World Series of Poker 2008: Battle for the Bracelets

by ACTIVISION

Product Features

• Single Player
• Over 20 official Wsor Tournament events
• Learn to play like the pros

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B000RHZJMK
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches ; 6.1 ounces
• Media: Video Game
• Release Date: December 14, 2007
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #22,407 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
  • #1 in Video Games > PlayStation 2 > Casino

Product Description

Platform: PlayStation2

Amazon.com

Enter the largest sporting event in the world, the World Series of Poker, and battle "The Poker Brat" Phil Hellmuth along the way! Build your bankroll and face-off against some of the world's top pros in your quest to win the championship bracelet for the $10,000 main event.

• All Star Pro Line-up featuring Phil "The Poker Brat" Hellmuth
• Special Heads-up tournament mode for intense poker action
• New locations including Paris, Flamingo, Bally's Harrah's Las Vegas
• Unlock upgrades to the most exclusive VIP suites in Las Vegas
• New poker tutorials and learning tools to improve your game

Product Description

Take down the world's top pros in head to head action

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The Cpu betting's improved, but a lousy layout and tiny hard to read lettering means you need a bigger tv to avoid squinting., October 2, 2007

By 

Poker Face (Toronto, Canada) - See all my reviews

= Fun:2.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: World Series of Poker 2008: Battle for the Bracelets (Video Game)

UPDATED: Oct. 8, 2007

I'm giving this game 3.5 stars overall and increasing my FUN rating to 3 stars, because I've just noticed that the Cpu players will now occasionally LIMP in when first into the pot (thus betting is a bit more realistic than last year's game). Otherwise, it would get just 3 stars overall.

Important Note: The PS2 game case is not accurate. On the front cover my case incorrectly lists that Seidel, Lieu, and Arieh are in the game. As well, the Amazon product description mentions that Shannon Elizabeth is in the game. She's not here either (there are NO player chips for them). However, I believe they are only in the XBox 360 version. Also, on the back of my PS2 case it shows a Heads-Up Ladder Tournament with 12 large player pictures. The actual PS2 Heads-Up Ladder Tournament has only 8 small player pictures arranged in a different configuration. So most likely that picture on the PS2 box is from the XBox 360 version. However, it's also possible that after the boxes were made, they changed the way the game looked, even for the XBox 360 version.


Here's The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly.

The Good: Some cooler statistics, bit more suspenseful 2 player All-in showdowns (they are a bit slower--thus easier to follow, with some commentary between card flips, and the all-in players are shown in side-by-side, split-screen windows), and although it's a fairly RARE occurrence, the Cpu players will now sometimes just LIMP (Call the BB) into a pot, when they're first to bet in an unopened pot, rather than always RAISE, like they did in last year's game (for No-Limit Texas Hold'em only).

The Bad: If you don't use the fastest Cpu betting speed, the game will sometimes make you wait for about 4 to 7 seconds after you press the X button before your player touches his cards or chips. It happens enough times to be annoying. Much worse than last year's minor wait time. Plus, the Cpu players still only raise 2 or 3 times the Big Blind amount (only more, if antes are involved, I assume) or all-in. Real poker players will bet 2.5, 3.5, 4, etc., times the BB, very often, so it's a rather unrealistic betting pattern they use in this video game.

The Ugly: Has one of the most cluttered and hard to read layouts of any poker game! Only lets you have the one camera view (split screen, side-by-side view). Time to buy a bigger tv set.


SHUFFLE UP AND DEAL:
I've played the game for about 18 hours (NOT online) but much prefer the look of last year's 2007 version. "WSOP 2008: Battle for the Bracelets" should come with a warning, "May cause eye strain if played for more than 30 minutes at a time." However, even though I moved within 5 feet of my 32 inch tube tv, and didn't really get any eye strain, I still hate the way it looks. It just looks so ugly!! It looks like a PC game ported to the PS2. I thought the "Stacked" PS2 game had presentation problems, but wait till you see this mess. What an eyesore--even the hole cards are a bit smaller than last year's game!!!

WSOP 2008 has more variety than last year's game because you now have 43 WSOP events (similar to the very first WSOP game). You play to win cash and "Player of the Year" points in these events: Razz; HORSE; SHOE; Pot limit and Hi-Low Omaha; 7 card stud Reg. and Hi-Low; Texas Hold'em: Limit, Pot limit, No-limit; Mixed Hold'em, and Shorthanded (6 players per table). The Main event (career mode) has 9720 players. Wow! Next highest is 3456 players. In quickplay mode you can only have a maximum of 4608 players in a tournament.

