Rory McIlroy PGA TOUR Available Today - Post Your Impressions Here

[smitty67]

Quote: Originally Posted by sroz39

I mentioned this in The Show forums way back when but I've had to re-think what next gen is shortly after the new systems launched. IMO, this is the smallest incremental change jumping console generations. Most of the changes involve lighting and AI, things not so easily noticed at first sight, like you could from previous console generation jumps. So with that, my expectations of next gen golf have changed as well. I was HOPING for more if I'm going to be totally honest. But was I surprised when I saw how little there was to this game pre-release, compared to previous gen TW games? Not at all. So I knew going in what I was getting. Are there things that drive me nuts or I wish I was different? For sure. The celebrations are stupid, the green speeds are WAY off, the customization is limited, and Tour mode swings even on Expert are too accurate. I get the frustration that you, Smitty, and others are experiencing at times. But at the end of the day, am I having fun playing this game? An absolute blast. I've put my faith in this dev team and EA in general because, quite frankly, as I've gotten older, what I want out of video games has changed. When I first joined OS in 2006, I was all about making games as sim as possible, tweaking sliders for days, weeks, months. Where did that get me? Usually with unstarted Franchise modes and getting frustrated because a QB completed 80% of his passes in Madden or a guy shot 55% for the season from 3pt land in NBA 2K. In my 30's now, my time is more limited and so are my expectations. At the end of the day, am I having fun? And I can tell you this, since this shift in thinking, I've never enjoyed games more and have not regretted a single sports game purchase in that time. It's what allows me to enjoy this game and TGC at the same time, even though I find TGC far from sim. It's what allows me to play all sorts of games and I feel it was time well wasted regardless. I wish I could go back and enjoy games like Madden 2005 and NFL 2K5 for what they were instead of constantly pitting them against each other and ending up enjoying neither. Doubly so since competition in the sports game genre is almost non-existent. I love this game for what it is, and what it is, is a beautiful looking, good playing but limited in scope golf game. When I execute 3 great shots in a row to get a hard earned eagle using 3 click, or when I play H2H online and birdie a hole the other three guys struggle to par, the last thing I'm worried about is how many shirts my guy can wear or that he can't have a beard or that there's "only" 13 courses in the game, or that he's doing the moonwalk after I par. There's too much good to sour me on things I don't agree with or like. Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

I guess with this, my problem is two fold. I like the career modes on NHL, NCAA and TW because I'm not good enough to compete on the online modes.

Second, I'm so,old, I once played and owned an Atari. So, the clothes, the courses, the trades, the recruiting, this is what I get a kick out of

Playing the real schedule on NHL, or NCAA or TW with real players, real courses, real stadiums etc. is my reason for buying the games.

If this is on a two year cycle, I'm not sure I will purchase, not out do anger, but age. What 50 year old man will be planning his summer around the release of a video game?

Like I said, I hope there are some updates that make the career mode as immersive as some others have been for me.

[DivotMaker]

Quote: Originally Posted by smitty67

I guess with this, my problem is two fold. I like the career modes on NHL, NCAA and TW because I'm not good enough to compete on the online modes. Second, I'm so,old, I once played and owned an Atari. So, the clothes, the courses, the trades, the recruiting, this is what I get a kick out of Playing the real schedule on NHL, or NCAA or TW with real players, real courses, real stadiums etc. is my reason for buying the games. If this is on a two year cycle, I'm not sure I will purchase, not out do anger, but age. What 50 year old man will be planning his summer around the release of a video game? Like I said, I hope there are some updates that make the career mode as immersive as some others have been for me.

I'll be 57 next month so don't feel like you are the only "old man who plays video games" around here....

[saucerset]

Quote: Originally Posted by DivotMaker

I'll be 57 next month so don't feel like you are the only "old man who plays video games" around here....

I hope I am still playing games when I am 57, but I am only 44 right now and I already have arthritis in my hands and tennis elbow that won't seem to go away. lol

[Lieutenant Dan]

I'm 48, so also not a young man anymore....but damn, Divot...you're OLD!

Anyway, I love both of my golf games this year (TGC and RM). This a RM thread so I'll keep TGC to a minimum, but here is the MAIN FACTOR of what I love about each:

TGC: Creating courses = digital crack. I have logged many weeks working on courses and fine-tuning them. It's a blast. That the game plays as well as it does is a bonus to me, and if it played poorly then the course creator would not carry it for me (and yes I have played with the new patch and I'm doing fine).

RM: PGA courses/presentation. I gotta have my PGA Tour fix, and here it is and it's beautiful man. The PGA courses that are present so far look incredible and play very well. I also have to add that I enjoy building up my golfer; if TGC's 'golf RPG' aspect is course creation, then in RM it is building up your golfer's ability and unlocking equipment.

Now, back on to RM full-time.

As I said, love the courses that are available, but the truncated tour as a result of few courses is...a bit of a drag. I agree with Divot's conjecture that there might be a process at EA for releasing more courses over time that coincide with the tour (or something to that effect). I really hope that we see more courses come down the pike soon, and I will be interested to see what follows the free release of Scottsdale.

