World Snooker Championship Real 2011 - Review - Dazraz's Blog

Dazraz's Blog

World Snooker Championship Real 2011 - Review

Posted on April 15, 2011 at 03:10 PM.

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The World Championship Snooker franchise has been a regular release for a number of years now. What hasn't been so consistent is the publisher. Codemasters & Sega have all put their name to the game whilst the 2009 version was released by the now defunct developers Blade Interactive.

This time around it's the turn of Dark Energy Sports & I must say that it is the best console snooker game to date. That's not to say it is great game, but for anyone interested in the sport of snooker, it is recreated here in impressive detail.

It's at the table itself where the game really excels. The developers have softened the visual appearance within the game & this has given everything a much smoother look with a greater sense of ambience than in prior versions. The player models, though not stunning, certainly are adequate. Particularly considering any console snooker game is obviously being developed to a budget based on limited sales expectations.

Game physics are also top notch & anyone that's played snooker/pool for real will see the game reproduce accurate shots base on how the cue ball is struck. The control system is deep but intuitive with a useful pop up control list courtesy of a press of the R3 button. There are various visual aids on offer to help in positioning your shot & these can be switched off as & when required. There is also an impressive replay system that allows you such options as retaking your last shot & saving individual shots or even complete matches to your hard drive. It's a nice touch but not one I particularly found much use for but at least it's there if you want it.

One of the most impressive elements of the game is the sound. Now snooker is not exactly a sport full of a plethora of sounds but there is no question that the sounds of ball contact & shots rattling into the pocket have never been so realistic. Unfortunately the commentary isn't as enjoyable. The commentary is the same old rehashed lines from previous versions that are both repetitive & often inaccurate.

On the face of it the game appears to boast alot of content. All 7 major licensed snooker events are included as well as an 8 ball pool event. There are no fewer than 96 AI players in the game including the sports top stars. Some of the content is locked initially although the same cheat that unlocked content in the 2007/2009 games once again works here.

Unfortunately the developers haven't made the best use of this content. The in built season mode requires you to create a player & play through each event. Sadly there is zero immersion in this mode. If you get eliminated from an event you are instantly transported to the next without any idea who won the previous competition. Your season progress again only includes your own personal data such as earnings & doesn't give you the sense that you are involved in a World Snooker Championship. Outside of this the only other offline modes are one off matches whereby you can either play as yourself or as one of the in game players. This is the only mode where you can play against a friend offline. It's a disappointing oversight not to include a multiplayer offline tournament feature which could have added a fun aspect to the game when playing with your mates.

There is an online function that I have not tried so I can't comment on this part of the game.

WSC Real 2011 plays as good a game of snooker as you can wish supported by some very smooth graphics & realistic sounds. It also boasts some impressively fast load times. However the lack of game modes stop me from saying this is as good as it gets for snooker games. The visuals & physics are there but lets hope whoever publishes the next snooker game displays a little more imagination when creating game modes.