EA Sports PGA Tour Review (PS5) | Push Square

pushsquare.com:

It’s been almost eight years since EA Sports politely bowed out of the virtual golf arena with its half-hearted Rory McIlroy PGA Tour on the PS4, ending decades of dominance from the publisher – and inviting 2K Sports to take its place. But after a couple of commercially successful PGA Tour 2K titles, the Redwood City juggernaut has decided it wants back in the clubhouse – and the all-new EA Sports PGA Tour is the result. The big question: does it make a clean connection – or is it, ahem, below par?

Well, it looks absolutely extraordinary – it’s by far the best looking golf game ever made, and 2K Sports has got its work cut out if it hopes to match what EA Tiburon has achieved here. Powered by the Frostbite Engine, and designed exclusively for new-gen systems like PS5, every hole has been rendered painstakingly here, with lush natural foliage, painterly lighting, and stunning attention to detail, informed by state of the art photogrammetry scanning.

There’s never been a golf game quite like this from a presentation perspective: Pebble Beach, with its whipping waves crashing against rugged cliff faces, and St Andrews, with its rustic surrounding architecture, feel distinct and unique, rather than courses created using copy-and-paste assets. Meanwhile, the Augusta National Park, which will be of particular interest to fans considering the ongoing Masters, is decorated with its distinctive botanical features and vivid greens.

This level of quality extends across the entire game, and all 30 of its meticulously realised courses. There’s never been a better selection of officially licensed courses than this: from the large lakes of Bay Hill to the idyllic scenic backdrops of Tara Iti, you can almost taste the clean country air