So far, I haven't seen the major betting flaw of the Cpu checking the best hand on the river, when it's last to act (like it unfortunately did in last year's game), but if I ever do, I'll drop my rating to 2 stars overall. When I go all-in, the Cpu players usually just fold or call with Ace-10 or better. I'm assuming that they'll still call all-ins with any two suited cards as well, like all poker video games do.

I've only seen the No-Limit Texas Hold'em Cpu players LIMP in (just call the BB amount), when they're the first ones to bet into an unopened pot, a few times (in both the WSOP events and the Invitionals, etc.). Although it should happen more often, like in real poker games, at least it does occur on occasion. I'm grateful that they fixed this major bug (at least slightly) from last year's game. As far as I can tell, this is the only Cpu betting improvement that they've made in this year's 2008 version, but at least it's better than nothing.

The 29 pros in the game (Note:I don't see Shannon Elizabeth listed anywhere!) are as follows: P.Hellmuth, J.Chan, M.Matusow, S. Nguyen, Men Nguyen, Annie Duke, C.Gowen, C.Violette, D.Ulliot(Devilfish), S.Fischman, M.Luske, M. Pescatori, G.Raymer, J.Hachem, K.Gazes, A.Cunningham, E.Lindgren, J.Harman, Chris Jesus Ferguson, J.Tilly, D.Williams, H.Brenes, T.J.Cloutuier, R.De Wolfe, A.Esfandiari, P.Gordon, P.Laak, M.Mizrachi and Gavin Smith.

Once again, it's great that the Cpu players will still sometimes show you their hole cards after everyone has folded, just to taunt or impress you.

As well, the Next card cam, which shows you what the river card would be, even if everyone folded, is still included in this game as well.

Unfortunately, quite often (but never on the fastest speed), after I press the X button to complete my action, there's about a 4 to 7 second delay (at least there's no more standing up for all-ins) before your player will do anything. It's annoying because it does slow down the game somewhat. Sometimes, it's because you can hear the PS2 drive working just before Lon or Norm are about to say something, but other times there are no comments; just your guy turning his head and contemplating the meaning of life, I suppose. However, if you use the fastest Cpu betting speed, you won't get to experience the slower and more suspenseful all-in showdowns, which last year's game desperately needed. That's why I use the Normal speed. Plus, I can still speed up the Cpu player betting by just pressing the X button anyway, so I guess it could have been worse.

It's hard to believe, but WSOP 2008's loading screens seem to take an eternity to end (probably just 30 seconds-like last year's, but it seems longer). Uggh!


GRAPHICS AND AUDIO:
Because you are forced to play this game with only the ONE lousy camera view (with NO possible way to change it--NOT even with the L3 or R3 buttons, or by changing the speed of the Cpu betting), and the tiny lettering, I can only tolerate playing this game for about 30 minutes at a time. The bet amounts etc., are way too tiny to see without squinting (slight exaggeration on my part), even for my 32 inch tv. Because last year's layout looked so much better (in the 'Normal' Cpu betting speed setting), I usually played it for 1 to 3 consecutive hours at a time-often even longer. If you enjoyed last year's game as much as I did (even with the numerous betting flaws), than you're probably going to buy this game (like I did) and try to concentrate on enjoying all the good stuff that they have included. I would say that's probably a good idea, although make sure you brace yourself before you first start playing--you will immediately long for last year's far superior layout and easier to read lettering and numbering. The popular saying, "Just grin and bear it" comes to mind.

Clearly, this is at least 10 steps backwards in the graphics department. I'm going to have to sit right in front of my tv and stare at the screen until I can figure out what's going on--that's how bad it looks. You'll want to play this on a 50 inch LCD screen at least (even if you have the XBox 360 or PS3 version). What a shame! If I keep playing, by next week I'll probably have to get stronger glasses, or perhaps binoculars. I don't see why they have to show a birds-eye view of the table at all times (even on normal betting speed) and a split screen view of the player who is betting. That's perhaps why they made the letters and numbers too small to read easily. Again, it's one of the worst poker layouts ever!! I despise it!

