Holding Out for Casino Tycoon
Written: Nov 16 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: fun to look at, reasonable to play, a few nice twists for the casino gaming enthusiast
Cons: sometimes tedious interface, falls far short of what it could be
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| Liffey's Full Review: Casino for Windows |
For the pleasures of gorgeous ambiance and beautiful gaming, click your way down the plush corridors of Microsoft Casino. Try your proverbial luck at one of three real-life Las Vegas super casinos, virtual style. The video and sophisticated sound are luscious, with an opening intro so stirring you'll want to hock your firstborn and book the next available red-eye to the desert. For atmosphere, and casino advertising, this game is brilliant.
But do stick around until the end of this epinion. Otherwise you'll have a disastrously false impression of the game.
The three casinos featured are the former Steve Wynn majesties (now part of MGM): Treasure Island, the Mirage, and the Bellagio. I've been known to fire up MS Casino just to watch the video of the dancing fountains over and over, and never mind the gaming. I suppose my attitude testifies to the authenticity of the game turning one into a modern-day Las Vegas tourist.
Video clips aside, the Microsoft versions of these casinos are fairly indistinguishable once you get to the games. As you enter and exit each casino you will see a full-screen photo of the property. Quality isn't bad, murmuring "Hi, I was scanned straight from a promotional brochure!" Which photo displays is random, but unfortunately repeats are frequent.
Once inside the resort, you are presented with a large room containing all of the games. There is no 360 degree motion or appearance moving throughout the casino. What you're looking at is a large, static image map. About as creative as ordering a milkshake from a diner menu.
When holding the mouse over the different games you are given two icons: one for regular play and one for tournament. Please note that the icons can blend in with the background if you're colour blind. (This particular observation is based on watching my father play; he has mild colour blindness.) The icons truly are icons, for no words appear next to them until you hold your mouse over each one.
The tables and video poker machines are the same for each casino. I was disappointed in the variety of video poker, meaning there wasn't any. Three variations of each machine and none are "themey." Compare this to Hoyle Casino, where there are eleven distinct video poker machines, each with their individual motif.
MS Casino does better with its slots. The different casinos offer their own slots designed to tie into the premise of the resort's decor. Bellagio: Fountains of Fun, Riviera Riches, Tuscany Treasure. Mirage: Magic Cat, Lucky Palms, Emerald Waters. Treasure Island: Neptune's Treasure, Pirate's Lair, Siren's Call, High Seas) All machines at a given casino have the same coin value, which can be changed to 4-5 other denominations. Payouts differ slightly.
Of course you actually only have three designs available at any given time (four at Treasure Island) unless you wish to switch casinos. And switching casinos you will certainly do, because...
The minimum and maximum bets depend entirely on which casino you choose to enter. Corresponding to their real-life levels of opulence, Treasure Island allows the lowest minimum bets and the Bellagio allows you to play without any maximum over your head.
This is very, very frustrating. You can't play nickel slots then go on to high rolling blackjack without the fuss of exiting one casino and entering another. Heck, you can't even play dollar slots at the faux-Bellagio, where $5 is the minimum, and don't think of walking up to the blackjack table with less than a C-note.
This was a problem for me because I enjoy playing casino games while bouncing between two strategies. The first is to play like I would really play in Vegas. Low-rolling all the way. The second is to play like I wish I could play in Vegas. $100,000 fantasy bets on the Don't Pass line.
I understand that Microsoft was shooting for a little variety here, and certainly in real life you will find more low-end tables at Treasure Island than Bellagio, but when playing the game on the computer you will come to quickly resent not having all of your options in one casino. I believed they erred on the side of atmosphere when imposing these restrictions, and forgot that ultimately the game also has to be as much fun to play as to look at.
Where MS Casino surpasses Hoyle Casino is with the inclusion of Baccarat, the Big 6 Wheel, and Video Keno. (Hoyle does have regular Keno, but it can be tedious. In a perfect world Microsoft would have offered both versions for their product.)
Other games available are Pai-Gow Poker, Caribbean Stud Poker, Roulette, Craps, and the ubiquitous BlackJack. Graphics are lovely as always at each, and table games are where you get to see your "face" at the table.
Your "face" is the avatar you chose when creating a player account. There are 27 selections of wide variety, but the fun part is when you see these are more than frozen caricatures next to your spot at the table. The avatars nod their heads, run their hands through their hair, and engage in plenty of meaningless chit-chat. (Which can mercifully be toned down via a sliding bar in the Options menu.)
Also available for tweaking via Options is whether you see other characters at all, the amount of animation shown, the volume controls for regular music, ambient music, and character and dealer speech, tool tips, and whether to turn off full-screen mode.
You must play in full-screen mode if your screen resolution is less than 1024x768. Apparently Microsoft has decided to appeal to avid gamers with that decision, and not Joe Q. Public who still has the overwhelming majority vote for 800x600. But switching out of the full-screen window is fast and thus makes up for this (probably necessary) limitation.
There are problems with the Options menu, however. Getting to it is a little flaky, and once you're there what you set for one game you set for everything. A real pain if you just want to see the animation for craps but not for blackjack. I would like to see the configuration possibilities become more sophisticated, allowing individual games to be set up differently.
As for reaching the Options menu, you must either exit your game then exit the casino to get to it, or, if you're a clever person who reads all the instructions, you know to press F8. However, pressing F8 while in a game (as opposed to on the main casino floor) doesn't allow you as many choices, such as toggling animation.
