Well, the first thing that will bring a smile to your face is the amount of Pool variations on offer here. We’ve got 9-Ball, five types of 8-Ball, Straight Pool, Rotation, 6-Ball, 10-Ball, 3-Ball, Bank Pool, One Pocket, 15-Ball, three versions of Billiards, Cowboy, Cribbage, Honolulu, Bowlliards and even Snooker. There’s a Trick Shot mode too, but despite having a wide array of tricks on offer, often leaves you with little knowledge on how to even perform the trick, which leaves this mode as rather worthless. Thankfully, the rest of the game is a little more straight forward. Quick Play does exactly what it says on the tin. Either against the CPU, a human opponent, or even yourself, you can set up matches in any of the Pool variations on offer. You can set the amount of games you play to (something Pool Paradise didn’t have for some reason) and choose from one of 8 locations to play in. These mostly offer just a different background or cloth colour, but some are required for certain modes, like the big table for Snooker. You can also choose to change the size of the pockets, add more bounce the rails and even change the speed of the cloth.
Pool is a game even old people can play.
Despite the endless lists of modes on offer, a Pool game is only as good as it plays. Thankfully, Virtual Pool Tournament Edition has few problems here. The physics feel accurate, the balls have a good weight to them and you tend to feel that the shots you miss are down to your miscalculations and rarely is the game at fault. The control system works well with the stick used for aiming and shooting using a mixture of button combinations. The power is set by holding ‘A’ and pulling back on the stick, with gradual movement possible rather than a cue that snaps back into position when you release the stick, which goes a long way in judging softer shots better; something Pool Paradise suffered at times. The camera is fully adjustable with the stick, while the ‘Y’ button allows you to zoom in and out from the table for better views.
The only real criticisms of note are firstly the lack of a guide line. The only guide line available shows where the ball you hit will end up. A simple line from the white ball would have made lining up shots a tad easier, especially as it’s sometimes hard to work out when you’re looking at a TV screen rather than playing Pool in the flesh. Secondly is that of the camera when the white is placed near a cushion or another ball. For some reason, the camera won’t move below the angle of the cue, making seeing balls further up the screen impossible without zooming out, which in turn makes the shot harder. I suppose this is done to make cushion shots harder (as they are in real life) but it doesn’t make it any less frustrating. Finally, I find the lack of a ‘fine tuning’ button for smaller movements can make some shots a much longer procedure than it needs to be. In past Virtual Pool games you could hold a button to allow small adjustments, so it seems strange for it not to be included here.
Virtual Pool Tournament Edition features the kind of single player game you would expect. You start the ‘Career’ by choosing which game you’d like to play, then you take on a series of CPU characters that will bet a certain amount of money on each match. It is then up to you to build up your wallet and take down the kings of each of the locales as the wagers steadily increase. It’s nothing special, but these games are all about the multiplayer anyway, which is why the lack of Xbox Live support is a real shame. Live Aware is available, but actual online play hasn’t been included.
UK Pool is in here for those who prefer the red & yellow balls version.
Presentation throughout the game is pretty solid. The menus are simple and functional, but it’s the balls themselves that really impress. Beautifully round with the shiniest reflections you’ll ever see. You can even make out the reflection of surrounding balls, it looks superb. The environments and tables don’t look bad either with each having their distinct look varying from Scottish castles to USA diners from the 70’s. The tables look suitably authentic, especially on the garage stage where there are realistic looking beer stains and chalk marks all over the cloth. The lack of widescreen support is disappointing, especially considering that, for those few people out there with HDTV, the game does actually support 720p and runs in widescreen as a result. Each environment is accompanied by its own piece of music. Some of Virtual Pool’s soundtrack is quite bearable, but for the most part it’s the worst music ever to grace the human ear. Thankfully this is an Xbox game and Custom Soundtracks are supported.
Overall, Virtual Pool Tournament Edition is a good choice for those looking for a Pool game, especially on the Xbox where there is no Pool Paradise. In fact, this game has a few things that Archer Maclean’s title doesn’t. For starters it has more modes of Pool, it has arguably a more accurate shooting system and there are even minor things like being able to set the number for games you play in multiplayer that the latter game didn’t have. The lack of online play through Live is a shame, especially when other games like World Snooker Championship, Pool Shark 2 and World Championship Pool offered it, but as a budget release in all PAL regions Virtual Pool Tournament Edition plays a good enough game of Pool to be worth a look.
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