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[Nydius]

I know I'm just an internet nobody but I need to rant a bit.

I cannot recommend EA Sports PGA Tour: Road to the Masters in its current state.

First, some positives:
EA did a fantastic job recreating all of these courses. They are very realistic, detailed, and beautiful. Possibly one of the most true-to-life course conversions ever done in a golf game, and I remember the days when I thought Links LS was amazing. It's the only game with Augusta National and St. Andrews, which is a plus.


Unfortunately, that's all the praise I can muster.


Career mode is extremely buggy, with multiple gamebreaking bugs. Visit EA's Answers Bug Reports or Technical Issues forums and you'll see several complaints about career mode freezing, deleting itself, not properly completing a round, and more. These issues are happening on all platforms. I, myself, am experiencing this issue right now where it crashed at the end of the Masters first round (in the Amateur career path) and now the game just keeps freezing or crashing any time I try to load into the next round.

Challenges and quests are also very buggy, frequently not registering completions or giving the proper rewards for the completions. There are also multiple bugs with the sound elements of the game, with ambient sounds sometimes randomly cutting out and simply staying gone for several holes until the problem corrects itself.

I can live with 30 FPS in a golf game if it's a consistent, smooth FPS but this is anything but. The entire game is sluggish. Swing mechanics are choppy and inconsistent. Menus are copious and slow to navigate. Putting is horrendous with wildly inconsistent green grids and putt reads - sometimes the putt grids are just flat out wrong.

Since launch, I have had the EA Servers repeatedly drop connection, dropping me entirely out of the game because a persistent connection is required to play anything other than a single quick round.

The player models look like they are plastic and last gen models. The character creator is pathetically limited to, essentially, 3 white faces, 3 black faces, 3 asian faces, 3 indian/middle eastern faces.

The game's career RPG elements wall off basic golf abilities behind XP/Skill Point grinding and the in game customization store clearly built around selling microtransactions.

The camera is atrociously stupid. Here's the view I had when addressing the ball on the 11th at Augusta afterI overshot the green and ended up just on the edge of the second cut -- and this was the better of the two camera angles available.

It feels like EA spent all of their budget on their course creation team. There's no doubt all their fancy LIDAR course scanning and other technical achievements paid dividends on the course realism, but the rest of the game could have used some of that budgeting. After 8 years from the last EA golf outing, I truly expected better. Until it gets some patches to address the serious game breaking bugs and, hopefully, a patch that allows for 60fps play, save your money and stick with PGA2K. That game has its own issues but at least it's more consistent (and regularly cheaper).

 

[feynoob]

Didn't you read the internal memo for new employees?

 

[Verchod]

That's so disappointing to hear. I was very much looking forward to this and had planned on buying it at the end of the month.
Didn't they delay this game a year or so ago? Seems it wasn't long enough.
So many games seen to be coming out now with quite comprehensive bugs and issues.

 

[HeisenbergFX4]

I tried some of the demo and yeah its bad currently

 

[Humdinger]

Thanks for the review. I used to play some of the old Tiger Woods games, but then I went on to other things. I am still curious how the franchise is shaping up, though. Not so well, it sounds like.

 

[TexMex]

We desperately need a new Hot Shots/Everybody’s Golf. Especially now that they closed the servers.

 

[lefty1117]

i feel guilty because i'm having fun with the game

 

[Aguero9320]

I played the trial for a bit and liked it, but dropped it because of the camera (so many times you can’t see the swing meter for various reasons, including being blinded by the sun) and for the life of me I couldn’t get the hang of the swing - overshooting everything.

I’ll wait until it comes to EA Play by which time they’ll hopefully have fixed it.

 

[Nydius]

i feel guilty because i'm having fun with the game

No need to feel guilty. There’s fun to be had, to be sure, but it’s buried under a pile of muck more often than not.

 

[Chronicle]

I agree even though I haven't seen the game. I used to buy a ton of EA sports games but haven't in over a decade. They simply have not evolved and look and play like they did on ps3 (hell even ps2 for that matter). No new physics or graphics in well over 15 years.

Too bad.

 

[Catphish]

Yeah, there's a lot wrong with it.

