Poker Night 2

JasonPratt · April 21, 2013, 06:43:18 PM

True story: my brother used to invite me to his business fraternity's poker night once a month in college. I never walked away less than $50 up (we played for quarters) -- probably because I didn't drink alcohol, and played with my back to the TV where the pr0n was constantly showing.

Having said that, I'm way ahead on Poker Night, having lost out maybe twice out of ten tourneys. Bad luck beats strategy sometimes in the short run. But I've been saved by good luck, too -- last night, I and three others lost to StrongBad, busting them out, and leaving me with literally only enough to buy in on my turn. All I could do was go all in, around five times in a row. I won those hands and had enough stock to play strategically. Came back to win it all from practically nothing that way.

RooksBailey · April 27, 2013, 10:34:39 PM

Anybody give PN2 a try yet?

I just did and I have to say I am a bit disappointed. Overall, the game seems far less polished than the original. There doesn't seem to be nearly as much dialogue (despite having better characters, IMO), the animations are very herky-jerky (chips seem to pop around the table; character animations suddenly stop if a new conversation begins), there doesn't seem to be some of the nice options that the first had (like difficulty settings, the ability to continue play while a conversation is under way, the ability to set the amount of dialogue), anti-aliasing seems broken as playing cards have jagged edges even when AA is set to "on" (unfortunately, you can't set the amount of AA...which is probably the problem) and there seems to be a lot of CTD at different points in the game based on some posts I've read (I haven't experience any, though). I am also finding the AI to be much more aggressive, with a propensity for it to drop huge bets or go all in just for the heck of it. PN1 games always felt balanced to me, even on the higher difficulty setting. Here, it feels like the AI is out of wack on some of the characters (particularly Brock - maybe he is programmed to be extra aggressive based on his personality?).

The good stuff: two types of poker, and earning tokens you can use to buy unlocks for chips and stuff. But that is about it. The rest of the game seems like a decided step backwards from the polished experience of PN1. :(

Well, the game has only been out for a day, so I am hoping Telltale polishes this game some more over the next few weeks. Maybe PN1 arrived in a similar condition back in 2010. I am hoping, anyway.

Arctic Blast · April 28, 2013, 12:33:17 AM

Hard to say thus far. I absolutely smashed my way through my first couple of tournaments, but then I started getting completely schooled.

Huw the Poo · April 28, 2013, 02:36:28 AM

That's disappointing RooksBailey, sorry to hear it. I don't have a great deal of experience with Telltale's work but what I've played has always seemed very polished. Hopefully you're right to think they'll fix it up promptly.

JasonPratt · April 28, 2013, 10:08:04 AM

I've played a couple of tourneys, one Texas one Omaha, got zorched in both of them (but fairly so). I don't think my eyes are good enough to detect the aliasing problems. No CTDs yet. I like the mix of characters better. Glad to see Max making extended cameos. VActor for Ash does reasonably well, despite sounding like he's the same VA for Brock. Cute bartender. ;D Much less foul language, and it's automatically bleeped, although I can also see why the option would have been better. Having an actual dealer character is an improvement; moreso that she's GLaDOS. I agree that the conversations ought to occur during gameplay, but then I seem to recall that happening anyway. ???

Arctic Blast · April 28, 2013, 03:34:09 PM

I've also had conversations popping up throughout the game. Not sure why it isn't happening for Rooks.

Toonces · April 28, 2013, 11:48:07 PM

Well, the game was only $5 so, you know... :)

RooksBailey · April 29, 2013, 12:12:57 AM

Quote from: Arctic Blast on April 28, 2013, 03:34:09 PM
I've also had conversations popping up throughout the game. Not sure why it isn't happening for Rooks.

I have conversations popping up, the problem is that you are forced to sit through them. In PN1, you could click at any time to begin another hand, but I noticed that in PN2 there are a few moments where you have to wait for the conversation to end before you can deal another hand.

Arctic Blast · April 29, 2013, 12:20:21 AM

Quote from: RooksBailey on April 29, 2013, 12:12:57 AM
Quote from: Arctic Blast on April 28, 2013, 03:34:09 PM
I've also had conversations popping up throughout the game. Not sure why it isn't happening for Rooks.

I have conversations popping up, the problem is that you are forced to sit through them. In PN1, you could click at any time to begin another hand, but I noticed that in PN2 there are a few moments where you have to wait for the conversation to end before you can deal another hand.

I haven't had that happen that I can recall. Actually, my experience has been that if you do end up interrupting a conversation by clicking, it's picked up and finished soon after.

JasonPratt · April 29, 2013, 08:06:16 AM

^^ Ditto. Still, it looks jankier that way. I prefer the PN1 method.

JasonPratt · May 07, 2013, 04:41:55 PM

Minor catchup: the conversations do take place while gameplay is going on, but are interrupted for special events, then picked up again later. Basically the same as PN1 in that regard, although the presentation is slightly different.

At least one non-bleeped fbomb in the script for "Mr. Funnychips" (as GLaDOS likes to call him). It goes by so fast the scriptors probably forgot it was there. (Or maybe it's the PG-13 principle, one F--- is allowed.)

Not sure if this happens in PN1, but picking up a full set of cards, table and chips for any of the guest-property themes unlocks a special overall redecoration; I chose Sam and Max 25th anniversary, and while I'm not fond of the overall redec (which goes for a film noir look) there are new conversations about the S&M franchise, including an impressive musical salute to their first game "Hit the Road" -- I didn't realize what the other players were doing until toward the end!

Again, not sure if this happens in PN1 (I'll have to test next time I play), but watching the rest of the tourney after busting out allows you to automatically peak at the hole cards of each player, so you know the contexts for what they're doing.

While I continue to win fairly steadily on hard for PN1, I've one exactly one tourney on PN2 so far (no direct difficulty adjustments as noted previously, but the game may scale). Of course, as long as I keep my win loss ratio to one in six I'll break even on average or earn a profit (on average). Still, I can't quite put my finger on what the difference is, other than the players seem designed to draw out poor betting choices from me somehow!