PGA Tour 2K25 [PS5/XBSX/PC]

Chris Davies

Chris Davies

Chief PESsimist
Staff
14 May 2003
UK
Tranmere Rovers
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Publisher: 2K
Developer: 2K
Website: pgatour.2k.com
Genre: Sports
Player(s): Up to 4 locally, many online
System(s): PS5, Xbox Series S|X, PC
Release Date: February 27th 2025



REAL FEEL
Swing your swing and play your game with new EvoSwing mechanics—new shot types, ball flights, roll physics, and visual improvements.

MAJOR TOURNAMENTS HAVE ARRIVED
The U.S. Open Championship, The Open Championship, and the PGA Championship make their 2K Franchise debut.

MyCAREER AND MyPLAYER, YOUR WAY
Step into the most immersive MyCAREER yet. Dynamically simulate rounds, play through training and pre-tournament events. Be your authentic self in MyPLAYER with diverse customizations, a new Attributes Points system, upgraded Skill Trees, and an all-new Equipment Progression system.

SEASONS—BACK AND BETTER THAN EVER
Power increases for equipment progression, Ranked leaderboard resets, regular content updates + more. Progress at your own pace—play through past Seasons even when a new one is live.

GRAB A CLUB, GRAB A FRIEND
Robust multiplayer match types include Stroke Play, Match Play, or Scramble—online or local. Challenge friends wherever they play with cross-platform societies.

Operation Sports preview available here.

New swing system has me very excited (though I need to see some footage of it before buying)...
 
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Well I'm excited, even if nobody else is. :D

Showing the "pro" swing and demonstrating how hard it is - if only football games cared about the "sim" crowd so much as to actively call out to them in a trailer like that and make it clear the game is for them.
 
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Hopefully fully crossplay . I remember that 2k13 had some issues that you could play crossplay only real time so no chance for Evo Tour 😁
 
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22 years in the past was a small taste of what will became Video Games in the future :(
Now, it's more a war for exclusive people, teams or league, and there's a war to get the real thing on your game. It's more profitable for the guys receiving money than for devs creativity and their talent to recreate well known sportsmens.... And right now clauses are upper detailed, it became almost impossible to pass throught them like 15 years ago.
I own both TS2k25 and Undisputed boxing game, and i found that both doesn't have enough sports representative in their roster.

Not even 2 letters change and they're in front of a judge few months later. Sad that i don't care that much about US sports because they share licenses for everyone. But in Europe, America and Asia, whatever the sports, it's an hard business.
I still like basket games, not as a big fan, but especially some retro and less complicated NBA2K from 10 years ago. But now, i'll prefers them Arcade as i didn't followed that sports since the 90's and 2000 debut.
So there's only one game i'm playing time to time for it, NBA Jam, and that oldies is still on the top 3 on tons of "best basketball games" ranking, weirdly.

Now NHL 95 or 96 on megadrive too i don't remember, someone said to me and i read it elsewhere that hockey's fans are unhappy with the actuals NHL 2K versions and many like to switch by playing the old 16 bits (to be honest, i kinda understand those people, as it's one hell of a game seriously).

NFL or Baseball not for me, except time to time one game on Baseball 2020 on NeoGeo. Golf i got absolutely no idea about what's really different on new gen version system and already pretty advanced 16 or 32 bits gameplay.
That was the question i wanted to ask first, but i read the post below... And it's affecting all of us and even devs.
 
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the only thing that puts me off this game is seemingly the extension of the fittings and skill tree system for your created pro which is just silly and awful. when i play online in my society i want everyone to be balanced with perhaps the exception of the original archetype of the player that you choose.

don't get me started on the customised balls and what now seem like 'ball fittings'

but then again if everyone in the society gets it i guess i will too
 
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robbieryan said:
the only thing that puts me off this game is seemingly the extension of the fittings and skill tree system for your created pro which is just silly and awful. when i play online in my society i want everyone to be balanced with perhaps the exception of the original archetype of the player that you choose.

don't get me started on the customised balls and what now seem like 'ball fittings'

but then again if everyone in the society gets it i guess i will too
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Agreed, but I'm hoping they're clever enough to have society settings - or at least, matchmaking settings / private match settings - that give all players standard attributes. In 2K23 I felt like the attributes only made a slight difference anyway (and the balance of e.g. power vs accuracy seemed to be handled really well, unlike an EA game).
 
On the hardest difficulty it's nightmarish, and I'm a big fan. Having the swing meter permanently wonky because of my draw/fade makes it all but impossible to hit a straight shot - and again, I'm all for that.

