
Finally, there is a big balance issue here.

I found it much wiser to trust my own instincts and years of playing virtual golf titles than following these assists, it led to much better results. For example, there is a putting line that can be turned on to give you a visual of an ideal putt, that just isn’t the case though because if you follow that so-called ideal line you will miss more than you will make. The other major issue I found is that the information supplied by the game can’t be trusted. Seriously EA, 98% of the world uses the metric system so why the hell wouldn’t you include it in a game about a sport that is played all around the world? Honestly, that is either laziness or a lack of care from the developers. The first of which is the lack of metric measurements in game. There are some other issues that are unavoidable too. It cuts the length down without taking the result out of the player’s hands. A much smarter move here would have been to allow players an extra choice of having all tournaments be one round instead of four.

It is very frustrating to be at -5 and then all of a sudden at +1 through no fault of your own. On more than one occasion I finished a day with a great score, only for the computer to give me multiple bogeys or worse while I wasn’t in control. The problem here is that when you play the quick version, you have no input over how you perform during the holes you don’t have control over. In a somewhat baffling move, players can choose to play all four rounds of each competition or a quick version, where only key holes are played. The ultimate goal is, of course, winning the Masters and taking home that green jacket, but you can expect to play a lot of golf before you are ready to do that. The goal is to take your player from a promising amateur, through Q-School, onto the Korn Ferry Tour and finally into the PGA main tour. The career mode is where the meat and potatoes of the game lie and it is a hefty mode to dive into. These skill upgrades are earned in traditional video game manner, through experience points earned in just about everything you do in-game, so doing these short, sharp and sometimes dull challenges may feel like busy work but it is time well spent.
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Without doing the tutorial challenges, players will struggle to upgrade their players quickly enough to be able to compete in the career mode at an effective level. These challenges can also be used to experience some key moments in Golf’s history and earn new gear from sponsors, making them a key first step for new players. This is a must as Golf is an unforgiving sport where mistakes are punished heavily. In fact, doing these training challenges is almost essential, as they are the fastest way of upgrading your player’s skills as well as ensuring you have a good grip on the game’s mechanics. It can all get a little confusing if you aren’t 100% up on golf terminology but thankfully there is a nice range of training challenges and tutorials available to players that explains these shots and when to use them. Trust your putter more than your chip? A Texas Wedge shot is there to help. Lots of wind about, a runner shot will keep the ball low and make it roll further. Need to drop it next to the pin and hit over a bunker? A High loft shot is your friend. Once a player has upgraded their skills enough, there is a total of 17 different shot types, all of which have ideal use scenarios and a lot of the strategy is choosing the right shot for the right situation. The most notable of which is the sheer amount of shot types available to players. Just like the actual sport, there have been a number of innovations that have been incorporated here.

But there are some important innovations here, this isn’t just some redo of a past title with better graphics. In fact, you can feel the DNA of the Tiger Woods all over this latest incarnation. The swing mechanics, the power boost and the after-shot spin manipulation are all things that were pioneered by the franchise over the years and all are important parts of this game. There is a lot here that is familiar to those of us that spent time with the Tiger Woods games in the past. EA Sports PGA Tour is, for all intents and purposes, a true continuation of EA’s previous golf titles.
