The last of WCP 2004's featured modes is its online/LAN support, which, while generally good, isn't nearly as fleshed-out as it could have been. Essentially, you can set up your own match, or you can join somebody else's. However, there are only two play modes available online: 8 Ball and 9 Ball. You can't play any of the other game modes online--not even snooker. Another issue we had with the mode was that, quite simply, nobody was ever on to play against. We tried for days to get a game going with another player, but nobody ever showed up online. On the plus side, the LAN mode did work just fine, but if you specifically want to get an online game going, good luck.
Where WCP 2004 starts to stumble is in its presentational values. Graphically, the game looks about on par with the Xbox version, though some of the visual flaws stick out more in the PC version. The various in-game environments are pretty nicely detailed and look like some of the typical locales you'd encounter when watching a professional pool tournament. There are some problematic details though, such as the rather nasty-looking crowd models. Each of the 70 featured professional players looks pretty good, with a nice assortment of body and facial details that make each look very true-to-life. Unfortunately, the featured pros don't animate quite as well as they look when they walk around, and certain portions of their bodies look a bit on the blocky side. As for the on-table action, it all looks pretty much like you would hope it would. The balls reflect light nicely, the physics are top-notch, and all told, it's pretty authentic-looking.
The game really falls off in regard to its sound quality, which is just plain poor. For starters, the in-game commentary is atrocious. The two commentators sound nearly identical--to the point where you have to wonder if it isn't just the same guy doing marginally different voices. The actual commentary is so wooden and hollow-sounding that turning it off is an absolute must. There is no music in the game, except for the menu music. The Xbox version of WCP 2004 had an in-game bug that caused nearly all of the sound effects to simply disappear during a game. The PC version seems to be devoid of this bug, though being able to hear the effects doesn't help the audio presentation too much.
While there's nothing markedly different between the Xbox and PC versions of World Championship Pool 2004, it's impossible to deny the fact that the game just doesn't measure up as well on the PC. PC owners have so many different pool games to choose from at this point that, really, nothing WCP 2004 does helps it to stand out from the pack. This is not to say that it's a bad game, though. So if you're looking for another pool game to add to your collection, WCP is worth checking out.
