World Series of Poker
Genre: Gambling
Platform: XBox
Rating: E-10 (Everyone 10 and older)
Publisher: Activision
Developer: Left Field Productions
Release Date: 8/31/2005

Over the past few years, the World Series of Poker, a month long poker tournament in Las Vegas held every year, has gone from an event only a few degenerate gamblers had ever heard of into a nationwide sensation popularized by ESPN, fueled by the out-of-nowhere victory of Chris Moneymaker in 2003. An amateur, “dead money” as they are called by professional card players, walked off the streets and beat 838 other players, most of them the best poker pros in the world, and walked away with $2.5 million. Suddenly, anyone and everyone had dreams of winning it all, as online poker sites popped up like weeds in a flowerbed and suddenly you couldn’t change the channel without running into a poker tournament on TV, whether it be the World Poker Tour or Celebrity Poker Challenge. This year’s WSOP Main Event had 5,618 players vying for a record-setting $7.5 million first place prize.

Now Activision has released the first poker game licensed by the WSOP. Promising the most realistic gameplay ever offered by a poker video game, World Series of Poker has arrived to provide a fix for those who can’t pony up the $10G needed to play in the real thing. Does it live up to its promise?

1. Story/Modes

World Series of Poker offers three main modes. You’ve got Quick Play, where you can create your own tournament and play. You also have Multiplayer, where you can play against others via XBox Live or System Link. The third, where players will spend the majority of time, is Career Mode. Create your own player and customize his look. You’ll start out with $10,000 and have the opportunity to enter a host of different events, from the free Super Satellite Day to the Main Event. There are multiple styles of poker offered: Texas Hold Em; Omaha; Seven-Card Stud; and Razz (lowest hand wins). Each tournament cost a varying amount of money to enter, and you have a certain cut-off point you have to make to win any money. There are also invitationals, where you can go heads-up against 8 of the best pros in the world.

There’s not much there, but what is there is functional enough.

Score: 4/10

2. Graphics

The graphics in this game are fair to middling. The casino looks fairly detailed, and the character models are OK, if a bit blocky. There’s an OK amount of customization available for your characters, but compared to other games it’s a bit disappointing. What becomes truly annoying, however, are the celebration animations in the game. There are only a few different animations and they repeat ad nauseum. While the graphics aren’t as integral to this game as some others, the developers could have put a lot more effort into them, especially since you’ll be staring at the same figures time after time after time.

Score: 5/10

3. Sound

In one word, the sound is atrocious. The game contains the voice of ESPN announcer Lon McEachern, who is the main announcer for the WSOP along with Norman Chad. For some reason, however, Chad isn’t part of the game. Instead, some spare pro, whose name I’ve never been able to catch because it’s muttered when announced, is partnered with McEachern. Between the two of them, they say the same 10 things over…and over…and OVER again, until you want to put your foot through the speakers. And what they say adds absolutely nothing to the game at all. The players will also try to trash talk you, and once again, their catchphrases become repetitive after about 3 minutes. You’re better off playing the game on mute.

Score: 1/10

4. Control/Gameplay

The game’s controls are very simple. You’ve got up to 4 choices when it’s your turn to bet: Bet, Check/Call, Fold, and/or All In. Your situation will dictate the choices available to you; for example, if you’re the first to bet, Fold won’t be an option. You just use your D-pad to point to the choice you want and press the A button. Easy as pie.

The gameplay is, at first glance, simple and a bit broken. But the more you play, the more you realize how deep the game actually is. The players can be overaggressive, but this is more a function of time and the design of the game. Most of the tournaments take 16-18 hours to finish in real life, and no one’s gonna sit through that. So, to speed the game up to a more manageable time frame, the player’s AI will make them more aggressive. There will be a lot of early all in’s. But each player does have a style that you can pick up on, and they will change their strategies according to situation. A player with a large chip stack might begin playing a lot looser than they would when they’re the short stack at the table.

The further you progress in tournaments, the more you can win. The more you win, the better hotel room you get. In reality, the hotel room is just the menu from where you pick the tournaments you’ll enter, or make edits to your character’s appearance. Still, it’s a nice little touch that gives you a tangible way of seeing your player’s success. And, the more you win, the more options for your character’s appearance you get.

One major disappointment, however, is the promise of “tells”. For those not familiar with poker, players have “tells”, or physical things they do that experienced players can cue off of and make better educated guesses as to what their opponents have. Rapid breathing, playing with chips, leaning back in a chair, an uncontrollable smile, and so on. One of the game’s main advertising points is that the computer players all have tells. In reality, the camera moves so fast from player to player that it is impossible to even pick up on these cues. It’s a massive letdown, and a black mark against the game.

Overall, despite the lack of tells, the gameplay is solid. But the tell issue keeps this from getting a higher score.

Score: 6/10

5. Replayability

For poker fans, this game offers a ton of replayability, as there are a lot of different tournaments you can enter and play. If you’re not a poker fan…well, then you wouldn’t be playing this game, would you?

Score: 7/10

6. Balance

The game is nicely balanced. As you progress further into tournaments, the level of play will ramp up accordingly. The smaller money tournaments offer easier competition than the bigger money events, and are easier to get into the money. For a true test of nerve, when you’ve earned enough money you can enter the invitational tournaments, where the pros play fast and loose, and will eat up an amateur alive. No real complaints here.

Score: 7/10

7. Originality

It’s a game based off a real-life competition. While there aren’t a lot of card or casino games out there for the XBox, it’s still poker, and there’s nothing really innovative here to speak of. Had the tells worked as advertised, this might have scored higher.

Score: 3/10

8. Addictiveness

This game will suck you in, especially if you’re a degenerate gambler like me. You’ll pump your fist in the air when you take down a big pot, and you’ll scream in frustration when you go all in and catch a bad beat on the river. Not a day goes by where I’m not playing in at least two tournaments. If you’re a fan of the WSOP, you’ll be quickly hooked.

Score: 8/10

9. Appeal Factor

It’s a game based on a highly successful franchise, and poker mania is sweeping the country. But, in the end, it’s a card game, and most people would play that on their computer rather than their XBox.

Score: 5/10

10. Miscellaneous

The game offers the chance to play against 13 of the best pros on the planet, including Chris “Jesus” Ferguson, Scotty Nguyen, Men “The Master” Nguyen, Beth Fischman, and more. There is a huge vicarious thrill in going heads-up against one of these players. It’s a fun touch.

Score: 5/10

Story: 4/10
Graphics: 5/10
Sound: 1/10
Control/Gameplay: 6/10
Replayability: 7/10
Balance: 7/10
Originality: 3/10
Addictiveness: 8/10
Appeal Factor: 5/10
Miscellaneous: 5/10
Total Score: 51/100

Final Score: 5/10 (AVERAGE)