Rory McIlroy PGA TOUR News Post

Rory McIlroy PGA Tour: Still Thin, But Not As Bare As At Launch

05:37 PM - December 16, 2015 by RaychelSnr

When Rory McIlroy PGA Golf was released, it was met with a lot of criticism, and rightfully so. Although the gameplay was solid, once you hit the clubhouse the game felt shallow and left many feeling they had purchased an incomplete title. The career mode felt like an afterthought, and the online offerings were depleted if you compared them to previous EA golf titles.

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Game: Rory McIlroy PGA TOURReader Score: 6/10 - Vote Now
Platform: PS4 / Xbox OneVotes for game: 12 - View All

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# 1 Sparkles @ 12/16/15 07:17 PM

Is there an ETA for when it will be free on ea access?

# 2 OnlookerDelay @ 12/17/15 03:28 AM

This game seems to be slowly getting there, but I can't help but wonder if when it finally does, it's going to be too late. I get the impression that they don't have as many people on the development team as they had in the Tiger Woods era, and as a result, they're doing a miserable job on the public relations end with RMPGAT. I'll buy it if they ever add an option to turn off that annoying tempo bubble, that's directly beneath the golfer; and add real time, hole-by-hole scoring updates to live tournaments. It may very well wind up in the EA Access Vault before both of those happen though.

# 3 catcherforbaseball @ 12/17/15 12:30 PM

Big fan of the game for a while. Considering how bare it was I began to lose interest. To spice up the career mode, I would even be interested in adding the fantasy courses to add something new. A lot of the previous features from Tiger Woods games should be looked into. For example, the country club addition or the shot by shot game challenges.

I look forward to playing this game some more, but I need more of an social experience like this article points out.

# 4 DoubleD914 @ 12/17/15 01:26 PM

I have always purchased the annual TWPGA game for as long as I can remember. This is the first year I did not buy the game. After playing the 10 hour trial, it was clear that The Golf Club is the far superior game. The physics alone are much more realistic than Rory15. How can people call this golf when your ball stops on a dime from a shot with a 3W!?? I'd say Graphics and licensing are the only PROS Rory 15 has that I wish the Golf Club had more of. For anyone looking to get their golf gaming fix...check out www.tgctours.com

# 5 pietasterp @ 12/17/15 02:23 PM

Thanks for the update on the game. I like that that OS revisited the game after more content has been released, as promised by EA. This is (for better or worse) likely going to increasingly become standard as more and more games release and add later, almost like episodic gaming.

Good to know the follow-up has been there, but I have to wonder about the sustainability of this model. Is EA just priming the public to expect bare-bones releases that will be added to later? Unspoken, of course, is initially for 'free' as a sort of trial balloon, and then later (if successfully adopted by consumers) for $$$.

I hate to sound like an old guy, but the way the industry is going is the reason why I barely even play games any more.

# 6 Marcellus Wallace @ 12/25/15 07:48 PM

I still enjoy this game. It's a fun pick up and play game that I've put some time into. This will be the only EA golf game for years, right? Hence no year in the title? I assume they will just be updating this as time goes...

# 7 redsox4evur @ 12/26/15 02:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Marcellus Wallace


	I still enjoy this game. It's a fun pick up and play game that I've put some time into. This will be the only EA golf game for years, right? Hence no year in the title? I assume they will just be updating this as time goes...

I think it's going to be like UFC. It's an every other year release. So the next one will probably come out in 2017 and it will be called Rory McIlroy PGA Tour 2.

# 8 sammy g @ 12/29/15 04:12 PM

It's on sale through PSN for $16 for those who were waiting to pick it up for cheap.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

# 9 OnlookerDelay @ 12/30/15 12:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sammy g


	It's on sale through PSN for $16 for those who were waiting to pick it up for cheap.

I've been holding off for what I'd hoped would eventually be the inclusion of an option to turn off the tempo bubble meter, but when I saw $16, I figured what the heck. I'd forgotten the insufferable early stages of this game from my 10 hour EA Access time with it on the XB1, so I'm plowing through that right now.

The graphics are truly first rate in this game; I just wish they could figure out a way to allow users to configure the presentation and interface options to what I consider next-gen levels. While I hadn't forgotten how annoying the tempo bubble was (at least to me... I don't have enough sensory discipline to ignore it), I had forgotten how much I dislike Follow Cam. RMPGAT does follow cam well, I've just never liked follow cam on any game on any system... just not my thing. I know the Pro View option is there, but it needs a lot of work to even match up to the "Stay with golfer view (for as long as you like)" in The Golf Club.

