Crazy Negativity surrounding this game

I have a simple question. Why is everyone in the games media super down about this game? I thought maybe it was just a Giant Bomb thing, but then today I read the RPS article about the game which claims that it is a horrible, and also takes as fact that the first one was horrible. Am I missing something?

I personally love both these games and would gladly pay for a third if they could wrangle together more licenses. The mere fact that you have 4 or 5 different universes playing off each other is enough to draw me in, I wouldn't even care if it was Shuffleboard at the Inventory. I loved my time with the first one, and I think they did an excellent job with the sequel by varying up the backgrounds and putting in unique dialogue for seemingly every situation I get into. There is some repetition, but I don't mind too much. It is definitely worth $5 to me.

A lot of them seem to just be fundamentally against the idea of a comedy game where the lines have a pretty good chance of repeating after about 3-4 hours. To TellTale's credit, there are like hundreds and hundreds of lines of dialogue in the game, which is pricey when each copy of the game only gives $5 of revenue. I'm guessing that Bruce Campbell's fee was maybe too much relative to the fairly limited budget the game probably had. I think their complaints about the poker AI being erratic are valid, as they seem to suddenly forget they are bluffing and just fold out of nowhere sometimes, or go all-in on the flop with a super terrible hand. I think the package is perfectly fine given the $5 price tag, and the critics are being overly harsh on it.

industry be super cynical these days and "enthusiasts/cynics" are so desperate to want this medium to be taken seriously that to just fuck games just trying to be games and for just trying to be fun.

slowly and slowly im finding it hard to relate to game journalists these days, thank god for giantbomb sure they are cynical when ready, but lately they do double back and give a rounded opinion (cept fpr brad, who seems the most jaded of the bunch)

Yeah, I think people are expecting too much from the Poker Night games (although I agree that the actual poker could be done a lot better), especially after Telltale knocked it out of the park with Walking Dead.

It does seem like there's a LOT less dialog in PN2 than there was in the first one, though. I put four hours into the first game and was still barely getting repeats, whereas two hours into the sequel is getting me almost all repeats. That's... unfortunate, considering the series is basically an excuse to crossover a bunch of universes, and poker is just an easy way of getting that done on a Telltale budget. Once you've exhausted the conversations, you've exhausted the game.

For a five dollar stopgap between Telltale's bigger games, though, I really can't complain too much. Getting new GLadOS lines is worth five bucks alone.

Yeah I don't know, maybe it's because I don't give a shit about poker, but this game seems fine to me. I liked the original as well, just a fun little distraction that you can burn through in a few hours. I'd rather spend 5 bucks on that than some indie non-game where you wander around for an hour and look at pretty bullshit.

But I think if you can't get Bruce Campbell, don't get Ash. Just... find some other character that you can get the proper voice actors for. Or the cross-over appeal is kinda lost.

Tried the demo on XBL. No multiplayer, AI is terrible, all you have left is characters from another universe. Its not even a good poker game. But who i am to tell you what to do with your money. I could just ridicule on what a dumb decision it is.

Funny, I've had the exact opposite experience. I had a lot of repetition in the first one, to the point where I turned off the sound entirely and just grinded for TF2 items at some point. In this one, it seems like all the dialogue is spread out into different situations, so there is different dialogue depending on who's left at the table and what background you're using (the unique Sam and Max stuff when you go to his background is GREAT, especially the song.) I have gotten some repetition, but it comes between new stuff and I haven't unlocked all the backgrounds yet, so I'm still having fun.

So much this! I just had to quote it for truth, I'd rather pay $20 for this game than $5 for some dry shit like Proteus or that French game that Jeff and Vinny QL'd.

Apparently the poker part, the playing part, isn't very good. If that part isn't good then I can see why people wouldn't like it. But if others do like it then that's great.

How is it a dumb decision? You buy games to have fun. If you have fun with the game you buy, then you've made a good decision.

@pudge

Huh, that's odd. I guess it's just luck of the draw, then. I figured it would wait to repeat until it exhausted unused dialog, like how the older YDKJ games wouldn't throw repeats until it ran low on questions.

