Full House Poker Reviews

  • Mystic Typh00nMystic Typh00n471,637
    17 Mar 2011 11 Jun 2011
    42 5 9
    Wrapping up Xbox Live's House Party is Full House Poker. Which was the title of the 5 that stuck out the most to me. When you kick off the game you'll be amused at the quirky music going on. But alas that is the only slight downfall to the game, not much but it is kind of cheesy. What stands out most on here is the online multiplayer. You can play up to 10 people at a table which is the most optimal online experience, but less is fine. The pro takedowns are actually quite intriguing. There are many different pros you can play against, but you have to unlock them all as you level up in-game. All the pros have different playing styles, from the passive to the very agressive. It helps you become able to read different players, and their styles. Once you beat every pro takedown, the last challenge is a table against all of them, which could challenge even the most seasoned pros. Lastly you can play single player which matches you against several other AI opponents. I cannot say much about it, but I imagine it's multiplayer basically. When you level up you can gain lots of extras, from table patterns, chip tricks, card patterns, and even the chairs all of the players sit in. It really is rewarding when you level up, because it's interesting to see what you unlock! The achievements on this game are worlds apart from Texas Hold 'em. First off there is NO achievement from getting every hand in the game which was a relief to everyone who saw that. But the two most frustrating achievements will be reach level 50, and have a bank roll of 500,000. Maybe win the all pro tournament as well.

    AND There's Texas Heat. A live game show which pits you against AI and Human players. You have the chance here to earn XP and level up. There are also special themed nights such as Boys Night Out and Ladies Night. Whenever you follow these themes you are granted with bonus XP as you go along. Then there's the medals. To get Gold you have to place in the top 25 percent of XP earners, which is harder than it seems at times. Overall it's a great experience, but at times you get the server disconnecting on you which is frustrating. It's very innovative, and a fun time with some buddies.

    If you have ever played poker in your life, get this game. Even if you haven't, try out some poker online judge yourself from that, and see if you want it. I also imagine that Texas Hold 'em will drop in price soon. But even if you don't like poker I'm sure someone can teach you.

    5/5 from me because this game is as great as you can get for 800MSP. Also since this is kinda of a replacement for 1 vs. 100, it's living up a good game. But nothing will ever replace 1 vs. 100.
    4.5
    Showing most recent comments. View all comments.
    njrussI think the review also needs to be updated to highlight that there are now unobtainable achievements and that downloadable content isn't available in all countries.
    Posted by njruss on 20 Sep 12 at 00:32
    Mystic Typh00nEhh... I don't really feel I need to do either of those. Thanks for your input though.
    Posted by Mystic Typh00n on 22 Sep 12 at 05:37
    MattiasAnderson1 vs 100 must have been extremely bad. lol I hate this game. I also made a review for it.
    Posted by MattiasAnderson on 06 Feb 13 at 02:46
  • SuperEboySuperEboy261,009
    19 Mar 2011 19 Mar 2011
    29 2 2
    Considering the garbage that has been released as poker games on XBLA beforehand, it was extremely refreshing to play Full House Poker.

    Firstly, it was fun to see that they've integrated avatars into this virtual casino-like atmosphere. Its safe to say that most of us have some sort of connection with our avatar, and seeing them go to work on the tables is visually much more exciting than Full House's predecessors. While the animations they make during gameplay can get sort of cheesy, it gives us something to look out while we're waiting for a hand to sort out.

    The thing that's difficult about remaking any card game is that you can only add so much without changing it unto a different card game. Krome Studios added quite a few features that didn't take from the feel of the game at all, but drastically improved my experience. In single player, you have the ability to fast-forward any hand you aren't participating in. At any table you can pre-call your next move to speed up gameplay. When cards are flipped, a player can choose which cards to show or not show. This flexibility really satisfied my needs as a card player.

    To only add to the replay value, Full House Poker has bi-weekly events that give players opportunities to boost their XP, earn in-game awards, make friends, or to earn a little dough. In this tournament (also known as Texas Heat), you'll find new terms like "Hot Pot" that really help things moving within the game.

    Yet another fantastic thing about the game is that it's progressive. You earn XP based on how smart you play out your hand, and new customizations and higher cash-advances are unlocked as you level up. This rewards players that might suck at the game but don't want to feel as though they're back at square one after they lose their bankroll.

    The only gripes I have about the game could be fixed with an update, but if they didn't I wouldn't be too upset about it:
    Occasionally while playing online you can get grouped into a table full of extremely conservative players, and you can spend a long time watching chips move back and forth. If you're not playing a Texas Heat match, the blinds go up so slow that it can bring a old man to tears. I know that either speeding this up or making it toggle-able would really tickle quite a few people in all the right places. Point of fact, the handfuls of online games I played it was the thing that players most often argued about.
    Every so often I would have problems either connecting to a game or would randomly get disconnected from another. I also know others who can't even use "Quick Match" because it's so touchy that it (more often than not) won't connect to any games. Though, by default, it groups you as tournament leader when you're disconnected from a match at no fault of your own, I wish that programmers had foreseen this issue to make our online experience flawless.

