Conclusion
There are a couple of small annoyances; the fact that you need to scroll through your betting amount, should you wish to raise, is unnecessary. If you wish to bet $4000, you’ll spend vital seconds waiting for the scroll bar to reach the desired point. This could have easily been overcome by allowing you to change the digits individually.
Another strange thing is that, if you go all-in with another player, you’re supposed to turn the cards ‘on their backs’. For some reason World Poker Tour doesn’t show the cards. It’s a pretty important part of tournament poker and allows you to feel the tension as the ‘flop’ is turned over, one card at a time.
Click for larger imageThe user interface is excellent, although the addition of knowing where you stand in the competition’s overall ‘chip count’ would have been a nice addition. The interface reveals your chip position on the current table, hand history, skill level, current objective, and also tells you when the antes will be raised. There’s also a hand-ranking table to ensure you’ll never get your full-houses mixed with your flushes.
There’s not much more that could have been added to the interface. It’s clear, easy to use and is a vital tool in assessing how well you are doing.
Click for larger imageGraphically, World Poker Tour is pretty average. Character models are well designed and colourful and their animations are quirky and uncannily accurate to the mannerisms of real poker players– it’s obvious that the designers have spent some time within a poker room. On the downside some of backgrounds are fairly poor, pink curtains and light brown walls aren’t my idea of a plush casino setting. The backgrounds do get better as you make your way through the championships, and you’ll soon be playing in swanky settings.
The sound in the game doesn’t really capture the atmosphere of the casino. You can hear chips shuffling, cards being dealt and players banter before matches. During the match players make comments in between each ‘play’, although they soon become repetitive. It’s standard stuff and nothing to get too excited about.
Personally, I prefer to play World Poker Tour with my own music in the background.
Overall though, World Poker Tour is an accurate re-creation of poker tournaments. Take away the under-par graphics and your left with a gritty, realistic game of poker. It’s not going to win any awards but, bar a few minor tweaks, it’s as close as you’ll get to the real thing on a console.
Pros
As close to the real thing as you’ll get
Excellent ante structure
Accurate progression to the World Poker finals Bluffing Online play
Cons
Can’t skip the deal
The best, most accurate poker game so far.
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HEXUS Where2Buy
World Poker Tour is available in shops now, at a bargain price of £14.99 click the following links to order:Play.com
