PGA TOUR 2K23 Impressions

[MrArlingtonBeach]

Re: PGA TOUR 2K23 Impressions Thread

With all the debate about who should compete against who and such in the news I say just throw everyone in one big pot and have at it.

Well, that's exactly what they did. And it feels like you're not playing in a PGA Tour season. Yes, women have played in PGA Tour events. That's really great, and there is zero issue there.

But winning majors, making it to the FedExCup Playoffs...things like that - it isn't representative of professional golf. It hurts the LPGA golfers, as it doesn't show their tour and their actual game in any way, shape, or form. And it hurts the presentation of the PGA Tour, as it creates a fantasy world that removes you from having a "realistic" experience.

I've said this before, but 2K needed to take a page out of EA's playbook and lockdown the LPGA license, so they could have had an actual LPGA career mode like Tiger Woods 14 did.

[golfnut67]

Re: PGA TOUR 2K23 Impressions Thread

I'm about 8 rounds into my season, Lydia has won 2 events and is currently in first place in the standings. I don't really care anymore, it's just another name on the leaderboard, but what Arlington said is right. It's just not right...definitely hurts the immersion factor, and it's disservice to the LPGA to just have 3 women golfers, and shoehorn them into the FedEx cup.

Great that they have the LPGA pros in the game, buy why were they inserted into the FedEx career mode? They could have (and should have) just made them available for casual play, like Jordon and Curry. Dumb.

[MrArlingtonBeach]

Re: PGA TOUR 2K23 Impressions Thread

I'm about 8 rounds into my season, Lydia has won 2 events and is currently in first place in the standings. I don't really care anymore, it's just another name on the leaderboard, but what Arlington said is right. It's just not right...definitely hurts the immersion factor, and it's disservice to the LPGA to just have 3 women golfers, and shoehorn them into the FedEx cup.

Great that they have the LPGA pros in the game, buy why were they inserted into the FedEx career mode? They could have (and should have) just made them available for casual play, like Jordon and Curry. Dumb.

Yeah, it's in no way a "deal breaker", but is something that seems was done with no real thought or consideration to how it might look or come off in the end result. It was like they figured they had obtained the licenses to the golfers, had a rivalry system in career mode, and just stuck them in there....thus, forcing them to keep them on tour all season long and not even giving them realistic AI attributes in career mode or anything. They're basically just other male AI golfers in career mode, and that's where my issue lies. It's not fair to them or their game.

It seems like no planning was done with the LPGA pros, and they had to use them in some way. And this was apparently all they were willing to come up with.

[golfnut67]

Re: PGA TOUR 2K23 Impressions Thread

Right again.

They obviously had to have *chosen* to put them in the FedEx cup season, ya? Jordon and Curry aren't in there for obvious reasons, and the LPGA pros shouldn't be either, but yet they are. I wonder if it was contractual stuff.

They need to take them out of career mode. It would be different if you could play as a male pro in career mode, but you can't. There's no logical reason the females are in the FedEx season.

[RIFRIG]

Re: PGA TOUR 2K23 Impressions Thread

I'm about 8 rounds into my season, Lydia has won 2 events and is currently in first place in the standings. I don't really care anymore, it's just another name on the leaderboard, but what Arlington said is right. It's just not right...definitely hurts the immersion factor, and it's disservice to the LPGA to just have 3 women golfers, and shoehorn them into the FedEx cup.

Great that they have the LPGA pros in the game, buy why were they inserted into the FedEx career mode? They could have (and should have) just made them available for casual play, like Jordon and Curry. Dumb.

The Career is so flat in this game that a couple of LPGA names really is the least of it’s issues.

[golfnut67]

Re: PGA TOUR 2K23 Impressions Thread

Totally agree.

[OnlookerDelay]

Re: PGA TOUR 2K23 Impressions Thread

I'm enjoying the gameplay overall, but it's such a hit or miss process, dependent on what kind of server performance I get. There are times when I can't get the golfer to take a downswing, using my normal tempo, which is deliberately slow. When I experience this, I can back out to the main menu, quit the game using the XBox's game management tools, start the game back up fresh again and all will be back to normal on the swing response at my normal tempo.

It's gotten to the point where I've found that it's best to exit the game after each round and restart the game (not using the quick resume feature), to get the most consistent server support from the game. I don't know why the game has to communicate with the server during the swing, especially to the point that the data transfer is so heavy that it adversely affects the swing!? It just makes the game's operation feel so finicky.

I love the feel of hitting a perfect tempo off the tee, and getting a partially muted vibration from the thumbstick and a distinctively sweet sound from the impact from a square swing path. There's an analog sensation to that which is hard to fully define, but it's one of the things that keeps me playing this game. I'm not as enamored with this game as I hoped I'd be, as I thought they would have ironed out more of its inconsistent performance problems than they have. IMO, its performance is less consistent than that of 2K21.

The short game is more challenging and requires more intuition than 2K21, and I like that. The putting speeds are overall too fast for my tastes with the default ball. I sold out and bought some "friction" balls so as to cut their roll on the greens. It seems to require about the same amount of putter swing to cover the desired distance, but I find that the ball tends to slow down quicker as it's nearing the end of its roll. I'm running fewer balls off the green on downhill putts since I started going with it.

This game will keep me entertained until EA's game comes out next Spring, even though it's not anywhere near the step forward HB Studios would take with it.

[ChiTownBluesFan]

Re: PGA TOUR 2K23 Impressions Thread

So, the last three golf games I've played (Rory, 2K1 and 3) didn't have Augusta in it. Rory used a real-life course out in Nevada, and 2K1 - I don't remember what they used, other than it was a fictional course. As is 2K3 - but the problem I had with Rory and 2K1 is that even given it was a fictional course, it didn't come close to even *feeling* like Augusta.