• inconsistent shot feedback - sometimes the visual feedback is good, but the shot is bad, or vice-versa
• unreliable putt grid - sometimes shows a break one way, actually moves opposite
• unpredictable swing lag - it's very hard to use the power meter with any degree of consistency
• pointless sand traps - every lie from the sand is resting on top, easy to pick out. No buried or half-buried balls
• the triple-bogey pickup - you cannot shoot higher than a triple-bogey on any hole. After a 3-over-par shot, if you didn't hole-out, it immediately ends your turn and moves on to the next hole. WTF is that bullshit?
• no alternating shots in private multiplayer - all shots are simultaneous. No watching your friends shoot. Ridiculous
• no mouse swing - a PC golf game where you can't move the mouse to swing. We had this 20 years ago. WTF?
• no driving range or practice area - stupefying. I honestly can't remember the last golf game I played that didn't have a fucking driving range
• a player creator that has fewer features than the ones released for the Tiger Woods games 20 years ago - not high priority, but indicative of the overall quality level

EA says they're listening to player feedback and patches are coming, but I have no faith in this company whatsoever anymore. I seriously can't remember the last game they made that I would consider a quality release.

The maddening part of it is that it really does feel like the devs tried to recapture the feeling and quality of the EA PGA games of 10 years ago and beyond, but the suits clearly wanted this pushed out to coincide with the Masters, and the game was so obviously not ready. I loved TW 12-14, and was really looking forward to this, but I'll apparently never learn that EA games are no longer worth anticipating. They all release in a shit state, are only patched to address the most obvious bugs, and are abandoned until the cycle repeats next year. But you can bet your sweet ass they got that MTX store firing on all cylinders.

Mercifully, my EA Play Pro sub is still active from when I gambled, and lost, on the last FIFA. So I didn't pay anything additional for PGA. If they can get the game in shape, I'll happily buy it. I want a good golf game! But they have a long way to go to get to what I would consider even acceptable, much less good.

 

[Nok Su Kow]

We desperately need a new Hot Shots/Everybody’s Golf. Especially now that they closed the servers.

"Easy come Easy Golf" on the Switch is by the same dev and is a sequel in all but name if you've not played it already/have a Switch

 

[TexMex]

"Easy come Easy Golf" on the Switch is by the same dev and is a sequel in all but name if you've not played it already/have a Switch

It isn't horrible but it isn't good either. It was an iPhone first game and it shows. The franchise deserves way better, sticking with EG until we get a "real" sequel.

 

[Nydius]

• inconsistent shot feedback - sometimes the visual feedback is good, but the shot is bad, or vice-versa
• unreliable putt grid - sometimes shows a break one way, actually moves opposite
• unpredictable swing lag - it's very hard to use the power meter with any degree of consistency

These three things infuriate me the most. Well, right now the inability to continue my career without crashing infuriates me most but these are close runners-up.

The putt grid, especially. I get a grid that clearly shows a downhill slope with a left break, but the elevation window shows the cup being uphill and the green actually breaks to the right. How does a dev get something as fundamental as putt grids wrong?! They’ve been a staple of digital golf games since the original Links came out on ancient PCs.

It isn't horrible but it isn't good either. It was an iPhone first game and it shows.

When I heard ClapHanz had a game like EG on Switch, I ran out and bought it without knowing anything else about it. I wish I hadn’t. Like you say, it’s clearly built around being a phone game and is so ridiculously grindy that it sucks all the fun right out of it.

I still have EG installed on my external drive for my PS5, I really should fire it up again.

 

[Tams]

 

[Markio128]

At least they are only charging £70 for it on the PS store, that’s the main thing.

 

[Team Andromeda]

The game is crap, the ball physics are terrible

 

[MMaRsu]

Buying any new sports game from EA = fail

 

[bender]

We desperately need a new Hot Shots/Everybody’s Golf. Especially now that they closed the servers.

I don't think Sony has any interest (sadly) and ClapHanz has moved onto other, more casual friendly projects (Apple Arcade and Switch).

 

[Ozzie666]

You know you are in trouble when the ball physics are better in almost any Mario golf, Neo Turf Masters and pinball dreams from 1992. Different ball, but still.

