Hey everyone, Craig Chapman here, Senior Game Designer at HB Studios, and I’m going to lay out my personal Top 10 things longtime fans of The Golf Club franchise should be excited for. Listing all of the changes and improvements included in PGA Tour 2K21 would be a monumental task, so I’ll limit this list to 10. Here we go!
#1 Accessibility
- In the years past, The Golf Club franchise always had a pretty high barrier to entry, and a steep learning curve.
- PGA Tour 2K21 introduces traditional difficulty settings for the first time, which allows players of all skill levels to find a challenge that works for them. Whether that’s one of the six difficulty presets or a custom difficulty set up by the player, there’s something there for everyone.
#2 PGA Tour Broadcast
- The all new PGA Tour Career Mode introduces a full broadcast commentary from Luke Elvy and Rich Beem, and the return of John McCarthy as the “man on the ground.”
- Broadcast presentation, with highlights and replays of the best shots of the day.
#3 PGA Tour Pros
- Play against 12 PGA Tour pros on your quest to win the FedExCup.
- Pro Rivals challenge players to compete against PGA Tour Pros to unlock gear.
- PGA Tour leaderboards filled with 100’s of real PGA Tour pros.
#4 PGA Tour Events
- 15 real-life licensed courses and events now populate the PGA Tour Career Mode.
#5 Brand Sponsor Contracts
- PGA Tour 2K21 features more than 15 authentic brands for you to outfit your MyPlayer with.
- Sign brand deal contracts that carry with them objectives of varying difficulty to complete.
- Completing contract objectives increases the level of your relationship with that brand.
- As your relationship level increases with your brand sponsor you will be rewarded with unique sponsor contract clothing and equipment that can be used throughout the game.
#6 Club Attributes
- For the first time in the series individual clubs will carry with them attributes that affect how they perform on the course.
- Club attributes have been horizontally balanced to put the emphasis on players finding the best combination of clubs to suit their game. There isn’t a “best club set” in the game as they all have pros and cons.
#7 True Shot System
- The old “shot shaper” has been replaced with the new and vastly improved True Shot system.
- True Shot allows players to independently adjust fade, draw, loft, de-loft, and attack angle to create an endless variety of shots. Whether you want to spin it back on the green, fade it around a dog leg, or punch it under a tree branch, True Shot will let you do just that.
#8 Distance Control, Over-Swing, & Partial Shots
- Distance Control ups the skill gap putting an emphasis on swing skill.
- The transition point of the backswing to downswing sets the swing power, which makes hitting exact distances a skill worth practicing.
- Over-swings increase the swing power and allow players to hit beyond the carry distance displayed on their clubs, but brings with it added difficulty to the swing making miss-hits far more penalizing.
- If you find yourself at a distance that is between clubs, Partial Shots allow you to set your intended target and the Distance Control Meter indicates when you need to transition. Be careful though as the downswing timing for Partial Shots will require some finessing to perform correctly.
#9 Online Society Event Creation
- The Event Creation flow for online societies has been streamlined to reduce the time and effort required by society owners and admins to create events and set up a season schedule.
- Additionally, the introduction of Society Restrictions allow the Society to enforce difficulty settings that their members play on whilst playing Society events, or they may also leave it set to “Open” if they want their members to be free to play with whatever difficulty settings they prefer.
#10 Online Multiplayer
- All matchmaking rounds will be played using the Pro difficulty preset, to ensure matchmaking is an even playing field across the board.
- Private Matches among friends now offers the same restrictions that Online Societies does in regards to difficulty settings, where the host of the private lobby can determine the settings everyone will play on.
Get your victory dance ready and pick up PGA Tour 2K21 for the PlayStation 4, available at midnight (local time) on August 21.
Players who pre-order will get the 2K/adidas MyPlayer Pack and swing with swag. Deck out your PGA Tour 2K21 MyPlayer with a signal green and core black look, featuring adidas CodeChaos BOA Golf Shoes, and custom 2K/adidas CodeChaos Polo, Pants and Hat, designed by adidas, exclusively for PGA Tour 2K21.
