You know, I almost feel somewhat responsible for the production of this title. You see, I reviewed the original DD poker (read it here http://pc.gamezone.com/gzreviews/r24523.htm)  and I stated that it was indeed a very good poker game, but where was the online play? I even went as far as to say that I would have scored this bad boy in the 90's had it offered online gaming. Well, apparently my review did not fall on deaf ears because now Donohoe Digital Poker 2 is out and it does have online play. And below is the finest poker review you GameZone readers shall ever read.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Poker is getting big, really big. People at work are discussing previous games they played over the weekend while others talk about going to Vegas and getting in on big-money tournaments. Heck, my neighbor two doors down actually made it on TV while playing in a big-money game. The simple fact that there is so many variations on the same game makes it appealing to both men and women. So where are the stay at home and play with fake money players going to get their fix? Well, the folks over at Donohoe Digital think they have the answer with their second title in the Donohoe Digital poker series.

As a stand-alone game, DD2 has everything I would want in a Texas Hold 'em style poker game. I created my game file and began with the basics, which is some of the easier games like the beginners tournament and the card-room tournament, but the game allows you to try your luck at playing at the last couple of World Series of Poker Tournaments. Now for those of you unfamiliar with the whole concept of buying in on a tournament (whether in the game or in real life) it goes something like this: You enter a tournament and spend $40 dollars, that $40 gives you $1,000 in chips. With those chips you play against your fellow gamblers. Now depending on the game the buy-in could be $25 or $10,000; rebuys, (if you bust out, you can spend more to get back in) are done the same way. Of course the values of the game, and number of players also varies as you play one tournament to the next. Some allow for rebuys, some don't, while others allow rebuys at first and then stop. It all depends on the way the game is set up. My advice is to play through most if not all of the tournaments in order to familiarize yourself with the various changes.

Then...

You can hop online and either host a game or join a game that can be found on the public game-search function. Now this is where I found myself enjoying the game the most. Thanks to the folks over at Donohoe Digital, I was able to get a second copy of the game so my card shark father-in-law could actually play against me on the Internet. Setting up the "host a game" feature was relatively trouble free and the fact that there is no server out there running the game makes things go quite smooth. Couple of things to note when playing online: Be careful of what tournament you set up to play, if you are playing against another "real" human and you pick a game that has three 10-person tables, then you two may not be at the same table (the game will fill all the other spots with A.I. players). So whether you have two or seven friends and you want to play against them specifically, then it would be best to pick a tournament that only has 10 players total. Or maybe you wouldn't, the fact is that the game lets you set this and tons of other options.

The A.I. players that the game has were surprisingly competitive. Like everything else, you can adjust the difficulty of them including bulking up their proficiency in learning how well you bluff and generally play the game. Yes, if you play against a highly skilled computer player, you had better bring your "A" game.

Like I said in my other review, you can't really complain or brag about the graphics in a game like this. You can adjust the card and table colors, but as long as the lines look clean and the cards are crisp and easily read, then you are golden. Fortunately this game is just that, clean and crisp looking.

Gameplay: 8.8
With the amount of options available, you can set this game up to any discriminating taste. My favorite option is the one that allows the round to end ASAP once I fold (not available in online play). Still, the pop up menus provide easy-play information and can be a great tool to the novice player.

Graphics: 7.5
It looks nice and clear. The table color can be changed if you have eyesight problems and a darker background helps. It looks nice, like I would expect.

Sound: 7.6
A light folksy-rock music plays during the setup and loadout, the sound effects of the cards being shuffled and dealt, all pretty standard stuff, but then again, you aren't playing a poker game for the music now, are ya?

Difficulty: Medium
The difficulty can be tweaked for any game player, and my father-in-law thinks he found a flaw in the single-player game where you can save your game when you are way up in cash and bet like crazy, if you bust out, you just load up your saved game. I, on the other hand, think he's a wimp for playing like that - must be why I'm whupping up on him when we play online, you hearing me Larry?

Multiplayer: 9.1
The game's strongest point in my opinion. I have gladly played long hours against my wimp-in-law. It's really a lot of fun and when this game gets its wide release, there is going to be an awful lot of people calling in sick because they didn't get enough sleep from playing the night before.

Overall: 9.0
It really is the top of the heap as far as poker games go. The online game is flawless and the practice tournaments offer enough variance to entice players of all types and skills. Options are abundant and easily accessible. This is my new favorite poker game and it will be yours as well.