming out the mouse on your screen will cause some of your movement to not track and create some really strange looking swing feedbacks.

You are a brave soul to be playing this game with a mouse. I tried the mouse swing on the three previous versions and never came close to getting a feel for it! I have to drag a small end table beside my gaming chair to use a mouse on my gaming PC. It works okay for browsing and option selecting in games, but it doesn't have enough real estate to accommodate what you're describing.

I picked up the PC version at a friend's recommendation. When I set the graphics at a level where I can get a steady 60 FPS, the swing feels more responsive and I get a better modulation over chips and putts. It also wreaks havoc with my tempo on full shots, where my senses and muscle memory are attuned to 30 FPS.