World Snooker Challenge 2007

New PSP Game released at Amazon UK

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Product Features
Features many of the players from the Snooker and Pool circuits, the PSP version contains 91 licensed snooker players out of 96 and 14 out of 64 Pool players, including Shaun Murphy, Ronnie O'Sullivan, Earl Strickland and Efren Reyes.
Improved 3D front-end, providing an atmospheric ante-room.
Incorporates 5 different championship modes: Snooker, Pool (9/8 Ball), Hybrid (customised Snooker/Pool tours), Golden Cue (challenging former champions in Snooker and Pool) and TrickShot. The PSP still contains the challenges format used in the last version of the game but now it is spread over the same 5 different championships as the consoles.
New gameplay mechanics, including a Cueball Target Indicator (where your Cueball will stop on the table, according to power, bounce and spin).
Extra games modes for friendly play: Versus and QuickPlay, with existing matches plus Billiards and Bar Billiards.
Coaching for all game modes: Snooker, 8 Ball Pool, 9 Ball Pool, Free Snooker and Free Pool, with access to official Rules for all modes.
Online gameplay with various ranked and unranked games: Snooker, 9 Ball Pool, 8 Ball Pool, 3 Ball Pool, Rotation, Bank and Billiards.
Familiar commentary from John Parrot, John Virgo and Steve Davis, with new voices for the Pool circuit.

More info at Amazon UK

dude... I LOVE POOL! I used to play for hours every day before I could afford a computer. But I've never played a pool based video game that I liked. It's just not the same and never very fun. The greates pool game of its time, Virtual Pool, had me playing for about an hour. Then it got boring because of the lack of control options and unrealistic shot results.

feel free to send me a PM if anybody here feels any different about this game... after playing for about 3~4 days.

I might add it to my wish list (that keeps growing).

In-game shots

3D Ultra Cool Pool on the PC is by far my favourite ever pool game, and there's a pretty steady stream of online players for it even though it's something like 7 years old now.

I've been playing World Snooker 2005 lately (got 3 championships done so far), so I'm looking forward to playing this when I'm done with 2005.

At first I didn't like it (and didn't like the same series on the PC with those HUGE lines through the balls..) but got used to it eventually. Also look out for Hustle - Streets of Detroit made using the same engine but purely a pool game all revolving around winning money and earning respect.

This is not a patch on WSC 2005. It's a real let-down.

I bought the first one on the PSP but I brought it back after a while because I was disappointed with it.

This new one is MUCH better. Had it a few days now and it plays a great game of snooker (and pool, but I don't like the 8 ball rule of nominating every shot - I don't play those rules in real life).

I am still disapointed that it retains the challenge format, but it works well - I just prefer a career with money etc.

Still the snooker simulation is better than the last PC one I played which was 2006 - I hated the rail (cushion) physics. But its perfect in this one - I play a LOT of real life snooker so I like to see it perform just like a table I play on. The computer also makes some surprisingly intelligent shots at times - but the lower ranked ones make stupid mistakes that no player of any level in competition would do - still its balanced well.

The camera is also hugely improved - the TV style coverage really works, showing you the best angle and view for any shot taken.

The characters around the table are ok, they work well, but sometimes they bend down looking away from the table to view the table after a shot - or their cue disappears out of their hands or is totally out of place a few feet to the left of them.

When taking shots they are good, except the odd occasion they aren't looking down the cue when they should, they are beside the cue, which no pro would do. Also the cue tip doesn't usually point to the cue ball where you aimed to strike it. Like bottom or top. Cue is usually always pointing to the top regardless.

AIMING - they changed the aiming - now there's no easy/med/hard etc - you just have to use the aiming system as is. It's easier now - you can now roughly (and sometimes accurately) judge where the cue ball will end up, making getting high breaks easier - I got a break of 105 after a few games. But I couldn't keep getting high breaks...its all about planning - so its still got some tough parts. Also, the better computer players (ranks 20 and below) can be really good and so being able to actually play like them with the aiming system is a blessing.

If you like snooker (and pool) I think this can't get better unless there's a real career mode added.