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| I know, let's do something! | No one would play with this guy, because he looked too cool |
The graphics are quite excellent for a poker game, the characters as well as the scenarios have vast amounts of detail, and the character animations are presented perfectly. However it is let down slightly by uncoordinated chips. The amount the players put in is usually no where near what they have actually put in, sometimes they could be putting only one or two chips in, yet they will be pushing a massive pile into the table. This sounds pedantic, but gets really annoying after a while, and wouldn't of been that hard to fix. It simply seems to vague and next-gen for this sort of fault to be in an Xbox 360 game. The presentation is also let down by the inactivity of the players, although the character animations are great, the characters rarely do anything save sitting around the table. At some points it feels like you are playing poker against professional zombies. It lets the otherwise excellent presentation down, but overall it is one of, if not the best looking poker game currently out there. Unfortunately while being one of the best looking poker games out there, it is hardly one of the best looking Xbox 360 games out there, it hardly pushes the hardware at all.
The game has a large focus on the career mode. The player starts off by creating his own character, a rather common process nowadays with nothing particularly special, you are just selecting attributes off a list for your character. The 360 does however allow you to use your own face if you have one of the Xbox 360 cameras at the ready. The career mode isn't particular exciting, it features lots of mini tournaments at the casino in which you shall meet some of the big names in poker, such as Jennifer Tilly and Phil Taak, if you knew either of those names then give yourself a pat on the back. I felt that the career mode wasn't as substantial as I would have hoped, I would much prefer a calender based system, akin to a lot of sporting titles. The career mode also has many unlockable achievements, many of which are very easy to unlock and provide little challenge, especially for a seasoned poker player.
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| Poker face | We should of just played a poker video game instead |
The game of poker remains relatively untouched throughout the game, they have not tried many methods to spruce up the gameplay particularly, and in this instance it pays off. You receive unlockable tools as you go through, but the majority of are of any significant help in the game. They seem to have been put there to fill space, when they are really not required. The AI is relatively strong throughout the game, with no major faults noticeable. The further you get into the game you will start to notice that the moves of some of the pro players become rather predictable, this might be when you decide to move onto the online play, to remove the sensation of playing against robots. I also felt that the matches individually had the ability to drag-on, it might be interesting in a real poker game, but on a video game it is just plain tedious. This fits in perfectly with one of the character animations, which is to yawn. It is hard to see how the game play could really appeal to anyone, apart from the die hard poker fans out there. It just seems to long and tedious for casual players, with no elements thrown in to spruce up the game for them.
The music is relatively effective, is the sort of music you would expect to be played in a casino, being blissfully ignored by the gamblers. The commentary is not entirely great though, with the two commentators only saying a few lines a piece, and none to that great a effect. The crowd noises are also disappointing, the crowds jump up and perform uncoordinated cheers, and rounds of clapping, which make the game seem very unauthentic. Fortunately, like on many Xbox 360 games it is possible to adjust the audio for your own tunes, allowing you to play some cards while playing some good music. The background chatter in some ways helps to make the game sound more authentic, it certainly is not annoying. What is vaguely annoying are some of the crowd actions, such as sneezing, which looks like it was added in for authenticity but has been overdone in the game to the point were it is just ridiculous.
The game features a fair amount of re-play value if you are someone who enjoys Poker, if not their will be very little reason to come back to the game, after the tournaments are won and the initial achievements have been gained.
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| Players will often try and read your mind during the game | Boredom starts to set in |
My comments at the beginning were obviously wrong, there are some advantages to Poker games over the real thing, and if you are a fan of Poker then you will definitely like this game. No doubt about it. Unfortunately this game really does not offer that much over any other poker games currently on the market, it has a weak career mode, backed up by average audio and graphics presentation. The AI sometimes seems clever but also becomes too predictable after a while of playing the game. The game also really only appeals to hardcore poker players, with the game not introducing enough features to get the casual player in, and keep them hooked.
Top Game Moment: Meeting the poker stars you have likely never heard of, face to face in video game form.
