Last year’s Rory McIlroy PGA Tour, the soft reboot of EA Sports’ long running golfing franchise (with a new cover star, after the scandal that previous cover athlete Tiger Woods found himself embroiled in), will be available for the price of absolutely nothing to Xbox One players starting next week- as long as they are subscribed to EA’s EA Access service, that is.

Rory McIlroy PGA Tour was actually a fairly disappointing return for the franchise, and in many ways, it did not reflect the intervening years that had passed between the last Tiger Woods game, and this new one. However, if you’re already subscribed to EA Access, then it’s absolutely free for you, so you might as well give it a go. If not… well, you should definitely get on that, because EA Access is pretty awesome.

We should, hopefully, be seeing Rory McIlroy PGA Tour making its way to the similar PC only Origin Access service some time soon as well.

Rory McIlroy PGA Tour isn’t quite the AAA golf title EA was hoping it would be (you can check out our official review here) but it’s certainly notched up those kinds of sales in the UK for recent weeks. Gfk Chart Track has reported on the top-selling titles for the past week in the country and Rory McIlroy PGA Tour is in first place for the second week in a row.

Granted there haven’t been any new releases but the game has some stiff competition in the form of LEGO Jurassic World, Batman: Arkham Knight, F1 2015 and Grand Theft Auto 5, which make up the remainder of the top five.

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare has still managed to stay in the top ten along with the Xbox and PlayStation Editions of Minecraft. The Elder Scrolls Online saw a strong showing when it first debuted but is now in ninth place. FIFA 15 rounds out the remainder of the list.

Expect Rory McIlroy’s reign of terror to continue for a few more weeks. We’ll have to wait to see how Rare Replay fares when it releases on August 4th for Xbox One.

"The presentation aspect has always been one of the strongest parts of an EA Sports title and Rory McIlroy is no exception. The various tournaments in career mode are structured to appear like a broadcast version of the game of golf, and they succeed pretty well, with lovely aerial views of ponds and lakes and rivers, the various courses each featuring a unique look and feel, and more importantly play differently from each other."

Picturesque vistas are just one aspect of the new Rory McIlroy PGA Tour, the latest golf offering from EA Sports. From high-resolution grass, trees, shrubs and other foliage to ambient wildlife and gorgeous backdrops featuring some of the most famous courses to ever host the tour, Rory McIlroy boasts some quite enjoyable eye candy.

The game itself wastes little time in getting you right into the action, almost as soon as you start it up, you’re whisked away to the prologue tutorial section, which shows you the different control schemes, gets you accustomed to driving down the fairway and down on the green, explains the subtle nuances of putting.

These tutorial lessons are sprinkled with live video from Rory McIlroy himself and the first time through, it’s interesting to hear his thoughts on a hole or reading the green, but every time you need to go back to the tutorial, say if you want to change up control schemes or need a refresher on putting, you need to listen to Rory again. It would be nice if his scenes were skippable at the very least.

The presentation aspect has always been one of the strongest parts of an EA Sports title and Rory McIlroy is no exception. The various tournaments in career mode are structured to appear like a broadcast version of the game of golf, and they succeed pretty well, with lovely aerial views of ponds and lakes and rivers, the various courses each featuring a unique look and feel, and more importantly play differently from each other. Wolf Creek in Nevada, for instance, features small rocky hills in and around the course, while TPC Sawgrass down in Florida features a lot of greenery surrounded by water.

There aren’t nearly as many courses in this years offering as in past PGA Tour games. The addition of TPC Scottsdale as a bonus, and the Battlefield inspired Paracel Storm, set in the South China Sea, will have you teeing off large battleship decks.

" Speaking of, the product placement in the game is pretty atrocious. You’ll see the EA logo plastered on shirts and balls and clubs and I swear I saw an elk on the course with the EA logo branded on its buttocks. Now that’s good eatin’! "

Speaking of, the product placement in the game is pretty atrocious. You’ll see the EA logo plastered on shirts and balls and clubs and I swear I saw an elk on the course with the EA logo branded on its buttocks. Now that’s good eatin’!

Not to be outdone, you’ll also notice logos from Bridgestone, Sraxis and Nike, especially if you enjoy changing your character’s shoes as frequently as I change mine.

The basic gameplay is pretty straightforward. You create a golfer, and take him or her through a series of minor events and some major ones, driving and putting as well as you can to earn experience, which translates into stat boosts that make you a better driver or putter.

You’ll slowly, but surely climb the ranks, and patience may be a virtue in real golf, but here it is paramount, as the short game overall may be one of the most challenging seen in a recent PGA Tour game in years.

There are three main control schemes. The first is Arcade mode, billed as “A setting for everyone”. It’s basically using the left stick to swing, and depending on the force and direction of your stick wizardry, the ball will either shoot forward and land neatly on the fairway, or fly off like a bad pitch.

The other control scheme is the 3-click mechanic, which uses a focus ring and marked points on that ring to account for distance as well as accuracy. You simply click the X button to start the meter up the ring and click it twice more to stop it where you want.

