PGA Tour 2K23 Preview - The Perfect Approach
Reviewing sports games always comes with a bit of an extra challenge. Previewing them even more so. Sports games are made for a very specific audience, who are mostly interested in minute changes and specific community concerns, but as a critic you also have to respect the game as a singular creation that stands on its own. With PGA Tour 2K23, it’s a little easier. Taking a leaf out of WWE’s book, 2K took a year off from golf last year, having previously converted The Golf Game to PGA Tour, so as a result it’s still a series finding its feet in many ways. From what I’ve played, it’s a swing and a hit.
The biggest change this time around is the introduction of the three-click swing system. In previous entries, you needed to pull the right thumb stick back and flick it forward to swing. That still exists, and still feels unnecessarily difficult, but it’s now accompanied by a button system. With the swing system, I need to pinch the stick rather than flick it, which takes away a lot of fun and immersion. Here, you hold A until your power bar fills a white circle (with the aim of stopping it in the centre), before an arm swings around the circle. You tap A when the arm is at 12 o’clock, and again when it’s at 6 o’clock, and the further you are from that, the more you slice it. Much more intuitive, though it’s a shame swing stick play still feels sensitive and slow.
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You could argue it’s a bit more arcadey, but the customisation of loft, spin, swing, club, and stroke maintains a sense of technical mastery. I’m also not sure it suits a sports sim to deliberately exclude people who want to play it. FIFA is head and shoulders the most popular sports sim not
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