Snooker 19

[Billy]

The game’s ruined before I’ve even started. I’m genuinely gutted. One of my main fears is there - no ability to create your own player (at least not one I can find). I cannot believe you’re forced to play as an existing player!!! How the feck are you supposed to feel involved... become immersed, when you’re playing as someone else???

[jrc750]

Lol..........

[trying]

Comedy central that huge numbers of pre-orders haven't been delivered and looking like being delayed until the end of May

[Billy]

Lol..........

I know I'm sounding like a smacked arse, but I don't care. I'm going to sulk and I'm going to moan and whinge for a few days now.

I forced myself to start a career, and I felt about as involved in proceedings as... something that doesn't feel involved in proceedings. And it's not just that I had to assume the identity of an already existing player, the gameplay felt off, too. The AI is laughable (Murphy pots a long red, perfect on the black... and pots a dead-weight yellow off its spot instead). It was a qualifier, so no crowd there, but still applause for good shots. There's also a stupid and totally unnecessary flashy edit transition after every shot.

It pains me to say it, but I can't see me going back to this again. I've had the game installed for less than 30 minutes and I'm finished with it

[Billy]

Well, the toys are back in the pram and I've given the game another chance, and while I'm still gutted you can't create a character (or at least choose from a few generic models and name them as you see fit), I was in a better mental state this time to give the gameplay itself more of a workout. Having got more of a feel for playing positional shots, I have to say it feels very satisfying to pot a red and finish perfect on your chosen colour. The TV cameras views look, at times, uncannily realistic, and the switching between overhead and floor cameras has been captured very well.

The method for shooting, however, feels completely counter-intuitive to me.

Spotted a few bugs, which I shall double up in the appropriate thread.

• I got called for a foul after playing away from a touching ball (the ref does declare these so it certainly wasn't a mistake on my part).

• The path marker for the object ball appears to be slightly off when compared to the same marker when viewed in 'cuecam'

• Sometimes the buttons when scrolling through menus don't work, i.e. 'X' for Advance and 'O' for Back, and need to be pressed two or three times before they respond.

[Mark187187]

The AI wasn't that Intelligent for the 2 frames I played. Ridiculous long pots taken when much easier short range pots available. I played a couple of decent safeties also, and it was pointless, because both times AI potted crazy thin long pots, no professional would ever attempt.

Will report back once I've put in another few hours.

[Billy]

The AI wasn't that Intelligent for the 2 frames I played. Ridiculous long pots taken when much easier short range pots available. I played a couple of decent safeties also, and it was pointless, because both times AI potted crazy thin long pots, no professional would ever attempt.

Will report back once I've put in another few hours.

I’m not defending the AI by any means because it is bad, but it’s always been notoriously difficult to simulate the way a human plays cue sports. I think it’s all done by rate of pot sucess. The better players simply pot more balls, because that’s how it is in real life. Unfortunately AI in this game seems to blind in terms of a shots difficultly. It will take on a ridiculous pot because all it’s seeing is numbers and virtually no ball is unpottable for a computer because it doesn’t take difficulty into account.

[Csmith]

I’m not defending the AI by any means because it is bad, but it’s always been notoriously difficult to simulate the way a human plays cue sports. I think it’s all done by rate of pot sucess. The better players simply pot more balls, because that’s how it is in real life. Unfortunately AI in this game seems to blind in terms of a shots difficultly. It will take on a ridiculous pot because all it’s seeing is numbers and virtually no ball is unpottable for a computer because it doesn’t take difficulty into account.

I see they've released an update. Apparently, it should address some safety issues. But the long potting is another thing that makes safety such an issue since my opponent shouldn't be taking a long red on where they need to play inch perfect to get position. I'm also having difficulty figuring out which difficulty level to go for in career mode. I started out in the Rising Stars mode in Hard and boy did I experience what it was like to be a new professional.

I got thumped every tournament by top pros and then I made it past the qualifiers only to lose to Luca. So started over and tried medium until I get hang of things and now I've lost 2 frames in three matches. I think the safety issue is the biggest thing that is causing the problem though since I struggle to get good chances on hard more. The AI just knocks in long reds or rolls up to balls.

[trying]

Amazon have inexplicably cocked up delivering their pre-orders ... now due end of May/ June (how does that even happen??)... so a couple of people I know have cancelled their orders as a result.
From all the reported bugs and criticisms I think they've had a lucky escape!
My copy not here yet

[Billy]

I see they've released an update. Apparently, it should address some safety issues.

Not sure when this was released. I noticed after I'd installed my copy (late on the 17th) that there was a notification telling me an update had been installed. I assume they're one and the same.

Amazon have inexplicably cocked up delivering their pre-orders ... now due end of May/ June (how does that even happen??)...

How indeed? The game is out, why will it take them that long to get their copies in??

[Billy]

Here's what I've noticed following the update:

The 'Opponent thinking...' graphic for AI shots is much smaller. I'd rather it wasn't there at all, but it's certainly less 'in your face' than it was before.
Best of all, the silly roll-up safety shots have gone. AI players now play the more authentic thin clip back into baulk. Both these are very welcome changes.

The career mode seems a little weird to me. I played and won my first qualifier, and on exiting was given the date when the tournament would start in earnest. Following that, however, I was invited to play in another qualifier. Seems silly to play in a qualifier for a second tournament, before you've entered the one you qualified for previous to that.

I also hope a future update will include a save option (or at least an indicator that the game is auto saving). As it stands, we have no option but to assume (and trust) the game is saving our career progress when we exit the game.

[Mark187187]

Any idea when this is getting released on the Nintendo Switch- seems to have been delayed but can't see a date anywhere?

[Billy]

Any idea when this is getting released on the Nintendo Switch- seems to have been delayed but can't see a date anywhere?

I can only presume the delay means they can't give a precise date as of now. I'm sure it will be easily found when they do announce.

[Matty66]

Hi. New guy here. Was looking for a forum for snooker 19 and here I am. Despite the numerous issues with it I am enjoying it. I do like the fact everything is official. I have read comments elsewhere saying the graphics are more like PS2. Dont agree with that at all. The Close up shots are very realistic indeed. Hopefully more updates will be released to fix the rest issues and some of the rules that need correcting especially calling a miss when snookers are required. Not sure if they can sort out the AI in particular when break building where they will decide to go for a brown off it’s spot even though they’ll be nicely on black.

[Billy]

Hi. New guy here. Was looking for a forum for snooker 19 and here I am. Despite the numerous issues with it I am enjoying it. I do like the fact everything is official. I have read comments elsewhere saying the graphics are more like PS2. Dont agree with that at all. The Close up shots are very realistic indeed. Hopefully more updates will be released to fix the rest issues and some of the rules that need correcting especially calling a miss when snookers are required. Not sure if they can sort out the AI in particular when break building where they will decide to go for a brown off it’s spot even though they’ll be nicely on black.

Hi, Matty66. Snooker 19 discussion here has been a little disappointing if I'm honest. There's far more chat about the game going on at the Steam forums. Just go to Discussions and search Snooker 19.

I agree with what you say - the close-up views of the shots playing out are uncannily realistic. The rule errors, however, are unforgivable, even at this early stage. It's okay saying they'll hopefully be addressed with a future patch, but they shouldn't be there in the first place. And it's always the same rules that get overlooked, proving that it's always down to research laziness. This was made alongside World Snooker. Why couldn't they have simply employed the services of professional referee to oversee all possible in-game situations??