World Series of Poker Tournament of Champions
Posted October 26, 2006
I almost feel bad for publisher Activision for releasing a poker title on the 360 after the free Texas Hold 'em that was put up on the arcade. Sure it was only free for 48 hours, but after someone obtained that game what reason would there be to fork over some hard earned chips to buy a poker title. There are a couple of redeeming qualities, but realistically there is little reason to pick this title up if you own the XBLA poker title.
Gameplay:
So what really sets this title apart from the arcade title that lets you play hold 'em exclusively? The biggest thing here is an actual career mode which follows your created player through four casinos each with four tournaments to play in, ultimately leading you towards the World Series of Poker Tournament of Champions. Making it to the big tournament will require some time however seeing as how as the tournaments get closer to the big show more and more entrants will be in the game which can lead to some very long games.
Using the default settings the games will drag on as you watch each player at the table think and make some sort of comment as they call your bet, raise or fold. Thankfully settings can be tweaked which will modify the speed of play as well as auto fast forward through CPU players. Doing this will allow you to play hundreds of hands in one tenth the time, but the drawback is that you're turn comes up so quickly you may miss out on some of the cues that a bluff is in play.
During the career mode you may get an invitation to go heads up with a professional player, including the actress-turned-pro Jennifer Tilly. These matches have no bearing on your career other than additional cash, and you can retry if you lose making them somewhat of a joke.
Given the large number of pros in the game, one would hope that their particular style of play would be incorporated. However I notice no noticeable difference in play styles between any pros, even with wild players like Phil Laak; they played straight forward poker.
A plus for the game is the variations of poker offered to help mix things up from the standard no limit hold em – however not in career mode. Other variations included are Omaha Hi/Lo, Omaha, RAZZ and HORSE. These can be played single player against the CPU or online against other players.
Taking the game online is where the fun lies in this title, but it also brings up some frustrations. The frustration is similar to that of the arcade poker game, where no one has a vested interest in the funds they are playing with, so exceedingly large bets and far too many All-in plays are made.
The one great thing that this title offers is the digimask technology that is implemented. For those with Xbox Live Vision cameras you can actually put yourself into the game with a couple of simple steps. Players can then take their 3D mapped character online into games with other created players. I was quite impressed with the technology at work here, as even my then unshaven self was accurately rendered into the game. When playing online, players who have the camera connected will be broadcasting their real life moves to the other players when it's their turn to act. I'd like to take this opportunity to tell the guy who I played with who opted to play without a shirt on that it's about time he waxed his back.
Graphics:
This is one area where it's worth paying for over the arcade title as you actually get to see the players in full 3D. As your avatar sits at the table you can enter a first person mode allowing you to watch them as they make their bets, or fold the cards. While it's not essential to the gameplay, it does add a little additional depth to the game.
The professional players are rendered quite close to their real life counterpart, with some slight variation thanks to the limitations of graphics. It's apparent that the same technology that puts you into the game was not used in making the pros. The animation set is actually quite limited – I mean how many ways can you show someone tossing chips on the table or standing up during their all-in bets.
Audio:
It took me all of one game with the default audio options on to decide that I'd much rather play with a custom soundtrack. The generic country twang score is pervasive throughout the title, and grates on nerves very quickly. Some attention was paid to the voice work here thanks to the inclusion of Chris Ferguson as a spokesman he has a fair number of speaking. Other voice work however gets tedious quite quickly too and you'll be jumping at the chance to quell the talking and just get down to the business of cards.
Conclusion:
At $40, this game is 4x the cost of the XBLA version of poker, and even though here you get access to some cool features like actual characters sitting in chairs and the surprisingly well done digimask feature, I'd be hard pressed to recommend to anyone to shell our four times the cost for a game that is marginally better at best. With the AI never really adapting and learning from the way you play, advancing through the career mode turns into a challenge to try and NOT get nailed by a bad beat, all while taking enough cash from competitors to outlast the blind raises every 10 hands. Save your cash skip this title.
Gameplay:
So what really sets this title apart from the arcade title that lets you play hold 'em exclusively? The biggest thing here is an actual career mode which follows your created player through four casinos each with four tournaments to play in, ultimately leading you towards the World Series of Poker Tournament of Champions. Making it to the big tournament will require some time however seeing as how as the tournaments get closer to the big show more and more entrants will be in the game which can lead to some very long games.
Using the default settings the games will drag on as you watch each player at the table think and make some sort of comment as they call your bet, raise or fold. Thankfully settings can be tweaked which will modify the speed of play as well as auto fast forward through CPU players. Doing this will allow you to play hundreds of hands in one tenth the time, but the drawback is that you're turn comes up so quickly you may miss out on some of the cues that a bluff is in play.
During the career mode you may get an invitation to go heads up with a professional player, including the actress-turned-pro Jennifer Tilly. These matches have no bearing on your career other than additional cash, and you can retry if you lose making them somewhat of a joke.
Given the large number of pros in the game, one would hope that their particular style of play would be incorporated. However I notice no noticeable difference in play styles between any pros, even with wild players like Phil Laak; they played straight forward poker.
A plus for the game is the variations of poker offered to help mix things up from the standard no limit hold em – however not in career mode. Other variations included are Omaha Hi/Lo, Omaha, RAZZ and HORSE. These can be played single player against the CPU or online against other players.
Taking the game online is where the fun lies in this title, but it also brings up some frustrations. The frustration is similar to that of the arcade poker game, where no one has a vested interest in the funds they are playing with, so exceedingly large bets and far too many All-in plays are made.
The one great thing that this title offers is the digimask technology that is implemented. For those with Xbox Live Vision cameras you can actually put yourself into the game with a couple of simple steps. Players can then take their 3D mapped character online into games with other created players. I was quite impressed with the technology at work here, as even my then unshaven self was accurately rendered into the game. When playing online, players who have the camera connected will be broadcasting their real life moves to the other players when it's their turn to act. I'd like to take this opportunity to tell the guy who I played with who opted to play without a shirt on that it's about time he waxed his back.
Graphics:
This is one area where it's worth paying for over the arcade title as you actually get to see the players in full 3D. As your avatar sits at the table you can enter a first person mode allowing you to watch them as they make their bets, or fold the cards. While it's not essential to the gameplay, it does add a little additional depth to the game.
The professional players are rendered quite close to their real life counterpart, with some slight variation thanks to the limitations of graphics. It's apparent that the same technology that puts you into the game was not used in making the pros. The animation set is actually quite limited – I mean how many ways can you show someone tossing chips on the table or standing up during their all-in bets.
Audio:
It took me all of one game with the default audio options on to decide that I'd much rather play with a custom soundtrack. The generic country twang score is pervasive throughout the title, and grates on nerves very quickly. Some attention was paid to the voice work here thanks to the inclusion of Chris Ferguson as a spokesman he has a fair number of speaking. Other voice work however gets tedious quite quickly too and you'll be jumping at the chance to quell the talking and just get down to the business of cards.
Conclusion:
At $40, this game is 4x the cost of the XBLA version of poker, and even though here you get access to some cool features like actual characters sitting in chairs and the surprisingly well done digimask feature, I'd be hard pressed to recommend to anyone to shell our four times the cost for a game that is marginally better at best. With the AI never really adapting and learning from the way you play, advancing through the career mode turns into a challenge to try and NOT get nailed by a bad beat, all while taking enough cash from competitors to outlast the blind raises every 10 hands. Save your cash skip this title.