World Series of Poker – PS2 – Review

I used to
have a Tekken face. You know the type – very stiff, very stoic. It really
baffled my opponents. They couldn’t understand why I wasn’t angry when I lost,
or why I didn’t smirk or smile after a glorious win. Most of the time they’d
walk away feeling down and defeated. Every once in a while an arcade junkie
would fire a few angry words, hoping to break my silence. It never worked.

My Tekken
face is no longer needed now that all the new fighting games are
console-exclusives (or close to it). But it sure comes in handy when I’m
playing poker. Real poker where my opponents are mere inches away. When you’re
that close to your opponents you can smell their fear – and they can smell
yours. The least you can do is keep your face from showing that you’re betting
all your chips to fool them into folding. They need to think that you’re in
the game and that what you’re doing is serious.

In World
Series of Poker, such tactics are unnecessary. Bluffing has always been a part
of the game, but here you can relax, stretch out on the couch, and make a
devastating move with the press of a button. No need to hold your face in a
stiff position. No need to use constipation as an excuse for leaving the room
(I’m onto you Ralph! We’re going to make you eat laxatives next time!).

The game
types found in this value-priced package are:

• Texas Hold ‘Em

• Omaha

• Omaha Hi-low Split

• Seven Card Stud

• Seven Card Stud Hi-low
  Split

• Razz (Seven Stud Lowback)

Play ’em
individually in any order, or fire up the Career mode to see how good you
really are. Custom games allow you to change the rules (such as the dollar
limit). That feature isn’t present in the Career mode, but you do have several
other aspects that may be customized, primarily those surrounding your
homemade character’s appearance. Are you picky about the pants you wear? How
about your shoes and your socks? Those may be changed to your liking. While
you’re at it you might as well pick out a new shirt, a snazzy pair of glasses,
change the color of your eyes, etc., the whole works.

Hair style
and color changes are a given, as are varying skin tones — who knew we’d also
be able to change the way homemade characters sound? This option is limited to
19 pre-recorded voices, so it’s not overly expansive.

In a future
version I’d like to see Logitech microphone support with voice-altering that
would allow the player to speak into the game and, when played through the TV
speakers, sound like an entirely different person.

Comfort and
convenience are the primary reasons that gamblers will be interested in this
game. Load times are present (as in all video games), and you may choose to
wait for your virtual opponents to take their turns. Or you can skip them and
speed the game up rapidly, making each round pass considerably faster than if
you were playing a real game with real players. More games in less time – that
sounds like a great way to improve your playing skills (to a degree at least).

Virtual
players are limited by the sole fact that they’re virtual, so don’t rely on
them forever. World Series of Poker’s multiplayer mode brings your friends,
family and strangers into the mix. For those of us who want to play against
someone a hundred miles away, this is one way of doing it. The others include
driving to the location of your opponent and playing in person, or choosing to
play a free, Web-based version of the game.

One of the
advertised selling points is the official World Series of Poker license
includes a tournament based on the real game. I, however, don’t consider poker
to be a sport. I don’t watch it on TV. I play it with friends and occasionally
play it online. Therefore I don’t care about the tournament, or the pro
players, or any other part of the license. Besides, the graphics are
horrendous and the 3D animations are pointless. I like the idea of having
virtual opponents that act realistically, but the technology is not there yet.
Give it a few decades – then virtual poker will rock.

World Series
of Poker is the first serious attempt at capitalizing on the game in the same
way that EA capitalizes on football, basketball and hockey. The results are
nowhere near what they could have been. There are a select few who will find
value in it. The rest of us will prefer to stick with that two-dollar deck of
cards that exists in the real world. It’s cheaper, and a lot more interactive.

Gameplay: 6.5
Point-and-click
poker. Load times in place of deal times. Online play via PlayStation 2 and a
TV screen instead of online play at a computer and a Web page. The ugly sights
and soporific sounds do absolutely nothing to enhance the gameplay experience.
That shouldn’t matter too much to the game’s adopters – they’ll buy it ‘cause
they love to play poker.

On the up
side the gameplay is pretty quick, the load times are short, and the skip
button (used to skip the monotony that is your opponents taking turns) is
generally effective.

You already
know the rest. No surprises – this is poker, plain and simple.

Graphics: 3.0
Stiff faces,
sub-par animation, and below-Dreamcast-level backgrounds – if it looked any
worse it’d belong on 3DO.

Sound: 4.0
Dull commentary
(it’s poker, what’d you expect?), cheap sound effects, lame music, horrendous
voice acting, etc. In all seriousness, the silent moments didn’t sound good
either, not with the low-key sound effects running in the background.

Difficulty: Medium
Like the card
game itself, World Series of Poker is as challenging as your opponent makes
it. The AI isn’t as sharp as the virtual players would have you believe, but
if you play against them frequently enough your skills will surely improve.

Concept: 6.0
Truth be told, I
suck at poker. I was hoping that someone would develop a poker game with an
in-depth tutorial that clearly explains the rules of each variation, provides
tips on how to win, and would go into the difficult strategies the pros use to
become champion. World Series of Poker is a budget title – of all the games to
have a tutorial, this one is a no-brainer. Why wouldn’t there be one when we
have to sit through 20 minutes of tutorials for games that are clones of or
sequels to titles we’ve beaten a million times?

Disappointingly, World Series of Poker assumes the player already knows
everything.

Multiplayer: 6.0
Good for
single-player practice games, World Series of Poker doesn’t quite cut it as a
multiplayer title. I’d rather play the real thing.

Overall: 6.5
I wasn’t
expecting a revolution from a poker game, but it would’ve been nice to have at
least one unique and/or standout feature outside of the create-a-player mode.
Looking at how bad the graphics are makes it hard to give that mode, inventive
or not, any credit at all. Visuals are secondary, I know, and the sound
shouldn’t bother me. But that’s why we play games – to get a complete
experience, a point this game missed.