Wsc '09

[sparkrite]

anybody got this...'erm..."massive improvement" over the last one:thinking:.
Am having trouble finding any pool games on live, so feel free to add me:thumbs:
gamertag : sparkyrite

Cheers , Mike

[the_daddy]

Was thinking about getting this, then came to the conclusion that there wouldn't be anybody playing it online. So didn't bother.
How do you rate it?
What's your highest break?
Is online any good?

[sparkrite]

to be honest not much improvement, graphically ,still gives a decent game of both snooker and pool,can usually find a game of snooker at night on LIVE(unfortunatly same cant be said for pool:( ).

I'd rate it a solid 6/7..it does what it says on the tin:shrug:

Cheers , Mike

[JohnMac]

I've got this now. I'll be working my way through the tutorials (Coaching) this evening. For each Coaching shot you complete you get a skill point.

Edit: Only done the Potting and Positioning tutorials so far and will try the rest at a later time

I decided to play my first frame in Career Mode. I started off with a break in the 50s; it would have been higher but I forgot all about the Pressure Shots when it is frame ball and the arrows were much smaller on a tricky black. I missed it. But after the AI got one red and then played a safety shot I returned to the table with a long red and cleared up with a break of 61.

[JohnMac]

There haven't been a lot of changes in the way this game plays. You can now walk round the table (sort of), look around and zoom in and out on the table etc. It does give you a bit more freedom and I think it kind of replaces the normal speed/fine tuning system of previous games.

Some of the shortcomings of the series are still present: the looping crowd noise at times, the same old commentary that wasn't even that good the first time is back and the AI often seems like it doesn't give you a fair chance. The latter wouldn't be such an issue if you could turn the auto-save off, but you can't. You can quit to the dashboard and load the game up again if, for example, you do a very good break and the AI is more than half way to a clearance and it is a one frame takes all qualifying game. I speak from experience of course ;) and it seems like cheating but given the time needed to play through just one tournament let alone a season, taking such drastic action is justified in my opinion.

There are tutorials in the Coaching section but you just perform certain types of shot and have to hit or pot a ball and/or get the cueball into a specific area. Each one gives you a skill point so there is incentive to do these early on. I've got a skill point for each of the two snooker games I've played in Championship Mode so far. I recommend spending some of your skill points on Pressure as I've already mentioned as it will make the frame ball shots a bit easier and those are the important shots.

It still plays a great game of snooker though. It's easy to like a snooker game when you've just got a break of 133. :)

[paulmotion]

If you like snooker or pool you will love this game. Excellent venue and career modes. Most enjoyable when playing against your mates on xbox live.

Graphics are good, sound could be improved but does not affect the gameplay at all.

Solid 8/10 for me.

[sparkrite]

Hopefully with the snooker on tv at the moment , might spark a few more people into getting this;)

[JohnMac]

I've sent you a friends request sparkrite. I'm not that good at the pool, I find it hard to see the difference between the spots and stripes sometimes because of the light reflecting off them. Plus, nominating balls and pockets can be a bit of a pain sometimes.

I don't think there are any achievements for online play and I think if they had included some then more people would play it online. That's not to say people only play online games for achievement points - Call of Duty 4 doesn't have any for online play and it is probably the most successful online game on the 360. But to some people achievements are a strong incentive to play and it would probably have made the online side of a game like WSC Real 09 a bit more active if you did have to win X number of snooker and pool games online or reach a true skill level of Y.

I've completed the tutorials and I'm on the second to last challenge. Only done a couple of the trickshots though.

I think my main piece of advice to people buying or thinking of buying this game (and I speak from experience of owning a few of the others in the series) is not to try and play it to death when you first get it. It is tempting to get through as many tournaments and seasons as soon as possible but it will get boring very quickly if you do. It is more of an investment that you can play a game, a round or even a tournament but then have a break and play something completely different. To get to Rank 1 you will need to play through seasons multiple times and I've made the mistake of trying to do too much and getting sick of the game.

