[MrArlingtonBeach]

Solid write up here once again...love the golf coverage!

I think it bears mentioning that the EA press release announced Pebble Beach. That's a pretty big get, too, in my eyes. Pebble wasn't in Rory, either, which was kind of a surprise at the time - it had been in EA's golf game for seemingly forever at that point.

In looking at the golf gaming landscape here, I think it's obvious that EA will need to make a "splash" with their golf game to try to compete with 2K. PGA 2K21 sold a lot of copies and is the front-runner in this space. 2K added Tiger Woods, and also brought HB in house now, which means they are committed to building this franchise. This would be where Augusta and The Masters, not to mention the licenses for the rest of the majors, would make a huge difference.

EA is adding playable pros, which is a good start. I see comments on 2K's social media every day from people wanting to play as the pros.

I think EA needs to bring back Country Clubs, like TW games had. That would help compete with 2K's Societies.

A full-fledged career mode, complete with something like the old "GameFace" that allowed you to take a photo and import it into the game to make your created character look just like you would be perfect (I'm amazed this isn't in PGA 2K21, as 2K uses this for NBA 2K). Career mode should take it a step further, making it a full-on pro golf experience. Perhaps including elements like maintaining a personal budget for things like caddies and transportation, while you bring in money from sponsors, which get better as you perform well. No clue if these ideas are even feasible, but a robust career mode would put 2K's to shame. Career mode also needs the licensed majors - playing in the Rocket Mortgage Classic is wonderful, but competing in 2K21's "Northwest Open", not the US Open, is silly.

I would love to see EA add a more intuitive create-a-course suite. 2K's is pretty great, but is a doozy to try and learn. I mentioned this in another thread, but a NCAA Football Teambuilder-like creation system that lets you build your course online and import it into the game would be nice - it's easier to design courses on a computer than it is on console (at least in 2K21).

I also think both these games are going to lean heavily into DLC...which is just the way it goes now. 2K has added more DLC in 2K21, so I am sure they next game will have even more. EA will do what they do and probably sell new courses, gear, and might even add some kind of card collecting mode in their golf game...who knows?

No matter what, having competition here is great. I want two solid golf games that push each other and bring this segment of gamers lots of innovation.