Rory McIlroy PGA TOUR Available Today - Post Your Impressions Here

[ncp10]

Quote: Originally Posted by scagwi

Thx NCP I just got a PS4 and started playing Rory again for the first time since late 2015.. Great game! I'm being serious! - just on the gameplay (turned up to basically max difficulty) I'm totally loving it! I really wish they'd kept this going.. The graphics are just gorgeous... I really love a golf game to have breathtaking visuals like this. It makes it so wonderful to just "be out there" on the course. I do wish I could turn off crowds for just "playing a round" though.

It is a fantastic game for what it is. The swing animations and PGA pro characters are really well done. Clearly they ran out of budget $$ to polish off some fine details, but truly, it's remarkable what they've done with it and I fully agree it's unfortunate development is currently on hold. When you play H2H the gallery is gone FWIW. Yeah I find enough uncertainty in playing Swing Diff: Hard. Conditions: Tournament. Winds, at least 12mph on up. I'm not playing Advanced Swing Mechanic and if and when it becomes too easy I'll add that. Working the ball using the prescribed diagonal swing is really difficult--I'm about 35% successful on it and hopefully will get better over time.

[scagwi]

Quote: Originally Posted by ncp10

It is a fantastic game for what it is. The swing animations and PGA pro characters are really well done. Clearly they ran out of budget $$ to polish off some fine details, but truly, it's remarkable what they've done with it and I fully agree it's unfortunate development is currently on hold. When you play H2H the gallery is gone FWIW. Yeah I find enough uncertainty in playing Swing Diff: Hard. Conditions: Tournament. Winds, at least 12mph on up. I'm not playing Advanced Swing Mechanic and if and when it becomes too easy I'll add that. Working the ball using the prescribed diagonal swing is really difficult--I'm about 35% successful on it and hopefully will get better over time.

Thanks - man - just playing again this morning and I'm just awestruck enjoying AM settings on Banff.
So. Gorgeous..

Really great to hear about no crowds in H2H as that will be my main usage of this once I get the hang of this and get my playing partner onto a PS4 again.

Do you mind sharing your full rundown of difficulty options?
I'm assuming you're using a custom one?

I'd thought initially of just using Tour, but I was surprised that the swing isn't on "hard" for Tour level?
That seems like an odd as the hardest default setting.

[ncp10]

Quote: Originally Posted by scagwi

Do you mind sharing your full rundown of difficulty options? I'm assuming you're using a custom one? I'd thought initially of just using Tour, but I was surprised that the swing isn't on "hard" for Tour level?

Sure, my custom one is as follows from my recollection is, using the joystick:

Swing Difficulty: HARD This puts some genuine uncertainty in putting in particular, and makes shaping shots really difficult. I hope that skill comes w/ some time as I've only been at it a few weeks, and this is my first console game and using a controller w/ the little JS is a whole new thing for me.

Swing Mechanic: STANDARD Which as you may know simply means your backswing length largely determines length of shot per club as it's set up, whereas ADVANCED brings in over-swing penalty and now you control shot length by not only backswing length but downswing speed. I look forward to moving on to that some day.

Course Conditions (I forget what it may be called): TOURNAMENT. This brings in faster fairways and greens more difficult rough i believe.

Zoom: ON

Lie: ADVANCED

Wind Gusts: OFF for now

Tees: BLACK

Typically try to play at least 9-12mph winds.

I'm not sure what else is involved but that's the bulk of it.

Best wishes getting your pal up and running. It's really a hoot and I haven't even started the pro career mode which my playing pal says he's really enjoying. The narration by nobilo is really nice, even if inappropriate and repetitive it's still a net plus. The game is really a hybrid TV golf event simulator and player simulator.

[scagwi]

Very cool, thanks!

For now I've decided to just play with Tour settings and work my way through several dozen rounds and go from there..

I am really enjoying the non-zoom golf. It feels so utterly realistic to cycle through and use the views from the golfer combined with the overhead to make a decision on what to do and how to approach the situation.

I am starting to see why they made Tour mode difficulty not actually use the hardest swing difficulty, as you are introducing other difficulty in shot setup and decision making as it is and it seems to balance quite nicely.

I can't believe I dismissed this game so quickly when it was relatively new. Huge mistake on my part. This is a supremely engaging actual game of golf, all content and career mode (relative to older TW & other games) aside.


I have actually turned the commentary off for now.

I really wish I could turn off the tournament atmosphere for solo rounds as well.

For all rounds I wish I could permanently never again see the post shot reactions.
Those are, by far, my least favorite thing about this game.
Whoever thought those were good was very very wrong.

[scagwi]

Can someone chime in and help me understand how the power/aiming point tool works in Rory?

On the greens, I totally get how it's what you use to set power for a normal perfect swing on flat ground (or it feels that way and operates fine for me), but I'm a bit unsure what's really going on with that aiming point on other shots.

Here's my example, as I sit here right now...

I'm on Sawgrass 15th about to hit my 2nd.

I have 177y to the pin and I've been set up with 6 iron that will go 181y it says in the bottom right. In the distance, the aiming point is out there saying 177y, but I can move it slightly further away from me and it then reads 181y.

Why is it set up to 177y (in this case) and what does that mean?

Is this a carry/rollout thing?

Or am I inducing more risk and requiring a more perfect swing to get that full 181y from the club and thus the game doesn't set me up with that full distance on the aiming point to start?

Ok...next shot/question..

So now I purposely hit up a bit short (by clubbing down) for another example that I'm again not sure what's happening.

Now I'm hitting my 3rd from 27y out.
I've been equipped with a "default shot" 58 degree wedge that says it can go 109y.

My aiming point is set near the flag at 27y.