It might have some of the same problems as all the others in the series but I think this is the best they have done so far.

[the_daddy]

After watching a few gameplay vids of this on youtube, there doesn't seem to be that much skill involved as you have the tracking lines that show where the balls will travel?

Can they be turned off?

[JohnMac]

You can turn the aiming aid and the positional indicator off. In the normal game you really wouldn't want to though because you might only have one visit to the snooker table against some of the AI players. It is more about playing a strategic, positional game which will obviously appeal to some people more than others.

However, against human players the option to turn off positional indicators and/or aiming aid is a good choice, especially in pool. I wouldn't turn the aiming aid off in snooker though just the positional indicator. Don't forget there are also your skill stats which, for example, decrease the length of the arrows during a frame ball (pressure skill) etc.

If you just want a real time pool game try Bankshot Billiards 2 (XBLA).

[JohnMac]

I think the developers (Blade) really need to streamline the snooker career mode for future games. It really does become a chore to play through. I think there should be fewer tournaments, no qualifying and make everyying reset at the beginning of a season like the 8 ball season does.

I've just completed the Grand Prix which involved doing three best of 3 qualifying matches. Then all the players were split into 8 groups of 6 and each player had to play a best of 3 match against all the other players in the group before the knockout phase which I think was last 16 with increasing numbers of frames to play. This is playing it on 25% match length - does anybody in the world play it on higher or want to... :nuts:

I think they should do away with at least half of the tournaments because you have to play through about 10 a season and to my mind 3 or 4 would be more than enough with that amount of time requied. I've nothing against the Welsh or Northern Ireland tournaments for example, but it is just more of the same.

Then there are the annoying achievements. The game won't let you play the Pot Black tournament in your first season because you aren't ranked high enough and you need to win every tournament in a single season to get one of the achievements. There is also an achievement for playing 5 seasons - I'll be lucky if I can be bothered with just one. If I do play through two I'll deliberately lose all the other games to get through 3 more seasons. But it shouldn't be set up like this in the first place.

I think they should try and mix it up a bit. Have a Career Mode where threre are three or four snooker tournaments, an 8 ball, a couple of 9 ball tournaments and maybe billiards. At least in this version the game lets you play snooker career, 8 ball career (only one tournament), trickshot + golden cue independently of each other so you can have some variety.

[mdex]

I agree with pretty much everything you have said there John.

Picked this up and its very much like the old one. Not sure how long I will play it for.

[JohnMac]

How about they reinvent the game a bit like the Tiger Challenge for golf games. In other words go through a series of interconnected challenges like the 'Hex Grid' from the last Tiger Challenge (or the one before). So you could play a trickshot, billiards, a 9 ball game, 8 ball, snooker, snooker plus - all against different AI players and work up to the World Final. As well as those have some clear the table challenges and some historical scenarios as well. It might not be stuffy old snooker at the end of the day but I bet with the right presentation it would sell a lot more than these games currently do.

[JohnMac]

I'm trying to win one snooker tournament per day and that has worked well for me the last two or three days. Started the Masters tonight in order to complete it tomorrow and was pleased to get a 147 break in the first frame of the quarter finals.

I had been on for a 147 a few times before, but it had gone wrong late in the frame. In one case I had sunk all the reds/black and managed to snooker myself behind the green so I couldn't sink the yellow.

[JohnMac]

I've now completed my first season winning the World Championship just in time to watch the real final. I was ranked 2nd at the end of the season so unlocked about 6 achievements after that last frame bringing the number up to 790 for the game so far.

At the moment I don't know if I can be bothered to play another season. I think I'll just try and win the Golden Cue tournament and move on to something else.

[JohnMac]

Played the first two frames of the first round of the Golden Cue tournament and won 147-0 each frame. Admitedly the second frame wasn't a 147 break but the first one was. :)