PGA Tour has gone through some changes over the years. Within the last five years it has certainly played it safe with some minor adjustments with controls, upgrade in visuals and little additions here and there. It has also followed the most recent trend of EA Sports titles by cutting the fat out of the game and just leaving the good parts. I’m a huge fan of that trend and I think that it makes what EA Sports is trying to do with their sports titles a bit more pure and far less cluttered with useless crap that gamers don’t want and, more importantly, don’t need. Having said that, I was more than pleasantly surprised with what EA Sports did with PGA Tour this year.
Let’s move from the chitchat and get to the goods.
The first thing you’ll notice when you load up Rory McIlroy PGA Tour is the visuals. While I’m not huge fan of relying so much on visuals when it comes to a game, I have to admit that the Frostbite 3 Engine that this game is built on is starting to look incredibly worn. The graphics are a bit jittery with a lot of noticeable pixelation and drag from the courses when there’s too much going on. Having the occasional texture rendering as the golf course is being previewed is less than impressive. What’s even worse is that however the game was built, as the game is loading (while playing) there are a LOT of pop-ins. For example, you’ll see several animals pop into the scene during course previews, such as foxes, which are a fan favorite in this title. There is a fair amount of stuttering going on as well while the game is loading, which is just ugly as can be. Certainly not a deal breaker, but not visually appealing.
Now, once the game is loaded and the actual game gets going, the graphics and presentation steady a bit. Rory McIlroy has a dead-eye look, but that’s about my only complaint with the actual gameplay visuals. His swing, the animation style and the courses, once you’re playing them, are pretty spot-on, though not quite current generation visuals. You can certainly tell that EA Tiburon still has one foot in the last generation, which is sad considering they had plenty of time to get things right with this hardware. That aside, the gameplay is smooth in motion and a treat for the eyes once it all gets going.
The sound is especially impressive, as you can actually tell/hear when you smack the ball correctly, or when you create the world’s biggest divot. Whoever did the sound for this game did a superb job of capturing what golf should sound like. Additionally, the commentary for this game from Rich Lerner and Frank Nobilo is entertaining. When you’re on, they’re a supportive bunch. When you’re off, they’re beautifully bombastic towards your lame play. Either way, you’re getting a lot of spot-on commentary without much repetition. Keep the ball in play to get the positive praise you’re looking for from the duo.
As for actual gameplay, when you load up the game for the first time, you’re thrown into a prologue scenario with Rory McIlroy. The game forces you to play through McIlroy’s U.S. Open experience, while showing you interviews, in between shots, with McIlroy about how he felt during certain moments in the tournament. The concept is neat, as you basically go through a tutorial while not being told you’re going through a tutorial. It’s a bit long in the tooth, though, and you can’t skip it. While I certainly appreciate the neat walkthrough experience that McIlroy had while winning one of golf’s most prestigious tournaments, as a gamer I just wanted to start my own experience. This is about a 15-20 minute prologue and I just wanted to play the game.
When you finally get to play, the actual golf game is spectacular in this PGA Tour. While the game gives you several options for control style (Arcade, Classic and Tour), it starts you off by default in Arcade controls. This allows you to swing your club using the left thumbstick, which is simplistic, but can absolutely drive you wonky if you pull the club too far one way or another. The Arcade controls work by pulling down on the thumbstick to initiate a backswing and pushing forward on it to drive the ball. If you’re not spot-on the push forward, you could hook or slice it. For example, I was playing on a par 5, testing out a new driver, when I pulled the ball too far to the right because I wasn’t paying proper attention. That sent my poor ball flying into the woods with little or no hope for recovery. Again, it’s a simple style, but certainly favorable to mistakes. The addition of backspin or putting more power to the hit helps to add more depth to the Arcade controls. You can go the Classic control route, which is button driven or you can hardcore it with Tour controls (for only the best). Out of the bunch, I enjoyed Arcade the most because it felt like a natural swing (good or bad) would feel like in an actual game of golf. Having played the hell out of the sport in high school, and in my later years, it’s the best way to go.
