World Poker Tour 2K6

 

Overview

With the increasing popularity of Poker on TV, we have seen quite a few games trying to grab a piece of the pie. Not only are people watching Poker, but they are learning how to play the game, and it is fast becoming a popular past time activity nowadays. Well today you guessed it, we are checking out another poker game in World Tour Poker for the Xbox, which tries to make its mark on the Poker craze. So does the game succeed? Read our full review to find out!

Gameplay

Now we checked out just recently a previous Poker game from Activision, and this was a game that got the poker down but really failed on all other levels. To this date we have not really seen a poker game really succeed in pushing itself to new heights. So can World Poker Tour create the first great poker game?

Well to say the least, one of the things that is pretty obvious the developers focused on is character creation, and this is trying to make a more personal poker experience. The creation of your character is actually an extremely deep system, in which you can customize their appearance from head to toe, and even give them a unique personality. So as you can probably already see, this portion of the game is pretty important and in my opinion was very nicely made.

The core of the game-play is in the Career Mode, which in my mind could make or break the game. Basically like most other poker games, you start at the bottom of the barrel, playing some pretty small little tournaments to try to improve your skill and learn how the games are played. The game doesn’t really try to go too far in-depth with this mode, which is kind of disheartening. I mean there are so many ways you could try to make this mode deeper, for example by trying to throw in some sort of story-line or something. In the end the mode is more than capable, but it just never tries to really get you the gamer really involved with your character, but instead just play a game of poker.

The actual poker in the game works like every other poker game on the consoles, and that is just to say that it works. The game doesn’t try to add any new tricks or try and mix up what we have seen in the past. Since poker games seem to be played by both hardcore and new gamer alike, this is a game that can really be picked up by anyone and can just start playing. Which although may sound bad, is actually a good thing as this makes this very accessible for all gamer who love poker.

The game does have Xbox Live support, but this is once again an experience that I felt could have been a lot more exciting then what was presented. The game offered the typical poker style modes, with both Tournament and just normal poker games. The game never tries to really create a huge tournament system or really make anything close to what resembles anything we see on TV. The Xbox Live support works, but like the rest of the game, it just kind of feels like there could have been more to it.

In the end World Poker Tour has some good ideas, and I have to say with the price tag being $20, you really are getting a lot of bang for your buck. With that being said, I still would have liked to see more out of the career mode and Xbox Live support. There is just so many places they could take this poker game, but unfortunately none of these open roads have been taken with World Poker Tour.

Graphics

I hate to keep bringing up stereotypes of Poker games, but for whatever reason these games seem to be some of the worst looking games on the consoles, and unfortunately World Poker Tour goes along with this trend. I have to say that first and foremost, the character models in the game are just downright terrible, with the dullest appearance I have seen this year. I just don’t see really any sort of facial features in the game and the environments are pretty plain as well. There is just nothing about the game’s presentation that stands out and seems like it was worked on with any conviction. It is pretty unfortunate to see the game struggle with what would seem to be an easy game visually to create, even if it is a $20.00 game.

Fun Factor

World Poker Tour is a game that is filled with positives and negatives, and nothing really in between. The game has some good poker AI, so for the most part the computer will be very smart about staying in hands and bluffing and things of that nature. But at the same token the game is bad at trying to add anything that hasn’t been done already in previous poker games. The game is very accessible for any poker fan, but in my opinion the game could have done much better in making a more entertaining and original poker title.

Overall

In the end, even though the game is competitively priced at $20, it still seems to me that the developers could have really done a better job with this game. The career mode is pretty plain and the online mode is not overly deep. The game will work for anyone who just wants to play some tournament-style poker, but for those who were hoping 2K Sports would come out with an original poker title, you won’t find it in World Poker Tour.

First and foremost, World Poker Tour does an entirely decent job emulating its license. Multiple real-life international casinos are represented here in apparently fully realistic detail (although the necessity of said realism is questionable, since you rarely look at the casino itself, and more so the cards and players), and the commentating duo of Mike Sexton and "Hollywood Home Game Hero" Vince Van Patten is on hand to lend its expertise to the game. Well, sort of. Admittedly, the commentary is more than a little flat. Sexton has a few enjoyable quips, but they're repeated far too often. Van Patten also has his moments, but at times he also comes across as absolutely robotic.

There are also a few pro players on hand, like Phil "Unabomber" Laak, Evelyn Ng, and Antonio Esfandiari, though you don't run into them terribly often. Frankly, most of them just aren't as notable as most of the other big-name players who have lent their names to decidedly less-impressive poker games. Seriously, was Phil Ivey too busy? Could Phil Helmuth not be roused from one of his many meditation sessions long enough to sign a licensing contract? And would it have killed anyone to get a little more Shana Hiatt in here?

Lack of big poker celebrities aside, World Poker Tour plays pretty well. There's a myriad of different poker offerings, from the obvious ones like Texas hold 'em and seven-card stud, to entirely esoteric offerings like pineapple, villa-bong, and double-flop hold 'em. When playing offline, the game has some problems. For one, the opponent artificial intelligence is mostly a pushover. It actually isn't as bad as in Core-soft's last game, but it's much too easy to get free cards in this game simply because opponents get into these checking battles where they'll just check, check, and check away, even if they've got a made hand. It's not that they all play the same, mind you. You'll actually see distinct differences between more-aggressive players and tighter players, but even the aggressive guys will check much too often. Usually it's not until the very end of a tournament that you'll get out of this checking rut. Players will finally start both betting aggressively and forcing you to pay for fourth-street and river cards. And on some level, that probably makes sense, since the better players are naturally the ones that should get to the end of a tournament. It's just silly that any measure of aggression is often reserved for the endgame.

But apart from these non-aggressive tendencies, the game mostly plays it smart. You'll see some really, really dumbfounding calls from time to time, but generally the computer knows how to play a hand pretty well, and it'll even try to steal a pot from time to time. World Poker Tour also tries to toss in a bit of mind-game action into the fold with emotional reactions. By pressing one of four directions on the left analog stick at any time during play, you can make your player show excitement, satisfaction, depression, or disappointment. It's a neat idea that's been woefully ignored in pretty much every other poker game. Unfortunately, it's not exactly clear how much effect your emotional tells have during a game. And it's even harder to properly decipher what kinds of tells the computer might be giving off, since you often don't get to play against the same people for particularly long stretches of time. Still, if nothing else it's a starting point for a better-executed system in the future.텍사스홀덤사이트

The best part of the offline game is the career mode. Here you'll get a chance to play in each of the big World Poker Tour tournaments. You start out with satellite and super-satellite games, and by placing high in them, you advance to the finals. It sounds simple enough, but unlike most poker games, you actually feel like you're making forward progress as you go through the career. Like in World Championship Poker, you can create a character of your own design to represent you, and the character-customization elements are actually quite robust. Plenty of facial and body edits are available, as well as quite a few outfits. Interestingly, you can't use most any of the outfits until you buy them, but you don't buy them with your winnings. Instead, you earn chips for notable hands, bluffs, and take-downs. It's a nice idea, although it's kind of annoying to have to actively try to earn these chips, especially since you usually have plenty of money after winning a couple of tournaments.