Nothing better than playing pool in real life with a couple of good friends, so when a new pool game comes to consoles it is a genre that INothing better than playing pool in real life with a couple of good friends, so when a new pool game comes to consoles it is a genre that I have quite a lot of interest in. The new said pool game that’s made its way to consoles is Premium Pool Arena and whilst it provides you with some cheap thrills every now and then it’s ultimately let down by a number of underlying problems. The gameplay that’s present in the game has an easy to pick up and play style and when played with friends it can be quite fun. Unfortunately though the controls are very fiddly and it can be right nuisance getting the shot that you want and that can be really frustrating because most of the time your timed during a shot. The ball physics in the game aren’t too profound so you do get away with quite a lot and I like that because it doesn’t make things become too serious and that means the game retains an arcade feel to it. As I said the game can be fun when played with friends but when played against the AI it loses its appeal quite quickly. The main reason it loses its appeal is because the AI is very difficult and unrealistic even in the lowest settings so expect them to make almost all of their pots even though some of them don’t look possible. In terms of content the game has very little for you to sink your teeth into and without a doubt this hurts the game’s replay value quite considerably. Another problem the game has is that it does have a pay to win feel about it and if you don’t spend money on cues you will lose quite comfortably, so I did found this aspect about the game to be very frustrating. The presentation side of the game is nothing special but I actually quite liked it. Visually the game is basic but it works well when it comes to the arcade style of the game. The sound design is also basic but it does more than enough to keep things ticking along. At the end of the day Premium Pool Arena harms its potential by having too many niggling problems and ultimately they overpower the good points about the game. Don’t get me wrong it can be fun at times but those times are few and far between and as far as pool games go I was left a little disappointed, which is a shame.… Expand
