It can't just be this reviewer who sees the words ‘Pool Hall Pro' and harks immediately back to the likes of the superb Virtual Pool series of games of old. The latter titles were among the most intuitive sporting games we've had the pleasure of playing, and while they were quite restrictive in their own way, they were still a great deal of fun.

Pool Hall Pro has been bounced around the release schedules in the UK for most of the year, and at the time of writing has popped up as a downloadable release which we picked up from www.game.co.uk. It's selling for under a tenner, and is just the kind of impulse title that makes sense on a download platform. That said, it's just shy of 1GB that needs to come down the wires, so you may want to bear that in mind.

The game itself is jam-packed full of options and variants on pool for you to play. You can go for the arcade approach, take on an exhibition match or perhaps even indulge yourself on the world tour. As is frustratingly de rigeur in many sports games, though, you do need to create a character to play as first, and Pool Hall Pro takes you through the process of creating a virtual representation that seems to have more in common with a mutant than a human being. Once done though, it's down to business.

And sadly, Pool Hall Pro lacks the intuitive controls of Virtual Pool all those years ago. There's no retracting the mouse and sliding it forward for your shot, as instead you need to position, select power and then let go of a button for your shot to be played. It's a bit fiddly, not helped by the fact that rotating around the table seems to be quicker if you use the arrow keys rather than the mouse. Appreciating it's a minor grumble, but it seems odd that the mouse couldn't be properly used for everything.

Still, once you're used to things, you do get a decent game of pool out of it. There's nothing particularly special or notable about it, nor is it the brightest looking game on the block. It's the kind of time filler that's decent to have on your PC, but is never going to demand anything close to an evening of your time in one go.

Surely there's some developer out there who fancies a stab at combining the modern day power of computing with the basics that were so ably put in place over a decade ago? Pool Hall Pro had that chance and, while it serves up a decent enough game, it's sadly still a bit of a missed opportunity.

Verdict
A decent game of pool, but absolutely nothing more than that. We expected better given the power of today's computers.

Company: Playlogic

Tags: game sports game virtual pool franchise personal computer arrow keys video games recreation downloads