" The in game commentary is atrocious, bordering on obnoxious and the post swing animations are often jerky and full of lag."

There’s also an advanced swing mechanic called Tour that states its for hardcore gamers only and makes use of the left stick swing mechanic and also the eight way directional control. You can also customize your controls by adjusting the difficulty of your swing, and setting such variables as power boost, spin control, shot shaping and putt reading to off or on, given your preferences.

The long and mid game on the various courses shouldn’t present much of a challenge, even to first time golfers, however, putting is where the challenge really comes into play and has something of a steep learning curve.

In previous PGA Tour games, you could typically use a system where the arrow and the cup (as they were the same distance), could be used to analyze distance and calculate break.

Here, reading the green and making accurate putts is much more difficult. A good rule of thumb seems to be for every inch of elevation change, to take off or add a foot of distance, however, even this can be misleading at times. A bit more polish on the putting green would have gone a long way towards adding accessibility and increasing replay value.

The pacing of the game is borderline laborious. Starting at level 1, your created linkster has an overall rating of 60. As a point of reference, Rory McIlroy has an overall 94 rating and after hitting level 75, your rating will be lucky to break 80. This matters because your overall rating is computed based on a variety of values that are your created golfers attributes in 20 different categories, such as ball striking, strength, recovery, shot shaping and long, short and mid range putting.

" In Rory McIlroy PGA Tour, relaxation gives way to rage, thanks to the irritating pacing, obnoxious commentary and steep learning curve. In the world of golf, this game is a double bogey at best. "

This wouldn’t be a huge deal, except that during tournaments, between rounds your performance is simulated based on your attribute values and overall rating. Basically if your values are low and you finish at 4^th in the round, you could start the next round at 66^th.

Not every part of the presentation is as crisp as a freshly mowed green either. The in game commentary is atrocious, bordering on obnoxious and the post swing animations are often jerky and full of lag. Watching your golfer spin their club behind their back in a jittery slideshow motion might be unintentionally comedic the first time, but after a few hundred holes, it tends to be a sad reminder of the game’s overall lack of polish.

On a perfect day, golf should be a relaxing sport, bordering on a zen like experience. In a sense, a golfer communes with nature, becoming one with his surroundings and he is changed, and in turn changes the world around him, allowing him to focus and rely on skill and finesse. In Rory McIlroy PGA Tour, relaxation gives way to rage, thanks to the irritating pacing, obnoxious commentary and steep learning curve. In the world of golf, this game is a double bogey at best.

This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 4.

Game Overview:

Rory McIlroy PGA TOUR was developed from the ground up using the Frostbite engine. The game features beautiful new environments and detailed courses. There will be loading times as Frostbite renders the entire course at once.

Rory McIlroy PGA Tour is now available for PS4 and Xbox One. The game was developed by EA Tiburon and published by EA Sports.

Check out the video walkthrough of Rory McIlroy PGA Tour below and let us know if you have any questions in the comments section below.

For video game guides, tips and wikis, check out our gaming portal here.

Even though EA Sports’ new golf game, Rory McIlroy PGA Tour, does not launch until July 14, if you are an Xbox One owner, you can play it today, five days ahead of launch. The game finally joins the rotation of titles available on EA Access today.

EA Access is, of course, a service that lets players get access to all EA games included in its ‘vault’ for just $5 per month, as well as early access to upcoming games, for a period of up to ten hours. So, starting today, you can play the full Rory McIlroy PGA Tour, for a period of up to 10 hours until July 14- and if you like what you play, you can choose to buy the full game, with all of your progress carrying over intact.

EA Access is only available on the Xbox One, to subscribers of Xbox Live Gold. If you are a fan especially of EA Sports games, the service pays for itself.

Stay tuned to GamingBolt for more coverage and information on Rory McIlroy PGA Tour.

Fans of golf games, and those that are intrigued about Rory McIlroy PGA Tour, the first EA Sports golfing game since the Tiger Woods controversy from a few years ago, will have the chance to play the game a little early, when it goes live on EA Access starting July 9 next week.

As promised, EA games hit EA Access a little early to allow Xbox Live subscribers to play them early, and for free- in Rory McIlroy PGA Tour’s case, players will be permitted to play the game for up to 10 hours before their early access expires (though if they choose to purchase the final game when it releases, their progress and saves will carry over).

EA Access members also get 10% off the cost of a digital copy from the Xbox Store (again, as is the case with every EA game on EA Access). Basically, if you are even marginally interested in golf and have EA Access, there is no harm in checking this game out.

Rory McIlroy PGA Tour itself launches on July 16 on PS4 and Xbox One. Stay tuned.

The game is currently being developed by the Florida-based EA subsidiary, EA Tiburon who are perhaps best known for their work on Madden NFL, NBA Live and Tiger Woods PGA Tour. Running on the powerful Frostbite 3 engine, which was developed by EA DICE, Rory McIlroy PGA Tour is being published by EA Sports.

