World Series of Poker

"There are plenty of poker games out there to choose from. The problem is finding the good ones among all of the flops."

Poker is game that's been around for awhile now, but up until recently it hasn't been accepted mainstream. When Chris Moneymaker(yes, that's his real name), an accountant, made his way into the World Series of Poker by playing a $38 dollar satellite on Poker Stars and then went on to win in 2003 that changed everything. That year there were only 838 entrants but this year, in 2006, there was an unbelievable 8773 entrants! Poker games seem to be everywhere now, but many are anywhere from mediocre to downright horrible. With the title World Series of Poker on the game you'd expect it to be the real deal, so was Activision able to pull it off?

Most poker games I've played have horrible AI. This game does several things a lot better than in the other games that I've played. For instance, in another poker game that I've played, if you wanted a call then all you would have to do is go all-in, not so in this game. They behave much more like they really should. Using the odds to help, they will fold when it's not worth it to chase or when they don't have a realistic chance at winning the pot. Of course though, they will also bluff and play with junk to try and take the pot from you. Although sometimes it seems like they know just when to play the junk to catch a big hand. It seems like it might cheat sometimes, but maybe it just seems that way.

There are a few modes to choose from. If you just want to play just for the fun of it then you can choose Quick Play which allows you to set up a quick ring game or you can customize your own tournament. The real game though lies in Career Mode where you can play in the World Series. It allows you to create your own player, though not quite as in depth as some create-a-player features, you can still come up with a decent look. You have 10 years to play with in your career and 26 different events in each of those years. The events consist of Limit, No-Limit, and Pot Limit Hold'em, Omaha, Omaha Hi-Low, 7 Card Stud, Stud Hi-Low, and Razz. Of course one of these is the No-Limit Hold'em Main Event. You can try and collect as many bracelets as possible from winning these, and winning just one is pretty dang tough itself. Also, there are invitational tournaments in which you play one table with only the pros. Winning these will unlock a special chip and also let you play in the next invitational. The chips can also be won by doing other stuff, such as making a certain hand, knocking out more than one person at once, or by knocking a pro out. Knocking the pros out will also unlock them so you can use them. You don't gain any kind of advantage by using them, it's just for looks. So with 26 different bracelets and 100 special poker chips for you to collect there is plenty to do. But the thing is, I got pretty bored with trying to do this stuff. If you want to get all of the stuff then you'll definitely need the 10 years, but it's just not interesting enough to go through that much just for the sake of completing everything.
Another thing that bothered me was that, while you can fast-forward through hands you're not in, you can't do this with Omaha. I don't know why they decided that you could do it with any other type of game except this, but it's really stupid and thus, you'll tend to avoid Omaha more. If it were a real game with real people then you would want to see what the others did, but since the computers don't give off tells and stuff there is no point.

Now what can I say about the graphics? Well, to sum it up in one word they are horrible, worse than most Game Cube games I've seen. The pros look somewhat like them, but most are pretty ugly and don't really look like the real thing. Lon McEarchen barely even looks anything like he should. His hair is too gray, his face is too fat and his eyes are bulged out. Not only do the graphics look bad, but you'll also see them sticking their hands in their faces and bodies. You'll see chips start moving in before the player really pushes them and the inside of some of their mouths look like puke for some reason. The animations to be found in the game are also very few. So you'll be seeing the players point and laugh at the others or throw their hands up in the air time after time.

Another problem with this game is the voice acting. Lon McEarchen is alright and then you have Alex Royale, somebody who I guess is made up. He tries to be funny, but he isn't really (I would have preferred Norman Chad) and what they say is also pretty limited. So if you thought sports games were bad with commentary then you'll hate these guys. Where the actual bad voice acting comes in is from the players. Some voices sound like hicks while others are stuffy, which would be fine but, they take it too far and make it sound stupid. The lines they use are also really cheesy and sometimes just plain stupid. The music in this game is actually pretty good with the main theme being upbeat and catchy. Too bad there's only like two tracks in the whole game though. I would have enjoyed having the option of listening to some music while playing, but unfortunately it's silent other than the annoying players.

This is the best poker game I've played. The poker AI is the best I've seen and that really helps the game, but I'm sure there are better games out there, especially now that the new WSOP game is out. I know it's just a poker game and the important thing is that the gameplay is good, but it really wouldn't have hurt them to spend more time on the graphics and sound. The game isn't really bad, it's actually very good compared to others I've played, it just needed some work in certain areas. Like maybe some unlockables that actually make you want to get them. Plus, since I play poker online, it really takes away a lot of the point of this game for me, though I'll still play it for fun from time to time. So if you can't play online or with some of your buddies for some reason, you should give this a try and see if you like it. If you do play online, then you still might want to check it out, but only if you really want a poker video game to play too. If you want to buy a poker game, I'd advise trying out a few different ones before going out and buying this. You could end up finding one that's a lot better.

Pros:
+ Best poker AI I've seen (though could be better).
+ Plenty of stuff to unlock.
+ Good music.

Cons:
- Ugly graphics.
- Annoying voice acting.
- Not enough music.
- No real motivation to unlock stuff.

Scores:
Gameplay: 8
Graphics: 3
Sound: 4
Replay Value: 6

Overall: 7.0

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 03/20/06, Updated 11/06/06