A Golfing Grand Slam or a Mulligan?
If you want to play some virtual golf, then there are a ton of options; House of Golf 2, Golf With Your Friends, Pure Mini Golf and the like. Hell, there’s even the madness of Powerstar Golf from way back when.
But if you really like golf and want the closest virtual replication of the outdoor game, then there are only really two options to consider: EA SPORTS PGA TOUR or one of the many The Golf Club/2K offerings.
The former series is a relative newcomer to the scene, having taken years off before hitting back with a bang in 2023, with what is possibly still the best golfing game on the market. But 2K aren’t far behind, and with PGA TOUR 2K25, the gap between the two is so small, it’s pretty much in gimme territory. In fact, in many ways the 2K offering is preferable.
Microtransactions and Modes: Navigating the 2K Experience
Of course, this is a 2K game, and that means the usual plethora of options and microtransactions will be shoved in your face from the get-go, and then furthermore every time you load the game up. Let it be known though, if you gear up and take to the courses of PGA TOUR 2K25, you’ll find a stunning golf simulator that covers a ton of bases. And even though there are microtransactions galore to wade through, if you’re savvy enough, they can be ignored without denting the overall experience. We’ve cast them to one side throughout our time with PGA TOUR 2K25 and – probably – will continue to do so going forward. After-all, we care little for wearing weird and wacky outfits as we golf.
What we do care for though is a great golf game, and PGA TOUR 2K25 is that. There have been moments during our course walks in which we’ve been amazed by how it looks, as tees give way to fairways and roughs, building into bunkers, hazards and the most glorious of greens. Again, it’s something we’ve come to expect from the top tier of golf games on the market, and visually this is a game that is right up there with the very best.
EvoSwing and Gameplay: Mastering the Feel of the Game
Thankfully it plays bloody well too. And much of that is due to a host of options that allow you to set things as you see fit.
PGA TOUR 2K25 is full of good stuff, allowing the opportunity to tee off alone, traipsing the variety of courses present as standard, enjoying the new EvoSwing mechanics to ensure this is a game that can easily be set-up just the way you like it. That EvoSwing is a pretty deep system in fact, ensuring the opportunity for each and every golfer to pick the shot they need for any one situation, going all-out with power, preferring finesse, pitching and the like. We’ve not had a single moment in PGA TOUR 2K25 in which we’ve found the swing mechanics to be wanting. That in turn means that enjoyment can be found throughout.
Multiplayer and Career
Taking those same ideas into the multiplayer scene is simple too, with cross-platform play delivering a decent variety of match types and tournaments; daily, weekly and through the included Societies. TopGolf complements matters and is a great way of passing a few minutes. For us, we’ve long ditched our mates for some solo golfing greatness, grabbing a bag and picking our favourite clubs for a life of solitude. Yet TOUR 2K25 happily caters for the online world should that be what you are after.
Legends and Licenses
Seasons and Clubhouse perks are pretty standard for this type of golfing experience, as is the sheer number of real-world pros present and correct. It’s full of the biggest of big names too, as you would expect from a 2K game, allowing you to go up against some of the biggest names in golf. If you’re a golf fan, or have been taken in by the back stories delivered in Netflix’s Full Swing in recent years, having these names front and centre helps aid the immersion.
Partaking in the most prestigious of tournaments – or working through Q-School – also builds the excitement and PGA TOUR 2K25 has the PGA Champs, The U.S. Open and the iconic The Open Championship joining previous tournament structures. With the courses you know and love all meticulously crafted and created, we’re not sure that there’s too much to feel let-down by here. Picking a place to play is easy too, well navigable through a series of neat menus. You’ll find it a cinch to play at TPC Sawgrass, Oakmount Country Club, or any of the other places included.
Course Creator and Customisation
And of course, building from the older The Golf Club franchise, you even get the opportunity to create your very own course, utilising a new camera as you do so, new tools and more. In fact, we’d say that only your imagination can hold back the creativeness of PGA TOUR 2K25’s course creator. It’s that which lets us down, but should you prefer to craft something full of detail, this is a game that fully allows it.
We’ve much preferred to focus our time with PGA TOUR 2K25 on the player progression that is present. It’s deep, perhaps too deep, but it does ensure that you can take the most bog-standard of amateur players and build them into a golfing superstar, utilising a variety of skill trees and attributes, gear and equipment upgrades and the like. We’ve found proper joy in taking in rounds of golf, being treated to rewards in return, and turning ourselves pro, but the systems are a little complex, and many may find themselves bouncing off everything available. This most certainly is one of those games in which the more you invest, the more you’ll get in return.
Join us on that journey of player progression and you’ll discover that a vast array of official licenses and equipment types can also be taken in. Titleist, Cobra, Callaway, adidas and a ton more are all well integrated into PGA TOUR 2K25. Whether that be in standard gear form, or as the 2K wackiness comes to the fore, the customisation and personalisation included is high.
Visuals and Audio: A Feast for the Senses
Of course, this is a golf game that looks utterly brilliant too. Whether it quite matches EA’s PGA TOUR visually, we are unsure, but much like everything else that sees these two juggernauts go against each other in a three-hole play-off, there’s nothing but a fine line between them. We’re pretty sure there will be times when you decide to just utilise various camera options to scan the courses instead of hunkering down and whacking a ball like there is no tomorrow. And if you do scour the landscape, you’ll discover some serious eye candy within.
And yes, whilst we’re covering the presentation, the audio is pretty lit too. From the thud of club on ball, to the commentary overviews of each and every hole in a TV presentation style, PGA TOUR 2K25 is again right up there with the best of all golf games.
A Top-Tier Golf Sim That Swings for the Green
We waited years for a decent golf game to arrive back on the scene, and now, after a long old hiatus for the golfing genre, there are a multitude of golf titles that are well worth playing. You could probably quite easily get by with the older The Golf Club options, or you could become immersed in everything that EA SPORTS PGA TOUR delivers.
For us, we think PGA TOUR 2K25 is amongst the very best golf games currently on the market. It’s full of charm, plays really well and looks great. Perhaps the microtransactions are a little too in the face, but at no point do you have to succumb to the opening of a wallet.
Each to their own, and you won’t go wrong no matter whether you join Club EA or Team 2K, but we’ll be picking PGA TOUR 2K25 out of our bag for every round in the foreseeable future.
Swing For These Links
PGA TOUR 2K25: Tee Off Today with Early Access and a Hole-in-One Feature Set – https://www.thexboxhub.com/pga-tour-2k25-tee-off-today-with-early-access-and-a-hole-in-one-feature-set/
Buy PGA TOUR 2K25 on Xbox – http://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/store/pga-tour-2k25/9MWJ5DWVFVGW/0010
Get the Deluxe Edition – https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/store/pga-tour-2k25-deluxe-edition/9NT3T562WVLB/0010/9XTMT7Z7HXSQ
Or go really big with the Legend Edition – https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/store/pga-tour-2k25-legend-edition/9PNP6BMNB9VJ/0010
