Cue Club 2 is a sportssimulationvideo game developed by Bulldog Interactive. First released for Microsoft Windows on 4 July 2014, it is a realistic interpretation of pool and snooker, and is the sequel to Cue Club. The game has received continual updates since launch, including an online multiplayer mode, the addition of a first-person camera with 3-dimensional (3D) tables and bars, a wide selection of larger table sizes, and an expanded range of achievements.
Cue Club 2 can be played in either top-down view (2D mode) or a first-person view (3D mode). Game control options include mouse and keyboard, game-pad or touchscreen device. Several game types are available including eight-ball (including both US and European Blackball rules), nine-ball, ten-ball, six-ball, seven-ball, snooker, speed pool, and killer. The rules of eight-ball, ten-ball, killer and snooker can be customised to reflect the many variants in use around the world. There are three variations of snooker: a full game with fifteen reds, and shorter games with either ten or six reds. Players choose from a selection of game modes including Practice, Single Player Quick Game, 2-4 Player, Tournament, Bar Challenge and an online Multiplayer mode.
The game is set in a fictional club featuring a range of themed bars and theatre venues, and each is host to a selection of unique opponents of varying difficulty. Upon starting the game for the first time the player is required to sign in by entering their name, after which they are given a membership card to access the Basement Bar.
There are two main parts to the game. The first is to complete the Bar Challenge, where the player chooses the game rules in each match and aims to progress through the stages by beating computer-controlled opponents one by one. There are fifteen characters in total, complete with imagery, and dressed in casual clothing. After defeating all the opponents in a bar, the player is awarded a membership card to the next bar where the difficulty level increases. When all the bars have been unlocked and the opponents defeated, the player is presented with the Bar Challenge trophy.
3D Snooker mode in Penthouse Bar
The second part to Cue Club 2 is the tournament mode. Sixteen players compete in a tournament, and for this game mode opponents are dressed in formal competition attire. Progress is initially straightforward, but gets harder as weaker players are eliminated and more skilful opponents are encountered. There are four rounds in total (first round, quarter-final, semi-final and final), and the number of frames played can be set anywhere from Best of 3 up to Best of 35. Since matches can potentially take a long time to complete, games may be saved at any point and resumed later using one of the numerous save-game slots. If the player succeeds in winning a tournament they are awarded a trophy, with trophies for each of the nine variations of pool and snooker available.
Other accolades can be gained for achieving high snooker breaks, including a century break and the elusive 147 maximum. Additional trophies are awarded for fast clearance times in speed pool, and also for accumulating points in multiplayer earned by winning matches. In total there are sixty-two trophies to collect, which includes individual colour-coded Bar Challenge and tournament trophies for each of the five difficulty settings. Leader-boards and statistics screens record performances and totals for snooker breaks and speed pool times.
The game is officially completed when all of the above trophies have been earned, filling the slots on the Summary of Achievements table. Upon successful completion of the Bar Challenge, which is arguably the largest and most challenging aspect of the game, a victory sequence is played.
Cue Club 2 expands on the original game with new artwork and additional character designs. There is a large range of cues and ball sets to choose from, which can be modified to alter their appearance and performance. The table cloth, pockets and rails can also be customized, along with the speed of the cloth and cushions. The method of cueing may also be adjusted. Additionally, players are able to choose from a selection of coloured chalk. The developers state that the physics engine has been fully overhauled and the A.I. of the computer opponents significantly improved to play in a more natural and realistic way.
Players can save shots and replay them at a variety of speeds and camera angles, and also save and replay their highest snooker breaks and speed pool clearance times. Matches can also be saved mid-game and resumed later, allowing for tournaments and other long games to be completed in multiple sittings. As a bonus, two fun games have been added, including a revised Slam mode, where balls can be swung around on a length of cord, and a Detonator mode where the balls explode on impact (this mode was formerly a "cheat" option in the original Cue Club). A selection of nine new soundtracks were composed for the title, serving as background music to complement gameplay.
In an attempt to stay true to its roots the developers retained recognizable styling elements from the first game, but made several key technical improvements to enable support for widescreen, ultra widescreen, and touchscreen monitors, in addition to 1080p High Definition graphics and 4K displays. The software can support multiple resolutions and aspect ratios, to ensure there is no stretching or image distortion. Full screen anti-aliasing is also supported, as well as multiple refresh rates ranging from 60 Hz up to 240 Hz.
Online multiplayer
In September 2016, the developers added an online multiplayer feature with customisable game rules, allowing players to compete over the Internet. Winning matches increases the player's score, and when sufficient points have been gained the multiplayer trophies are awarded, of which there are three in total. The online mode also incorporates an in-game text chat facility.
