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Live Billiards Deluxe

Live Billiards Deluxe

Written by Charlie Sinhaseni on 8/30/2004 for PC  
More On: Live Billiards Deluxe
PC pool simulators are one of the most underrated learning tools available on the market today. A great pool game can teach you more about your shot selection and the mistakes that you make through the course of a match. Thanks to the advent of Interplay's Virtual Pool franchise, novice pool sharks have been able to fine tune their game without embarrassing themselves in front of a crowd. That trend continues today, and as the games become more technologically advanced, they become more realistic. But a game doesn't have to be expensive to be entertaining or helpful, and that's where Live Billiards comes into the equation.

Live Billiards is one of those games that pool players on the cheap need to own. It faithfully recreates the game of billiards without taking too large of a chunk out of the paycheck. With online play and a bevy of modes at your disposal, you have a pretty decent amount of choices at your fingertips. When you boot up the game you’ll have your choice of straight pool, 9-ball, 8-ball, 14+1, Rotation, 3-ball, Pyramid and American. Most of the modes are standard fare but the additional ones like Pyramid add a nice touch to the game. Some tutorials have been included to help you improve your game but they’re not too helpful for novice players. You can play all of the modes by yourself, with another human opponent (on the same computer or online) or with an AI opponent of varying degrees of difficulty.

From a realism standpoint the game plays pretty much like the real deal. All of the balls react and behave here just like you’d expect them to in real life. I was able to do things here that I’ve never been able to do in other games. Other pool titles that I’ve played seem to only operate on the horizontal plane, taking the vertical entirely out of the equation. In Live Billiards, striking a ball too hard when it sits close to the rail will cause it to fly into the air, leading to a scratch. The only real problem that I had with the physics was that the game allows you to strike the cue ball too hard, much harder than humanly possible. This causes chaos as balls start flying all over the table. If you’re trying to play the right way it really ruins the flow of the game.

Barring that you play the game correctly, it can be used as a pretty powerful training tool. I wouldn’t go so far as to say that it’ll turn you into a good pool player, but it’ll definitely improve your skills. By turning on the guidelines the game helps you visualize your shots so that you can observe your shot before it happens. It acts like training wheels; after a bit of practice you can imagine the shots and predict the outcome without the shot lines.

If you’re played a value-priced game before you should know what to expect from the game’s visuals. There are different settings and a nice combination of tables to play on, although the changes don’t affect the gameplay and are purely aesthetic. If you feel so inclined you can post your own personal pictures on the walls, making the atmosphere a little cozier. All of the architecture is pretty rudimentary but the overall look of the game benefits from some nice lighting effects. Overall the game looks pretty decent, but don’t expect some sort of graphical showcase, it’s just not gonna happen. The same goes for the audio, there’s nothing terribly exciting here but the ability to use your own MP3s during the game was a nice touch.

For the price of four hours of pool, you can have a full-fledged recreation of the game right in the comfort of your own home. What it lacks in atmosphere it makes up for in realism and endless replayability. Pool-minded gamers who want to hone their craft should take serious note and make this one a top priority.
It's a good recreation of the game at a decent price. With a wide variety of gameplay modes, realistic physics and online play, you can't go wrong with Live Billiards.

Rating: 7.6 Above Average

* The product in this article was sent to us by the developer/company.


About Author

Gaming has been a part of my life for as long as I could remember. I can still recall many a lost nights spent playing Gyromite with that stupid robot contraption for the old NES. While I'm not as old as the rest of the crew around these parts, I still have a solid understanding of the heritage and the history of the video gaming industry.

It's funny, when I see other people reference games like Doom as "old-school" I almost begin to cringe. I bet that half of these supposed "old-school" gamers don't even remember classic games like Rise of the Triad and Commander Keen. How about Halloween Harry? Does anyone even remember the term "shareware" anymore? If you want to know "old-school" just talk to John. He'll tell you all about his favorite Atari game, Custer's Revenge.

It's okay though, ignorance is bliss and what the kids don't know won't hurt them. I'll just simply smile and nod the next time someone tells me that the best entry in the Final Fantasy franchise was Final Fantasy VII.

When I'm not playing games I'm usually busy sleeping through classes at a boring college in Southern Oregon. My current hobbies are: writing songs for punk rock bands that never quite make it, and teasing Bart about... well just teasing Bart in general. I swear the material writes itself when you're around this guy. He gives new meaning to the term "moving punching bag."

As for games, I enjoy all types except those long-winded turn-based strategy games. I send those games to my good pal Tyler, I hear he has a thing for those games that none of us actually have the time to play.

When I'm not busy plowing through a massive pile of video games I spend all of my time trying to keep my cute little girl fed. She eats a ton but damn she's so hot. Does anyone understand the Asian girl weight principal? Like they'll clean out your fridge yet still weigh less than 110 pounds.

Currently I'm playing: THUG, True Crime, Prince of Persia, Project Gotham 2 and Beyond Good & Evil. View Profile