World Series of Poker: Tournament of Champions

[DanielFullard]

Just realised there wasnt a thread for this.

Anyway, I picked it a month or so ago and Ive been enjoying it. The first thing that springs to mind is, with Texas Holdem on the Arcade where is the need for a £30-£40 Poker game that is funamentally the same. I did ask myself that question before I bought it and still wonder wether it was worth it.

At the end of the day there isnt a great deal to say. Its Poker. Its nicely presented and you actually see other players rather than names and its all set inside Casinos, bars and back rooms.

The career mode sees you start as a Rookie playing with mates and you are recruited by some guy whos name I forget to be his prodigee and take on the world and work your way to the eventual World Series of Poker.

Presentation wise it is in the vein of those Poker shows you see on TV. You have control of the camera and can look at others faces, keep your head down, switch to first person mode etc. Doesnt add a great deal to be honest but if playing on Live its good to see everyone else's character faces they have done with Vision Camera. There is also commentary and TV style intros etc.

It also serves as a guide to playing Poker. For those unfamilar not only does the manual contain all hands etc but this guy whos coaching you (some world class pro whos name escapes me) gives you tips all the way through

Whats also nice about this game is the ability to save in the middle of the a match. It autosaves so no matter when you quit in career mode it comes back to the exact same spot. Not something you'll find interesting Im sure but when you are in the third hour of a match involving 16 players youll cherish it.

Opponent AI also is far superior to TexasHoldem as you would expect. Makes for some damn good games against the compuet actually which is unusual for a poker title as we all know playing against other people is usually the only way to go for a real competitive match.

It also supports Camera well. It has the face masking in it a la R6 but it doesnt work anywhere near as well and also when its your go if playing on Live it gives a live Camera feed in the corner of you if you wish.


Speaking of the Live element its pretty enjoyable and only the camera support really sets it apart from Texas Hold Em.

In the end its a funny one to call. Am I glad I paid £33 for it? Or rather have I got £33 worth of play out it? Its hard to say as I obviously play this over Texas Holdem as I have paid for it but Im not sure Id strongly recomned it to anyone with the XBLA version but then again if Poker is your thing this is the definetive version and most well rounded version on the system. But this being an actual game as oppose to an XBLA version you would expect that.

[The Harrier]

nice review DF.

What score would you give it?

[DanielFullard]

As I said Harrier...its darn hard to give it a score.

[The Harrier]

Fair enough.

I'm thinking i saw it for around £25 now. Now i dont think its worth £25, but then i think, i got the other poker game for free, so that means its £12.50 a gme, and i'm sure i can get £12.50's worth out the WSP.TOC, i have out of TH'e!!!!

[TheLibertine]

Nice review by the way. Too be honest because Poker games kind of hold more a niche in the videogames market, don't you think it would be sensible if the publisher's had released the game with a budget £15-20 price tag? I'm sure many more people would pick up a copy at that price.
I did enjoy Texas Hold Em' on the Xbox Live Unplugged Vol.1 disk as well.