PGA TOUR 2K21

Yeah the game is great, however even though my player has supposedly earned 10 million dollars this season he cannot afford new clothes or golf clubs. Why is that? Oh because the dollars are actually bullcrap and 2k really wants you to buy their over priced currency packs instead.
Why 2k? It costs 1,200 of your currency for a single callaway iron and yet you want 60 dollars for 6,000 of that currency? Are you kidding me? Why cant I just buy a game and play it, why am I always nickeled and dimed by scumbags?

If you played Golf Club 2019 and are wondering if PGA Tour 2K21 is better. It is.
Now allow me to explain why, in my opinion, it is better.
First, I left the prior version because I found the game inconsistent, absurdly difficult, and especially abusive on the greens. Why do you think people defaulted to chipping on the greens for any putt over 20'? Because judging the distance was absolute guesswork and feel. There were no cues, markers, or hints as to how far back to pull the putter to get close to the hole 30' away or 45' away. Honestly, for me, it was just stupid hard. You want to hit the driver further? Choose "pro" level clubs with an unforgiving margin for error. Sure, you'll hit it further but you're screwed if you go offline just a touch. Again, it was just stupid hard.
Enter PGA Tour 2K21. Clearly, 2K either saw the inherent problems or heard feedback from the community and resolved the issues with grace and triple-A polish. Gone are the incredibly hard nuances on the green. Gone are the inconsistent elevation, wind, and green speed issues. It's all been replaced with a difficulty and aiming system which has so many options, you can dial it into your personal preference.
Want the abuse from the prior version. No sweat. Want a more forgiving and enjoyable experience. No worries. The difference between rookie and master? There is NO difference on distance, now the difficulty simply changes the XP multiplier as you play and gain levels. A rookie can bang the ball 300 with a driver with incredible forgiveness. The master will bang the same ball 300 but gain levels faster. Levels mean coins, mean unlocks, clothing, and access to brand name clubs.
Personally, I'm playing on PRO AM level and put the AI opponents on "normal" difficulty, which means they will finish the round somewhere around -6 to -8 under (with some plus/minus random wiggle room). That has been perfect for me and after entering the six-venue PGA qualification tourney, I won the Korn Ferry Invitational at -14 under (two rounds), the second tourney I finished at -10 under (two rounds) and took fifth. The competition is just right for me - too easy and it's boring, too difficult and it can become tedious.
You can adjust the difficulty at any time. There are two levels above and below "normal" to keep things interesting. The upper levels are pretty serious with the AI opponents dropping -15 under on the hardest setting. Bring your A-game.
Yes, you can buy clubs with a marginal increase in distance at the cost of less forgiveness but it isn't critical to enjoy the game. For me, 2K have done an amazing job of polishing a promising title and broadening it's appeal. I have 20+ hrs in thus far (in three days) and look forward to more licenses, courses, and players joining the action. Meanwhile, I need another win but TPC Sawgrass looks like trouble. Wish Rip some luck.

Challenging, yet habit forming. Being a little older, I have some work to do an my eye/hand coordination before I'll be very good at this game. But I love golf, and since I can no longer play IRL, this is a good substitute.

it's like an extremely polished Tiger Woods 05-08 which is incredibly satisfying

I usually don't write reviews but i'll make an exception on this one. this is by far the best game the devs have made compared to the golf club 2 and 2019. the introduction of the shotmeter and shot recalibration is easily the best feature. and on top of that they overhauled the difficulty to however you want while using whatever clubs you want is so much better than the previous difficulty. very impressed so far. love it

