Texas Cheat Em
A downloadable twist on the popular card game
Tags: PlayStation Network, Texas Cheat 'Em Categories: PS3 Reviews, Reviews
Posted by Daniel "monk" Pelfrey on Jun 24th, 2009
So I’m playing Texas Cheat Em and I have to stop in the middle of a round to go perform some parental duties. I want to save my progress, but am unable to because the game does not allow for it. There is a division between sets (four sets of four each) but within a set you can’t save your progress. This is the biggest drawback I see in the game.
See, there are some games in the single player game that are easily taken care of quickly, such as those that require achieving a certain benchmark in a certain number of hands. Others, however, such as having to take down all of the opponents at a table by driving their chip count to zero can take a considerable amount of time.
I can forgive the game’s lack of visual flair – this is a fairly inexpensive game (downloadable through the PlayStation Network for $10). I did, however, expect a little more visually, perhaps making the game look less like it was 15 years old and perhaps a bit more contemporary.
It is the basic gameplay, however, that is at the heart of Texas Cheat Em, and there is plenty of it. We get practice games as well as the career mode. Extending the life of the game, however, is the multiplayer. Going online I was able to find a few multiplayer games, but not many. Then again, the game is still new, so I wasn’t expecting much. Players get a certain amount to spend at a table then buy into a game. There isn’t a lot of customization for the online games, which is a shame, really. Still, it’s fun enough of a variation of the traditional poker that it is worth checking out.
So what is the twist in Texas Cheat Em? The cheating, of course. There are a number of cheats available for players to use. Some cost more “cheat points” to use. Each come with a type of mini-game that needs to be performed, nothing major, all lasting about 5-10 seconds, but this is what determines if the mini-game is successful or not. Players have the opportunity to change one of the community cards, one of their own cards, to see what another player has in their hand, to steal chips from another player, even automatically win the hand regardless of what cards they are holding.
I could go on about the game, but I’ll leave the review about as complete as the developers left the game. For another $5 I would have expected a much fuller game. For the price being asked, I think it may be a little much. It’s a fun variation, but ultimately doesn’t match up to the real thing. Hopefully there will be an “update” to the game that brings a bit more robustness to Texas Cheat Em.
| What Works | Score |
|---|---|
| + Good twist on a tired (but popular) classic | 7.0 |
| What Doesn't | |
|
- Some hands/rounds take a long time to get through and you can't save the game - Seriously lacking in the audio/visual realm - At times the mini-games take over the traditional poker gameplay |
|
| Under the Shrink-wrap | |
| Needed some more work, but it's a good variation of the most popular form of Poker these days. | |
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Tags: PlayStation Network, Texas Cheat 'Em
Posted by Daniel "monk" Pelfrey on Jun 24th, 2009 and is filed under PS3 Reviews, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can post a comment, or trackback from your own site.