3D cameras
In June 2017, a first-person camera view was added to the game, along with 3D tables and bars. Players can quickly switch between top-down and first-person mode, which leads to a more realistic playing experience whilst still offering a full view of the table. The various themed bars are also represented in 3D (Cue Club, Basement, Cocktail and Penthouse), with an option to customize the look of the Cue Club bar. In later updates several other camera views were added, including a 'TV' style 360 degree rotating camera, for watching your opponent and also for replays.
Larger table sizes
In April 2018, a selection of bigger tables were introduced, including 6, 7, 8 and 9ft pool tables, along with 8, 9, 10, 11 and full size 12ft snooker tables. Whilst the larger tables would be more challenging to play on, the developers were keen to further increase the realism of the simulation and provide more configurable options for the players, in both competitive matches and practice mode. Table orientation can also be flipped left-to-right, which is mainly a feature for 2D top-down play.
New venues
In February 2019, four new theatre venues were added: Cue Club, Basement, Cocktail and Penthouse theatres. These venues feature an interactive and lively audience who respond to good shots with cheering and applause, and sigh when fouls are committed. Theatres are used to host tournament matches, and can also be selected for quick matches, multiplayer and practice play.
Alternative control system
In June 2020, a new control system was introduced for mouse and keyboard, and also game controllers. The method, called 'fast aiming' allows the player to set up shots more easily and without the need to press and hold buttons to adjust the aiming target. The previous control method was preserved for players who prefer to use the original system, with an option provided in the menus. In January 2021, the developers went on to add automatic ball nomination in both pool and snooker. The system utilises the aiming line and target to quickly nominate balls, speeding up gameplay.
Table wear
In September 2020, cloth wear was added as a selectable menu option. There are four levels available, which introduce chalk marks, burn marks and general wear and tear in progressively increasing amounts, which also affects the speed of the table. Players are still able to select a new table cloth, which is the default option.
Extra trophies
In November 2020, a range of new colour-coded trophies were introduced for each of the five difficulty settings of tournament and Bar Challenge modes. In August 2022, bronze, silver and gold awards were added to multiplayer for gaining 1,000, 5,000 and 10,000 points respectively, bringing the total number of collectable trophies up to sixty-two.
Cue sports are a wide variety of games of skill played with a cue, which is used to strike billiard balls and thereby cause them to move around a cloth-covered table bounded by elastic bumpers known as cushions. Cue sports are also collectively referred to as billiards, though this term has more specific connotations in some varieties of English.
Eight-ball is a discipline of pool played on a billiard table with six pockets, cue sticks, and sixteen billiard balls. The object balls include seven solid-colored balls numbered 1 through 7, seven striped balls numbered 9 through 15, and the black 8 ball. After the balls are scattered with a break shot, a player is assigned either the group of solid or striped balls once they have legally pocketed a ball from that group. The object of the game is to legally pocket the 8-ball in a "called" pocket, which can only be done after all of the balls from a player's assigned group have been cleared from the table.
Nine-ball is a discipline of the cue sport pool. The game's origins are traceable to the 1920s in the United States. It is played on a rectangular billiard table with pockets at each of the four corners and in the middle of each long side. Using a cue stick, players must strike the white cue ball to pocket nine colored billiard balls, hitting them in ascending numerical order. An individual game is won by the player pocketing the 9-ball. Matches are usually played as a race to a set number of racks, with the player who reaches the set number winning the match.
Snooker is a cue sport played on a rectangular billiards table covered with a green cloth called baize, with six pockets, one at each corner and one in the middle of each long side. First played by British Army officers stationed in India in the second half of the 19th century, the game is played with twenty-two balls, comprising a white cue ball, fifteen red balls, and six other balls—a yellow, green, brown, blue, pink, and black—collectively called the colours. Using a cue stick, the individual players or teams take turns to strike the cue ball to pot other balls in a predefined sequence, accumulating points for each successful pot and for each time the opposing player or team commits a foul. An individual frame of snooker is won by the player who has scored the most points. A snooker match ends when a player reaches a predetermined number of frames.
English billiards, called simply billiards in the United Kingdom and in many former British colonies, is a cue sport that combines the aspects of carom billiards and pool. Two cue balls and a red object ball are used. Each player or team uses a different cue ball. It is played on a billiards table with the same dimensions as one used for snooker and points are scored for cannons and pocketing the balls.
A billiard table or billiards table is a bounded table on which cue sports are played. In the modern era, all billiards tables provide a flat surface usually made of quarried slate, that is covered with cloth, and surrounded by vulcanized rubber cushions, with the whole thing elevated above the floor. More specific terms are used for specific sports, such as snooker table and pool table, and different-sized billiard balls are used on these table types. An obsolete term is billiard board, used in the 16th and 17th centuries.
The following is a glossary of traditional English-language terms used in the three overarching cue sports disciplines: carom billiards referring to the various carom games played on a billiard table without pockets; pool, which denotes a host of games played on a table with six pockets; and snooker, played on a large pocket table, and which has a sport culture unto itself distinct from pool. There are also games such as English billiards that include aspects of multiple disciplines.
