Electronics Arts’ recent acquisition of Playfish has thrust another heavy hitting game developer onto the texas holdem poker scene. Playfish’s new facebook poker game, Poker Rivals, is a graphically intense addition to the virtual poker line-up, currently dominated by Zynga Poker.
In the realm of social gaming, competing with an existing game that is already extremely popular and established is usually a recipe for failure and generally ends up being a mediocre effort at best, so while Playfish’s addition to the scene is visually stunning and backed by the deep pockets of Electronic Arts it remains to be seen if the final product will be an appealing choice to long time facebook poker players. That being said, the initial reviews of the game seem to be quite good.
The game’s graphical interface and animations are far beyond that of Zynga’s current game, allowing players in the game to customize everything from their hairstyle to their skin color. Players also have a wider range of expressions in Poker Rivals than in other games. While players have always been able to chat at the poker tables in a designated text box, players in Poker Rivals can adjust their body posture, wave their hands around in joy or anger, and even pound the table after a bad hand. It remains to be seen whether or not all this extra movement and expression at the table will be viewed as too distracting to hardcore poker afficionados who just want to see the cards and bet with their facebook poker chips. Though players who enjoy heads up play will enjoy the 1 on 1 option in the game that allows 2 players to go head to head.
Poker Rivals also gives you the option to purchase fancier playing venues such as yatchs and condos in which you can hold private games and invite your friends. This extra real world touch adds another dimension of reality to the game, much like that found in blockbusters like Second Life and World of Warcraft. If there’s one thing online gamers love its customization and Poker Rivals delivers this through the graphically rich and colorful online poker world that they’ve created. Whether this is what casual poker players are looking for in an online texas holdem game remains to be seen. Stay tuned for more reviews and photos of Playfish’s new game, but in the meantime you can play their beta version and decide for yourself  <here>