    All in all? Any person who was disappointed with the Arcade games: Texas Hold 'Em or Texas Cheat 'Em, absolutely needs to get this game. It really redeems Xbox Arcade in the realm of traditional gambling card games (especially for 800 MSP). As for everyone else, you need to get it as well. It's a fabulous game that appeals to both experts and amateur video poker players, as well as anyone who's ever picked up a deck of cards before.
    5.0
  • Removed Gamer
    Gamer has been removed
    18 1 0
    Ok first let me start by saying I’m reviewing this game as a gamer AND a poker player. This is the XBLA version that I reviewed. I will be reviewing this game on these areas.
    Graphics, Controls, Single and Multiplayer, Achievements, and replayability. Also any and all feedback is appreciated since I’ll be doing a lot more reviews on here in the future. Thanks and here we go!

    GRAPHICS

    The graphics in Full House Poker are fun to watch but basic. If you’ve seen the animations your avatar makes during the xbox home screen then you have a basic idea of what to expect from Full House Poker. The graphics aren’t revolutionary but come on, it’s POKER! Having your avatar being the actual player gives it a very personal feel and helps make it more fun. Doing chip tricks, facial expressions, and betting with your avatar is great to watch and makes you feel more “in the game”.

    CONTROLS

    The controls are very simple and extremely easy to learn. Each button has a separate action that can either be performed before it’s your turn or once the action gets to you. Using the right and left trigger along with those action buttons gives your player different emotions and adds a little bit more feel to the game. Never to me did the controls feel restricting or awkward and everything flows smoothly.

    SINGLE/MULTIPLAYER

    Now the single player experience doesn’t have a lot of different game modes but is still very fun. Your character starts out with a bankroll and can build it up either in single or online multiplayer. In single player you can play tournaments with a set buy-in or in a single table cash game where, if you bust out you can re-buy and keep playing. You can also play against a “pro” in a heads up match earning more money and experience than in the other game modes. Also with playing all the different game modes you level up unlocking several items such as clothes, chip tricks, and new items to customize your own poker table. The multiplayer game modes are the same as single with the exception of the pro takedowns but add the Texas Heat schedule. The Texas Heat is a series of tournaments that are run and certain times and offer a ton more xp and cash helping your avatar level up faster. The idea is to get as many chips and xp as you can within 30 minutes. While these were fun, at the time of this review there were several problems with connecting and at times, there were problems having a full table of real players and not AI ones. A few times playing Texas Heat my table would get dealt one hand and not see another one the rest of the 30 minutes! Now don’t let you deter you from playing the Texas Heat because they are still fun and a few of the achievements are linked to it.

    Achievements

    The achievements in Full House Poker are pretty simple and won’t take you long to get a majority of them quick. The Texas Heat achievements will take some time, especially the achievement on winning gold in a Texas Heat event. The rest will come if you play the game enough.

    Replayability and overall experience

    The replayability of Full House Poker varies depending how much you like poker. Since outside of the achievements there’s no real end with how high your bankroll you can get, you can play as long as you want. Playing this game with friends is a blast and I’ve actually met a decent amount of people on here and it’s a more personal arcade title. All in all for 800 msp it’s pretty sweet and has a good amount of replay value. No matter if you’re a poker pro or a beginner just learning the game of poker, this game is a lot of fun.
  • Ergo Me SmartErgo Me Smart544,762
    11 May 2011
    17 1 5
    Full House Poker was part of the 2011 House Party, a promotion for XBLA games released around February and March that year. Full House Poker (hereon called FHP) was the last one to be released, and was seen to be a sequel of sorts to 1 V 100. Poker is a popular card game, and 1 V 100 had some good ideas, so what could go wrong?

    Well, actually quite a bit. Firstly, Krome was put in charge of making the game. Krome are famous for two things: Making Game Room, and going bust while making Game Room. No-one is sure how they managed to make this game, or if they even did as their name is nowhere to be found anywhere in the game, unless you look closely in the credits. Very weird.

    Secondly, there was the price point. Whereas 1 V 100 was a free game enjoyed by the masses, FHP was released at a 800MSP pricepoint. Now, for any normal game, 800MSP would be seen as normal pricing. However, with this game seen as the sequel to a free game, and due to the wonders that are Internet rumours, people were outraged at that price point. So overall, not a great start.

    But anyway, onto the actual game. The gameplay is simple to understand. Well, simple if you know how to play Poker, anyway. The rules of Texas Hold ‘Em are faithfully recreated here, and good fun can be had by all. Even if you don’t know the rules of the game, after a few hands, you should know what will win and what will lose.

