DD Tournament Poker Version 2 – PC – Review

You know, I almost feel somewhat
responsible for the production of this title. You see, I reviewed the original
DD poker (read it here

http://pc.gamezone.com/gzreviews/r24523.htm)  and I stated that it was
indeed a very good poker game, but where was the online play? I even went as
far as to say that I would have scored this bad boy in the 90’s had it offered
online gaming. Well, apparently my review did not fall on deaf ears because
now Donohoe Digital Poker 2 is out and it does have online play. And below is the
finest poker review you GameZone readers shall ever read.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say
it again: Poker is getting big, really big. People at work are discussing
previous games they played over the weekend while others talk about going to
Vegas and getting in on big-money tournaments. Heck, my neighbor two doors
down actually made it on TV while playing in a big-money game. The simple fact
that there is so many variations on the same game makes it appealing to both
men and women. So where are the stay at home and play with fake money players
going to get their fix? Well, the folks over at Donohoe Digital think they
have the answer with their second title in the Donohoe Digital poker series.

As a stand-alone game, DD2 has
everything I would want in a Texas Hold ’em style poker game. I created my
game file and began with the basics, which is some of the easier games like
the beginners tournament and the card-room tournament, but the game allows you
to try your luck at playing at the last couple of World Series of Poker
Tournaments. Now for those of you unfamiliar with the whole concept of buying
in on a tournament (whether in the game or in real life) it goes something
like this: You enter a tournament and spend $40 dollars, that $40 gives you
$1,000 in chips. With those chips you play against your fellow gamblers. Now
depending on the game the buy-in could be $25 or $10,000; rebuys, (if you bust
out, you can spend more to get back in) are done the same way. Of course the
values of the game, and number of players also varies as you play one
tournament to the next. Some allow for rebuys, some don’t, while others allow
rebuys at first and then stop. It all depends on the way the game is set up.
My advice is to play through most if not all of the tournaments in order to
familiarize yourself with the various changes.

Then…

You can hop online and either host
a game or join a game that can be found on the public game-search function.
Now this is where I found myself enjoying the game the most. Thanks to the
folks over at Donohoe Digital, I was able to get a second copy of the game so
my card shark father-in-law could actually play against me on the Internet.
Setting up the "host a game" feature was relatively trouble free and the fact
that there is no server out there running the game makes things go quite
smooth. Couple of things to note when playing online: Be careful of what
tournament you set up to play, if you are playing against another "real" human
and you pick a game that has three 10-person tables, then you two may not be
at the same table (the game will fill all the other spots with A.I. players).
So whether you have two or seven friends and you want to play against them
specifically, then it would be best to pick a tournament that only has 10
players total. Or maybe you wouldn’t, the fact is that the game lets you set
this and tons of other options.

The A.I. players that the game has
were surprisingly competitive. Like everything else, you can adjust the
difficulty of them including bulking up their proficiency in learning how well
you bluff and generally play the game. Yes, if you play against a highly
skilled computer player, you had better bring your "A" game.

Like I said in my other review,
you can’t really complain or brag about the graphics in a game like this. You
can adjust the card and table colors, but as long as the lines look clean and
the cards are crisp and easily read, then you are golden. Fortunately this
game is just that, clean and crisp looking.

Gameplay: 8.8
With the amount of options
available, you can set this game up to any discriminating taste. My favorite
option is the one that allows the round to end ASAP once I fold (not available
in online play). Still, the pop up menus provide easy-play information and can
be a great tool to the novice player.

Graphics: 7.5
It looks nice and clear. The table
color can be changed if you have eyesight problems and a darker background
helps. It looks nice, like I would expect.

Sound: 7.6
A light folksy-rock music plays
during the setup and loadout, the sound effects of the cards being shuffled
and dealt, all pretty standard stuff, but then again, you aren’t playing a
poker game for the music now, are ya?

Difficulty: Medium
The difficulty can be tweaked for any game player, and my
father-in-law thinks he found a flaw in the single-player game where you can
save your game when you are way up in cash and bet like crazy, if you bust
out, you just load up your saved game. I, on the other hand, think he’s a wimp
for playing like that – must be why I’m whupping up on him when we play
online, you hearing me Larry?

Multiplayer: 9.1
The game’s strongest point in my
opinion. I have gladly played long hours against my wimp-in-law. It’s really a
lot of fun and when this game gets its wide release, there is going to be an
awful lot of people calling in sick because they didn’t get enough sleep from
playing the night before.

Overall: 9.0
It really is the top of the heap
as far as poker games go. The online game is flawless and the practice
tournaments offer enough variance to entice players of all types and skills.
Options are abundant and easily accessible. This is my new favorite poker game
and it will be yours as well.