| Reviewer: Shelly |
Date: 2008-07-04, 10:50 GMT
Version: Billiards Champ 3D 1.0
Overall rating:   (Poor)
|
| GUI:   Features: Ease of use: Value: |  | The first thing I noticed was how jittery the video is. As I panned the camera around, video would freeze for a second, then release. I'm running a dual core box with an Nvidia 8800 with 2 gigs of memory, so there was no excuse for that.
Graphic-wise, it's bare bones. Pool simulators like Virtual Pool 3 don't need Crysis level graphics, but they do need good physics engines. This game had decent graphics for what it seeks to achieve, but I felt the physics were a bit lacking.
But the most frustrating part of this was the fact that I was unable to figure out how to stroke the cue. Pressing the letter S would hit the ball with minimal force. I was looking for a way to do something a bit more extreme than to knock the cue ball more than 3 inches. When exploring the options, there was no reference for what the key assignments were. Sound? Check. Music? Check. Key assignments so you can figure out how to play the game? Tough luck, sport.
Then out of morbid curiosity, I decided to click the "buy this game" link. It turns out the developer wants $14.99, not $12.99 as listed on softpedia. To add some more hilarity to the trainwreck known as Billiards Champ 3D, it offered to sell me "insurance" for $3.49 which means the server would be kind enough to save the installer for me for 12 months in case i wanted to download it again. Huh? You want me to spend yet MORE money so I can have the 'right' to download software that i've legally purchased? Yeah, you get right on that, tiger.
Then in one last gasp of irony, the title of "Billiards" is incorrect. As you probably already know, Billiards is a game involving carom shots. There are no pockets in Billiards. Pool? Yes, but Pool and Billiards are entirely different beasts.
A sharp poke in the eye will be a much better investment than what this game has to offer. |
|