I forget the course name the 'Masters' takes place at in career mode, but it definitely has a very similar feel to Augusta, which is nice. It's probably the first fictional course that I've enjoyed as a replacement for Augusta. Certainly, will be nice to play the 'real' thing in the spring via PGA 2003, but I'll take this in the meantime.

[MrArlingtonBeach]

Re: PGA TOUR 2K23 Impressions Thread

So, the last three golf games I've played (Rory, 2K1 and 3) didn't have Augusta in it. Rory used a real-life course out in Nevada, and 2K1 - I don't remember what they used, other than it was a fictional course. As is 2K3 - but the problem I had with Rory and 2K1 is that even given it was a fictional course, it didn't come close to even *feeling* like Augusta.

I forget the course name the 'Masters' takes place at in career mode, but it definitely has a very similar feel to Augusta, which is nice. It's probably the first fictional course that I've enjoyed as a replacement for Augusta. Certainly, will be nice to play the 'real' thing in the spring via PGA 2003, but I'll take this in the meantime.

The courses they used in 2K23's majors aren't bad...except that forced TPC Boston into the fake PGA Championship spot and you cannot edit or swap that one out. I don't mind TPC Boston, but don't force me to play it in a fake event!

[scagwi]

Re: PGA TOUR 2K23 Impressions Thread

Did they implement any display correction tools in the game at all?

(bump up shadow light level, change contrast, etc)

Just watching a video of 13 tee (and comparing vs TW14 shot I took the other day) -- it's so dark in the shadows -- I don't get it.. Is this something in the video creators settings?




and again on 18th tee

[belikemike14]

Re: PGA TOUR 2K23 Impressions Thread

In 2k21 the game was cross generation. Is that still the case for this one?

If I have a PS5 and a friend has PS4, can I play with him?

Sent from my SM-G998U using Operation Sports mobile app

[OnlookerDelay]

Re: PGA TOUR 2K23 Impressions Thread

In 2k21 the game was cross generation. Is that still the case for this one?

If I have a PS5 and a friend has PS4, can I play with him?

Sent from my SM-G998U using Operation Sports mobile app

Yes, the game can be played by PS5 and PS4 players in multiplayer. The same is true for XBox One, XBox One S/X players being able to play with XBox Series S/X in multiplayer. They say that cross platform multiplayer is coming... don't know when though.

[OnlookerDelay]

Re: PGA TOUR 2K23 Impressions Thread

Did they implement any display correction tools in the game at all?

(bump up shadow light level, change contrast, etc)

I can't say what they did or didn't do, but what I can say is that I can get rid of a lot of that excessive shadowing by turning HDR off. I've turned it off in both the main XBox settings menu and the HDR selector in the game's graphics menu and the results are pretty dramatic. I don't like a dark silhouetted golfer in the shadows while I'm trying to use their animation to gauge my swing. When I run into lighting conditions (and that's probably about half the time) that set it up, I turn the HDR off and continue to play my round.

If the lighting is properly balanced so as not to set up those shadow golfer conditions, I leave the HDR on because it does make the image pop a bit more toward my liking. I wish the software was better able to recognize when the conditions were such that the golfer was being cast in shadows to the extent of the screens you've found, and automatically make the corrections necessary to render something more reasonable.

[fiddlerpaul]

Re: PGA TOUR 2K23 Impressions Thread

I'm enjoying the gameplay overall, but it's such a hit or miss process, dependent on what kind of server performance I get. There are times when I can't get the golfer to take a downswing, using my normal tempo, which is deliberately slow. When I experience this, I can back out to the main menu, quit the game using the XBox's game management tools, start the game back up fresh again and all will be back to normal on the swing response at my normal tempo.
Edit (later): after playing around I just decided to turn off tempo and I think I'm going to enjoy this game more. Not a fan of how it works in this game and how unpredicatable and erratic it seems to function. Now I can play at much harder skill levels and have different challenges instead of tearing my hair out with tempo issues.

It's gotten to the point where I've found that it's best to exit the game after each round and restart the game (not using the quick resume feature), to get the most consistent server support from the game. I don't know why the game has to communicate with the server during the swing, especially to the point that the data transfer is so heavy that it adversely affects the swing!? It just makes the game's operation feel so finicky.

I love the feel of hitting a perfect tempo off the tee, and getting a partially muted vibration from the thumbstick and a distinctively sweet sound from the impact from a square swing path. There's an analog sensation to that which is hard to fully define, but it's one of the things that keeps me playing this game. I'm not as enamored with this game as I hoped I'd be, as I thought they would have ironed out more of its inconsistent performance problems than they have. IMO, its performance is less consistent than that of 2K21.

The short game is more challenging and requires more intuition than 2K21, and I like that. The putting speeds are overall too fast for my tastes with the default ball. I sold out and bought some "friction" balls so as to cut their roll on the greens. It seems to require about the same amount of putter swing to cover the desired distance, but I find that the ball tends to slow down quicker as it's nearing the end of its roll. I'm running fewer balls off the green on downhill putts since I started going with it.

This game will keep me entertained until EA's game comes out next Spring, even though it's not anywhere near the step forward HB Studios would take with it.

I'm glad you mentioned the swing issue. I'd get to holes where suddenly I couldn't do a backswing unless I was super delicate with it. I thought I was the only one. Have Xbox Series S. I think you're right...a reboot before playing is the answer. I thought it was maybe course dependent but maybe not. Also no one has mentioned swing calibration. I think that is useful too.
Edit (later): After a bit of deliberation, I've decided to just turn off Tempo and play at higher skill levels. I think it might also help with the performance issues with the swing and I'm liking the different challenge.

[Maxflier]

Re: PGA TOUR 2K23 Impressions Thread

I also had to turn off HDR for that reason.