EA Sports PGA TOUR Impressions (Console)

[RIFRIG]

Re: EA Sports PGA TOUR Impressions (Console)

The game is definitely not a system seller but it’s genuinely peaked my gaming interest for the first time on this generation of hardware, I’m at 85 hours of play since release which is a lot of gaming for me in a 3-4 week period.

[lowpaiddonkey10]

Re: EA Sports PGA TOUR Impressions (Console)

I would estimate it's around 80% there of being a system seller IMO. And as much fun as I'm having with it, I'm not sure I would suggest someone spend that kind of dime just to play it. The Show was a system seller for me for the ps3, then quite frankly the ps4.

But it is so close. If they had better logic with drops, the bugs worked out like match play scoring issues, more penalty for rough and ball physics where lie mattered, more and better camera options, and a much better create a player... Maybe. It's close and it's damn fun. I'm dealing with the small issues but my biggest gripe is the randomness. I just don't like it. Granted, the way the game is, without it the skill level needed to succeed in it would drop further.

But it's close to being an all time great and gives me hope between the patches and next iteration, it just might get there.

Wow. After reading your comment I'm even less likely to buy the game than I was before. If you have a problem with the randomness then I don't see how you could like this game. It's in the DNA nothing can change it. I've watched quite a few streams not all the courses but some and I'm not impressed graphically with most of them. You're dealing with only 30 courses then they all have to be lights out great. I wanted a graphic upgrade to TW13-14 not Rory.

[golfnut67]

Re: EA Sports PGA TOUR Impressions (Console)

I would estimate it's around 80% there of being a system seller IMO. And as much fun as I'm having with it, I'm not sure I would suggest someone spend that kind of dime just to play it. The Show was a system seller for me for the ps3, then quite frankly the ps4.

But it is so close. If they had better logic with drops, the bugs worked out like match play scoring issues, more penalty for rough and ball physics where lie mattered, more and better camera options, and a much better create a player... Maybe. It's close and it's damn fun. I'm dealing with the small issues but my biggest gripe is the randomness. I just don't like it. Granted, the way the game is, without it the skill level needed to succeed in it would drop further.

But it's close to being an all time great and gives me hope between the patches and next iteration, it just might get there.

Couldn't have said it any better. Add Turn Play to what you said and the game is one of the greatest sports games of all time.

The randomness, I hate. No penalty for any lie, anywhere, I hate.

I just had my best tournament, Teeth of the Dog. Played all 4 complete rounds. Lost by one shot, because of random BS on the back 9. Very frustrating. I'm in week 28 and I've only won 1 tournament on Tour difficulty. I shot 20 under though so I'm definitely getting better.

Wow that course is beautiful...

[RIFRIG]

Re: EA Sports PGA TOUR Impressions (Console)

Couldn't have said it any better. Add Turn Play to what you said and the game is one of the greatest sports games of all time.

The randomness, I hate. No penalty for any lie, anywhere, I hate.

I just had my best tournament, Teeth of the Dog. Played all 4 complete rounds. Lost by one shot, because of random BS on the back 9. Very frustrating. I'm in week 28 and I've only won 1 tournament on Tour difficulty. I shot 20 under though so I'm definitely getting better.

Wow that course is beautiful...

What’s the randomness & where.

[OnlookerDelay]

Re: EA Sports PGA TOUR Impressions (Console)

With all the money EA spent on this game you would think they would mo cap some of these awkward stances. I am sure they play tested all 30 courses and knew this was a possibility. Glad to see so many having a blast playing this game but I haven't seen near enough to make me upgrade to the PS5. Maybe the next edition.

LPD, I hope you don't mind me chiming in here, as a Series X owner, but I think I have a point of reference that might add to what you're saying. I finally broke down this week and bought the Series X version of the game, having played both the PC and Series X trial versions. My PC wasn't up to the task of running the game with the performance I want, even at 1080p, so I went with the Series X version because I wanted a new golf game experience to add some variety to my 2K23 life.

Having played the game for four solid days now on the Series X, I'm mildly content with it, as it looks fantastic, but it feels like it's being played underwater. I wouldn't say that feeling is fully attributable to it being capped at 30 FPS, it seems like there's just an animation governor in play here. I say that because I was able to run the game at 60 FPS on my PC in 720p, yet there still was a feeling that my ability to "swing the club", was being restricted by the animation engine. It was slightly better at 60 FPS in getting the animation to start quicker in relation to the stick movement, but the feeling of swinging the club underwater was still there.

I suspect that this will also be true of the game on the PS5, as it's capped at 30 FPS also.

