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A pool game, what more is there to say.

Gameplay

Q-Ball makes a go of it in the control department, at least. It has features for all the elements of cue and ball control you'd like - precise angle and shot control, settings for cue positioning and english, and special controls for things like jumping, stop shots, and the like. The analog control is used well, so you can make drastic changes or fine tweaks in your positioning by applying varying degrees of pressure to the stick. It's when it comes time to take advantage of those features that the game runs into a little trouble. The tutorial mode is set up with a nice series of lessons on various techniques, but to learn the theory behind those techniques, you have to sit through a series of dreadfully slow dialogue screens (the manual contains none of that information). These turn out to be of dubious aid in practice, too - see how long you'll spend in the "stop shot" lesson before you understand what on earth the game expects of you and how to execute it.

Outside the tutorials you can have a bit more fun, with modes that offer straight competition, a "frozen play" mode set up like a series of chess puzzles (as well as a number of other challenges and games), and what turns out to be the most rewarding of the lot in my view, the simple free play mode, where you're simply given a table and left to your own devices.

Graphics

Regardless of how you play it, though, this is one sharp-looking pool game. The balls aren't quite photorealistic, with a little roughness around the edges left to be conquered, but the textures and lighting are superb. When you pull the camera in close, the reflections and highlights on the balls look almost perfect, and the textures for the felt and wooden rails are very sharp. Their shadows are excellent too, cast at the proper angle and diffusing around the edges. The backgrounds vary a little, looking better or worse depending on their particular theme and how the textures react to a shifting camera angle, but they're still all of them very pretty. The camera control is the source of a few bothers, although there are enough view modes that you can find one you like. The standard camera makes stomach-turningly quick cuts to close-up views of a pocket when a ball draws near - they aren't a problem on slow plays, but on breaks or fast-moving combinations, they're close to bringing the epilepsy.

Sound

The background music is the sort of inoffensive loungey-type technoid stuff that's almost impossible to criticize either way. It's just...there. Most of us agree that there's more appropriate pool accompaniment out there - some smoky blues, for example. The sound of clacking balls is well-done, though, varying in tone and volume depending on the camera's proximity to collisions.