A recent PGA Tour 2K23 trailer has left some fans reacting poorly to the game’s graphics. The one-minute announce trailer weaves both realistic shots and in-game footage together, but not in the best way. It features cameos of Tiger Woods, the new cover star for the PGA Tour 2K series, and even the actor who played Shooter McGavin from the movie Happy Gilmore. But putting real-life humans side by side against the game’s character models probably wasn’t a good idea.
Why fans are disappointed in the PGA Tour 2K23 trailer
Pouring through the comments for the trailer, fans are both excited to see Tiger Woods back in a golf game, away from EA Sports’ PGA Tour franchise, but also disappointed by the ho-hum graphics. One highly-upvoted comment for the trailer posted above on the PlayStation YouTube channel replied, “How do the graphics still look like they’re from 2011!!” Another writes, “So you incremented the number, added Tiger, and charged full price again? Nothing looks different, and the graphics still look like trash.” Ouch.
The comments for the same trailer on 2K’s YouTube channel aren’t much better. One user says, “Graphics and animations are shocking. What year is it?” Another expands more on why the lack of improvement on graphics is disappointing: “Character models look insanely bad, swings look way off… same exact graphics as 2K21. Was really expecting (silly me) something better after skipping a year.”
We’ll have to see if the hype train for Tiger Woods is enough to overcome this hurdle. The WWE 2K series struggled with graphics as well, but after poor reception with WWE 2K20, the franchise took a year off and came back with a much better response by fans and critics in WWE 2K22. The PGA Tour 2K series also deserves a similar graphical overhaul by the looks of it, showing off what current-gen consoles can do with character models and landscapes. If not, the EA Sports PGA Tour reboot slated to release next year may stand to outshine the series, even without Tiger Woods leading the way.
In other news, the Activision Blizzard and Microsoft acquisition deal has been approved by Saudi Arabia after investment, and a new Blade game has been denied by Ubisoft.