PGA Tour 2K21" is the deepest golf video game you’ve ever encountered.
That’s the benefit of giving an online community access to a custom course designer.
The rest – the official Tour, course and player licensing that’s been so heavily pushed in the marketing – is kind of just window dressing, albeit really attractive, sorely missed, nice-to-have-back window dressing.
Having spent the better part of the last week toying around with 2K21’s career mode, I can tell you that, judged as a PGA Tour simulation, this title returns golf gamers to the place where EA Sports left them previously. In that sense, we might actually consider it a push.
But if you take what gamers had before as a simulation and combine it with a full-blown course designer, then you have something else entirely. "PGA 2K21" is best judged then as the marriage of two features that had been previously kept separate.
As someone who’s been playing PGA Tour video games since 1999, this was the one thing I always wanted from EA Sports: the ability to create my own courses or to recreate courses that EA simply couldn’t license. Once I got that from HB Studios in "The Golf Club," I found myself pining for what I had with EA: Tour branding, Tour pros, Tour courses.
This game, finally, has both.
EA’s long-running "Tiger Woods" title came to an end in 2013, and a rebooted offering headlined by Rory McIlroy was abandoned after a single release in 2015. That left gamers in the woods (no pun intended) for three years, after they’d grown accustomed to a yearly Tour release for two decades.
Filling the void was a lesser-known title, "The Golf Club," from a lesser-known developer, HB Studios. "The Golf Club" – a game focused on allowing users to create, play and share their own custom-designed golf courses – begat "The Golf Club 2"and what eventually came to be known as "The Golf Club 2019 featuring PGA Tour."
That was the turning point. And not to disparage it – because I certainly spent enough time playing it – but "The Golf Club 2019" is, in retrospect, a (really good) half-step, a bridge to where we are now. The game, developed like its previous iterations by HB but this time published by 2K, was the first to feature Tour branding in three years, since EA’s "McIlroy" release. It came with seven real-world courses, including TPC Sawgrass and TPC Scottsdale, and served as a starting point.
"2K21" is really the final product, the completed version of "2019." It’s what gamers hoped to get when the PGA Tour decided to get back into the video game business, and it’s what they have now two years later.

Poor testing, gameplay is OK but feels behind some of the earlier releases which is disappointing...
Many bugs, some affect gameplay badly...
Cat 1 (critical failure): None
Cat 2: (major gameplay issue)
swing speed timer does not work consistently regardless of controller type - joystick or mouse. Workaround - this needs to be switched off to play game (eg in pro difficulty) unless you want random timing issues sending the ball carving left or right
Foliage in trees etc tend not to hinder ball flight
no punch shot
chipping physics are incorrect - ball does not respond correctly base on club type and lie - eg chipping with a SW from good lie onto a flat green with no wind you can get a 10 yard roll or 2 feet. From a poor lie with a lob wegde into a small rise, it will stop almost dead. Some tweaking of the random values is needed.
Cat 3: (minor gameplay issue)
Calculation of tournament position is incorrect when playing PGA tour contracts, I finsihed second in an event and this was not recognised by the sponsor (possibly due to a second played tying with me)
Club role with a vanilla shot is incorrect - 6 iron rolls 6 yards...I don't think so! Full lob wedge inmto 10 mph wind rolls 2 yards
Wind effect is incorrect....a 6mph wind is about 1 club difference - should be more like 9mph
True lie adjustments are incorrect - using a lower trajectory actually reduces carry distance into the wind, a higher trajectory reduces distance downwind..
Commentator dialogue is incorrect many instances - "this putt to go into the top ten", when i am in 31st place..."this putt to go 4 under par", when I am 7 under etc. Obviously not tested to any degree before realease
Experience levels top out at 75 and 45 respectively then get reset to 74 and 44 - why bother having them? It took maybe 8 tournaments to get to level 75...
Cat 4: (cosmetic)
Commentator dialogue is repetitive - needs more variance
Roving commentator is waste of time - needs more variance
Lie grid does not work in some modes (eg pro am)
Elevation does not work in pro am mode

In summary gameplay is OK but not worth the full price that I paid. i would have been ok to pay half
To get full price the release should have been QA'd more thoroughly and some of the major defects (like swing speed and the ball physics in chipping) should have been fixed.
Feels that the release was rushed...