The physics seem far better as well, as they promised (including putting, as you say @robbieryan).

I do worry about the attributes though - while you can't nail any shots on the hardest difficulty due to how hard it is, it's still noticeably easier with higher OVR players (e.g. Tiger Woods on the driving range) and that makes me worry that online play might be a waste of time (even when you lock the difficulty settings in).

Also, it's a 2K game, and there's more ways to spend your money / improve your player now...

The gameplay feels great, though. Day one purchase for me.
 
Yep it does feel like attributes might well make a big difference. Just hope you can even it out in society mode
 
Chris Davies said:
Yeah, every golf game makes me think back to Links 2003 and their fantastic player/tour creator which allowed you to make all of the AI players you wanted, complete with their own unique abilities, and then share your work with others.

22 years on and it feels like licensing is tying developers' hands.
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I played this for the first time, recently, such a great experience. There are guys still playing it online together on GameRanger.
 
did you pick this up @Chris Davies ?

they went full 2k on the whole VC and levelling up approach to the game, which took me a long while to actually get over how annoying it all is but luckily the gameplay and the physics are better than ever making it a real 'just one more round' type of game as ultimately your own input and natural rhythm at the time of playing affects things far more than fittings and attributes and all that nonsense.

it's also much harder as well, but a lot of the changes that make it so are much more lifelike in terms of chipping and pitching and general short game
 
robbieryan said:
did you pick this up @Chris Davies ?

they went full 2k on the whole VC and levelling up approach to the game, which took me a long while to actually get over how annoying it all is but luckily the gameplay and the physics are better than ever making it a real 'just one more round' type of game as ultimately your own input and natural rhythm at the time of playing affects things far more than fittings and attributes and all that nonsense.

it's also much harder as well, but a lot of the changes that make it so are much more lifelike in terms of chipping and pitching and general short game
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Yeah, I picked it up - it's probably my favourite non-football sports game of all-time, and that's saying something given:

A) how truly horrible the microtransactions are (not just a ridiculous amount of things to "level up", but "levelling up" golf clubs is just a ridiculous mechanic),

B) how they can't seem to stop stupid scores online (the "Ranked Tours" idea is great, but even if you pick up XP for improving your performance, it's entirely demoralising to see the number of cheats who are better-than-birdie'ing every single hole),

C) there are still things missing compared to Links 2003 (e.g. an AI that has different strengths/weaknesses to their game and so the leaderboards feel genuine rather than random, plus the ability to add your own AI players, and to be paired with them during your tour rounds), and

D) the awful, awful commentary

...because despite all of that, the gameplay is the best golf gameplay of all-time, in my opinion.

The slightly skewiff swing mechanic is a brilliant idea (so that instead of having a perfectly straight up/down motion, which becomes second nature, you have to match the pattern of your swing - and it's impacted by the angle of the ground you're hitting from).

The improved ball physics are far more realistic than before. There are still greens that make me go "how could it possibly roll out 30ft from a slightly overpowered approach/putt", and then I watch e.g. TPC at Sawgrass over the weekend just gone, and I go "yeah actually those greens are like frozen ponds".

Graphics are... not EA-level, but better, for sure.

Career Mode has gone FC-style, which can feel a bit too much (e.g. WhatsApping your agent), but it's better to have too much than not enough. Starting on the Korn Ferry Tour is a big deal for me, and adds real longevity (even though it's a shame that licensing prevents you playing on the real courses, even when they exist thanks to the community).

The LiDAR courses that the community make are better than ever, and it's the coolest thing to have such a big library of course add-ons (though I do worry 2K will shut this down one day - the course owners must surely be considering legal action at some point).

But above all, it's the gameplay. It just feels absolutely spot on. (Why it ships with "Perfect Swing" as the default difficulty though, when "Pro" is the online default difficulty, is mystifying to me.)

The gameplay is so far beyond EA's effort it's awe-inspiring - and I enjoyed EA's last attempt at a PGA game for a time, even defending it on here, but this makes you realise how unrealistically slow and easy-to-manipulate its swing was.

I adore it.

Hit me up if you fancy a game sometime, though I'm struggling for time to play at the moment! Not sure what my 2K username is, but I'm UK Jack Bauer on Xbox. I'd suggest starting an Evo-Web Club but we'd be the only two in it...