Getting back to the games, for the most part they are exactly as predictable and enjoyable as every other computerized casino game out there, just with prettier graphics. However, a few sore points stick out in my mind.
Betting is a little vague, visually speaking. You may click on a chip then click the table, or you may click and drag your chip to the table. I've noticed that several people choose the second method because the first appears not to work.
Actually it does work, it's just difficult to tell. After you click on a chip, it turns a slightly different shade. A very slightly different shade. Blink and you'll miss it until you know what to look for. There is no written word on the screen which tells you that you have selected a $25 chip. But I strongly suggest attuning yourself to the colour changes when a chip denomination is selected, because clicking and dragging the chips over one at a time is entirely too cumbersome.
A related complaint is that you cannot increase your bet before clicking on the table. Let's say you wish to bet $40 on a hand. You can't click 25-10-5 then the table. You must click 25, click the table, click 10, click the table, click 5, and finally click the table again. Very unwieldy, very tedious.
But nowhere near as tedious as having to click a button to clear the table after each game (or each hand, each roll, etc). If this were an optional feature so that you could examine your cards after a hand then choose to continue, that would be great. Yet strangely your cards are whisked away as soon as the hand is over, and you still must click the "Clear" button before being allowed to bet on a new hand.
Granted, you may also press the Enter key instead of clicking with the mouse. There are keyboard shortcuts for all of the games, and I sincerely applaud Microsoft for this level of easy accessibility, but I would prefer not to need it when I just want to place the next bet and not perform housekeeping first.
Still thinking of blackjack, a feature which will appeal to some and turn away others is that the "number" is not displayed next to the cards to tell you what you have. If you want this, you must have dealer speech turned on to hear it or wave your mouse over the cards.
I like this for its realism, but casual and/or beginning players might prefer seeing the numbers automatically, especially since the game lacks the interactive tutorials you'll find with Hoyle. (Not to tout Hoyle, it's just a very popular series and a strong competitor for this one.) It should also be noted that the dealer will call something like a "soft 13" as just "13," but you will see the cards identified as soft 13 if you use the mouse. As I said, it doesn't worry me, but I know some have their preferences in such matters.
I will commend the game for making it very easy to repeat the last bet or to press winning bets at craps with a single click (or keystroke). Other nice lightweight touches are that you can walk away from machines without cashing out (this is done for you, unseen) and there is an icon to sort your cards in Pai-Gow and Caribbean Stud poker.
If you run out of money, no worries, you can have all you like. Actually, that does worry me. I prefer those casino games where when you run out, you have to get a loan and sweat over it. Otherwise it all becomes an exercise in creative number crunching, with no real angst over losing. MS Casino allows you to choose your starting bankroll (up to $1,000,000), and after that getting more money is as simple as visiting the Fast Cash Machine. No penalties, just ask and receive.
With all that money, it should be easy to quickly rack up comps right? The comps, or complimentary privileges, were one of the unique features I was eager to try out. Just as the real Las Vegas has become more than gambling, I wanted a casino game which simulated the food, shows, and amenities of today's mega-resort casinos. The idea of earning comps for these perqs sounded promising for adding a little spice to the usual spin, spin, spin of the roulette wheel.
Except the comps are no more than screens which flash up to let you know you've been awarded the comp. Worse, you can bet hundred thousand dollar hands and the first comp you get is still going to be some dinky little coupon. Apparently everyone has to shuffle through the ranks. Before writing this epinion I was playing $500,000/spin roulette for twenty minutes. I didn't even get a drink ticket. It gets better, but struggle for the sake of it is boring. And if you're low-rolling, you might spend several grand to get an ice cream cone.
I was also surprised to see that you don't get to use today's excellent 3D gaming technology to tour the resorts. So no chance of literally strolling to the front of the buffet line and picking out four kinds of creme brulée from the dessert table. You're told you have backstage passes to Siegfried and Roy, but you don't actually get to pretend to shake their hand and pet the white tigers.
Think my hopes were ambitious? I don't. Does anyone remember the old DOS casino game from Masque? It was based around Binion's Horseshoe in Las Vegas. The graphics were crude CGA, lots of cyan and pink, but you really could walk to shows, visit the pawn shop (bye bye airline tickets!), ride in the elevators, have a limo drive you around, and even get kicked out and sent home on the plane when you lost all of your money.
That's what I expected from MS Casino. And maybe that wasn't fair, but I already have plenty of straightforward casino games. Who needs another one of those? I wanted the full Las Vegas casino experience, and really thought and still think they could give it to me.
I guess what I'm really wanting is for Hasbro Interactive or someone to release Casino Tycoon. (Shoot, we could take The Sims on a Vegas vacation and build casinos using rides from Rollercoaster Tycoon!)
In the end, I recommend Microsoft Casino because the games are fun once you make peace with the idiosyncrasies, and because the graphics are luxurious to the eye. Who can resist a good-looking casino game with a few new twists? If you have a casino nut in the household, find a copy online for $25 and stick it in their stocking. They'll whoop it up. (The MSRP of $35 is a little too high, even if you're a rabid fan of the MGM Mirage resorts or of entertainer Danny Gans, here seen hosting the frolicky casino challenge tournament.)
It's not what it could have been, but it's a satisfying pick-me-up for when you can't be experiencing the real thing. Bon chance!
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
Liffey
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Reviews written: 79
Trusted by: 71 members
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I like thinking.
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