Stacked
by Myelin Media
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List Price: Our Price: $1.88 You Save: $28.11 (94%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: Video Games See more product details |
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Video Game Reviews of Stacked
Customer Review: Stacked?....no, it's padded.
Summary: 4 Stars
Given all the hype and the LOOONNGGG wait for this to finally ship, I must say I was a little disappointed with the PC version of this game.
Interface => B- / C+ It's kind of kludgy while trying to appear slick. There are some nice graphics and some semi-opaque window effects, but in actual gameplay, there are issues. Changing your "play"; call, raise, or fold is difficult because of the tiny icon on the screen. Using the up/down arrows is easier, but hard to control unless you choose to tap, tap, tap. Holding down either arrow causes erratic spurts and is frustrating.
Sound => B+ Not bad, especially if you turn off the music. The voice work is good and not overly repetitive. One bizarre thing is that my character has a German accent while all of the other players...computer and human...sound American.
Graphics => B+ Very good. The players move, scratch their heads, breathe, and generally look very good. My wife noted that a lot of the female character models were "in love with the low cleavage". (Not a completely bad thing from my viewpoint) The casino, table, and surroundings look fairly detailed.
Single play => B+ Quick Play, Career Mode, and Poker School. So far, I've only explored the first two. (Poker School requires you install > 350MB of AVI files of Daniel teaching poker, though you could have them read from CD at SLOW speed) Nothing remarkable, they do what they say. The game starts you with $2000 in chips. You can choose Cash Game, single and multi-table tourneys, as well as limit or no limit games. As you progress, you can "unlock" other casinos (2) and pro players like Negreanu (7). You can "play" with the Pro's likeness in Single Player mode, but not in Multi. So, if you are online with Daniel, it really IS him. (So the manual states. I'm guessing a hack will be out in weeks to mess this up)
Multiplayer => B+ Easy to select or create a game. I found a Cash Game in 15 seconds. I did not seem to experience any lag or delays, even at full tables. There were several tournaments listed, including MTV (a big sponsor tie-in) Showdowns. (there were 7 listed) and a couple of "generic" ones with $1000 chip buy-ins. Note: there is a Speed Play function in Single play not present here. So, if Betty from Omaha is thinking about her hand for 1-2 minutes, you wait. I did not see a clock function available (asking the dealer to put the stalled player on a clock). This needs to be added when they patch this! UPDATE: the Dealer will say "player, please make a play" if someone takes too long, but YOU cannot ask for a clock.
Artificial Intelligence => C So far, I can't give the vaunted POKI engine much in the way of kudos. I played a single table tourney in Single Play mode against "Mixed" opponents (choices are Easy, Normal, Hard, and Mixed) and I won quite easily. Now I am a very experienced tournament player and just finished a run of 7 consecutive final tables, so this is not a totally unexpected outcome. However, I did not feel particularly challenged by the game at that setting. Also, one of the features is Pro Tips / Ask Daniel. In certain game situations, a Tip will be triggered and you can see a pop-up window suggesting what to do. On ANY play where you are to act, you can Ask Daniel. The Pro Tip will always override Daniel, by the way. For the most part, I was underwhelmed. Being told "a check is OK here" with nothing else is just weak. Some of the Tips did have a VERY brief statement or explanation as to WHY you would call/raise/fold, but that's it. This needs to be improved in later versions/patch levels.
Value => B+ It's under $30 most places and does play well with some pleasing graphics to soothe the eyes. It's a good game that has the potential to be great.
Customer Review: PC Version is ok, still has problems.
Summary: 3 Stars
Overall the game, graphics and sound are all really good in my opinion. Couple of drawbacks though, if you have a NAT internet connection (no idea what it is but the game detects it to see if you have one), you will not be able to join Online Multi Tournament Tables, but you can still play online in Single Table Tournies. Also, after about 15 minutes of playing, the game just closed, disappeared, all progress lost. Now this has only happened once in about 3 hours of gameplay, so it may be nothing. But it was something to be concerned about.
I have contacted tech support and as of yet, 24 hours later, there is no reply, but they do say it takes them 48 hours to respond to requests.
Overall I am not sure on this game, great idea, seems to have some problems though, perhaps a patch would fix things up.