 

[DenchDeckard]

I was really hoping fora return to Tiger Woods golf...is there any golf games as good as that in it's prime?

I had high hopes for this one.

 

[Mephisto40]

Weird, it's had nothing but overwhelming praise from the golf game community channels on youtube

 

[DosGamer]

I have been itching for a new golf game and the 2K series versus EA's game made it a difficult choice. I ended up going with EA and after the first hour wanted to throw the game in the trash....
I encountered many of the issues you described above.
I persevered and created a crappy character and took to the course for some quick 18 hole games. It sucked as I was +8 or +9 after the first round. This happened literally like 3-5 times... every time... I just sucked it up. But I was slowly building up my character until I got a beautiful slo mo 60foot eagle. It was such a rush.

I then moved my character to actual career and won the first tournament. I got a better club and the stats are improving my guys skills and the actual swing mechanics.

Basically it is a love hate relationship... but I am actually enjoying it as time progresses.

I did see that they are adding the 3 click system and fixing the camera issues. I also know that they are working on the putting greens misreading as well... So I just hope they fix things and add things like weather and such. Hopefully this is a game that gets a lot of love from the devs. The microtransactions... are a huge disappointment tho and I cant afford anything but some Jordan ones.

 

[DosGamer]

Weird, it's had nothing but overwhelming praise from the golf game community channels on youtube

It really has. I have not touched the actual real golfers in the game... just playing with my created one.

 

[ViolentP]

This is a wind down game for me so I can look past the issues for now. If I decide to play seriously however, I will need something better than today.

 

[TexMex]

I don't think Sony has any interest (sadly) and ClapHanz has moved onto other, more casual friendly projects (Apple Arcade and Switch).

I go back and forth on this. HSG/EG has been a staple on every single Sony console - including PSP and Vita. Few franchises have that level of tradition. But with their dwindling interest in Japanese developed games and Clap Hanz now making games for other platforms, it isn't a good sign.

When I heard ClapHanz had a game like EG on Switch, I ran out and bought it without knowing anything else about it. I wish I hadn’t. Like you say, it’s clearly built around being a phone game and is so ridiculously grindy that it sucks all the fun right out of it.

I still have EG installed on my external drive for my PS5, I really should fire it up again.

I got the platinum on EG before they turned off the servers (crazy grind there) - and played it online all the time. There were groups of people who just ran around in the hub worlds and hung out together. I really miss it, but with the online turned off the appeal just isn't the same for me. Everybody's Golf specifically was built around that online/community experience, and doesn't carry the same appeal as the other Hot Shots games for that reason.

 

[Puscifer]

Most sports games peaked in the mid 2000s, Tiger Woods 2004 and Links 2003 respectively are easily the peak of their respective series. Links 2003 especially has a long life, some developers are even keeping it updated! https://www.linkscountryclub.com/

 

[bender]

I go back and forth on this. HSG/EG has been a staple on every single Sony console - including PSP and Vita. Few franchises have that level of tradition. But with their dwindling interest in Japanese developed games and Clap Hanz now making games for other platforms, it isn't a good sign.

I'm hoping against hope. I love the series dearly and beyond the cartoon-like aesthetic and some of the over-the-top special shots, you'd be hard pressed to find a game with more depth or more realistic ball mechanics. I had a really good time with the Switch game for a few hours but after the initial joy of playing another ClapHanz game wore off, all of the depth that was missing from HSG/EG started to creep in.

 

[DosGamer]

Hot Shots Golf was one of the first golf games that really captivated me. I remember the golf games on the old Genesis and Super Nintendo, but Hot Shots took it to the next level.
Loved the rain in that game!

 

[Skelterz]

I’ve seen a few people saying it’s better than 2K23 in terms of the visual presentation and the ball behaviour in particular.

 

[Amory]

I was very hyped for this release but I held off expecting it to have significant issues at launch. I'd be a buyer at $30-40, after some of the first patches are released.

I'm glad it exists in any case, and I hope they commit to improving it over time and to the series overall. Just the fact that they brought Augusta and all of the majors back to golf video games is huge. 2k is a decent golf sim but HB Studios has gotten very lazy over the years as the only game in town and the golf space desperately needs viable, licensed competition.