Also of note, the new courses will need to be integrated into your ongoing tour schedule, I hope! If that can't be done, that will be a significant strike, but let's see how EA rolls with it, and the free release of Scottsdale time frame should help reveal this in terms of an accompanying update to work it in. I don't think they would integrate Scottsdale NOW because not everyone has it, and that might bugger Scottsdale's tour slot somehow? More conjecture...just makes sense to my old brain.

Sound-wise I love it. The crowd sounds great, and you even have some yahoos shouting "GET IN THE HOLE!" from your second shot on a 600 yard par 5, just like real life! LOL The crowd and music are excellent, the commentary is pretty okay when not being repetitive, but I like that it's semi-dynamic with referring to improving your score on a hole from yesterday to today.

My only beef is I wish the ball-striking effects were more robust...they seem tame and muted, like a towel is wrapped around the club heads. I hope they will charge up that striking audio a bit down the line, but I'm not thinking they will change something like that via update and might have to wait a couple of years for the next edition of the game.

Gameplay-wise, it took me some work to start to get the feel of the game coming off months of TGC, in particular understanding the information that I am being shown on screen with arcs, yardages, how the wind works, "is that actual landing point and roll from there, or that's where the ball will end up?", the putting touch, etc. Now just this weekend I'm finally top 10'ing in my tour and finished one tourney in 2nd and my last one last night in 4th, so I'm finally 'dialed-in' and it feels good now that I have the touch for the game, and understanding of the information on screen.

Online....honestly I haven't even looked at that menu! I take it there are no Country Clubs this year?

My gripe list? Ehh, I love the foundation and general gameplay, especially the ball flight. However, here it is:

--Better audio for ball striking
--Nice graphics, but it can still get hitchy when following the ball on some holes, particularly by the sea. Please optimize.
--More courses AND intergrate them in to existing Pro Career schedule (duh)
--Would like some more broadcast camera style presentation options
--I'd like replays, with full camera options available. I've had a few amazing moments that I can't re-live!
--I'm not keen on the stat pages...the layout is drab and I can't find myself quickly on a page if I'm not up top.
--More options needed for CAG...I can't even add my beard this year and my guy looks almost exactly like Ryan Newman lol.
--Bugs. I don't like the damn flies at the Florida courses and the like, they need to just go. This isn't the Tiki Torch Tour. RAID!??!!


That's about it for now on gripes...I'll close with the pros and a brief summary:

--Career is still super-addictive with building up your golfer and getting new gear and clothes.
--Yes, I get a kick out of being able to suit up differently for the four days.
--I actually like that the game handles the skills progression this year instead of me allocating points directly, though you can do it 'indirectly' by choosing the different profiles.
--Some dynamic aspects to commentary keep me from turning it off (so far).
--Good music continues the tradition from the past couple of EA golf titles.
--What courses there are look great and play very well.
--Ball flight physics seem to be very good to me, particularly the last part of the flight arc. Nicely done.
--I like the 'little things' details on the courses. The time involved to complete the assets for each of these courses must have been astounding, and you can't just port these over with the laser scans of the ground. Each bush has to be added.


Overall, the point is to have fun and I'm having fun. Having said that, for this to be really sustainable more courses will need to come along with some regularity to keep this from turning into a grind. I'm glad I bought it so far and I now have two fun (and different) golf games to enjoy.

[sroz39]

My thoughts almost echo the impressions above ^^^^^

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

[Pappy Knuckles]

Chambers Bay is an evil, evil golf course. Argh!

Now that I've gotten that out of my system, I have to say that I'm enjoying this game. There's a lot that I wish was included, but the actual golf itself is on point. I know some of you have probably mastered this already, but I'm finding it to be a good challenge right now.

[JOS1181]

I am going to wait and see how serious they are about offering support and free DLC. If they can add more courses , a better character creator , better sounds , better career mode..etc. I will think about purchasing down the line. The fantasy courses seem cool and fun but at the same time I think I would have preferred a variety of putt putt courses over what they have done.

Also remove " Get in the hole! / Its in the hole! " when teeing off on a par 5 and par 4.. Also an option to turn off ridiculous celebrations. I would like to see just a hand going up or a tip of the cap to the crowd after a good hole.

[mrsaito]

Quote: Originally Posted by Lieutenant Dan

I'm 48, so also not a young man anymore....but damn, Divot...you're OLD!

I'm 57 today, Dan you will be sooner there than you think :-) Because of my age I am just amazed at the kind of games that are available today. I grew up playing Strat-O-Matic baseball and now I have MLB The Show. Unreal.

As far as this game goes I am still playing TW14 for my career mode and RM for fun. Played St. Andrews each day before watching The Open on TV and will do the same with Whistling Straights and the PGA. To that end I give EA credit for getting the three major venues in the initial release knowing that the number of courses would be limited.

I am holding out hope for the DLC both for courses and functionality. I'm in the camp that believes better sales will lead to better support of this game by EA. I've been in software development for many years and I don't think a 'boycott' would lead to more investment on the vendor's part.