Critic & User Reviews
IGN Review of World Poker Tour
It's a lot to keep track of, which is why a growing number of poker players really aren't very good. It's also why a growing number of poker games quick to cash on the sudden popularity of this gambling pastime aren't very good either. Perfecting the numbers is hard enough. There needs to be an artificial intelligence capable of processing the people vs. math equations and then making decisions that would benefit itself but not jeopardize its chances. Since many people can't even do that, what chance does a primitive computer have? Because of this, that kind of sophisticated AI has long eluded the mass market deliverers of poker games. But at least steps are being taken and improvements are being made. In World Poker Tour the improvements are even sometimes evident. Specifically, I can actually bluff somebody now.
Funny how bluffing wasn't much of an option in earlier poker titles. This is because designers seem intent on mistakenly ensuring action by guaranteeing flops regardless of pre-flop betting. What the developers are neglecting to notice is that the act of betting on a bluff is a sort of necessary action. Insisting that at least one AI opponent calls to see flops actually diminishes the impact of the bluff and in turn ruins the action.
WPT still falls into this trap. Its amateur AI is incapable of distinguishing between a hand that it should not be calling and one that it should. But later in the game, assuming a player has the nerve to fire three shots into an unpredictable AI or destroy that computer's pot odds by over betting a hand, folds can be elicited.
And so the equations are getting cleaner. Progress is being made in the mathematical department, but what of the feeling?
WPT makes strides in this area as well. Its biggest addition to the genre is the emotion engine. Players can now dynamically set hilarious facial animations for a character that directly correspond to specific states, like hopeful or angry. Intensity can even be determined... But to what end?
Without an established set of governing equations that relate to a player what type of computerized opponent he or she is facing, it's impossible to know whether any of the emoting is having a practical effect on the AI. So while the emotional steps are being made, the numerical foundation isn't strong enough to support it as a viable gameplay mechanic. What we need is more indication!
Let's focus. We should be able to focus on an AI player and send out an emotion or expression. We should then be able to see a recognizable response from that AI to give us an idea about what hand we're facing. Without these sorts of back and forth indications and a clearly outlined book of mannerisms that are associated with specific player types and specific moves, WPT winds up being about making weird faces for no real reason. But make them we will! Even if the results of emoting are unidentifiable, it's at least fun to create a wild freak and gape at our opponents like morons.
World Championship Poker let us create the same kinds of weirdoes, actually. The developers worked on that title, too. So the same wacky assortment of sliders and snap-ons allow for some pretty outrageous characters to also be made here and then taken into online and career modes.
The career mode suffers from the people and number problems we've been talking about, but it also delivers a distinctly WPT series of events narrated lightly by the show's stars. The career also carries with it a real sense of accomplishment and reward, though the feeling would have been much greater if we weren't limited to earning coins to purchase things and a few other unlockable goodies. So despite the final deliverance of incentive into a poker title, we're still not staring at the poker RPG the world has been waiting for.
This leaves us with online play. Jump into the mysterious cloud of Internet space and compete against others who may or may not have headsets, USB keyboards and EyeToys of their own (at least on PS2). Since this game comes from the minds behind World Championship Poker, the online experience is very similar, only less broken. We haven't seen our stats butchered recently, anyway, but nor have we been introduced to a GameSpy Arcade-free lobby that's actually of some bloody value. A few minor bugs not withstanding (like some user-created characters not looking like they should), the game is mostly fun. Mostly.
There's still the swearing, the uncouth behavior, the endless waiting of 15 seconds on every player, and the pornographic EyeToy guy who feels his testicles should be dangling in front of the camera at all times...but hey, that's what we get when we play with other people we can't punish with sticks. At least now in playing with these subhumans we can build a fully clothed player recognized as talented by his slick attire and sparkling accessories. He also won't get booted from a lost connection thanks to a swift server migration tool. Then there's the promise of official tournaments, though we've not yet seen any and the registration tool is separate from the game, which means less consolidation and a bit more aggravation.
©2005, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved