Digital Chocolate's Cafe Hold Em Poker has arrived on the N-Gage platform, but how good is it? Ewan Spence takes a look and passes judgement in the All About N-Gage review, and discovers lessons both for the game's developers and for the N-Gage platform as a whole.
Read on in the full article.
Incidentally, the upcoming N-Gage version of Million Dollar Poker will apparently feature online multiplayer for up to six people.
Oh my, that's some fine graphics work[/sarcasm]
Raven, I think most computer poker players focus on the gameplay rather than the graphics. As long as the cards are clear and the game plays well, nothing else really matters.
As Ewan says, the major problem with DChoc poker is the lack of multiplayer online, because playing against humans is a lot more fun than playing against AIs.
Tzer2 wrote:Raven, I think most computer poker players focus on the gameplay rather than the graphics. As long as the cards are clear and the game plays well, nothing else really matters.
Well, this is not online 'computer poker'. This is a mobile phone game. I love playing poker on my mobile and I've yet to see anything come close to this: http://www.apple.com/apps/holdem/ when it comes to graphics and gameplay alike. the AI is far from perfect though, but it is still the best game I've ever played on a phone till this date. Period.
Second, as a former active online poker player I disagree. The graphics doesn't 'have to' be top notch, but it helps. The UI (gameplay) is of course the most important thing when you're playing with real money.
Raven, I meant "computer poker" as compared to real life poker. 😊
the AI is far from perfect though, but it is still the best game I've ever played on a phone till this date. Period.
Personally I'd rather have a poker game with good AI and rubbish graphics than the other way round.
Tzer2 wrote:Personally I'd rather have a poker game with good AI and rubbish graphics than the other way round.
I'd rather have my cake and eat it too. 😉 I'm sure any software developer would tell you that it's really hard to get the AI in a game like this anywhere near perfection.
The graphics in this N-Gage poker game looks really amateurish and childish. Although I haven't tried the game, just read the review, I highly doubt that the AI is any better than the Apple game. As for gameplay, well...-Multi-touch - say no more... :tongue:
I'd rather have my cake and eat it too
All I said was that in card games AI is more important than graphics. What's unreasonable about that?
As for gameplay, well...-Multi-touch - say no more...
What on earth has multitouch got to do with the gameplay in poker? 😊
All you need to do in Poker is choose bets, raise, fold etc. Why would you ever need to touch two parts of the screen at once? Even a touchscreen is overdoing it, all you really need are two or three buttons.
Multi-touch isn't really needed in this game, my mistake. However, having smooth touchscreen controls helps immensely as far as gameplay goes. It is not just about betting, raising and folding. It is also about just tapping the screen to see the amount of chips in play, your opponents stats, mucking your hand with a swift swipe motion, double tapping the table to check and much more. It's no point in me going on about this, you simply have to try the game in question (or many other iPhone games) to understand what all the fuzz is about. 😊
you simply have to try the game in question (or many other iPhone games) to understand what all the fuzz is about.
Raven, you just trashed this N-Gage game which you admit you haven't tried! 😊
True that. I based my opinions purely on Ewan's review and screenshots. But I have tried many other N-Gage games on my N95 8GB, and I even owned the original N-Gage, hehe. I have to say I was less than impressed. I do hope, however, that N-Gage will improve with more (and higher quality) games to its portfolio. And I do hope that the launch of the N97 will speed things up.
My point here was simply that controls matter when it comes to gameplay. A touch screen has many advantages in some games (like poker in this case), while in other games it is a disadvantage not to have physical controls. 😊