 

[AJUMP23]

I have had fun with it. I am almost through the career. I have won every major because on the majors I play the full round. On the quick round my character gets tons of bogeys and makes it next to impossible to win.

There are many issues with camera angles, green reads and the commentary repeats a lot on drives and puts.

It is a much better game than previous versions.

I do think leveling up your character on the higher levels is hard. Getting the driver power above 3 requires 6 points the 7 points and that is too expensive. I have a character at level 41 now but there is no reason for some of the next levels are too expensive.

I do need to play a head to head and win. I would like to get that achievement.

 

[Umbasaborne]

Didn't you read the internal memo for new employees?

Ea just put out an excellent deadspace remake, and they have a great looking starwars game coming out. Definitely not the industry bad guys they were a few years ago

 

[diffusionx]

We desperately need a new Hot Shots/Everybody’s Golf. Especially now that they closed the servers.

I don't think Sony gives a shit about this series anymore, honestly. They just dumped EG to the store shelves, they shut off the servers, no replacement, and "let" the devs make essentially the new version for Apple. I would be somewhat surprised if we see another game in this series, which bums me out because I've been playing it since PS2 days.

 

[Nydius]

I’ve seen a few people saying it’s better than 2K23 in terms of the visual presentation and the ball behaviour in particular.

In terms of visual presentation, 100% yes. EA PGA Tour decidedly makes 2K23 look last gen. Courses are better, club and apparel models are better,
lighting is a LOT better, and even the stiff character models are significantly are better.

Ball behavior, I’m not so sure. They’re both pretty bad. As Catphish mentioned above, you can hit what is displayed as a perfect shot but the ball goes errant, or, conversely hit a very poor shot that goes inexplicably straight as an arrow. In decades of watching pro golf, I’ve never seen a ball roll through second cut or heavy rough with the same pace as they do in the game. Too often it feels like the ball is unaffected by gravity or terrain changes.

This is exacerbated by the fact that all the greens in the game run fast. Doesn’t matter which course you play, there’s no deviation in green speeds. They’re all like rolling a ball on concrete, and the game lacks any weather features to create differences in course speeds or conditions as in real life.

 

[Skelterz]

In terms of visual presentation, 100% yes. EA PGA Tour decidedly makes 2K23 look last gen. Courses are better, club and apparel models are better,
lighting is a LOT better, and even the stiff character models are significantly are better.

Ball behavior, I’m not so sure. They’re both pretty bad. As Catphish mentioned above, you can hit what is displayed as a perfect shot but the ball goes errant, or, conversely hit a very poor shot that goes inexplicably straight as an arrow. In decades of watching pro golf, I’ve never seen a ball roll through second cut or heavy rough with the same pace as they do in the game. Too often it feels like the ball is unaffected by gravity or terrain changes.

This is exacerbated by the fact that all the greens in the game run fast. Doesn’t matter which course you play, there’s no deviation in green speeds. They’re all like rolling a ball on concrete, and the game lacks any weather features to create differences in course speeds or conditions as in real life.

I’ve just ordered the game so time will tell I’m looking forward to it not played a golf game since the Tiger days!

 

[DosGamer]

My major complaints with the game are as follows.

1) I love the RPG progression but I agree that the microtransactions that the game was designed for are a put off. Its too expensive to buy half of the stuff in the shop. So its really hard to make your character your own... hopefully they make it a bit easier to buy these things in the future.

2) Not that I would use the 3 click method, but I cant shoot straight for nothing. I wish there was a better way to get better shots other than what I feel like is luck. The joystick feels off and what feels like a good shot often comes off looking anything but.

3) some approach shots look to be sooo easy and 5 shots later after hitting every side of the green, I realize that double and triple bogey are my norm.

Having said that, the game is fun. Nothing better than playing a solid 18 holes decently.
Oh, and I switched the shot stick from left to right.... I think that is directly affecting my ability to put spin on the ball. Instead the camera goes wonky and I cant even tell where I hit the ball.

 

[AJUMP23]

My major complaints with the game are as follows.

