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Rory McIlroy PGA Tour

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Rory McIlroy PGA Tour
Developer(s)EA Tiburon
Publisher(s)EA Sports
SeriesPGA Tour
EngineFrostbite 3[1]
Platform(s)PlayStation 4
Xbox One
Genre(s)Sports (Golf)
Mode(s)Single-player, multiplayer

Rory McIlroy PGA Tour is a golf video game by EA Tiburon. First announced at E3 2014, it was released on July 14, 2015 for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, coinciding with the 2015 Open Championship.

The game was re-built from scratch[2] as part of its shift to eighth generation consoles, adopting the Frostbite 3 engine to provide the ability to render more realistic environments and render courses as a single map rather than individually. Additionally, the game introduces new swing modes and assists, and an arcade-style challenge mode. It is the first entry in EA Sports' PGA Tour series since 1998 not to feature Tiger Woods as its namesake, replacing him with Rory McIlroy, who was world number one at the time of the game's release.

Rory McIlroy PGA Tour received mixed reviews; although critics acknowledged the game's increased graphics quality and realism over previous installments in the franchise, the game was criticized primarily for its regressions over previous entries in the franchise, including a small number of available courses, and the removal of various modes and features that had been present in previous PGA Tour games.

Development

Electronic Arts' PGA Tour franchise was placed on a hiatus following its 2013 release, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 14; in October 2013, EA announced that the game would also be the final installment in the series co-branded with Tiger Woods, and that he would be replaced by a new title golfer for its next edition.[3] At EA's E3 press conference in June 2014, the company presented footage of the next game in the series under the working title EA Sports PGA Tour.[3][4] On 16 March 2015, it was announced that Rory McIlroy would serve as the new title athlete, naming the game Rory McIlroy PGA Tour. It was scheduled to be released in June 2015, before being delayed to 14 July 2015.[5]

Unlike other recent EA Sports titles, which were unified around the Ignite engine, Rory McIlroy PGA Tour utilizes the Frostbite 3 engine, originally developed by DICE for the Battlefield franchise. The Frostbite engine allows an entire course to be rendered all at once rather than on a hole-by-hole basis—reducing loading times between holes. Executive producer Brent Nielsen explained that Frostbite 3 was tailored towards "creating complex, lifelike environments", and that it allowed the team to "recreate some of the world's most beautiful courses, as well as create some new ideas of our own."[3][4] Producer Ryan Ferwerda explained that the changes necessitated a complete rebuild of the game from scratch.[2]

Rory McIlroy PGA Tour features Golf Channel-styled in-game presentation, including its commentators Rich Lerner and Frank Nobilo replacing CBS's Jim Nantz and David Feherty as the game's commentators.[3][5]

Gameplay

Rory McIlroy PGA Tour contains some new features, assists and gameplay changes. New Backswing Meter, Aiming Arc, and putt read features were added to assist players in making accurate shots. Three main swing modes are offered; "Arcade", which uses the analog sticks to swing and allows application of spin to the ball in mid-air, the traditional "3-Click", and "Tour"—an advanced mode similar to Arcade mode, but with no assists enabled at all and higher sensitivity.[2][5] Players can toggle individual assists to customize their experience.[6]

The new engine provides more realistic physics and interactions between the ball and aspects of the environment, such as accounting for firmness and grass length, and shooting balls through plants and trees. As an entire course is now treated as a single map, errant shots can also land and be played from areas that were previously considered out-of-bounds and incurred penalties.[2][5][7]

A new mode, Night Club Challenge, requires players to make shots at targets in a nightclub-inspired setting.[2][7]

Some features were removed in comparison to PGA Tour 14; amateur (aside from a Web.com Tour event for earning the player's PGA Tour membership) and women's events were removed,[8] as well as alternate modes (such as best ball, skins, and Stableford scoring) beyond stroke and match play, the ability to play individual or certain types of holes (only back 9, front 9, or 18 can be played),[8] online Country Clubs[6] Quick Tournament,[8] weather,[8] and career schedules.[8]

Courses

Rory McIlroy PGA Tour includes eight real-world courses on-disc; TPC Sawgrass, Wolf Creek, Royal Troon, TPC Boston, Bay Hill, Whistling Straits, St Andrews, and Chambers Bay. TPC Scottsdale is a pre-order exclusive. Additional courses will be added through downloadable content.[2][5][9] Due to an expired license, Augusta National and the Masters Tournament will not appear in the game, although an EA representative has suggested that the course may be re-introduced as DLC in the future.[10]

Four fantasy courses are also offered, including one based on the Battlefield map Paracel Storm, the Grand Canyon, and a nightclub-themed course for the game's new challenge mode.[2][3][4][5]