I'll play it some more once I get past these early obligatory stages, and get into the Advanced Tour Custom settings. I can see that some significant improvements have been made since I played the EA Access version back in July on the XB1, but it sill lacks the polish of the presentation and interface of Tiger Woods PGA Tour 13, and the quality of the Connected Live Tournaments of Tiger 14. I hope EA Sports sticks with it and gets it up to at least what we had in Tiger 13, and hopefully later, Tiger 14's connected tournaments.

# 10 jenglund @ 12/30/15 03:06 PM

I'm torn...16 bucks is cheap. I never thought I'd get this version, but that's a good deal.

But I have my PS3 Tiger Woods 14, and I still haven't made it very far into that career.

And reading about the dumb celebrations for this game is a turn off.

Is career mode at least pretty decent? I know there's a barebones player creator, but do you level up skills in a similar way as past games and get your player better over time? And just keep playing seasons?

# 11 Pappy Knuckles @ 12/30/15 03:21 PM

$16? I'll bite. Not expecting much improvement from when I rented it at launch, but hopefully online has improved a bit. It was a pretty game, so it had that going for it.

# 12 MJDrocks @ 12/30/15 05:49 PM

I nabbed it for 16. Looking forward to diving into it

# 13 OnlookerDelay @ 12/30/15 07:19 PM

I've now played enough to get past the obligatory 'rite of passage' stages, and have set myself up for Advanced Tour Custom mode. It does ratchet the difficulty up nicely, and I hit some woefully bad shots where I got lazy, and in some cases, distracted by the tempo meter. I've already reached the point where I'm ready to put a circular piece of tape over it. I'm starting to find some degree of feel with the swing, as after a while, my double digit backswing and "tempo" percentages varied no more than 6%, with 3 and 4 being more the norm. Still, there's something dodgy about the swing animation and interface. It seems to have a narrow execution zone. Either the animation will reset if I'm going what is my normal backswing speed, or it will move in spurts if I get a wee bit fast with it... even the tempo bubble show quick spurts when this happens.

I've been dying to see a quality rendition of my favorite local course, Quail Hollow, and played it this afternoon in one of the Tour mode Daily tournaments. The course captured the essence of Quail Hollow to a level of detail I didn't think would be possible on a console! I shot a 77, with my 62 overall attribute player. I missed a lot of greens and a lot of fairways, but the wind was blowing 13 to 18 MPH. Still, a number of my "misses" were due to my not nailing the swing.

The accuracy errors seemed to be reasonably balanced. I missed three or four putts of 4 feet, or less, leaving them short... the short putt swing execution is a touchy, head-scratcher. I don't know any other way to describe it, other than it feels "klunky" to me. Here again, I'd love to be able to turn off the tempo bubble that's just below the golfer, and gauge my swing off the golfer's swing animation, even though the putting animation looks and feels a bit sputtery.

I did play Bay Hill last night and thought it looked fantastic. I love all the eye candy in the background, the spectators milling about, the caddie being in view where they should, all the characteristic landmarks being faithfully in place, and the textures look great!

Finally, and I know this is just some peculiar quirk about my perceptions, but there's an abiding sense that I'm running fixed segment film clips of my player playing golf as I play this game, instead of the golfer being in the environment and having things unfold around him until they've naturally played out. Let me try to explain: The shot setup and preparation is fine, then comes the swing, which seems to require a relatively narrow range of swing speeds, or it freezes and restarts, or moves in spurts that seem like something happening with an old style film. Then as the ball is finding its way to its destination, it frequently comes to a premature, abrupt stop, that 'film sequence' ends and an unnecessarily long cutaway view film clip of your golfer's post shot movements (thankfully not the ridiculous dances of the launch version) are shown.

I come away thinking I've just watched a three part film (any part of which looks great in screen shots), instead of vicariously living out an experience in which I was a free flowing element in an environment that existed to allow it to happen in its own terms. I don't know, it's tough to explain... I do plan to play it some more to give it more of a chance, but I would love to see the Pro View presentation get some help tracking the ball from the golfer's perspective, and maybe even a reverse angle landing camera option for it. I'd dearly love the option to turn off the tempo bubble meter. Finally, I'd like to see the return of connected live tournaments, or at least leaderboards in live tournaments that give, live, hole-by-hole scoring updates.

I can say with confidence that RMPGAT is worth every bit of $16, but it still feels like a work in progress... one that still got quite a ways to go to reach its true potential. I think EA Sports realizes this, but I have to wonder, if they're already having to cut the price to this degree, are they going to be able to maintain enough of a revenue stream to get it there?

# 14 DivotMaker @ 12/30/15 07:43 PM

The swing is very different than TGC. It IS 1:1 where TGC has such a lag and no tempo in the swing, that is what is causing your "resets".

