World Series of Poker

"This is one poker game that should be passed up"

I am being very generous on this game. I love the game of poker. I love to play and I love to watch. This game is something I didn't love. Online play usually makes a game a little better, but online play doesn't seem to help this game in any form.

Gameplay 5/10 - The only reason this gets a 5 is because the AI in this game is decent but besides that, the gameplay lacks alot and plays out just too dull. I real poker games people talk, try to get in eachother's head, intimidate eachother, insult eachother, and whatever else. The players do little to entertain. They might say something every once in awhile, but it's just not good enough.. Sometimes they don't have voices when they should and it makes the game just have an awkward feel to it. The backgrounds are bland and the people in the background that are watching are all just still images and most of them look alike. The gameplay just doesn't feel right and it makes the game fall alot. You also can create your own guy in the game and thats cool and you do have a variety of things to choose from and I was surprised at how many voices the game did give you to pick from, but why have a voice if the guy doesn't say much at all?

Sound 8/10 - The only reason this got an 8 is because the sound is at least decent and you have the ability to crank up your custom soundtracks from your hard drive which is a very good thing! You might as well turn off the commentators because they really don't say much to add to anything. Thats pretty much the sound of the game..

Graphics 6/10 - The graphics didn't really seem to be the power of the xbox or anywhere even close to it. The graphics were very bland and it could have been alot better than it was. The players looks okay but the backgrounds could have been far better than they were. Really though, the graphics couldn't have helped this game out.

Controls 10/10 - Wow, the only thing that deserves a 10 in the whole game. There were no problems with the controls and it was the only thing I liked about this game. Pretty much as simple as one can get.

Online play 6/10 - Online play adds to the game and really sky rockets a game's replay value right? Well.. in most cases it would, but in this game's case, the online play wasn't stacked up to what it could've been. If you are wanting this game mainly because it's online, please reconsider because the online play isn't good at all. It doesn't migrate a host for one thing so if the host leaves a poker game it's game over for everyone and you all go back to the lobby or whatever. Also, I have heard that there is a glitch that when you hit 500k you go back down to 20k out of nowhere when you sign in another day.. I haven't experienced it, but then again I didn't play it long enough to get to 500k. Overall Online doesn't do anything for it and I would say probably digs a deeper whole for this game to lay in.

Rent or buy? Definately rent if you must play it.. I really feel like I got cheated for paying 7 bucks to rent this piece of crap game, but I would have really been mad if I would've bought this. Go buy anything but this. World Championship poker is alot better than this.

Overall 5/10 - It wasn't a pleasant experience and if it wasn't a rental, this game would be outside in my backyard being set on fire.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 10/03/05