I will say this, EA Sports PGA Tour does provide some fun "gaming" experiences, as there are challenges that are compelling enough to keep me going after it. However, the gaming doesn't present itself in a manner that engages my sense of feel and intuition as much as I'd like. It feels more like I'm mailing in suggestions for how I want my golfer to swing and he produces a result that feels a little too randomized for my liking. I can be 1.5% slow on tempo in one swing and it will produce a pull, but that same percentage of slowness will produce a push on the next swing. The only real proportionality I can find in the swing interface is with the distance, and thankfully at least that's there.

I truly hope that EA is working on an update that will at least give console users the option to use a performance mode that yields 60 FPS. Yes, it will require some resolution and/or graphics detail setting sacrifices to do that, but if it's at least 1080p, with high and possibly ultra settings, it'll still look great and I think the feel will help you overcome whatever regret you may have over the loss of image quality.

I wish EASPGAT had PGA TOUR 2K23's camera options. I'm not a fan of follow cam, but that's the only option in the game that offers a properly function alternative. Pro camera doesn't cut to the downrange camera until way to late in the shot and the Broadcast camera is just flat out broken! I would be so much happier with EASPGAT if it had 2K23's option to stay with the golfer, and cut to an offset, reverse angle using the D pad on demand. We also need that worm's eye view on the green to assess slope. The lowest angle camera in EA's game isn't nearly as low as I'd like for assessing slope, although their low angle camera for putting is fine.

I don't know if any of this is going to help you, but I've spent a lot of time with EA's game this week and these are just some of my thoughts.

[Dawgfan1]

Re: EA Sports PGA TOUR Impressions (Console)

What’s the randomness & where.

There's a gray oval around each of your shots which is the shot dispersion zone. The ball can go anywhere in that zone if you're close to or at perfect/perfect (perfect/perfect might make it go in the middle, not sure), but if you hit it fast/slow or under/overswing the zone will get bigger and your ball can go anywhere in that zone. That's the randomness.

From my experience it's not true randomness, there does seem to be a bias depending on your golfer being fade/draw. For example mine is a fade so I believe if I fast a swing the ball will tend to go left more often and if I slow it it will tend to go right more often. Shot shaping plays an effect too, if I am playing a draw and fast it it will tend to go right more often and left for slows, vice versa for fades. I feel like there's less randomness if you're barely off from perfect, but I've had perfect/0.1% overswing shots go fairly off so there is some RNG to it.

Personally I'm okay with it on a single-player level, there's a valid argument for it and I feel like the RNG only gives me a bad shot maybe ~5-10% of the time. The vast majority of times I hit a shot poorly it was something I did wrong and can identify. But I wish there were other stick swing options devoid of RNG especially for a competitive online setting (maybe challenges too) where I feel like pure skill should be the only determining factor.

[RIFRIG]

Re: EA Sports PGA TOUR Impressions (Console)

Many probably know this but I’ll just post on my thoughts on randomness.
I play on Simulation so hadn’t really seen much of the preshot ball trajectory indicator or predicted trace line but I have played a bit of Arcade on the daily tournaments & noticed it sweeps from left to right a significant amount with my Golfer who has a fairly low accuracy attribute. It seems to me that if you time your impact with the trace line in the same position you will get a repeatable shot result assuming you’re hitting the same back/down swing percentages. I took a Pro with high driving accuracy to test this & can repeat exactly the same shot outcomes.

https://www.xbox.com/play/media/RJUY4STSLT

Ancer is maxed out on accuracy but the trace line still has a small amount of left to right movement but on my test I wait for the arc to be as far left as it goes then strike the ball & hit exactly the same position consistently. If I wait for that arc to move to the right & then strike I’d miss the green right on my test hole.
So in short nothing random if your arc watching but if you play without it the shot outcomes will possibly feel random but they are not.

[DarthRambo]

Re: EA Sports PGA TOUR Impressions (Console)

Why does so many hate the "randomness"?? I LOVE the RNG personally. Also, remember there can be wind gusts. I've seen the wind change mid ball flight and that can create this randomness you may think you're seeing.

Turn off the aim arc or ball flight arc and you probably notice it less if it's that bothersome. That black circle shrinks with better accuracy so I think it's cool we can increase accuracy skill to shrink that dispersion circle.

Sent from my SM-G996U using Tapatalk

[scagwi]

Re: EA Sports PGA TOUR Impressions (Console)

Why does so many hate the "randomness"?? I LOVE the RNG personally. Also, remember there can be wind gusts. I've seen the wind change mid ball flight and that can create this randomness you may think you're seeing.

Turn off the aim arc or ball flight arc and you probably notice it less if it's that bothersome. That black circle shrinks with better accuracy so I think it's cool we can increase accuracy skill to shrink that dispersion circle.

