POSTED 1/8/14


PURE POOL

Ripstone

There aren’t enough games about swimming.

There still aren’t, for – as anybody with even a poofteenth of nous would realise - Pure Pool has nothing whatsoever to do with immersion in wet stuff. It is, of course, about a shared supply of vehicles or resources to be drawn upon when needed.

No it isn’t – oh this is futile!

OK, it’s a game about tables lined with Kermit hide upon which shiny balls are hit holewards with big sticks.

Indeed the balls here are astonishingly shiny. Actually, everything graphical looks gorgeous – Pure Pool is easily the most realistic-looking videogame we’ve ever seen (there’s your advertising pull quote, marketing peeps). From the fuzzy to the woody to the shiny balls (which are shiny) to the background of the wanky pool establishment you’re within. Hopefully DLC will deliver a scuzzy punk club someday.

Ball-bashingly, there’s 9-ball (pub pool), 8-ball, and challengistical pursuits like potting so many balls in a row or in a certain time.

It’s all like totally online (a procession of those logging on spools constantly at top left, proving that 99.86943142713 percent of PSN handles are ludicrous), meaning you can challenge friends or strangers. Obviously, they can do the same. Want out? Nup. You can get ur freak on and clone DNA though. BWAHAHA!

Pure Pool plays a mean cue ball, however fans of its predecessor Hustle Kings might miss stuff. Like an overhead view – there’s not enough angular dextrousness here to always set up a shot as you’d like.

Presentational glossiness can kill drama, too. If your shot’s gonna go pocket kerplunk it’ll hit chalk-flying s-l-o-w-m-o immediately, so you know you’re in. It can be disabled, but it should default there.

Meanwhile, AI players are the arsiest fuckers ever – suspicious - and a hurry-the-fuck-up-you-interminably-pedantic-tool button would help for when they ponder forever before taking shots.

Pure Pool’s lovely and fun, but could be even better. Maybe it needs a water feature?

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