E3 06: World Championship Poker: Featuring Howard Lederer - All In Impressions

LOS ANGELES--These days, it's difficult to throw up your arms after losing on the river without hitting some kind of new poker game; since the explosion in popularity of televised poker and the proliferation of online poker sites, we've seen roughly one trillion console and PC adaptations of the game, ranging from the budget titles that only feature Texas Hold 'Em to the more full-fledged varieties that offer better artificial intelligence and multiple game types.

One of the best of this latter variety has been World Championship Poker, which is about to appear in its third iteration under the laborious title World Championship Poker: Featuring Howard Lederer - All In. Like the previous games in the series, All In attempts to make its mark with better AI than its competitors and an array of endorsements from various poker pros, such as the titular Howard Lederer and his sister Annie Duke. The PS2 version of the game is currently slated to have nine real-world poker pros represented, while the Xbox 360 version, puzzlingly, will only feature six. All In will feature 18 different varieties of poker, up from the 14 varieties in the last version of the game.

The 360 version of All-In is distinguishing itself from its PS2 brethren with more realistic graphics and apparently superior artificial intelligence. Graphically, it's immediately clear that realism is the name of the game here, with some lush tables and lifelike players. One of the interesting features of the 360 version is the ability to win the felt right off of the tables that you play at during some of the featured tournaments, which essentially lets you collect different skins, which you can apply to your home table or use when you host games online.

In addition, All In for the 360 increases the online player limit to 64-player tournaments, although you're still restricted to eight players at a table. The online mode will also feature support for the recently announced Xbox 360 camera attachment, allowing you to scope out your opponents online or let them watch you twist your Oreos when you play. There is also a full suite of achievements specially made for the 360, with about a 60/40 split between single-player and multiplayer achievements.

All In currently doesn't have a hard release date, but stay tuned to GameSpot for more information on the game as it becomes available.