Rory McIlroy PGA Tour, the reboot of EA Sports' golf simulation franchise, will launch on July 14, two days before The British Open tees off, EA Sports announced today. That's a one-month delay past the June window the publisher gave earlier.
EA Sports announced the formal launch date with the above video, which showcases a return of arcade-style controls to the franchise. Significantly, the three-button metered swing mechanism reappears for the first time since Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11 in 2010. Arcade controls also restore the means to add midflight spin to a ball to manipulate its landing.
Gesture-based analog swing controls still will be a part of the game under its more difficult Tour settings. A news release from EA Sports said players may mix-and-match options from all three settings to arrive at a custom difficulty.
In past editions, some arcade control options had been disabled when playing at Augusta National, deferring to the famous club's conservative preferences on realism and play performance. Earlier this month EA Sports revealed that neither Augusta National nor its tournament, The Masters, will appear in Rory McIlroy PGA Tour. Presumably that absence reopened the door to these alternate controls in the video game.
EA Sports and Tiger Woods also parted ways at the end of 2013, concluding a 16-year partnership.
The video above shows the TPC Sawgrass course and Royal Troon in Scotland, both mainstays of past EA Sports golf titles, as examples of how their layouts, weather and other factors affect carry distance. EA Sports says future videos will detail the career modes, online play, and fantasy courses, such as the "Battlefield" course shown in a teaser video at E3 2014.
Rory McIlroy PGA Tour, whose namesake is the current world No. 1-ranked golfer, will launch for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.
EA Sports' golf simulation launched in March in 2011, 2012 and 2013. The last EA Sports PGA Tour-licensed game to launch this late on the calendar was Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09 in August 2008.
