World Series of Poker 2008: Battle for the Bracelets

"You'd think it wouldn't be that hard to make a poker game. You'd think."

Out of the three World Series of Poker video games made so far, I actually like the first one the best. And while this third try improves on some areas, it also gets worse then the original in other places. Let's get right into it....

Graphics: 5/10

Okay, if you're buying a poker video game, you're not that concerned about the graphics, right? I mean, it'd be kinda cool to see a few pros and be able to recognize them, but it's no big deal. Well, there are LOTS of pros in this game, and I can recognize just about every one of 'em. So why are the Graphics a 5? The animations are a bit rough sometimes, but mainly, it's the numbers. I don't know what Activision/Left Field was thinking...the numbers are smaller in this then in the second one! Playing a decent distance from my TV, it's very difficult for me to make out chip counts, bet amounts, and anything else that has to do with numbers (other then pot size). Go back to the format of the first one and make the numbers bigger!

Audio: 4/10

"Sometimes the river breaks your drought, sometimes it drowns you." "With a flop like this, it's usually just the first person to bet who takes the pot." You'll be able to finish Norman Chad's quotes along with him an hour into playing the game, and Lon McEachern's chatter isn't much better. I do enjoy the occasional table talk, which has a more spontaneous feel, but here's the problem: You can't turn off the announcing and leave the table talk on! So if you wanna hear players make little snide comments (sometimes even giving away hints as to their playing style), you have to endure Chad and McEachern saying the same stuff over and over again. And the table talk gets old after awhile too.

Gameplay: 7.5/10

Pretty good, pretty good. Several different kinds of poker are offered, and the can't-fast-forward-in-Omaha glitch is gone. You can play in more events, more cash games, a heads-up tournament, and even that $50,000 HORSE World Championship you might've seen on TV! (HORSE is a mix of different poker games, where the game is switched every few hands) But the actual gameplay is somewhat dull, and after you've done some studying, predictable. If someone bets, it means they have a hand. Virtually every time. Same thing for raising, except now they have a strong hand. Except the loose, aggressive player, and he raises when the time is right every time, so it's not hard to pick him out, re-raise him, and make him fold. All-ins get boring because none of the players ever get excited until after the river, and even then it's pretty well contained; I want people jumping out of their chairs, high-fiving audience members! There's a cool Poker School option where you learn how to play nine different games of poker, but they just give you one hand (usually the best hand), help you win with it, and then say, "Win money" with several random hands, usually much worse. Not the best teaching. The WSOP games are getting closer to being really good, and the poker is still intrinsically fun to play, but we do have some more ground to cover before these games get really good.

Buy or Rent: If you're a poker fan, go ahead and buy it. There'll be memorable moments of amazing wins and bad beats, like in real poker. If you're new to poker, rent it and try it out. If you don't like poker...why are you reading this review? If you kind of like poker...you probably don't want this one. It takes a lot of patience to play this game.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 07/31/08

Game Release: World Series of Poker 2008: Battle for the Bracelets (US, 09/26/07)