Rory McIlroy PGA Tour is set to launch on July 14th 2015. It is being developed for the Xbox One and PlayStation 4.

• 1. Development
• 2. Story
• 3. Gameplay
• 4. Courses

Development

This newest instalment in the PGA Tour series was first announced during the EA Press Conference at E3 2014. Not only will it serve as the next entry into the popular PGA Tour series, it will also be the next game in the series outside of the Tiger Woods branded titles.

EA later put the PGA Tour series on hiatus after the release of Tiger Woods PGA Tour 14. With Tiger Woods PGA Tour 14 acting as the final entry into the branded series, it was announced that a new golfer would be taking up the title of the next game.

Since then, EA have chose the popular and successful Northern Irishman, Rory McIlroy who was, and continues to enjoy, a streak of victories across a number of competitive fronts in the professional golfing scene.

Speaking about his appearance on the cover of the game, Rory said, “I grew up idolizing the best golfers in the world, and now I’m one of them. One of the ways I idolized them was in video games. Playing video games is one of the ways I try to relax in my downtime, and one of my favorite video games was golf. That’s what makes today’s announcement so exciting to me. I am on the cover of EA SPORTS Rory McIlroy PGA TOUR and it’s named after me. That is crazy! I am more excited than I can possibly put into words.”

He was first confirmed to be appearing on the game’s cover on March 16th 2015 after the first delay. Originally, the title was set to drop in June as the first entry in the PGA Tour series since 2013, but it was pushed back to July 14th.

This is the first game in the PGA Tour series of games that will be stepping away from the Ignite Engine which was put to use in most EA Sports titles. Rather Rory McIlroy PGA Tour uses DICE’s Frostbite 3 Engine. The reason for using Frostbite is, according to executive producer Brent Nielsen, that the engine was used to create “complex, lifelike environments” and to bring “some of the world’s most beautiful courses” to life in the game world.

Story

Given the nature of Rory McIlroy PGA Tour, there’s no story or campaign narrative in a traditional sense. Rather the game will lead the player through a series of competitions that will increase in difficulty and visit a variety of famous golfing locales.

Gameplay

EA went to length to ensure the gameplay in Rory McIlroy PGA Tour can be approached by both experienced gamers and those that are more familiar with arcade-like, easier games. They’ve done this by allowing players to choose from one of the three predetermined play styles. They are the Arcade, Classic and Tour gameplay modes.

The Arcade setting is the analog swinging mechanic that was present in previous iterations of the PGA Tour franchise. Just like before, the strength of the swing is determined by how far back the player pulls the analogue stick whereas accuracy is determined by keeping your shot straight and level when pushing forward.

Classic setting is a throwback to the older, simpler golfing games where the player is prompted to press a button at the right time, then time the press again to increase accuracy.

The Tour setting is a professional player’s setting for the more hardcore gamers in the golfing space according to EA. They’ve said, “The length of your back swing and the speed of the follow-through set the power, while accuracy is determined by how straight a line you make with the analogue stick.”

In the Tour setting, players don’t have the benefit of preset spins, zooming or an aim arc – this is all input by the player. The other two gameplay settings mentioned above however do benefit from these assists.

Gameplay options also allow space for customisation such as a custom swing style that could be amalgamation of the three previously mentioned styles.

Courses

At the time of writing, EA haven’t revealed the list of courses that will be available in the game. We do however know that the game will feature a course that is based on the Paracel Storm map from DICE’s Battlefield series. Footage of TPC at Sawgrass and Wolf Creek was also seen.

More courses are likely to be added post launch by way of DLC.

Note: This wiki will be updated once we have more information about the game.

After a bit of an unexpected hiatus, EA Sports will be returning to the world of golf with a new cover athlete and a new brand- Rory McIlroy PGA Tour launches soon, and to tell us what EA has been preparing in the new game, we have gotten a brand new trailer that walks us through some of the new gameplay features we can expect in the new title, purportedly a next gen re-imagining of the classic golfing sim.

The new gameplay changes include refined and changed gameplay mechanics, improved and enhanced ball physics, and more. The Tiger Woods PGA series of games was always one of the most satisfying and most authentic golf experiences on the market- it remains to be seen if this game, which is fundamentally a rebranding with a next gen twist, will live up to that pedigree.

Rory McIlroy PGA Tour will launch on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Stay tuned for more coverage.

EA’s PGA Tour series sort of took a year off last year, leading many to speculate that it might have been retired permanently, especially given the recent controversies and scandals that cover and associate athlete Tiger Woods has found himself in.

But of course, EA isn’t one to let any sport go untouched, and their take on golf is back- they have announced Rory McIlroy PGA Tour, which will be hitting the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 in June. Not much else is known about the game at the moment, but of course, given that the Tiger Woods PGA Tour games exist, it is not exactly a stretch to imagine how the new game will work or play.

Rory McIlroy himself is a pretty good choice for a cover athlete- he is currently the number one ranked golfer in the world, and unlike so many other athletes that end up ON EA’s game covers, currently finds no controversy around himself.

Let’s hope it stays that way.