THE HUB

OMG!!!

FEATURED MEMBER

DoctorIrish

DoctorIrish

The Doctor is in.

QUICK POLL

Grand Theft Auto IV: does it live up to the hype?

ASK THE PROS

THE GAMEPROS

FREE NEWSLETTERS

Sign up now to receive weekly or daily updates on your favorite games, stories, and more!



PC | Sports | Expert Pool

There is no Boxart for - Expert Pool
Expert Pool 4 screen shots
  • GRAPHICS: 3.0
  • SOUND: 2.0
  • CONTROL: 4.5
  • FUN FACTOR 3.5
  • AVG USER SCORE n/a
  • AVG CRITIC SCORE 3.9

Review: Expert Pool

Review by Nash Werner | 11/24/2000 | 14:47:41 PM PST

Expert Pool offers a lot of bang for your buck. And it would be a serious contender if not for its dated graphics and sound.

Expert Pool offers a lot of bang for your buck. And it would be a serious contender if not for its dated graphics and sound.

This Psygnosis release does offer more variations, rules of play, and game-types than any other pool game to date. You can play 19 types of pool, complete with official tournament rules, U.S. rules, European rules and even bar room rules. You can enter practice mode and improve your game and even take tutorials on how to learn trick shots.

You can play in 13 different pool halls, including biker bars, uptown nightclubs, and huge tournament venues packed with a dozen pool tables.

You get the more popular games like 8-Ball, 9-Ball, and Straight Pool. You get the semi-popular games like 3-Ball, 10-Ball, and Cut-Throat. And you even get some obscurities, like Cushion Caroms, Bottle Pool, and even French Billiards. I spent hour after hour exploring the massive list of game types.

This variety is the best thing Expert Pool has going for it.

In addition, control is dead on. Aiming, follow-through, and ball spin are all easily pulled off. The ball physics are accurate and the table cushions all behave properly. You can jump the cue ball to make a shot, use Masse (massive ball-spin) to curve around another ball, and apply the proper english to set up the next shot.

And, backed by the magic of GameSpy (www.gamespy.com), Expert Pool's multiplayer is a blast. Log on, GameSpy will find you an opponent, and you're off. It's that simple.

In the end, it was the realism, control, and sheer amount of game-types that really made Expert Pool fun for me.

However, the game needs a visual makeover. The 3D polygons are blocky, the textures are bland, and you can't maximize the visual quality based on your processor speed. Expert Pool looks like a 4-year-old P166 game. Where are the high-res textures my 32MB video card lives for? Where are the complex 3D polygons any P300+ can handle? I could swear my CPU fell asleep while I played.

The audio needs help. The sound effects are decent--cue ball clinking, the 9-ball sinking, and even the sound of you chalking up your stick. But the game's music is torture. It's a mixture of generic rock and ill-inspired jazz/blues--it's far from lively. Sure, you can toggle the music on and off, but you can't play your own music CDs while playing Expert Pool.

Serious pool lovers that appreciate the obscure games will enjoy Expert Pool for what its worth. But for the newcomer who has never played a PC pool game, I'd have to recommend skipping Expert Pool and starting with Virtual Pool 2. It's still the champ.