The best games I've had have been the 2v2 match play events... They are SUCH a laugh. They are amazing fun, especially when both teams clearly have one duffer and one "to the rescue" player. :D
 
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Chris Davies said:
Yeah, I picked it up - it's probably my favourite non-football sports game of all-time, and that's saying something given:

A) how truly horrible the microtransactions are (not just a ridiculous amount of things to "level up", but "levelling up" golf clubs is just a ridiculous mechanic),

B) how they can't seem to stop stupid scores online (the "Ranked Tours" idea is great, but even if you pick up XP for improving your performance, it's entirely demoralising to see the number of cheats who are better-than-birdie'ing every single hole),

C) there are still things missing compared to Links 2003 (e.g. an AI that has different strengths/weaknesses to their game and so the leaderboards feel genuine rather than random, plus the ability to add your own AI players, and to be paired with them during your tour rounds), and

D) the awful, awful commentary

...because despite all of that, the gameplay is the best golf gameplay of all-time, in my opinion.

The slightly skewiff swing mechanic is a brilliant idea (so that instead of having a perfectly straight up/down motion, which becomes second nature, you have to match the pattern of your swing - and it's impacted by the angle of the ground you're hitting from).

The improved ball physics are far more realistic than before. There are still greens that make me go "how could it possibly roll out 30ft from a slightly overpowered approach/putt", and then I watch e.g. TPC at Sawgrass over the weekend just gone, and I go "yeah actually those greens are like frozen ponds".

Graphics are... not EA-level, but better, for sure.

Career Mode has gone FC-style, which can feel a bit too much (e.g. WhatsApping your agent), but it's better to have too much than not enough. Starting on the Korn Ferry Tour is a big deal for me, and adds real longevity (even though it's a shame that licensing prevents you playing on the real courses, even when they exist thanks to the community).

The LiDAR courses that the community make are better than ever, and it's the coolest thing to have such a big library of course add-ons (though I do worry 2K will shut this down one day - the course owners must surely be considering legal action at some point).

But above all, it's the gameplay. It just feels absolutely spot on. (Why it ships with "Perfect Swing" as the default difficulty though, when "Pro" is the online default difficulty, is mystifying to me.)

The gameplay is so far beyond EA's effort it's awe-inspiring - and I enjoyed EA's last attempt at a PGA game for a time, even defending it on here, but this makes you realise how unrealistically slow and easy-to-manipulate its swing was.

I adore it.

Hit me up if you fancy a game sometime, though I'm struggling for time to play at the moment! Not sure what my 2K username is, but I'm UK Jack Bauer on Xbox. I'd suggest starting an Evo-Web Club but we'd be the only two in it...

The best games I've had have been the 2v2 match play events... They are SUCH a laugh. They are amazing fun, especially when both teams clearly have one duffer and one "to the rescue" player. :D
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nice one mate, i echo the sentiments there.

when i first started playing I was worried about the whole levelling up mechanics but i do think mostly the attributes and levels really don't make as much difference as your own ability. that being said I would love to see some kind of attribute equaliser option on ranked and on societies where perhaps you can play events with everyones abilities set to the default for the archetype you have chosen. I know they will never do this because it makes a mockery of their model but that would be a preference for me and everyone in my society agrees with that, we already banned consumable balls from it too.

career has gotten a bit silly but you can just ignore the bits you don't like. I have been doing some of the training events and course warm ups i think they are pretty useful to get your rhythm right before starting your round but I wonder how quickly you'd get bored. I do also like the advanced settings for things like variation of AI results between rounds and things like that, giving those settings a tweak can add a bit more realism to the game and the scores you end up facing, i think they were in the last game also but it's good that these things still exist, you can't take for granted these companies wont remove good features from the game.

Ranked tours is a great addition for me, i mean they've basically done open societies, and i don't so much care where I am on the leaderboards against the cheats but it's also good to see where you are against your friends... which on that note another great addition is the ability to play a ranked tour or society round with one of your friends so you don't just have to go out alone, really nice touch which again keeps the longevity of the game going.

am currently finding the pro difficulty the best challenge so far but i wonder if i might step up to master the more comfortable i become witht he game, on todays daily pro i scored -10 and on the daily master -3 will also be interesting to see what kind of scores people start getting when the tgc tours events start running on this game. i was in CC-A on the last game but i think i'll be much further down this year.

if you want to join the society I am in feel free, they are cross play now which is handy, just ping me and i'll send you the name. there are about a dozen of us of varying quality and we have 2 events a week and the occasional major or match-play which is all organised on discord or on the website (any excuse to plug the website) but either way i'll try and catch you for a 2vs2 or something, as you say they are great fun as well
 
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