Give it to me straight

[richowebbo]

I don't play GTA or Skyrim. All of my 360 games are sports games apart from one, which is Farming Simulator!
I play football/baseball/rugby/golf/snooker/horse racing/ice hockey/basketball and NFL.....most of which are more enjoyable and immersive than DB 14.

Then surely you must care about winning, as it is the main objective of sport in general?!

Can you recommend a decent snooker game? Preferably for XBox? I bought International Snooker from Steam for the old Lapytopy, but its crap!

I think career mode on DBC is very immersive.[DOUBLEPOST=1406998749][/DOUBLEPOST]

Doosra is bowling.....I want to enjoy the batting aspect of the game more.

Terry, is your issue that you are rubbish at batting, hence why you don't enjoy it? Again, I don;t mean this in a harsh way, but it'd be nice to know the specific problems you are having

 

[grkrama]

Can you recommend a decent snooker game?

this looks fun
Save 85% on Pool Nation on Steam
also its on sale today will probably get it tomorrow i think.Early access though.

 

[Deleted member 9102]

Then surely you must care about winning, as it is the main objective of sport in general?!

Can you recommend a decent snooker game? Preferably for XBox? I bought International Snooker from Steam for the old Lapytopy, but its crap!

I think career mode on DBC is very immersive.[DOUBLEPOST=1406998749][/DOUBLEPOST]

Terry, is your issue that you are rubbish at batting, hence why you don't enjoy it? Again, I don;t mean this in a harsh way, but it'd be nice to know the specific problems you are having

Virtual Pool 4 is by far the best snooker game available and it's on PC but should run on pretty much anything, the physics are incredibly realistic. You can buy it here;
Virtual Pool 4 Product | Virtual Pool 4

You'll need a mouse to play it though as laptop touchpads aren't great for precision.

@grkrama - Pool Nation doesn't have snooker, and although it is decent fun and worth a play for the £1 price tag for the single player, VP4 has much better physics/gameplay and superior online play/community.

 

[richowebbo]

Virtual Pool 4 is by far the best snooker game available and it's on PC but should run on pretty much anything, the physics are incredibly realistic. You can buy it here;
Virtual Pool 4 Product | Virtual Pool 4

You'll need a mouse to play it though as laptop touchpads aren't great for precision.

@grkrama - Pool Nation doesn't have snooker, and although it is decent fun and worth a play for the £1 price tag for the single player, VP4 has much better physics/gameplay and superior online play/community.

You are fast becoming my favourite PC member Mr Mad!

The issue I have is, I don't enjoy playing using a mouse. Maybe its time to invest in whatever software it is so I can use my XBox controller on my LT. What's the single player like on Virtual Pool? IS there good competition progression? The one I have is awesome for single player progression, just terrible physics. Almost impossible to play proper snooker.

 

[Chief]

I worked on a few Snooker games at Codies before the license went over to Sega (I think?). I loved them. Totally physics based, no game ever the same. Done right, brilliant fun.

One of those games where the video game sometimes makes more sense than playing the real thing: I'm terrible in real life, but the games gave me a way to feel skillful and smart. Really clever HUD design so that you can work out what you want to do and attempt to do it.

Lots of lessons in those for every sports game.

 

[Deleted member 9102]

You are fast becoming my favourite PC member Mr Mad!

The issue I have is, I don't enjoy playing using a mouse. Maybe its time to invest in whatever software it is so I can use my XBox controller on my LT. What's the single player like on Virtual Pool? IS there good competition progression? The one I have is awesome for single player progression, just terrible physics. Almost impossible to play proper snooker.

The single player is pretty good, although I've mainly played online. There is a "Hustler Career" mode where you go from location to location 'betting' against AI opponents until you make enough to challenge the 'boss' of each room where winning will unlock the next location and the AI opponents get progressively harder and the stakes higher. You can spend the 'cash' you win on buying cues as well.

There is also a 'Pro Tour' career mode where you play more traditional seasons of knockout tournaments with a ranking system and qualification rounds where you progress from Local tour to Regional, National and then finally the World tour.

There is plenty of content - pretty much every variation of pool you can think of on various sized tables. UK pub tables, US bar tables, 9 foot, 10 foot and you can change the speed/bounce and pocket size/cut on any of these as well as being able to play snooker and billiards.

The game is very much designed to be played with a mouse and keyboard and doesn't have support for controllers - it's a little odd to say outright you dislike playing with a mouse, I can understand with DBC/Fifa or whatever but in VP4 the way you take the shots by holding S and moving the mouse like a real cue just couldn't be done on a controller with the same level of precision and wouldn't feel as much like playing for real.

I worked on a few Snooker games at Codies before the license went over to Sega (I think?). I loved them. Totally physics based, no game ever the same. Done right, brilliant fun.

One of those games where the video game sometimes makes more sense than playing the real thing: I'm terrible in real life, but the games gave me a way to feel skillful and smart. Really clever HUD design so that you can work out what you want to do and attempt to do it.

Lots of lessons in those for every sports game.

Yeah I played those games - I played the first one in 2000 that was just called World Championship Snooker as well as the 2003 and 2004 versions which were all done by Codies. The 2005 iteration was when Sega took over and I really didn't enjoy that one as much.

I had a lot of fun with those games, I was a huge snooker fan back then!

Once you got used to the aiming though you could knock in century after century with ease and it was almost impossible to miss a pot. As an 8-12 year old I loved this but now I prefer the challenge that Virtual Pool offers .

