Billiards for Mac

3D simulation of five different billiards games

There's nothing I love more than a good game of billiards (pool to the British) and Billiards is 3D computer simulation that faithfully recreates five different billiards games: 9-Ball, 8-Ball, 3-Balls, Straight and Snooker.

You can play Billiards in practice or match mode against a friend and change the table cloth color to any of six different choices. The look and movement of the balls is realistic although aiming the cue could be made easier. To gain power, you pull the cue back as far as you can and a target will extend towards the ball you're aiming for although it doesn't extend far enough to tell you where the ball will eventually end up.

You can change the camera angle from the player’s perspective and press 'C' to toggle and rotate it. In addition, you can speed-up the motion of the balls and speed-up the time you have to wait in between to take your shot. You can control the spin of the ball with a red dot on the ball and a digital scoreboard keeps track of the score. It doesn't make it very clear how you change between the different types of pool and it could have done with a few different surroundings and opponents to make it more interesting.

Billiards is very good simulation for a quick game of billiards although it does lack a bit of character to score more highly.

Improved online connectivity.