D
Dick Tracy
Guest
Well, I was expecting (and hoping for) a poker game that played similar to the game World Poker Tour.
The DigiMask stuff (which was 80% of the reason for me purchasing it) was pretty impressive, at first -- more so because it is a feature that is brand new to the 360 arena. Once you start noticing its flaws, it's mystic begins to wash away.
When you view your face head-on, only then does it look pretty accurate -- from the side-view, and even 3/4 view, it looks very bad. I hope that this isn't an indication of what it will look like on other titles (primarily Rainbow Six: Vegas). You need the lighting to be pitch perfect, or else you'll get a dingy JPEG quality. Even then, there's still something about the feature that doesn't look too clean, which is highlighted by the fact that there are two separate models for DigiMask character models, and regular character models; where the DigiMask models look flat, lack expression and facial dimensions. When they sit at a table with regular character models, whose faces aren't merely pasted onto a head, the difference is quite an annoyance, as it is inconsistent -- and keep in mind, the regular character models don't even look good, as is. Very lifeless, rigid and scream "NOT NEXT-GEN". (But, hey; it's a poker game, right?)
When you compare a lifeless corpse (DigiMask) to a slightly lively lifeless corpse (regular character models), there's too large of a noticable difference, which just fuels the inconsistency of this title.
Also, there isn't much room to customize your character, clothes-wise, like in other titles. There are four or five shoes, shirts and pants to choose from -- all of which have around 5 or 6 COLORS (not styles) that you can choose from, that saturate the entire article of clothing. For instance, a shirt and tie both have to be one color, and it just looks like complete ass.
Now that the main reason to try this game is out of the way, now for the gameplay:
If you think the free Texas Hold 'em is slow as
, wait 'til you try this. Poker is fairly slow enough as is, but you have to sit through a couple of animations before a player can take their turn. What I mean is, a character will go through an animation while the player is thinking, and they're fairly long -- like shuffling their chips, rolling a chip between their knuckles, etc. Only after that animation is done will the computer or player's character actually make their move, even after it is selected, which involves another animation. This unneeded slowness will add up, and get insanely annoying very quickly.
The screen is very cluttered, and its hard to tell who is going, from time to time. It's a little hard to explain, but you'll get lost in all of the unnecessary on-screen jargan and strange camera angles, which often times don't highlight which player has a turn.
Another thing that is very annoying is that characters will sneeze... way too much. One to two characters will sneeze every hand. It sounded like a good dose of realism at the board of ideas... but the way it was OVERLY implemented back-fires, as I highly doubt each digital poker player at the table has a bout with allergy fits.
So, here it is:
Annoying; Slow; Sloppy; Bad Gameplay; Filthy Looking
World Poker Tour, for the Xbox, is a shining gem in comparison. (And it's a good game, too.)
TeamXbox gave this title an 8.1, which just blows mying mind.
The DigiMask stuff (which was 80% of the reason for me purchasing it) was pretty impressive, at first -- more so because it is a feature that is brand new to the 360 arena. Once you start noticing its flaws, it's mystic begins to wash away.
When you view your face head-on, only then does it look pretty accurate -- from the side-view, and even 3/4 view, it looks very bad. I hope that this isn't an indication of what it will look like on other titles (primarily Rainbow Six: Vegas). You need the lighting to be pitch perfect, or else you'll get a dingy JPEG quality. Even then, there's still something about the feature that doesn't look too clean, which is highlighted by the fact that there are two separate models for DigiMask character models, and regular character models; where the DigiMask models look flat, lack expression and facial dimensions. When they sit at a table with regular character models, whose faces aren't merely pasted onto a head, the difference is quite an annoyance, as it is inconsistent -- and keep in mind, the regular character models don't even look good, as is. Very lifeless, rigid and scream "NOT NEXT-GEN". (But, hey; it's a poker game, right?)
When you compare a lifeless corpse (DigiMask) to a slightly lively lifeless corpse (regular character models), there's too large of a noticable difference, which just fuels the inconsistency of this title.
Also, there isn't much room to customize your character, clothes-wise, like in other titles. There are four or five shoes, shirts and pants to choose from -- all of which have around 5 or 6 COLORS (not styles) that you can choose from, that saturate the entire article of clothing. For instance, a shirt and tie both have to be one color, and it just looks like complete ass.
Now that the main reason to try this game is out of the way, now for the gameplay:
If you think the free Texas Hold 'em is slow as
, wait 'til you try this. Poker is fairly slow enough as is, but you have to sit through a couple of animations before a player can take their turn. What I mean is, a character will go through an animation while the player is thinking, and they're fairly long -- like shuffling their chips, rolling a chip between their knuckles, etc. Only after that animation is done will the computer or player's character actually make their move, even after it is selected, which involves another animation. This unneeded slowness will add up, and get insanely annoying very quickly.The screen is very cluttered, and its hard to tell who is going, from time to time. It's a little hard to explain, but you'll get lost in all of the unnecessary on-screen jargan and strange camera angles, which often times don't highlight which player has a turn.
Another thing that is very annoying is that characters will sneeze... way too much. One to two characters will sneeze every hand. It sounded like a good dose of realism at the board of ideas... but the way it was OVERLY implemented back-fires, as I highly doubt each digital poker player at the table has a bout with allergy fits.
So, here it is:
Annoying; Slow; Sloppy; Bad Gameplay; Filthy Looking
World Poker Tour, for the Xbox, is a shining gem in comparison. (And it's a good game, too.)
TeamXbox gave this title an 8.1, which just blows my
ing mind.