 

[Chief]

Once you got used to the aiming though you could knock in century after century with ease and it was almost impossible to miss a pot. As an 8-12 year old I loved this but now I prefer the challenge that Virtual Pool offers .

What I loved most was that the HUD gave you as much help (or as little) as you wanted. It's a great way to do difficulty because people can dial it up or down depending on their mood.

 

[Deleted member 9102]

What I loved most was that the HUD gave you as much help (or as little) as you wanted. It's a great way to do difficulty because people can dial it up or down depending on their mood.

Yeah, you could turn off the aids but the AI would just clear the table if you missed so it was kinda designed with the presumption that you will pot pretty much everything.

As a challenging/difficult snooker game I didn't think they really stood up very well because the physics were always a little iffy/unrealistic and the controls were never as smooth as the Virtual Pool games. VP has been going since like 1996 and has always been THE snooker/pool sim - I just thought it was really cool being able to play as/against the real pros at the Crucible etc in the Codies games .

 

[richowebbo]

I don't think its odd. I haven't ever played a game using a mouse, so it is totally Alien to me. Although in Snooker games, its not fast action so it'd be easy to get used to!

I played the old Codmasters World Championships and loved it at the time. I'm actually a lot better at Snooker in real life than I am on the games! That is in complete contrast to Cricket where I am awful in real life but not too bad at the DBC!

 

[Deleted member 9102]

I don't think its odd. I haven't ever played a game using a mouse, so it is totally Alien to me. Although in Snooker games, its not fast action so it'd be easy to get used to!

I played the old Codmasters World Championships and loved it at the time. I'm actually a lot better at Snooker in real life than I am on the games! That is in complete contrast to Cricket where I am awful in real life but not too bad at the DBC!

Yeah I could understand it being uncomfortable using the mouse to begin with in shooters for instance where it's action packed but it's really easy to use in VP. It takes practice to be able to get the desired amount of power in your shots but it feels very natural.

I'm the same when it comes to snooker - I am much better in real life than I am in VP... It's just natural to walk onto the right potting angle of shots in real life and 3D perception is crucial for working out angles. I have a highest break of 77 in real life and can get into the 40s quite often but in VP my highest is 37 and I'm lucky to get to 20... VP is about as close as you can get for a video game though really.

Edit - Sorry for the offtopic, I just like to spread the word on 'niche' sports titles I enjoy which are produced by small/indie studios if someone shows an interest. I've done the same with DBC elsewhere and think a few people have ended up buying it on Steam .

 

[richowebbo]

Yeah I could understand it being uncomfortable using the mouse to begin with in shooters for instance where it's action packed but it's really easy to use in VP. It takes practice to be able to get the desired amount of power in your shots but it feels very natural.

I'm the same when it comes to snooker - I am much better in real life than I am in VP... It's just natural to walk onto the right potting angle of shots in real life and 3D perception is crucial for working out angles. I have a highest break of 77 in real life and can get into the 40s quite often but in VP my highest is 37 and I'm lucky to get to 20... VP is about as close as you can get for a video game though really.

Edit - Sorry for the offtopic, I just like to spread the word on 'niche' sports titles I enjoy which are produced by small/indie studios if someone shows an interest. I've done the same with DBC elsewhere and think a few people have ended up buying it on Steam .

I have a highest break of 68, and can normally get into the 30's on a good day, but I find getting on the angles in Snooker games unnatural. I end up spending ages trying to get the right angle and over thinking it, and then spannering it! Thanks for the tip though mate. I'll check the game out and let you know how I can get on.

Sorry for hijacking this thread with Snooker talk all.

 

[Deleted member 9102]

I have a highest break of 68, and can normally get into the 30's on a good day, but I find getting on the angles in Snooker games unnatural. I end up spending ages trying to get the right angle and over thinking it, and then spannering it! Thanks for the tip though mate. I'll check the game out and let you know how I can get on.

Sorry for hijacking this thread with Snooker talk all.

I do that too although VP has a couple of buttons which help greatly with working out angles. Holding W puts the camera at a distance/angle akin to taking a couple of steps back from the table and holding V while moving the mouse changes where the view is centred so that you can look at things from different angles which is especially helpful for checking on plants or if balls pass each other etc.

There's a demo in the link I posted previously which will allow you to try it out and should give you an idea of whether the game suits you or not.

I think you can also play the online multiplayer version for free, but you're limited to the small US bar table and 8-ball on a free membership;
VP4 Home | Virtual Pool 4

 

[Chief]

I was in QA at the time. One bug was that the commentary was wrong if you scored a 147, and there was 3 alternative commentaries. To verify the bug was fixed, we had to score 9 147 breaks, which was a HUGE task. I got 4 of them. It took 3 weeks, and SO many failures in the late 90's. And it remains my life's work.

I hope something will overtake it.

 

[zimrahil]

I worked on a few Snooker games at Codies before the license went over to Sega (I think?). I loved them. Totally physics based, no game ever the same. Done right, brilliant fun.

One of those games where the video game sometimes makes more sense than playing the real thing: I'm terrible in real life, but the games gave me a way to feel skillful and smart. Really clever HUD design so that you can work out what you want to do and attempt to do it.

Lots of lessons in those for every sports game.

WSC 2005 is best snooker game ever!

I still have my PS2 setup next to my 360 so I can play this one game - fact!

 

[Chief]

WSC 2005 is best snooker game ever!

I still have my PS2 setup next to my 360 so I can play this one game - fact!

Hmm. I cant remember if that was ours. When they took the license, they changed one letter in the acronym. I think I worked on 2003 and 2004? I think I was working on Lara by 2005...