EA Sports PGA Tour New Update File 4/2 ver. 1.000.020

[MrArlingtonBeach]

Just advanced my career mode to the next season, as I was already in the FedExCup Playoffs and finished those up.

In my next season now post-update, I do get Valhalla, Pinehurst No. 2, and Royal Troon as major hosts. No need to restart your career at all.

[Dawgfan1]

Pretty pleased with the new content aspect of this update. Not having much of anything in the way of meaningful gameplay adjustments and fixes is a bit of a negative for me, I prefer that side over new content. But also I wanted the 2024 major courses and Augusta Par 3 so getting that all in one update instead of drip fed over the next 3 months is a big plus, maybe it will leave more room for gameplay fixes in the future cause they won't be forced to devote time to getting one course out every month. And getting Jack is the icing on the cake.

As I've stressed before, going forward I'd like to see more transparency from EA. I still feel that has been lacking the last several months and the decision to shadow-drop the update with no patch notes beforehand (even if yesterday was April Fools and Sunday was Easter, why not do it Friday or Saturday?) exemplifies that. Like what happened last year, give us a list of things that are being worked on that we can expect to be included in updates over the coming months. It's just better to leave us more in the loop and it leads to less people thinking the game is dead before surprise big update drops.

As for what fixes and adjustments, obviously I want things to be made harder and more penalizing, and I've outlined that elsewhere. I'd prefer to see more current PGA golfers over legend golfers because it means more playing partners in career mode, but even before that I'd like to see the way the AI plays be made so much better than the overly simplistic way it is now. To me it's only mildly enjoyable rn seeing them all play very similar ways without much variety, and in some cases without much realism (-15% on drivers, hitting water hazards too often, hitting spinners 11 yds from the hole 15 ft past it and draining the putt back almost every time, etc.).

I'm also fine with the RNG in the game personally, but I'd like to see the RNG-affected swing results be made more complex and realistic than the super simple system we have now. I'd prefer if the swing power and tempo did most of the work determining where a shot goes and the RNG puts the finishing touches on it. For example, fast tempo means the shot goes left, and the amount the swing is fast determines a range of how left the shot should go, and the RNG determines where in that range it goes. Vice versa for slow, underswing, overswing, etc. I think that would make the RNG feel much less frustrating to those that don't like it.

[golfnut67]

Quote: Originally Posted by Dawgfan1

Pretty pleased with the new content aspect of this update. Not having much of anything in the way of meaningful gameplay adjustments and fixes is a bit of a negative for me, I prefer that side over new content. But also I wanted the 2024 major courses and Augusta Par 3 so getting that all in one update instead of drip fed over the next 3 months is a big plus, maybe it will leave more room for gameplay fixes in the future cause they won't be forced to devote time to getting one course out every month. And getting Jack is the icing on the cake. As I've stressed before, going forward I'd like to see more transparency from EA. I still feel that has been lacking the last several months and the decision to shadow-drop the update with no patch notes beforehand (even if yesterday was April Fools and Sunday was Easter, why not do it Friday or Saturday?) exemplifies that. Like what happened last year, give us a list of things that are being worked on that we can expect to be included in updates over the coming months. It's just better to leave us more in the loop and it leads to less people thinking the game is dead before surprise big update drops. As for what fixes and adjustments, obviously I want things to be made harder and more penalizing, and I've outlined that elsewhere. I'd prefer to see more current PGA golfers over legend golfers because it means more playing partners in career mode, but even before that I'd like to see the way the AI plays be made so much better than the overly simplistic way it is now. To me it's only mildly enjoyable rn seeing them all play very similar ways without much variety, and in some cases without much realism (-15% on drivers, hitting water hazards too often, hitting spinners 11 yds from the hole 15 ft past it and draining the putt back almost every time, etc.). I'm also fine with the RNG in the game personally, but I'd like to see the RNG-affected swing results be made more complex and realistic than the super simple system we have now. I'd prefer if the swing power and tempo did most of the work determining where a shot goes and the RNG puts the finishing touches on it. For example, fast tempo means the shot goes left, and the amount the swing is fast determines a range of how left the shot should go, and the RNG determines where in that range it goes. Vice versa for slow, underswing, overswing, etc. I think that would make the RNG feel much less frustrating to those that don't like it.

Great post, I agree with every word.

[matt2053]

Quote: Originally Posted by MrArlingtonBeach

Just advanced my career mode to the next season, as I was already in the FedExCup Playoffs and finished those up. In my next season now post-update, I do get Valhalla, Pinehurst No. 2, and Royal Troon as major hosts. No need to restart your career at all.

LoL, not only that...!

I had actually just finished the third round of the US Open at LA Country Club in my career when the update dropped overnight.

This morning, the fourth round was at Pinehurst! Doh!

[BDKiiing]

Were the majors courses added into the rotation in career?


Never mind.

[Dawgfan1]

Played a round at each of the major courses with my career mode golfer. On Sim + no swing meter or green grid. None of them felt too easy, went -2 at Pinehurst, -4 at Valhalla, -5 at Royal Troon. Pinehurst and Royal Troon I enjoyed especially. Pinehurst has the yellow-green-ish look on my 1080p TV which I'm usually not a fan of but I think it blends in really well with the Carolina Sandhills terrain. And Royal Troon is just beautiful, although the course has the weird color split in the middle of the fairways, not sure why EA thinks that looks good or accurate. Valhalla looked a bit more run-of-the-mill and for some reason the hole previews show yellow-brownish heavy rough whereas in-game it's more green, but it's still decent-looking and enjoyable.

The biggest thing I noticed is that there doesn't seem to be any unique commentary for any of the new courses (including the Par 3) at the moment? Even the hole flyovers had no commentary at all for me. A bit disappointing to not have that at this stage, maybe they couldn't get Rich and Frank in time to record lines but I'd hope they add them soon, at least around the time of each major. Just a warning for career mode players if you get to these courses, might not have any unique commentary right now.

[golfnut67]

Yes it's confirmed there is no new commentary for any of the 4 new courses, just generic existing commentary. No mention of the course, etc. Hopefully they can get a few lines recorded for the 3 major courses, but I kind of doubt that will happen.

I'm sure the guys that did the recordings were done a long time ago and that contract is done for them unless they are going to revamp all of the commentary at some point. That would be nice for sure.

[golfnut67]

Just played an online Foursome Match Play round at Royal Troon. Wow that course is well done, and the lighting and the way the sun looks on all of the holes is one of the most stunning I've seen in this game, or any golf game.

I don't know if the round is supposed to be early morning or dusk, but it's just lovely on the eyes and very immersive. It's really top notch eye candy. Placid and relaxing.

By the way, it's letting me use Jack to play online Match Play? Has it always allowed you to use a Pro in online matched (not tournaments)? It doesn't say Jack Nicklaus as the name of my player, it just has my online ID like usual. I just wasn't aware you could do that?