# 15 MJDrocks @ 12/31/15 03:36 AM

Just completed my first round with a 71 (-1) on TPC SG using Rory. I'll post the settings I used below. Keep in mind that I've only played one round but I have to say that this game looks and feels really nice. The commentary was very solid and much improved over the latest Tiger game. Have a feeling this could be my go to golf title.

Swing Mechanic: Advanced
Swing Difficulty: Hard
Power Boost: Off
Spin Control: Off
Green Grid: On
Putt Read: Off
Shot Shaping: Off
Lie Effect: Advanced
Wind Gust: Off
Zoom: Off
Aiming Arc: Off

# 16 OnlookerDelay @ 12/31/15 02:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MJDrocks


	Swing Mechanic: Advanced Swing Difficulty: Hard Power Boost: Off Spin Control: Off Green Grid: On Putt Read: Off Shot Shaping: Off Lie Effect: Advanced Wind Gust: Off Zoom: Off Aiming Arc: Off

That's the settings I'm using in my "Custom 1" setup. It does take the game to a new level of difficulty. The lowest round I've shot is a 76, using them.

# 17 DivotMaker @ 12/31/15 03:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by OnlookerDelay


	That's the settings I'm using in my "Custom 1" setup. It does take the game to a new level of difficulty. The lowest round I've shot is a 76, using them.

Turn green grid OFF, Wind Gusts ON, Shot Shaping ON and take difficulty to another level.....

# 18 MJDrocks @ 12/31/15 04:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DivotMaker


	Turn green grid OFF, Wind Gusts ON, Shot Shaping ON and take difficulty to another level.....

For me, I have to keep Green Grid on because I'd just be guessing on putts but I'm curious as to what do Wind Gusts do? Do they make it unrealistic by changing up wind randomly between holes or is it a consistent pattern of wind? I turned it off fearing I would get inconsistent wind gusts. Also, how does Shot Shaping effect the game?

# 19 OnlookerDelay @ 12/31/15 04:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DivotMaker


	Turn green grid OFF, Wind Gusts ON, Shot Shaping ON and take difficulty to another level.....

I must have Shot Shaping on then, because if I want to play a hook or a slice, I have to use a diagonal swing... the results have been catastrophic, as I always sucked at that in Tiger Woods 14's Simulation difficulty. Is that what happens when Shot Shaping is on? I might as well turn grids off because I'm finding the beadless grid to be of no help in gauging the slope.

I hate to admit it, but I'm too lazy and impatient to take the extra time and effort needed to use gridless greens... this has proven to be the case in every golf game I've ever played where it was offered. The way my putting is in this game right now, I don't need any help to make it any more difficult!

It's mostly with leaving short putts short, or leaving them out to the right though.

I may try wind gusts later... over what range do they gust?

# 20 BL8001 @ 12/31/15 04:52 PM

The $16 price tag on psn is so nice. Could not refuse it and glad I picked this up. Game is a lot of fun and I hope they stick to supporting it for all of 16 since they have said this won't be a yearly release. Adding modes, golfers and courses is enough because the gameplay is pretty solid.

I agree with others who say the view does not stay on the ball long enough off tee and from the fairway. It surprised me when pro view contains some sort of weird zoom and camera raise, then abruptly cuts to your ball dropping out of the sky at an odd angle. So back to follow I went.

Just make the camera stay still so you see the golfer swing and the ball take off with no camera motion.

No stats is a bummer.

I do like the customization of swing aids and difficulty.

One thing I was surprised was missing is mulligans. Just being able to retake a shot. If it is there please tell me where.
I had a cool shot on quail hollow, hole 7 I think. Game wanted me to go over the tree with a 60 degree but I choose to go under with a punch 8. The short game is too powerful, if you want to play an easy bump and run type shot the ball takes off and rolls out way farther then I expected. I can get used to it but simply not being able to sit there and re-try that shot was disappointing. I am playing alone on the course, let me do what I want.

Sand shots don't look right. The swings are too short like chips. You blast it out of the bunker, taking more sand, not pick it out chip swing style.

Round grips on putters looks odd.

Too many cavity back irons, not enough blades and no blade/cavity combo sets.

When I saw dufner wearing a titelist hat I was excited that EA finally got titleist gear in the game. Nope, no clubs.

I would also like to set the pro's bags for them. I laughed when dufner pulled out his 7 wood. Lots of pros don't carry a 5 much less a 7. Oh well.

The game is fun though and that is what matters most.

Edit: correction, you can make combo sets. As a matter of fact you can have 14 different clubs if you wish.

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