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I always wondered who bought all of these poker games. Given all of the sequels and new series, it seems that enough people are buying the game to make it worth the publisher’s time and money. World Series of Poker: Tournament of Champions 2007 does a pretty good job of translating America’s new favorite pastime, although the game is undoubtedly aimed at people who were already interested in the hobby.
The first thing you’ll do in the game is create your character for the game’s career mode. The game uses the Xbox Live Vision camera to import your face into the game on the Xbox 360. The end result is a surprisingly good emulation of your face and even your hair. Playing with your own face is obviously pretty nifty but the game cannot animate your imported face, which is a blessing in poker, but remains unnerving nonetheless. The game uses the expected create-a-player sliders on the PS2 and Xbox. The career mode begins with you as a no-name player who is miraculously taken under the wing of Chris Tournament. The game then takes you to four casinos to complete a number of events. You’re awarded points and cash with each win and you need to meet a point requirement to move onto the next tournament. Along the way you’ll meet a number of big-name poker players like Joe Hachem, Kristy Gazes, Jennifer Tilly, Men Nguyen and Scotty Nguyen.
The gameplay is functional but ordinary. Unlike, say Stacked, the game’s myriad of pro players play fairly similarly and only have a passing resemblance to their actual playing styles. That said the AI players do play a respectable game of poker, if more aggressive than you would expect from these pro players. The game won’t be used as a particularly good tool for beginning players, although there is some information in the game that can increase your chances of winning in-game and may apply to real life games. For example, the game can tell you the odds of making a certain hand based on the cards already played and similar statistics.
World Series of Poker 2007 includes online multiplayer on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 2 and PSP. All three versions of the game support up to nine players. Technically, playing online is extremely smooth since poker isn’t particularly demanding on network bandwidth. Online multiplayer includes many poker variants including Texas and Omaha hold’em. The Xbox 360 and PS2 versions support camera functionality so you can see yourself onscreen via the Xbox Live Vision Camera and Eyetoy, respectively.
The game’s graphics are serviceable and nothing more. The player models aren’t horrible but they are not the most detailed available on the Xbox 360, PS2 or PSP. The animation system is fittingly barebones since poker players aren’t the most animated bunch. There is very little difference between the PS2 and PSP versions of the game, though the Xbox 360 version looks noticeably better thanks to a more detailed crowd, slightly more detailed players, and better skin textures. Aside from the players and environments, the game’s presentation is about on par with a typical poker broadcast although it isn’t as flash as say ESPN’s rendition of the game.
The audio is functional, though again, nothing amazing. Guitar-heavy rock plays during the menu screens, with the actual games trading this in for generic background casino sounds. The players have limited dialogue but what is there is delivered very well. The same cannot be same for the repetitive commentary provided by Lon McEarchen and Norman Chad, you’ll hear their handful of lines repeated very often.
World Series of Poker 2007 has some things going for it: namely the camera support for Xbox 360 and PS2 and a functional online portion. Stacked is probably a better option on the PS2 and PSP, although World Series of Poker is undoubtedly better than Texas Hold ‘Em, the Xbox 360’s only other poker game. -- Jake Wilson, PGNx Media
---- Oct 23, 2006
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