    There are four main game modes to be found in FHP; Single Player, where you can play against the AI in 10 player tables and 30 player tourneys to improve your chip stack and XP; Multiplayer, where you can do the same (in theory); Pro Showdowns, where you try and beat the Pros at their games, and Texas Heat, the 1 V 100-like twice weekly game night against thousands online (again, in theory). This is actually a nice mix of game modes, and keep the fun factor going further than the average arcade game.

    The XP is maybe the best part of this game. While playing, you earn in-game XP, which then levels up your character, allowing you to take more from the ATM, play in higher stake games and play against more of the Pros. The game doesn’t just reward you for going All-In every time. Rather, a smart fold is likely to actually gain you more XP than going foolishly all-in on the first hand. Busting out completely will mean you can’t earn XP for a while, preventing all-in tactics mostly staying out of the online matches. A great system that I hope other similar games will follow in the future.

    The online, however, is where the game starts to let itself down. Whereas the single player tends to play well, with the AI tending to mix up it’s playing style, the multiplayer has many problems in front of it. To start off with, there are regular errors when trying to join a multiplayer game, thus making it more difficult to join a game than it should be. Also, glitches within the game, such as the game forgetting to deal, the game stopping on players and players quitting out but still getting XP and chips means that the multiplayer in FHP is less enjoyable than expected.

    However, the rare moments when the game works without a hatch in multiplayer, it is quite possibly the best card game experience on the XBox. The threat of not getting XP, plus the chance of winning big, means that all-ins are rare, something that other games have not done. Card games can last for 30 minutes with strangers, with no-one doing anything stupid. With friends and mics, the experience is only improved.

    And there’s Texas Heat, the game mode that should, in theory, be the most fun, most active and by far the best of them all. Put simply... it isn’t. In theory, you should be put with 29 other human players, as you move between the 3 different tiers of tables and try and gain as much chips and XP as possible. In reality, you play against 29 of the AI, and then cheat them out of chips and XP. And if you do somehow join in with human players, in some way, it will break in some new and original way every single time.

    What should of been the best game mode has turned out to be the worst. Sure, it’s free DLC and, in theory, you don’t have to play it. But let’s be honest... you only brought the game to play this, didn’t you? I know I sure did! My advise would be to avoid this game mode, unless you are willing to be bored with 29 AI or really like to punish yourself with boredom. Hopefully, with any luck, this will be also be fixed with a patch sometime soon.

    And finally, last but not least there are the achievements. There are 20 achievements to be found in the main game, worth the normal 200GS. Of those 20, 17 worth 150GS can be yours within a couple of days play. The other 3 (500,000 bankroll, Level 50 and the All-Pro Table) may take a little longer. There are also 3 achievements to be found for the free Texas Heat DLC, worth 50GS. A hot pot will come easily, but a Gold Medal and 5 million won will take you a bit longer. Plus, with the achievements impossible to get after May, be sure to torture yourself and go for them now!

    In conclusion, Full House Poker is an alright game, but only half the game it could be. While the decent single player and mildly easily achievements will please most, the bugs in multiplayer and Texas Heat is sure to annoy as well. If those bugs weren’t there, it could have been an easy 5 stars. With them, it’s a mere 3 stars, I’m afraid.
    3.0
  • HurballHurball492,411
    25 Jun 2011 26 Jun 2011
    14 0 2
    Full House Poker
    Hailed as the spiritual successor to the short-lived (but much loved) 1 vs 100, Full House Poker was a game on many people's wish lists - particularly fans of the original "Prime Time" game. Released at the very end of Microsoft's "House Party" promotion, the game was strung tantalisingly out of reach, forcing players to wait with anticipation. How would the newest Prime Time game fare?

    Presentation
    On first impressions, FHP comes across beautifully. Players use their avatar in-game, and as anyone who's seen the screenshots will know - the general style of the game fits the cartooney avatar style well. The repetitive music may not be to everyone's tastes, but it does an amicable job of providing a relatively unintrusive background to the scenery. The various venues look and feel bang on, and there are numerous customisation options for deck styles, table styles, chair styles, and more, keeping the feeling as fresh as possible whilst not losing any playability. Speaking of which, the controls, menus, and useability of the game are as simple as possible, and never feel cumbersome. Compared with any other card game on the 360, the presentation and slick design of FHP would win every time.

    But games cannot be judged on looks alone, as demonstrated by the likes of Far Cry 2 and Final Fantasy XII. Once you actually begin to play the game, it's flaws soon become apparent...

    Gameplay
    Gameplay wise, you have two options - playing online, or playing against the AI in one-on-one games, beating each one until reaching a grand finale consisting of them all. There is a third option, the Texas Heat events, but I'll cover that seperately.

