Who else agrees? I would imagine the reason we haven't already seen one is demand. Virtual billiards games have always been little more than a niche genre. But this is the age of the downloadable game, which cuts overhead significantly. And let's be frank, a pool game probably doesn't warrant a full DVD or Blu-ray disc anyway. And let's not forget the online component.
There's one game that I picked up very early on in the PS2's lifetime called Real Pool. It's nothing special, really. First-gen jaggy graphics (especially on the big-screen), simplified interface, sometimes seems too easy against the computer. But every time I make a run to turn in old games at Gamestop, this one always gets left behind, and I find myself dusting it off every few months and playing a few games. But, with today's HD anti-aliased high-dynamic-range graphics and newfangled physics engines, we need an update.
Now, in this wonderful next-gen era of ours (which is actually just "this gen" now), it seems like it would be rediculously easy to create a near-photorealistic pool game. And to dedicate an entire processor to nothing but physics calculation for the balls.
From my digging, there are only two "next-gen" pool games available. Bankshot Billiards 2 on Xbox360 (downloadable), and World Snooker Championship for everything. WSC can be discounted for me for two reasons.. for one, it's a European exclusive, never released here in the states. Second, it doesn't really look much better than the first-gen PS2 pool game I have downstairs. Which takes us back to Bankshot Billiards. Which I don't like mainly because it's only a top-down pool game without the POV view that I've gotten used to playing with. This was probably done to cut costs, since the tables don't have to actually be 3D in a fixed-view game. I've played the demo, which sucked... only offers you two minutes of gameplay, which is barely enough to get used to the controls, much less get a feel for the game. And it's fairly expensive for a downloadable title, at 1200 points.
The only other thing coming up is the pool games within PS Home. But I'm kind of iffy about that simply because of the environment, and having to go online into a little "world" to play it rather than just starting it up from the XMB. And, going back to the graphics issue, the PS Home world isn't really top-of-the-line, so the pool table can't push the limits very hard because of everything else that it's doing.
So what we need is a nice standalone title, with photorealistic next-gen graphics and next-gen physics, where we can jump in and play our billiards game of choice. Which is where PS Home might lag a bit, since most standalone games offer multiple types of billiards and various puzzle or trick-shot game types. Throw it up on XBL or PSN for five or ten bucks and let us go to town.
So WHO'S WITH ME!?!?
*crickets chirping*
There's one game that I picked up very early on in the PS2's lifetime called Real Pool. It's nothing special, really. First-gen jaggy graphics (especially on the big-screen), simplified interface, sometimes seems too easy against the computer. But every time I make a run to turn in old games at Gamestop, this one always gets left behind, and I find myself dusting it off every few months and playing a few games. But, with today's HD anti-aliased high-dynamic-range graphics and newfangled physics engines, we need an update.
Now, in this wonderful next-gen era of ours (which is actually just "this gen" now), it seems like it would be rediculously easy to create a near-photorealistic pool game. And to dedicate an entire processor to nothing but physics calculation for the balls.
From my digging, there are only two "next-gen" pool games available. Bankshot Billiards 2 on Xbox360 (downloadable), and World Snooker Championship for everything. WSC can be discounted for me for two reasons.. for one, it's a European exclusive, never released here in the states. Second, it doesn't really look much better than the first-gen PS2 pool game I have downstairs. Which takes us back to Bankshot Billiards. Which I don't like mainly because it's only a top-down pool game without the POV view that I've gotten used to playing with. This was probably done to cut costs, since the tables don't have to actually be 3D in a fixed-view game. I've played the demo, which sucked... only offers you two minutes of gameplay, which is barely enough to get used to the controls, much less get a feel for the game. And it's fairly expensive for a downloadable title, at 1200 points.
The only other thing coming up is the pool games within PS Home. But I'm kind of iffy about that simply because of the environment, and having to go online into a little "world" to play it rather than just starting it up from the XMB. And, going back to the graphics issue, the PS Home world isn't really top-of-the-line, so the pool table can't push the limits very hard because of everything else that it's doing.
So what we need is a nice standalone title, with photorealistic next-gen graphics and next-gen physics, where we can jump in and play our billiards game of choice. Which is where PS Home might lag a bit, since most standalone games offer multiple types of billiards and various puzzle or trick-shot game types. Throw it up on XBL or PSN for five or ten bucks and let us go to town.
So WHO'S WITH ME!?!?
*crickets chirping*
