Playing pool on the computer used to seem a little silly. Much like casino games and poker simulations, there was just no comparison to leaving the house and playing for real. Then along came Virtual Pool 2, and spending long hours honing our skills in a crowded, smoky pool hall suddenly lost much of its appeal. The game's developers guarantee that Virtual Pool 2 will improve a player's real-world shooting skills. That claim seemed ridiculous until we saw the simulation's incredible physics model in action. The way the cue interacts with the balls (and the balls interact with one another) truly must be seen to be appreciated. One of the best aspects of the game is that we could try felt-shredding stunts we would have been hesitant to practice on a real table, like massé tricks and jump shots.
The most convincing test of the game's ability to accurately model the physical complexities of a pool table comes from watching one of the included trick-shot videos. The game gives you the chance to attempt the trick once you've seen it, and when properly executed the balls react exactly as they did in the video. Everything is rendered in clean, crisp 3-D, making it easy to line up shots and to see the effects of english, because the spin given to each ball is displayed in great detail.
Players can test their skills against computer opponents or play a multiplayer game using many variations of pool, including eight ball, nine ball, straight pool, one pocket, and three ball. Virtual Pool 2 may not improve your real-life game (it did help ours), but it makes learning the rules of unfamiliar variations painless, and the video tutorials can help the overall strategy of all but the most experienced pool sharks. Best of all, you get all this for less than the cost of a few hours of table time in a real pool hall. --T. Byrl Baker
Pros: Believable physics Learn trick shots from the masters 3-D environment lets you infinitely fine-tune your view Cons: Cuing with the mouse can be a little awkward
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