What golf game would you say is deepest/best customization

[LegendKillerOne]

I recently moved to Florida and started playing golf. So now I want to add it to my video game collection

I really like games that involve a ton of courses, pretty much every course you can find and all the golfers even if they use fake names and then can be edited by users to match the counter part. For example I play tennis elbow 4. Not the best graphic but they have ever tennis player and course ever existed. For the players you just edit the names to match their counter part.

Any golf game like that? Lots of courses and customizable?

Please let me know thank you in advance.

[OnlookerDelay]

Quote: Originally Posted by GamingCeo27

I recently moved to Florida and started playing golf. So now I want to add it to my video game collection I really like games that involve a ton of courses, pretty much every course you can find and all the golfers even if they use fake names and then can be edited by users to match the counter part. For example I play tennis elbow 4. Not the best graphic but they have ever tennis player and course ever existed. For the players you just edit the names to match their counter part. Any golf game like that? Lots of courses and customizable? Please let me know thank you in advance.

Right now I'd say you only have one option on the console side... and that's PGA TOUR 2K21. You can get it for like $20 now, if not cheaper on some weeks. Personally, I would only recommend it to console gamers who have an XBox Series X or PS5... and very likely the XBox Series S. You'll have to have one of those consoles to run the game at 60 FPS, which IMO is crucial to the getting the performance you'll need to animate it properly.

PGA TOUR 2K21 has a tempo component in its swing mechanic, which determines hook or slice - a very fast tempo results in a proportional hook, while a very slow tempo results in a proportional slice... then you have every degree of hook/slice, draw/fade in between. Having the ability to run the game at 60 FPS, versus 30 FPS on the standard versions of the consoles, gives your senses a lot more feedback making it easier for your senses to feel and see what's happening with the club.

Just about every famous course you can think of has been created by end users in this game, and the majority of those that a PGA TOUR fan can think of have renditions that I consider commercial grade quality... it is staggering how many good quality courses there are, both real life recreations and fictional courses. I could play a new high quality course every day of the year if I desired!

There is a limiting factor associated with this game, however. It uses what's described as a course DNA rendering system, meaning that the courses don't really exist on your hard drive, they're drawing instructions are downloaded when you start the round and the program renders the course on your screen based on these instructions. The end result can give the courses a generic look, at least in terms of the course objects and features. For example, you can not have an authentic looking pot bunker because of the complicated structure they require and the course DNA model couldn't render them properly. The course creator will just have to settle for a deep bunker there, although it will still have the same perimeter look.

There's more than enough detail available to where I'm never in doubt about what course I'm playing when at a real life recreation, provided the designer is skilled and took ample measures to create it. The "official" courses that come with the game (and it seems like there's at least 30 of them) have the benefit of getting a little extra custom treatment with objects, but once again, they can't depict pot bunkers either.

I play 11 rounds of golf a week on PGA TOUR 2K21, on average, in two different golf societies (country clubs). I still find the gameplay of 2K21 fresh enough to keep me interested in playing those society's custom events. If the game modeled the golf swing a little more intuitively and the graphics were more unique, I'd probably play twice that much. In the end though PGA TOUR 2K21 has more than delivered on the $59.99 I paid for it 18 months ago. I would have to call it my favorite game of all time, but I couldn't call it the best. I still give that title to PGA Championship Golf 2000 on the PC. If I could drop PGA TOUR 2K21's golfers into PGA 2000, that'd be the game I'd be playing right now. The low count polygonal golfers of PGA 2000 really look horrific by today's standards, but they did animate fluidly.

[scagwi]

Are we limited to "new" games?

If we go way back, it's hard to argue against the likes of Links and Tiger Woods 08 on PC.

Things have gotten steadily more locked down over the years in terms of customization.

Golf fans are an interesting crowd. Many users looking for realistic gameplay rounds are very much unfazed by older graphics.

Perfect Golf could have been the ultimate "mostly modern" game if they'd built it with openness and longevity in mind -- especially being PC only.

If you want a newer game that is even attempting to be like "real golf", 2k21 is it for now.

(there are lots of more arcade like golf games out there -- I discount those personally)

[MrArlingtonBeach]

Honestly, if you're looking for lots of courses AND customization, you might wanna choose The Golf Club 2019, which is the predecessor to PGA Tour 2K21. You can set up Solo Societies in that game, giving you the ability to customize all the AI players' names, genders, nationalities, skill levels, etc. Plus, there are lots of user created courses made by many of the same people who are making courses in PGA 2K21.

PGA 2K21 removed Solo Society, as they went more all in on licensed courses, events, and non-playable real pros in the PGA Tour Career Mode (which is a fairly boring, buggy mess, in my opinion). Aside from being able to create courses and create/outfit just one MyPlayer character, PGA 2K21 does not have a ton of customization.

[OnlookerDelay]

Quote: Originally Posted by MrArlingtonBeach

Honestly, if you're looking for lots of courses AND customization, you might wanna choose The Golf Club 2019, which is the predecessor to PGA Tour 2K21. You can set up Solo Societies in that game, giving you the ability to customize all the AI players' names, genders, nationalities, skill levels, etc. Plus, there are lots of user created courses made by many of the same people who are making courses in PGA 2K21. PGA 2K21 removed Solo Society, as they went more all in on licensed courses, events, and non-playable real pros in the PGA Tour Career Mode (which is a fairly boring, buggy mess, in my opinion). Aside from being able to create courses and create/outfit just one MyPlayer character, PGA 2K21 does not have a ton of customization.

I forgot about the dreadful career mode in PGA TOUR 2K21. If you're after a better and more customizable career mode, The Golf Club 2019 is the way to go.

[LegendKillerOne]

Thanks for all the feedback. I will check out The Golf Club for sure !

[bb9]

TW 08 for PC hands down. The community has created thousands of fantastic courses. The game is still very relevant as well.

[OnlookerDelay]

Quote: Originally Posted by bb9

TW 08 for PC hands down. The community has created thousands of fantastic courses. The game is still very relevant as well.

TW 08 is indeed a fine golf game with tons of quality user made courses. It has perhaps the most attractive array of presentation options of any golf game I'm ever seen. I didn't mention it, or Perfect Golf, or Links 2003 because they're all PC games and I had the impression the OP was inquiring about console games only, since he mentioned he was wanting to add one to his video game collection.