Clonie Gowen (now a brunette), Annie Duke, C.Violette and most of the other pros look uglier than Kathy Liebert without makeup--yes that UGLY!!! Marcel Luske looks realistic enough (upside down sunglasses), as does Alen Cunningham, Johnny Chan, T.J.Cloutier, S.Fischman and several others. Lon McEachern and Norman Chad are back to announce, and Norman looks a little better (thinner) than 2007's version perhaps. They've even added many more audio phrases for Lon and Norman to say, as well as keeping most of the old phrases from last year, so it takes a bit longer to tire of the less frequent repetition. To hear Mike Matusow make some funny comments, don't bet for a long time and then listen to him whine, "why are we waiting..ohhh...". Or even, "I've been waiting so long I'm going to act out of turn."

It's silly that they still don't have sound effects for the chips. They just use the sound effect of a card being dealt instead. However, at least they removed the annoying coughing and sneezing from the game.

So far, like in last year's game, I've seen the Cpu players unrealistically toss just one chip into the pot when it was for a large amount, but at least in this year's game, I have yet to see them put all their chips into the pot unless they are actually all-in (unless the player with more chips, pushed all-in BEFORE the shorter stacked players also pushed all-in).

Okay, I'm now sitting 5 feet from the tv, still squinting trying to read Hellmuth's tips (same as Ferguson's from last year's game) and chip leaders on the ticker (you CAN'T change the size of the lettering, like last year's game... Read more ›

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Better than last years!, October 22, 2007

By 

A. Nuon "Azncali" (Wisconsin) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

= Fun:3.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: World Series of Poker 2008: Battle for the Bracelets (Video Game)

The new features in wsop 2008 version are nice. There are times you go into heads up and it does a split screen with the %. That is pretty cool. The online multiplayer is funny. But it doesn't lock up like other poker games on the ps2. This one has a pretty good connection. There should be more lively AI's. In this version you can tell they are working little by little to improve this area. Yeah I don't like the animation in the background. Actually not animation but rather a still shot of people that dont move and it doesn't look real. There should be an option just to have an empty background. I don't know why that bugs me. Anyways... The added mini games is another nice touch. While waiting for other players, you can play black jack. I sometimes find myself lost into black Jack. The fact that you can now set it to fold ahead of time and not wait, THUMBS UP! Just like in pokerstars. It isnt much of a feature but little things like that make it worth while. There are some flaws in the game. Like in the other review it's true. The lettering is horrible. You really do have to strange your eyes just to make out the letters and chip count. It should of been blown up when it is on the player. The betting is funny too. You would raise $100 and your character would grab a stack. Than if someone raises you $500 your character grabs 1 chip of the same color and throw it in...lol. Another flaw I would see is I would have the best hand. Pocket ACES, Push all in with 3k. Only to be called by an AI pro with a 10,7 suited, sometimes unsuited. That doesn't make sense??????

The fact that they put many poker pros into 2008 is great. Almost all of the models look like them on the ps2 version, except for men the master and annie duke.


Some improvements that can be added maybe on the next one should be the conversional part of the game. It's annoying to hear the same jokes over and over.


I was worried about the graphics on the ps2 version. Since the xbox360 looks alot better and the lettering maybe clear. But it's actually alright. The gameplay is pretty fun. I actually play this one. Unlike the earlier version. It was barely touched... The headsup action really is a nice touch and draws you into the game. I can only hope for more additions to next years version. For $50.00 bucks It's not worth it. For $29.00. Okay, maybe a try. But still thought it should of been $19.00 bargin bin title.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Unplayable due to tiny "Heads Up Display" - 2007 version is better, November 26, 2007

By 

Jesse (Boston, MA) - See all my reviews

= Fun:1.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: World Series of Poker 2008: Battle for the Bracelets (Video Game)

As a player of almost every console based poker game, I of course felt the need to pick up the latest wsop title to see the improvements over the previous version.

I found that It was almost impossible to follow the action due to the tiny print on the "Heads up Display" which tells you what the bet amounts and the player's current stacks are. It was made worse by a split screen which could not be turned off.

It's really unfortunate when a game developer takes the trouble to make an otherwise decent game and then makes it unplayable throught some completely avoidable error like making the controls counter-intuitive or the text impossible to read in a game where it is crucial.

Within a few minutes of trying to deal with this game, I put it away and took out my version of wsop 2007 which is very similar except for the more readable text and cards.

Also almost all of the dialog and commentary is the same for 2008 as it was for 2007.

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