A Fair Deal
As promised, I bought the Deal Or No Deal PC game and I have to admit that overall, I'm impressed.
Gameplay: There's a few game modes to play, but the standard one-player game plays like the TV show to the T, without a lot of the obnoxious distractions the actual show has to offer. One of my favorite features is an ability to speed through the game with the click of the mouse, allowing you to skip over dialogue or rules that you don't want to hear. If you do want to sit through the entire process though, it follows the show exactly, which is always nice.
Graphics/Sound: The set is quite faithfully reproduced, and Howie Mandel appears in picture and in voice. His motions, as well as the motions of the models, are a bit robotic-looking on a computer, but overall it looks nice. The music and sound effects are taken directly from the show and sound great.
Nitpicks:
*They include an "advice" feature which allows you to pick three people to help you with your choice of dealing or not dealing. I'm not a fan of this feature on the real show, but I can understand that to make it authentic, they had to include it here. Unfortunately, while you can choose the "aggression" level of your friends, you can't actually hear them give you advice--you only see text of what they're trying to say to you. Jellyvision, had they built this game, surely would have handled this with real audio, as shown in their fantastic Millionaire adaptation from a few years back.
*Howie reads allow the bank offer, which is nice, but given the vast number of amount sound bites he would have to record, it looks like the developers decided to go with rounded amounts to make his life easier in the recording studio. It's a minor detraction, but a nitpick nonetheless.
Pleasant Surprises:
*The game keeps track of how many times you play, so the models' outfits change after every game. I'm sure they repeat after a while, but it does give you the impression they put a little thought into the game.
*The silhouetted picture of the banker changes its behavior based on how well you're doing in the game, including a frantic waving of the hands when you're beating him up.
Neither Here nor There:
*The game includes a 2-player mode that allows you to basically draft up your own prizes. It's a nice thought, but while is it only a 2-player feature?
*The game also includes some random mini games that have little to do with the actual show, including a ridiculously easy 3-card monte game. They don't really add much to the game, but seeing as the game is somewhat limited in its scope to begin with, you can't fault the developers for trying to change things up a little bit.
Overall the game gets an 8 out of 10 and is definitely playable for return trips. At $19.99 it's a good buy and definitely passes the time.
Gameplay: There's a few game modes to play, but the standard one-player game plays like the TV show to the T, without a lot of the obnoxious distractions the actual show has to offer. One of my favorite features is an ability to speed through the game with the click of the mouse, allowing you to skip over dialogue or rules that you don't want to hear. If you do want to sit through the entire process though, it follows the show exactly, which is always nice.
Graphics/Sound: The set is quite faithfully reproduced, and Howie Mandel appears in picture and in voice. His motions, as well as the motions of the models, are a bit robotic-looking on a computer, but overall it looks nice. The music and sound effects are taken directly from the show and sound great.
Nitpicks:
*They include an "advice" feature which allows you to pick three people to help you with your choice of dealing or not dealing. I'm not a fan of this feature on the real show, but I can understand that to make it authentic, they had to include it here. Unfortunately, while you can choose the "aggression" level of your friends, you can't actually hear them give you advice--you only see text of what they're trying to say to you. Jellyvision, had they built this game, surely would have handled this with real audio, as shown in their fantastic Millionaire adaptation from a few years back.
*Howie reads allow the bank offer, which is nice, but given the vast number of amount sound bites he would have to record, it looks like the developers decided to go with rounded amounts to make his life easier in the recording studio. It's a minor detraction, but a nitpick nonetheless.
Pleasant Surprises:
*The game keeps track of how many times you play, so the models' outfits change after every game. I'm sure they repeat after a while, but it does give you the impression they put a little thought into the game.
*The silhouetted picture of the banker changes its behavior based on how well you're doing in the game, including a frantic waving of the hands when you're beating him up.
Neither Here nor There:
*The game includes a 2-player mode that allows you to basically draft up your own prizes. It's a nice thought, but while is it only a 2-player feature?
*The game also includes some random mini games that have little to do with the actual show, including a ridiculously easy 3-card monte game. They don't really add much to the game, but seeing as the game is somewhat limited in its scope to begin with, you can't fault the developers for trying to change things up a little bit.
Overall the game gets an 8 out of 10 and is definitely playable for return trips. At $19.99 it's a good buy and definitely passes the time.
posted by Brad @ 11:18 PM 0 comment(s)