If I hit a "full power/perfect shot" will I really be getting around that 27y amount of distance or do I need to partial power the swing to try to get about 1/4 the distance this 58 degree wedge is actually capable of?

In short - is that aiming point setting power for this wedge shot, as it does on the green for the putter?

Or is the aiming point just for reference/aiming and to scope out elevation changes for the non-putter clubs?

Thank you!

[ncp10]

Quote: Originally Posted by scagwi

Very cool, thanks! For now I've decided to just play with Tour settings and work my way through several dozen rounds and go from there.. I am really enjoying the non-zoom golf. It feels so utterly realistic to cycle through and use the views from the golfer combined with the overhead to make a decision on what to do and how to approach the situation. I am starting to see why they made Tour mode difficulty not actually use the hardest swing difficulty, as you are introducing other difficulty in shot setup and decision making as it is and it seems to balance quite nicely. I can't believe I dismissed this game so quickly when it was relatively new. Huge mistake on my part. This is a supremely engaging actual game of golf, all content and career mode (relative to older TW & other games) aside. I have actually turned the commentary off for now. I really wish I could turn off the tournament atmosphere for solo rounds as well. For all rounds I wish I could permanently never again see the post shot reactions. Those are, by far, my least favorite thing about this game. Whoever thought those were good was very very wrong.

When you play H2H, you get no galleries, and no post-shot animations, i.e., no tournament atmostphere.

If you keep a finger on the A button you can stop the post-shot ani quickly, and when you get real good at it, you can hit the A button just before it activates and prevent it. They aren't bad, but they're too long, and too often, and that contributes to them being way overdone I agree. This is one aspect and a few others that they sort of dropped, incompleted. I'm sure they just flat out ran over budget so cut a few things short of really getting them just right.

But it's really a fabulous game unless you're bent on making it too easy to play, and I think you can set it up so there is ample challenge. My chief complaints are:

1. You can't move the player on the tee box from side to side (super simple to implement, they just didn't do it.

2. Post-shot ani's should have been less frequent, and shorter in length.

3. Working the ball (shot shaping) is really difficult, too difficult. I'll hopefully get better enough at it to risk taking shots using it which I do now but only when I can risk the outcome not being what I was looking for. I was using to working the ball a lot in TW2004 which was very doable, but it's unrealistically difficult to do well using the prescribed 'diagonal swing' you have to employ, so this part they did not get right near as I can tell.

4. Despite how incredibly detailed the 3D objects are, the lines between green<>fringe is just too blurred. it appears they only altered the color, not the texture.

Outside of these things there is a whole lot that is excellent in it--I scratch my head w/ the reviews from others.

[scagwi]

I agree with all of that…

I'm not sure if I'm more committed to it versus 2014 though just because of the content. That and knowing that "this is it" makes it hard for me to commit to it beyond just enjoying it occasionally.

For example right now I'm back to the PS3 on 2014 to enjoy Augusta (for obvious reasons).

I personally don't even need more modes I just wish they would've kept up with doing course DLC, even if it had to be paid for extra money.

No Pebble and no Augusta makes it tough for me. Big bummer.

[ncp10]

Quote: Originally Posted by scagwi

Can someone chime in and help me understand how the power/aiming point tool works in Rory? On the greens, I totally get how it's what you use to set power for a normal perfect swing on flat ground (or it feels that way and operates fine for me), but I'm a bit unsure what's really going on with that aiming point on other shots. Here's my example, as I sit here right now... I'm on Sawgrass 15th about to hit my 2nd. I have 177y to the pin and I've been set up with 6 iron that will go 181y it says in the bottom right. In the distance, the aiming point is out there saying 177y, but I can move it slightly further away from me and it then reads 181y. Why is it set up to 177y (in this case) and what does that mean? Is this a carry/rollout thing? Or am I inducing more risk and requiring a more perfect swing to get that full 181y from the club and thus the game doesn't set me up with that full distance on the aiming point to start? Ok...next shot/question.. So now I purposely hit up a bit short (by clubbing down) for another example that I'm again not sure what's happening. Now I'm hitting my 3rd from 27y out. I've been equipped with a "default shot" 58 degree wedge that says it can go 109y. My aiming point is set near the flag at 27y. If I hit a "full power/perfect shot" will I really be getting around that 27y amount of distance or do I need to partial power the swing to try to get about 1/4 the distance this 58 degree wedge is actually capable of? In short - is that aiming point setting power for this wedge shot, as it does on the green for the putter? Or is the aiming point just for reference/aiming and to scope out elevation changes for the non-putter clubs? Thank you!

There are a few mysteries in how it works so I'm not certain, but here's my take:

You'll always be set w/ a default club for the shot pre-adjusted by the game to the exact yardage. It's then up to you to move closer/farther to offset lie/wind/rough/etc. So in your example at Sawgrass, you had 177 actual distance. If it was flat, no wind, and you hit a normal full shot, the ball will go approx 177, but of course there are green slopes etc to impact the final outcome. If in this same example the shot was up 20 feet in elevation, you would need to stretch that out to about 181y, so just use the D key to do that. If it was up in elevation 40 feet, you might need to change to a 5i, and adjust it DOWN to 185, for example.

Short shots like chip shots in particular require a shorter controlled backswing length. When you have for example a 12y chip shot from just off the green, the default presentation will be at 12y usually, and you will have to abbreviate the backswing greatly on this. The easy workaround happens when you chose 'flop shot'. For only this type of shot it seems you can just dial in the distance you're after, then take a normal full shot and all will be fine provided the swing is fine. This IS NOT true for chip shots shapes you must control the backswing on those. I'm not sure about pitch shots yet.