As the game gets rolling, you’re given several different ways to play it. Choosing the correct mode brings an entirely new experience each time, and that’s beautiful. Going back to what I said earlier in the review, the game doesn’t have a lot of unnecessary gameplay modes or styles packed into it. It’s a simple batch of choices that are solid in their delivery. Here’s a breakdown on what you can expect with this PGA Tour:
Play Now – This is your typical EA Sports ‘PLAY RIGHT NOW’ mode, where you can just jump into the thick of things without much thought. You’ve seen this sort of mode before in Madden and FIFA, and it’s a quick experience for someone just wanting to sharpen their skills without much added grief of building up to something.
Night Club Challenge – This is interesting and even more so when you see your golfer (an older gentleman). In this mode you’re given a series of remedial to insane tasks to accomplish while playing golf with a glow ball at night. For example, there is a challenge where you have to get your ball through a series of rings in the sky. If you do so, you’re given points that unlock more challenges. What’s also interesting about this particular mode is that you get power-ups to use to help you complete the challenges. Staying with the rings, you obtain a rocket boost on this challenge, which propels your ball skyward when it’s starting a downward pattern. This gives you extra ‘umph’ to get the ball to its destination. There are an entire set of power-ups to use, and misuse, during the night club challenge. This is a deviation from typical PGA Tour and an unusual welcomed addition.
Pro Career – Ah, Pro Career. You can customize a golfer, give him a name (Kurt Cobain for me) and send them on their way through tournaments trying to accomplish great things. This is my favorite mode for almost all EA Sports titles, especially during Madden season. EA Tiburon did a solid job with the pro career mode. They made it interesting, somewhat quick and customizable to a point where you can truly call the experience your own. Being able to customize your golf clubs and change small attributes through XP to your golfers game brings a solid effort to the PGA Tour experience. I spent most of my time in this mode failing miserably, but enjoying the experience in attempts to cultivate a pro career for Kurt Cobain.
Prologue – This mode allows you to play popular golfing scenarios. If you like this sort of experience, then have at it. Quite honestly, the beginning prologue of the game made me avoid this a bit. I do appreciate what it has to offer, but it certainly isn’t as enticing or interesting as creating your own experience in the game for yourself.
Head 2 Head – This is an interesting addition to this year’s PGA Tour. This allows you to play up to four players online or offline. The offline ability, while not far from typical in sports games these days (or any day) is welcomed. Offline play is so incredibly ignored by the gaming industry that is infatuated with online driven content, so it’s always nice to see some good effort put into a mode like Head 2 Head. Anyway, it’s going to be a good mode to go to when you’re trying to punk your friends in golf.
Online Tournaments – If online tournaments is your thing, you’re probably going to love this option. I didn’t get a real chance to experience this portion of the game during my review period, but from what I can tell it’s a well organized, yet simple, machine. There are daily and weekly tournaments that players compete for with insane factors that may or may not be included during the golfing experience. Right now, there are some major players in both Amateur and Pro Open tournaments. The top fellow has a -20 score, and I’m not sure I’m capable enough to beat that guy. Big purses and prestige awaits online fans for this game. Well, at least prestige in their heads. From what I can tell, the online portion of the game is pretty solid, which isn’t typical of online experiences at launch these days (looking at you, Drive Club).
There is nothing more or less to these modes, which again is fantastic. I think there is enough variety for any type of golf gamer out there in the world. This stuff is the most important part of the game and EA Tiburon did a great job post-Woods getting these things right and focusing on what makes this game interesting and important. This is the heart of the game and it beats well.
So, is this game worth the price of admission? Well, while I think there needs to be some major upgrades to the visuals and some much needed learning about the current generation hardware, and dumping the Frostbite 3 Engine for something newer and shiner, the gameplay is what matters here and EA Tiburon does a great job with it. Solid modes mixed with 13 courses at launch equals out to a fun golf gaming experience. If I’m an avid golfing fan (and I am), then I’m including this in the yearly budget again.
Anyway, onto the summary!
