I thought for todays blog, I’d do a bit of a recap of some of the poker console games that we have flying around the PokerTime office. Lunch times usually turn in poker tournaments, or some Xbox and Ps3 play. So I took it upon myself to write about some of the game we have flying around
World Series of Poker 2008: Battle for the Bracelets – PS3 & Xbox and DS
Probably the best of all the current Poker games out there on the market. Battle for the Bracelets really does make Activision shine as the best poker console franchise around. The computer AI is extremely intelligent, and Activision has included Player of the Year Points for the career mode and has redone presentation. There are many well-recognized professional poker players in this game, such as Scotty Nguyen, Phil Hellmuth, Chris Ferguson, and Johnny Chan.
Coupled with the fact that you able to play online on Xbox Live, this game makes for one really engaging poker console game. This really seems to take up most of our console play.
High Stakes on the Vegas Strip: Poker Edition – PS3 & Xbox
Whilst a solid game, there are not too many options: This is probably the reason this was found underneath the Plasma cabinet
Character creation is limited
Only two environments to look at
Career mode is simply a series of tournaments with a cumulative total winnings
Although online play is quite decent, there are is well a lack of features and options
All in all a nice basic poker game. If you are looking to hop online on your console and have a game with your friends or some strangers, it’s not a bad play.
World Championship Poker: Deluxe Series - DS
After a quick survey of the office, we seemed to only find 2 people with poker on their Nintendo DS. It seemed both people purchased the same game, and now they have people to play against each other ‘during’ lunch.
I really did not expect too much out of the game, firstly, never having a DS, plus, we did not have a box for it, so I could hardly judge the game by its cover. What I have picked up is a couple of development flaws which really could have been ironed out a little bit better. Other than the Poker play which really is not too bad moving from 3D to overhead views which I found fairly cool. One can move from casino to casino playing different games and winning various other tournaments.
You can also buy different items by winning tournaments, such as facial attributes, game faces, and the like which apparently have some kind of benefit in the game.
All in all, not a bad game, quite fun – Not worth buying a DS for.
Texas Hold ‘em Poker – Wii
It seems this is probably the most popular poker game that is flying around the office. Developed by Gameloft, this WiiWAre adaptation is extremely fun and addictive. Apparently, its in the Top 20 downloads on the Wii and constantly moves up and down this list.
All you really get on this version is poker. It somewhat reminded me of the new Facebook poker game Poker Rivals. One thing I do love about this Wii game is it seems to adapt numerous of the best subtleties of live poker into a cute little 3D game. The characters firstly are extremely entertaining to watch, and you get to play in great locations from tropical island casinos, to Las Vegas itself.
All in a all a great little game. Its attractive, casually paced, and quite enjoyable. Not really for hardcore poker players.
I also found a game called Vegas Stakes in one of the game cupboard. Since our Super Nintendo died many years ago unfortunately, I did not get to play it. The Wikipedia entry on it has got me on eBay looking for an old SNES.
Till Tommorow,