Poker players: Here is what the GS review didn't tell you. (updated)
Two, Multiplayer connectivity issues. The game can randomly freeze up, sometimes for minutes. Quick Match only works sporadically, but searching for games and selecting one from the list works most of the time.
----------------
Like many of you I'm dying for a decent poker game on XBLA, as the current game is riddled with bugs, poor design choices, and rampant cheating. But quite honestly, I was not convinced by the before-release info I was getting, afraid that it would be a dumbed down, all-in fest with Facebook like features. I can already report that my fears were, for the most part, unfounded, and that Full House Poker improves on the TIK Games release in almost every way.
I fired up a single player game to check the interface and gameplay so I could click on everything and take my time. Just setting up a match, I could see that there are dozens of different game types. Of course we have the standard cash and tournament play, but it doesn't stop there. One can play no limit, pot limit, spread limit, or limit poker. In terms of game types, you can play lowball, where the worst hand wins, or the best and worst hands split the pot, along with the usual 'best hand wins' game. Tournaments can be heads up, or 1, 2, or 3 tables which can hold either 6 or 10 players. Mixing and matching these parameters means your Aunt Ida can find a game she likes too, while the Phil Ivey's can have their heads up shootouts. I made a 3 table 6 max game to see how the game would handle a MTT.
The first thing you notice is that gameplay has been sped up, without seeming frantic. A game feels a lot snappier than the TIK Games version. The table no longer has to hit A to move on to the next hand. Most games I've seen are played on Pro time limit, which is 15 seconds. Yes, there is a rather long win, and showdown, animation, but really it's a wash, as the old game took forever to declare the winner as well.
To be honest, I had a hard time following the action at first as my player was no longer anchored at the bottom of the screen. That problem went away when I clicked the RS and switched to a more zoomed out view. It's also harder to see who has the button and your position, since the camera can be anywhere. Stick with a zoomed out camera behind your seat to solve that. There was also a camera issue when two players were all in, it was not possible to see their hole cards because bodies blocked my view. I had to adjust the camera to see their cards.
Now, the good things:
You can fold, call, or raise before it's your turn. Thank god. A much needed feature that contributes to the quick gameplay.
The pot size goes up when someone makes a bet!!! (You need to be a veteran of the old game to understand why this is such a huge deal.) You no longer have to guesstimate pot odds.
It's no longer possible to bet $472. (EDIT: this is wrong. Pushing up or down on the stick allows to to fine tune your bet.) Changing your bet with the stick is a bit touchy but not unmanageable.
The winner can choose to show no cards, both, or one card of his choice if he wins before showdown. This is huge, and the way it should be. There will be mind games galore now, players can just show the bottom pair of a two pair hand, for example.
And the best for last: the tournament structure is incredibly good. At the start, I said I was worried the game would be dumbed down, and I knew just where to look. If the levels were short and the blinds skyrocketed up, I'd know the game would be mediocre, a money grab. I'm so happy this is not the case. The levels are long! They go up in reasonable increments! There is plenty of time for us TAG guys to be patient, and to make plays we can get away from, without killing our stack too much. Just this, the tourny structure, is enough to recommend the game alone. (EDIT) After a bit more playing, I'd say the structure is *too good*. The blinds need to go up a bit faster and have bigger jumps later Too often you get to heads up and each player has 100-150 BB, and games can seriously drag on.
-------------------
(EDIT) The Texas Heat game mentioned in the GS review is terrible. Over 10,000 people played the first episode yet most people reported that the tables were full of bots with one human player. Don't bother with this mode until it gets patched, standard ranked matches are against other humans, and are much more fun.
-------------------
I'll stop here. If you hated the TIK Games version as much as I did, you're gonna think Full House Poker is the second coming. If you have no knowledge of the old game, you're going to find a very solid and fun poker game here.