1) I love the RPG progression but I agree that the microtransactions that the game was designed for are a put off. Its too expensive to buy half of the stuff in the shop. So its really hard to make your character your own... hopefully they make it a bit easier to buy these things in the future.

2) Not that I would use the 3 click method, but I cant shoot straight for nothing. I wish there was a better way to get better shots other than what I feel like is luck. The joystick feels off and what feels like a good shot often comes off looking anything but.

3) some approach shots look to be sooo easy and 5 shots later after hitting every side of the green, I realize that double and triple bogey are my norm.

Having said that, the game is fun. Nothing better than playing a solid 18 holes decently.
Oh, and I switched the shot stick from left to right.... I think that is directly affecting my ability to put spin on the ball. Instead the camera goes wonky and I cant even tell where I hit the ball.

I bought that green masters golf bag in the store with point I earned to go with my green masters jacket I won.

 

[Gambit2483]

Ea just put out an excellent deadspace remake, and they have a great looking starwars game coming out. Definitely not the industry bad guys they were a few years ago

Their sports games have mostly become copy and paste trash. They didn't even believe in single player games anymore until Jedi Fallen order comically proved them out of touch....they might be getting better but they are still still far from where they used to be in this industry

 

[littlepooch21]

Has there been any updates/patches for this game to fix the different things that you have all mentioned above? noticed the "deluxe" version is on sale for PS5 around $50. Wanted to see if there have been any improvements b/f I purchase.

 

[Nydius]

Has there been any updates/patches for this game to fix the different things that you have all mentioned above? noticed the "deluxe" version is on sale for PS5 around $50. Wanted to see if there have been any improvements b/f I purchase.

There's been a few patches that have addressed a small handful of things. Most notably they have patched up the putting reads to be more consistent (though there are still odd moments where the grid doesn't match the read). and they've fixed the issue where people could get stuck in an infinite load loop or crash when trying to enter the next round of their career mode. They've added three click, a new course, and some fixes so the camera doesn't get stuck in textures.

But challenges and quests are still bugged to various degrees and the servers are still a major weak point (lose connection, you basically have no game outside of quick play). 30fps still makes swinging feels sluggish and unresponsive. Create-a-golfer is still limited to a handful of archetypes (which still makes me sad considering EA Tiger Woods a while ago had a face scan system that MLB The Show 23 now has...), and basic skills are still walled off behind RPG progression.

 

[littlepooch21]

There's been a few patches that have addressed a small handful of things. Most notably they have patched up the putting reads to be more consistent (though there are still odd moments where the grid doesn't match the read). and they've fixed the issue where people could get stuck in an infinite load loop or crash when trying to enter the next round of their career mode. They've added three click, a new course, and some fixes so the camera doesn't get stuck in textures.

But challenges and quests are still bugged to various degrees and the servers are still a major weak point (lose connection, you basically have no game outside of quick play). 30fps still makes swinging feels sluggish and unresponsive. Create-a-golfer is still limited to a handful of archetypes (which still makes me sad considering EA Tiger Woods a while ago had a face scan system that MLB The Show 23 now has...), and basic skills are still walled off behind RPG progression.

Seems like I should probably wait this one out a little longer. Hopefully they get it patched up. Haven't played a good golf game in years.

 

[Wooxsvan]

will buy when they get that 60 FPS patch in for ps5

 

[Nydius]

Seems like I should probably wait this one out a little longer. Hopefully they get it patched up. Haven't played a good golf game in years.

Waiting is probably a safe bet -- it'll probably be on deeper sale later in the year and also have the benefit of a few more patches. I doubt the game's servers are going anywhere because it's the first EA Golf game since Rory McIlroy which, I think, is 7 years old now.

 

[DosGamer]

Came home yesterday to a 3.4 gig patch. They added a course, Oak Hill, and changed everything around on the title screen for the next season.
They fixed the store and have added a ton of stuff.
Putting was a bit more difficult, but I also only played 18 holes last night so I didnt get the best test but the new zoom look on putts is nice. I also so some lip action ... but putting was harder in my opinion.
Still would like to see the ability to play 1-4 rounds of a career tourney instead of all 4. Would also like to see some rain or other weather type effects. Would add to the ambiance.