{"id":1272,"date":"2023-04-11T13:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-04-11T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chatfalcon.com\/?p=1272"},"modified":"2023-04-12T10:44:54","modified_gmt":"2023-04-12T10:44:54","slug":"ea-sports-pga-tours-best-mode-pulled-me-back-into-my-golfing-game-obsession","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chatfalcon.com\/index.php\/2023\/04\/11\/ea-sports-pga-tours-best-mode-pulled-me-back-into-my-golfing-game-obsession\/","title":{"rendered":"EA Sports PGA Tour\u2019s best mode pulled me back into my golfing game obsession"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Image: EA Orlando\/Electronic Arts<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It\u2019s the best practice mode before taking on 18-hole rounds with new surface physics and shots<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been a decade since Augusta National Golf Course was in a video game, and eight years since we saw St. Andrews on a console. Just going back to these places will be enough for most fans interested in EA Sports PGA Tour<\/em><\/a> \u2014 especially following Jon Rahm\u2019s win at the Masters Tournament this past weekend. But the game, now on PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X, does play a little differently. So they should factor in some time to get familiar before gorging on its buffet of 30 bucket list destinations. <\/p>\n

The best way to do so? Honestly, it\u2019s the Challenges mode. Golf doesn\u2019t really need to be reduced to bite-size challenges for video games \u2014 it is<\/em> bite-size challenges, 18 of them making up a round. But the Challenges mode quickly became EA Sports <\/em>PGA Tour<\/em>\u2019s signature feature for me, at least in the first week, for how it familiarized me with the tasks these courses will expect later in my (very deep) career mode. I wasn\u2019t prepared to appreciate or enjoy this live-service vehicle as much as I did, but absent a practice facility or tutorial in the video game, I absolutely depended on it to, as they say, get back in the swing of things. <\/p>\n

Challenges takes players to one of the game\u2019s 30 courses and gives them three tasks to complete, replicating some performance from real life \u2014 for example, Lexi Thompson at the 2019 LPGA Championship or Francesco Molinari making recovery after recovery at the Masters the same year. Each challenge awards three stars, those stars award XP and Reward Points, and those two collectively progress your created golfer or give them cool new skills and cosmetics. (Although the latter are unlocked through a prominent in-game store menu, it\u2019s important to note that nothing affecting a created golfer\u2019s play or improving their game can be bought for a real-money equivalent. That\u2019s all for cosmetics.)<\/p>\n

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You don\u2019t have to complete all three obligations of a challenge in the same playthrough, either; this is what I meant about Challenges supporting repeated attempts. If one challenge is, say, to make green-in-regulation on all four holes (that is, landing on the green in par minus two strokes) and make birdie on two of them, you can focus on sticking the greens in one playthrough and getting the birdies in another.<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t to suggest that the challenges aren\u2019t demanding. It took me a couple of hours to clean up the Thursday and Friday moments from this year\u2019s Masters. Some of that was my unfamiliarity with this game\u2019s controls after eight years since the last EA Sports golf game. But some of it, also, was because the surfaces and ball lies are truer to life and therefore more difficult to play \u2014 which should be the point of a simulation, after all. <\/p>\n

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