    Playing online is certainly the better option, and although having nothing at stake in games will always impact badly on a game with its foundations in gambling, FHP does a great job here. For the most part, players tend to play properly, and if you set up a table between friends, this would be even better. The game makes attempts at a ranking system, but since you can only go up (never down) in rank through playing, it's essentially meaningless.

    The offline play is, in a word, poor. The game's AI design is terrible, even more so considering that all the computer essentially needs to do is to bet on the percentages. The AI's actions are completely unreadable - they'll regularly bet thousands on hands consisting of anything from pocket aces to off suit sevens and twos. Trying to bluff them, therefore, is impossible. They'll meet whatever you raise them to, and then it's usually pure luck who wins the hand. Not that beating the AI is difficult. Simply waiting for a great hand, and then goading them into going all in after the final card is deal, will always net you an easy victory. Easy? Yes. Fun? No.

    The game utilises an XP system for levelling up. Every hand you play will net you a certain amount of XP, for folding a losing hand, to simply staying in for the next deal. It's a neat little system, and transfers across all game modes, online or offline (much like Halo Reach's credit system). Using this system to levelling up and unlockables is one thing, but using it as the basis for gameplay is another thing entirely... Which brings us on to the bombshell that is... Texas Heat.

    Texas Heat
    The entire reason many people bought Full House Poker was due to the notion of more Prime Time gaming, wherein players would join games occurring at certain times of the week, and compete against each other. 1 vs 100 demonstrated how this could work to great effect. Full House Poker does the exact opposite.

    Each game consists of three tables, ten players at each table, who can move between the tables as they gain chips or bust out. Unfortunately, the game rarely connects thirty real players to a single game, and the spaces are filled by AI players. Most of the time, you'll find yourself at a table consisting entirely of AI players. Prime Time gaming this is not.

    The aim of the gametype is to reel in as much XP as possible in the 25 minutes each game lasts. In theory, a great idea, since winning hands requires a little but of luck, then rewarding playstyle instead would be a great leveller. But in practice, it doesn't work. Faster play equals more XP, and since human players tend to be slower than the AI, it's actually better to play against the computer here. To add to the frustration, if you happen to be in a game with other humans, the game has a terrible tendency to hang, with nothing happening whislt the clock ticks down.

    And it's not just the necessity for speed which lets Heat down, it's the XP system itself. Winning a hand will net you no XP - only winning consecutive hands does - and it's the same with bluffing. This leads a dire situation whereby "smart folds", and remaining in for each new hand are the only reliable scoring opportunities. Actually playing poker, and trying to win some chips, is secondary to folding early and trying to stay in as long as possible.

    Furthermore, there seems to be no actual reason to even play Texas Heat. After each game players are rewarded with XP and chips based on their performances and their best hand. But these amounts are negligable - for example a 25 minute game can net you around 3000 chips. A two minute game against the AI can net you 100,000...! After unlocking the achievements for it, you'll likely not play it again.

    Conclusions
    And that's this game in a nutshell. In theory it could be a great game, but it's let down by so many little oversights. The XP system, the AI programming, and the numerous connection issues when playing online let this game down badly. Achievements-wise, the base game is pretty decent, but the inclusion of timed achievements for each Texas Heat season, none of which are fun, and some of which are already unobtainable, will put many players off.

    In conclusion, Full House Poker triumphs in its presentation, but falls apart pretty much everywhere else. That said, if you want a charming poker game to play online, I'd still recommend it somewhat, but be prepared for frustration if you venture beyond the online matches mode...
    2.0
  • TheRealDingoTheRealDingo105,339
    14 Jun 2011
    4 3 0
    As far as Xbox Live Arcade poker games go, this is definitely the cream of the crop. You use your avatar to complete in a variety of texas hold 'em games. As you gain XP by playing, you gain a large variety of chair, card, and table designs, as well as titles for your character and chip tricks that you can perform on the D-pad as you are waiting for your turn. You can play single player tournaments in which you can set the game parameters within the rules of texas hold 'em and you can also play one on one against their professional players in the Pro Takedowns.
    There is of course online play. You can set the buy-in and create your own room using your unlockables as well as the types of betting allowed. The cooles feature is an online poker tournament they have called Texas Heat which is reminiscent of the poker shows you see on TV. Whoever ends up with the most XP at the end of the half hour "episode" wins. My only complaint is that the game inexplicably penalizes you XP sometimes. At first I thought it was just on stupid plays, but I want all-in on a Straigh Flush and just barely managed to beat a Four of a Kind on the river I might add and it penalized me by saying No XP for (2) hands. Other than the odd penalty system which seems to follow no rhyme or reason, this game is a solid poker game and very entertaining if you enjoy poker.
    4.0
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