Five-pin billiards or simply five-pins or 5-pins, is today usually a carom billiards form of cue sport, though sometimes still played on a pocket table. In addition to the customary three balls of most carom games, it makes use of a set of five upright pins (skittles) arranged in a "+" pattern at the center of the table. The game is popular especially in Italy and Argentina, but also in some other parts of Latin America and Europe, with international, televised professional tournaments. It is sometimes referred to as Italian five-pins or Italian billiards, or as simply italiana. A variant of the game, goriziana or nine-pins, adds additional skittles to the formation. A related pocket game, with larger pins, is played in Scandinavia and is referred to in English as Danish pin billiards, with a Swedish variant that has some rules more similar to the Italian game.
Cue Club, or International Cue Club is a sports simulation video game developed by Bulldog Interactive and released for Microsoft Windows on 10 November 2000. It is a realistic interpretation of pool and snooker. The game was initially published by Midas Interactive, but is now distributed exclusively by Bulldog through the official Cue Club website.
Virtual Pool 3 is a 3D, first-person sports video game that simulates various cue sports, developed and released for Windows and PlayStation by Celeris. The game features 15 pool disciplines, snooker, and two varieties of carom billiards.
Virtual Pool is a 3D, first-person sports simulation video game series with computer simulations of cue sports which was developed by Celeris. The games in the series simulate pool, snooker and carom billiards. The Virtual Pool series focuses on accurate simulation and improving the player's ability to play the sport in real life. Virtual Pool releases are sold with a money back guarantee to improve a player's external game.
Midnight Pool is a sports simulation video game by Gameloft Montreal. The pool simulator was originally released for mobile phones. Versions with enhanced graphics were later released for Windows, WiiWare, and iOS and under the name Midnight Pool 3D for phones and the N-Gage platform. It is part of Gameloft's Midnight series, which includes Midnight Bowling, Midnight Casino and Midnight Hold'em Poker.
Actua Pool also known as Ultimate 8-Ball is a sports simulation video game developed by British companies Gremlin Interactive and Mirage Ltd as part of their highly successful Actua Sports series of sport simulators of the mid-to-late 1990s. Actua Pool, a pool game, was originally released on the Microsoft Windows platform and the Sony PlayStation home console in 1999; these versions were also published under the name Pool Shark. The game was very well received, praised for its realistic physics engine and challenging AI opponents, although the game spawned a sequel which was not as successful. In 2007, Actua Pool was ported to the Nintendo DS handheld game console.
Pool Revolution: Cue Sports is a sports simulation video game video game published by Hudson Soft for the Wii's WiiWare service. The game simulates a variety of cue sports.
Carom billiards and pool are two types of cue sports or billiards-family games, which as a general class are played with a stick called a cue which is used to strike billiard balls, moving them around a cloth-covered billiard table bounded by rubber cushions attached to the confining rails of the table.
Power Snooker is a cue sport, a variant format of snooker. The sport was conceived in 2010. Its concept was derived from the game of snooker and the game of nine-ball pool, with racks being used and the nine red balls which featured one red and white striped power ball set up in a diamond formation as in nine-ball pool. It was first played in October 2010.
The World Snooker Championship (WSC) is a series of video games based on snooker featuring licensing from the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association. The first game in the series was released in 2001 and the last in 2011; a new licensed World Snooker game, Snooker 19, was released in 2019. The first four games were published by Codemasters and developed by Blade Interactive Software. Later games were published by Sega, Deep Silver and Koch Media.
Brawl Stars is a multiplayer online battle arena and third-person hero shooter video game developed and published by the Finnish video game company Supercell. The game was released worldwide on December 12, 2018, on iOS and Android platforms. The game features a variety of game modes, each with a distinctive objective. Players are able to choose from a selection of 'Brawlers', i.e., characters able to be controlled with on-screen joysticks inside of an in-game match.
Jimmy White's Cueball World is a sports simulation video game published by Virgin Interactive as the sequel to Jimmy White's 2: Cueball, itself a sequel to Jimmy White's 'Whirlwind' Snooker. The development team once again being led by Archer Maclean, who designed the other two Jimmy White titles. The game was released in December 2001 in Europe, with a North American release was planned to be released a year later by Titus Software under a budget range using the Virgin Interactive brand name. PlayStation 2 and Xbox versions were planned, but were later cancelled.
Virtual Pool Hall is a sports simulation video game developed Celeris and published by Interplay Entertainment as an entry in the Virtual Pool franchise, an improvement and sequel to Virtual Pool 2 and PC sequel to Virtual Pool 64. The game was initially released on PC in December 1999. Pool Hall is the first game in the Virtual Pool series to have playable Snooker in addition to the regular pool gamemodes.
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