Sent from my SM-G996U using Tapatalk

Things happening that you didn’t account for or take notice of or perhaps truly couldn’t identify of course are part of real life.

But every single shot having random variability built in, that has little to nothing to do with the inputs from the player … sucks

You are playing the game. You are controlling what goes in from the input device. That input should be the sole determination of what happens on a simple shot with no wind or extraneous factors, as the base of the experience .. and yet it’s not.

I can see why they didn’t do a driving range. The randomness videos, of controlled and consistent shots with constantly differing outcomes, would be all over YouTube

It’s a fair argument that a ball should be ending up where it does based upon inputs and aim, and some environmental factors. The output from the inputs should be directly correlated. Adding randomness in the way they have seems to be some type of shortcut to actually designing a swing system that could be constantly challenging and engaging and truly proportional (good and bad).

EA golf is a touch “on rails” (mostly always has been) and this seems to be how they’ve gone about adding some variation to outcomes.

[RIFRIG]

Re: EA Sports PGA TOUR Impressions (Console)

Things happening that you didn’t account for or take notice of or perhaps truly couldn’t identify of course are part of real life.

But every single shot having random variability built in, that has little to nothing to do with the inputs from the player … sucks

You are playing the game. You are controlling what goes in from the input device. That input should be the sole determination of what happens on a simple shot with no wind or extraneous factors, as the base of the experience .. and yet it’s not.

I can see why they didn’t do a driving range. The randomness videos, of controlled and consistent shots with constantly differing outcomes, would be all over YouTube

It’s a fair argument that a ball should be ending up where it does based upon inputs and aim, and some environmental factors. The output from the inputs should be directly correlated. Adding randomness in the way they have seems to be some type of shortcut to actually designing a swing system that could be constantly challenging and engaging and truly proportional (good and bad).

EA golf is a touch “on rails” (mostly always has been) and this seems to be how they’ve gone about adding some variation to outcomes.

You’re definitely wrong on randomness. If you use all the visual aids EA provides you can prove it.

[bigkev]

Re: EA Sports PGA TOUR Impressions (Console)

That black circle shrinks with better accuracy so I think it's cool we can increase accuracy skill to shrink that dispersion circle.

That's how the game is designed, a little like TW11. Gamers can't just upgrade power to the max like most TW game, just aim and hit the marker with a straight swing path easy peasy. This game is forcing you to shrink that circle and get those shots attributes. We don't need to increase power much at all.

[MrArlingtonBeach]

Re: EA Sports PGA TOUR Impressions (Console)

That's how the game is designed, a little like TW11. Gamers can't just upgrade power to the max like most TW game, just aim and hit the marker with a straight swing path easy peasy. This game is forcing you to shrink that circle and get those shots attributes. We don't need to increase power much at all.

As soon as I saw there was a dispersion circle/oval, I was immediately reminded of TW12, where you could shrink the circle with "Focus".

[lowpaiddonkey10]

Re: EA Sports PGA TOUR Impressions (Console)

Things happening that you didn’t account for or take notice of or perhaps truly couldn’t identify of course are part of real life.

But every single shot having random variability built in, that has little to nothing to do with the inputs from the player … sucks

You are playing the game. You are controlling what goes in from the input device. That input should be the sole determination of what happens on a simple shot with no wind or extraneous factors, as the base of the experience .. and yet it’s not.

I can see why they didn’t do a driving range. The randomness videos, of controlled and consistent shots with constantly differing outcomes, would be all over YouTube

It’s a fair argument that a ball should be ending up where it does based upon inputs and aim, and some environmental factors. The output from the inputs should be directly correlated. Adding randomness in the way they have seems to be some type of shortcut to actually designing a swing system that could be constantly challenging and engaging and truly proportional (good and bad).

EA golf is a touch “on rails” (mostly always has been) and this seems to be how they’ve gone about adding some variation to outcomes.

This is why I said you know why there is no driving range. What could you possibly practice if your inputs don't determine the shot results? Sorry not a fan of this idea at all.

[RIFRIG]

Re: EA Sports PGA TOUR Impressions (Console)

This is why I said you know why there is no driving range. What could you possibly practice if your inputs don't determine the shot results? Sorry not a fan of this idea at all.

I could hit the same spot on a driving range on repeat. As long as you time your strike with the movement of the aiming arc it’s a non issue.

[CujoMatty]

Re: EA Sports PGA TOUR Impressions (Console)

I could hit the same spot on a driving range on repeat. As long as you time your strike with the movement of the aiming arc it’s a non issue.

Ya me too. Not an issue for me at all.