PGA TOUR 2K21

I am 63 years old and have played all the PC versions of golf over the years. This game was on sale so thought I would give it a try. I like the course builder, I designed a couple local course in Jack Nicklaus way back. I like the play of the game as well. I bought a xbox controller there is no three click in the game. Also there are so many user designed courses to try. I have a list of around 70 user courses to try so far. There are around 40 courses in the game as well. So far I have played 29 courses you gotta like it.

This is early in my playing process for me to submit a review, having owned it for less than one day, so I will update it if 2K pulls any dirty bullshit later. But, as it stands, I've played 7 or 8 rounds and have a feel for the game. But as a sport sim game, golf can't change terribly much in the short term.
I'm an old gamer (north of 50), and have loved golf games throughout the generations as just a zen way to have fun with a few friends in a relaxing atmosphere. And a quality golf game has been missing for a long time. (I'm sorry HB Studios, I know of your other 2 games, but they were niche games) The last golf game from EA was BAD, and the last few Tiger Woods iterations were so easy as to be a waste of money.
Being totally honest here, when I saw this game was published by 2K, I immediately dismissed it. Then I read a review where the writer shared my concerns and said something to the effect of, "it's about as good as one could expect from a 2K release." So I took the plunge. And they were right, where it comes to grossly extending a grind and shoving microtransactions down your throat, this game is the ABSOLUTE BEST that one could expect from 2K. I wish that I could articulate how much it pains me to have to include that caveat in a review, but this is the world that gamers allowed to be created.
Now this game is not as pretty and polished as I had expected from a 2K release. Say what you will about the gross-ness that is 'NBA 2K' but low quality visuals won't make THAT list. For better or worse, this game is actually 'The Golf Club 3' with "PGA Tour 2K21" on the PR material. I owned 'The Golf Club 1" but found the learning curve to be far beyond my willingness to endure a somewhat feature starved release. I never bought 'The Golf Club 2," and if I had known this was 'The Golf Club 3' no amount of assurances that 2k hadn't "2K-ed" it up would have enticed me to purchase this product.
But that would have been my loss. The developers have really put the work into refining their product into a feature rich golf sim. And not just various golf modes. The controls are intuitive as to how to shape your shots, there are ALMOST too many options to customize. So if one person is a diehard golfer and have to spend the afternoon playing this game with their 6 year old relative, each can have an appropriate challenge while also having fun. The dev's really do deserve a pat on the back for putting in the hard work of improving the product rather than just buying prettier assets for us to look at. And THAT is why I am writing a review this quickly.
The announcers in this game are great. I'm sure that I'll get tired of hearing the same quips eventually, but they at least hold conversations relevant to what is going on on my screen. Not all games can claim that.
There is a full career, although I haven't qualified for it to see if it is multiple seasons long, or just one. The various modes of golf are available skins, match play, stroke play, etc.. You can play rivals. You can make and publish your own courses. There is a LOT of content.
Back to the micro-transactions. I didn't even realize that there was the possibility of spending real world money in this game for the first 15 or so hours. Which is a miracle in 2022, since most games put the micro-transaction store in the fucking tutorial. (And this game DOES have a tutorial, so they could have) In fact, I was so expecting a store that I went searching through every tab and option and page I could find in the game. Nothing. But they were tacking the "money" I was earning as event purses, but rewarding me in "coins" for my challenges so obviously SOMETHING's up! And the coin amounts were pitiful.
So I was trying to buy a new sand wedge, and went into the "wedges" tab and found a wedge that was more "forgiving" than my stock one and clicked on it, and BOOM, my 500 coins were swallowed! No prompt, no warning, no confirmation. I hate that bullshit, 2K. And I ended up owning a gap wedge and a lob wedge, not a sand wedge. Unhappy with not knowing what I was going to buy before being charged for it, I went looking for a sand wedge to buy in the future because even though I had played 4 rounds of golf, I only had 505 coins left after buying an outfit for my character, and 2K had just charged me 500 without telling me what I would get. (A random crate without any sound or confetti) And as soon as I clicked on the next wedge, BOOM, "How many coins would you like to buy, dear customer?"
Just as a side note here: Who imagines that Strauss Zelnick, or Bobby Kotick, or Todd Howard, or any of the gross, sleazy, disgusting CEO's of these companies would enjoy the following scenario:
Seated in a fancy restaurant, the waiter brings a cart with 35 domed plates on it. And the waiter says, dinner is $3500.00. Pick a dome, and whatever you uncover, you WILL fucking swallow down your miserable fucking throat! Tonight we have everything from an aborted fetus to prime rib. Bon Appetit!
Who thinks that would become their new favorite restaurant?
Anyway, the maximum amount of coins one could buy in a single pack is 6000, which means that it would take more than 2 of those packs to 1 of each of the priciest clubs currently available in the game. Also there is something called "societies" where people play on other people's creations or whatever. As you can see, I haven't fully checked it out. But I was ABSOLUTELY warned to "save my coins" because most societies charge an entry fee. So depending on what somebody can charge you to play on their course, and how often you play this could EASILY become an expensive mode in which to spend one's time.
What I am REALLY dying to know is when PGA Tour 2K22 releases, will it be this tolerable, if aggravating, version of a game, or will it be 2K's accounting department in total control of development? Only time will tell. But in the meantime, this is a game worth checking out.

2K makes a sports game that isn't just buying lootboxes to make your all star team? I would have never guessed.
Fun and addicting game that is just relaxing to play.

The game is fine, although a golf game without some kind of leveling mechanics just doesnt hold my interests for long, i want a career in golf where i start out with low skills and clubs and work my way up to becoming a pro golfer.

Honestly so much better than I expected. Is it worth 60 dollars? Nope. Is it worth 20 when a good sale comes around? Absolutely. Only unfortunate part is the player base is lacking because of the price. But if you like golf, or even don't but want a relaxing game to play when you are bored? Give this a shot one day, again though, get it on sale. Not a 60 bucks

Whatever angle you’re coming from, it’s fair to say that PGA Tour 2K21 will likely satisfy your golf game needs. If you’re new to this sort of game, you’ll be gently introduced by well-crafted tutorial mechanics and charmed by the quiet chill of it all. If you’re a lapsed EA Tiger Woods player, you’ll likely be impressed by the systems and mechanics HB Studios has built up over the last four games to differentiate their take. And if you’re a Golf Club veteran, this is another solid entry, iteratively improving on those that came before. It ticks all the boxes, and it’s great to see fully-licensed PGA Tour golf back at the forefront of sports video games once more.

The game itself is great, good graphics, diffiuclt enough but easy enough to be fun for everyone, the full PGA Tour courses, personalization, good commentary (even if it becomes repetitive quite quickly. It should have a bit more things around the game itself, it's a bit lacking on that side. In any case when i was almost at the end of the PGA Tour the game bugged so that i was forced to reset my pc and then the save was corrupted.. not sure if i'll have the will to pick it up again after losing everything i've done...