When my friends from work and I started playing cards together after work a year ago, I learned a wonderful variation of poker known as Texas Hold ‘em. From there, it was hard to ignore its many appearances everywhere on television, movies, and most recently, in the videogame industry. Over the past year, there have been numerous Texas Hold ‘em titles released on the big three consoles where there was none, and a new found fascination has been discovered with gambling in general (hey, a kid’s gotta learn how to bet sometime in their life). Even developer 2K Sports is getting involved with this craze with World Poker Tour, featuring the same commentators from the show and supposedly similar presentation, but as I began to learn, the gameplay seemed strikingly similar to the severely lacking World Championship Poker. But with my love for poker at an all time high, I felt this title was at least worth a shot.
While I’ve never actually played in a real-life tournament; World Poker Tour puts you in a few featured casinos that are part of the actual World Poker Tour as shown on television.
This latest wave of poker games (World Series of Poker and World Poker Tour) seem to correct a lot of the shortcomings that the first generation had last year with titles like Bicycle Casino and World Championship Poker. Poker was still seen as a fad a year ago, which could explain the quick cash-in many developers went through with earlier Texas Hold ‘em and casino titles; but what I am optimistic about is that this current generation has learned from the mistakes of the past.
The bulk of World Poker Tour should be spent on the career mode, which pins you up in 100 person tournaments. Of course, you can opt to join a satellite or super satellite tournament before playing the main event to help save some of your bankroll. Satellites are often used to have a cheaper buy-in, and most top prizes include a free entry to a bigger tournament. It’s usually a good idea to start off with these first, but as you progress in the tour, these become meaningless. This is a straight-up poker title; this is certainly no-frills.
The reward system is more or less what you will find on other poker titles, if you win a hand in a certain way (i.e. “beat a full house,” “going all in on the flop,” or “bluffing”), bronze, silver, and gold coins will be awarded in exchange for various apparel and accessories. Yep, my ladies man shirt and Rolex watch look pretty hot at the poker table, lemme tell ya.
For those of you that are fortunate enough to have access to Xbox Live will find a longer lifespan of this title since the offline mode only takes you so far. With no connectivity problems, the online play is fairly solid. You can play sit-and-go, or what I prefer, tournaments. Of course, stat tracking could be kept a lot better (a problem with all poker games these days) and I can’t exactly say that this game shines online or at all for that matter; but there’s no denying how much better poker is when playing against a few friends online. When playing online, your created character may turn out unlike how you created with varying clothing choices and bodily dimensions; this is very odd indeed.
One new feature that seems to be getting a lot of great press is the inclusion of a “bluffing” system. You can choose from a wide range of emotions for your player to express though I must tell you that this feature is seldom used online; not to mention that once you discover it, you’ll quickly forget it. A tap of the right analog stick will allow you to cycle through countless emotions. So while you may read all these great things about how 2K Games finally implemented this new long-awaited feature into poker games, it is manifestly for show and nothing more than an after-thought for those who play it.
When I first heard 2K Games was getting into the Texas Hold ‘em craze, I envisioned the most realistic looking poker game to date. When screenshots started coming in, and I finally got my hands on World Poker Tour, it was all too apparent that mind-blowing graphics won’t be part of a Hold ‘em game for a while. I can’t say that this title looks bad, as the presentation looks as it would while watching the WPT on television, but the character models look awkward, and the environments are lacking at best.
Controls are more than self-explanatory, as all button prompts are shown at specific moments throughout gameplay. More times than not, you’re pressing the A button while cycling through your options with either the D-Pad or left analog (check, bet, raise, all in, etc.).
Mike Sexton and Vince Van Patten contribute their commentating “talent” to this title, trying to make the World Poker Tour license legit to the gaming world. The problem isn’t their voice-acting, but it was the variety and repetitiveness of their comments that only helps you to reach for that mute button that much quicker. It’s really a shame that custom soundtracks were not included for Xbox users, and after hearing the announcers for a few rounds, this seemed to be a much-needed feature. The audience/casino ambience is pretty standard, nothing spectacular as you can imagine.
As far as poker games go, I suppose I’ll keep this title in my collection for a while, or until next year when an improved version comes out. I will always venture back online to play it with some buddies of mine, or at least brush up on my game offline through career mode when I need the practice for some real cash games.
I was fairly pleased to see the improvements developers seemed to implement this year as compared to last for poker games. I can only hope next year brings another jump in the genre. Until then, I can suggest checking out the World Series of Poker as it is faster paced than this title, but lacks some features that World Poker Tour possesses. All in all, I can say that it is worth the $30 price tag if and only if you love Texas Hold ‘em and feel the need to engage in play-money games. Nothing spectacular here, but it’ll do.