Reception

Rory McIlroy PGA Tour received mixed reviews from critics, receiving praise for its new features and improved physics, but with criticism directed primarily towards the game's lack of content and features. Aggregating review websites GameRankings and Metacritic gave the PlayStation 4 version 63.33% based on 27 reviews and 61/100 based on 32 reviews[11][13] and the Xbox One version 60.71% based on 14 reviews and 61/100 based on 23 reviews.[12][14]

Polygon gave Rory McIlroy PGA Tour a 6 out of 10; the game was praised for the improvements brought by its new engine (including its visual appearance, short loading times, and ball physics), the new putting system, its career progression, which now allowed players to "[deepen their] package of abilities instead of forcing him or her to be pure power, pure accuracy or down the middle", "lifelike" crowds, Golf Channel commentators that were "much more conversational than the wooden and overacted delivery of Jim Nantz", albeit somewhat repetitive. The game was criticized for its lack of courses and events (with only two of the Men's majors represented, and the removal of LPGA events and all but one Web.com Tour event), limited character creation options, as well as the removal of features that were present in previous editions of the PGA Tour franchise. The challenge mode was considered fun, but not comparable to modes in previous installments that focused on the history of golf. As a result, Polygon concluded that Rory McIlroy PGA Tour was "a smooth-playing game of golf, which makes the inability to use its new gameplay on the old features fans loved even more regrettable."[8]

IGN was similarly negative, giving the game a 5.5 out of 10; although praising the new swing modes and assists for allowing players to customize gameplay to better suit their play style, and the new Frostbite engine for being "appreciably superior than the links of the last generation—even if some of the textures are a little flat and a lot of the course features tend to pop in around the path of the ball's flight", Rory McIlroy PGA Tour was criticized for its lack of content and the removal of features that were present in previous installments of EA Sports' PGA Tour franchise. The lack of features was most apparent in career mode, which saw the removal of bonus objectives, practice rounds, career schedules and the trophy room among others, joking that "if a professional career in golf was really this unrewarding and directionless, Rory McIlroy would probably have set his sights on a Masters in Accounting rather than the one in Augusta." They concluded that "concessions are often made when sports games straddle the gap between console generations old and new, but considering the two year wait for a game that is only being released on current-gen hardware, the rampant slash and burn of its feature set is particularly galling. EA Tiburon has managed to create a golf game with plenty of holes in it; just not the kind that fans will relish."[6]

References

  1. ^ Prell, Sam (9 June 2014). "Fore! EA Sports PGA Tour brings golf out of the Woods". Joystiq. AOL. Retrieved 11 June 2014.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g "Big changes arrive on EA Sports' golf course with Rory McIlroy PGA Tour". Polygon. Retrieved 22 June 2015.
  3. ^ a b c d e Good, Owen S. (16 March 2015). "EA Sports' golf video game returns as Rory McIlroy PGA Tour (Update)". Polygon. Retrieved 16 March 2015.
  4. ^ a b c Sarkar, Samit (9 June 2014). "EA Sports PGA Tour being developed in Frostbite 3 engine, coming spring 2015". Polygon. Retrieved 16 March 2015.
  5. ^ a b c d e f Makuch, Eddie (23 April 2015). "New PGA Tour Game Delayed, But Exciting New Gameplay Details Revealed". GameSpot. Retrieved 24 April 2015.
  6. ^ a b c d Ogilvie, Tristan (14 July 2015). "Rory McIlroy PGA Tour review: Struggling to make par". IGN. Retrieved 23 July 2015.
  7. ^ a b "PGA Tour adds some Battlefield shine — and lets you play as a true duffer, too". VentureBeat. Retrieved 22 June 2015.
  8. ^ a b c d e f g S. Good, Owen (18 July 2015). "Rory McIlroy PGA Tour review: Short game". Polygon. Retrieved 19 July 2015.
  9. ^ "Rory McIlroy PGA Tour's first gameplay video brings us to one of only eight real-life courses (update)". Polygon. Retrieved 30 June 2015.
  10. ^ "EA Rory McIlroy PGA Tour golf omits The Masters". Eurogamer. Retrieved 9 April 2015.
  11. ^ a b "Rory McIlroy PGA Tour for PlayStation 4". GameRankings. Retrieved 23 July 2015.
  12. ^ a b "Rory McIlroy PGA Tour for Xbox One". GameRankings. Retrieved 23 July 2015.
  13. ^ a b "Rory McIlroy PGA Tour for PlayStation 4 Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 23 July 2015.
  14. ^ a b "Rory McIlroy PGA Tour for Xbox One Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 23 July 2015.
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