I've not seen much of the second one, but the first one was a Telltale game with support from Valve and Penny Arcade, those are some huge names so the bar was set pretty high. What came out was a serviceable poker game, but one that offered a lower quality alternative to other poker games in terms of gameplay, and had no multiplayer. This meant that a large part of the entertainment value was placed on the characters, who were largely charming to see interacting together in one place, but only had so much longevity as after a few hours the same lines kept coming back around.

I don't think it was hated because of this, but the general consensus seemed to be that it was okay, but probably a little disappointing. As the sequel is essentially more of that, I can kind of understand why people aren't mad for it, and if the game has less dialogue and one or two of the characters aren't that well-written, that does seem pretty strong grounds for criticism. Even Walker said he didn't hate it though, and we've still yet to see a lot of critics weigh in on this one.

@gamer_152: I get that, but it doesn't seem like this is supposed to be a good poker game. It reminds me of something like NFL Blitz, which isn't a good football game, but it's certainly a fun one.

At such a low price point, I just don't see why the Giant Bomb crew (especially Patrick and Ryan) are so up in arms about this being the "followup to The Walking Dead". I wouldn't even be so crazy about it if they were just indifferent about it like so many other games, but they've done that song and dance a few times now, so I have to believe it's not just a joke. I mean, I don't remember them getting mad when Rockstar released their Table Tennis game, how is this any different?

Yeah dude... I don't really get it either. I work in the industry and to me, this is like, the PERFECT product. Simple. Fun. Small team. $5? What's not to love?

From my perspective, its a great project to work on because it is small scale and a low money risk. It's a "mini" game in a way. I would love it if more studios released $5 or $10 games like this to complement their main lineup.

And I figure its a winner from the consumer perspective because of the low price. And you get a lot of content too with all the skins. I'm not a super big poker player, so I guess look elsewhere if you want a hardcore sim... but those games already exist don't they? Stuff like this doesn't.

I mean, in the end, critics are gonna be critics. They always measure everything like its the end all be all of video games. And so what if they didn't want another one of these? I did. And I'm loving it.

P.S. I don't even notice that Ash isn't voiced by Bruce Cambell. I love how people are getting so f-ing hung up on that.

P.S.S. You wanna talk jaded? Forget critics. Developers are the ones that should be jaded. You dedicate your life to making cool games like this and people shit all over it because it doesn't have Bruce Cambell or no multiplayer or some bullshit. "Waaa!!! You hear all the dialogue in like 2 hours!" Yeah, well I can spend that $5 on a subway sandwich and eat it in like 5 mins. I'm jaded!

of all the things to completely shit on, this doesn't seem worth the effort.

There seems to be this attitude that because The Walking Dead was successful that everything else they have made or could make that is not like that is pointless (Patrick seems to echo this sentiment the most.), which irks the hell out of me. (

I loved The Walking Dead, but I also loved Sam and Max and Tales of Monkey Island and even enjoyed Poker Night 1. I don't want them to do nothing but heavy narrative games just because one game did it well.

@pudge: I doubt that this isn't meant to be a good poker game, developers are usually pretty concerned about making sure their games are good, but there does seem to be a focus more on the characters than the gameplay. The problem is, if you're making a video game and the gameplay is bad, that seems like a significant problem, and if you're placing a focus on style instead of gameplay to hold your game up, when that style isn't as up to scratch as it should be, that's also a problem. If the staff are being serious maybe they expected a little too much here, but I can totally see the point that it's crazy that the same developer put out something as ground-breaking and critically acclaimed as The Walking Dead and then after that put out a sequel to a middling poker game. Where this differs from Table Tennis is that Ryan actually really liked Table Tennis, and that it's not like Table Tennis came out hot on the heels of the last major GTA, while Poker Night 2 really has come out on the back of The Walking Dead craze.

Yeah, this is part of the reason it's been getting on my nerves. Telltale has been producing great stuff for years. I love the new Sam and Max games, I love BTTF, I love the Strong Bad game. Now they release Walking Dead, which I have no interest in because of zombie fatigue and a high emotional content that I don't want in my video games, and suddenly they have this whole other crowd of people who want them to exclusively produce that brand of high emotion, indie/horror stuff that is flooding the marketplace on PC. I just hope Telltale keeps a balance between that kind of stuff and the more light hearted stuff that they've been good at forever, it would be a shame to never get something out of them as fun as BTTF was again.

At such a low price point, it's tough to complain much. It's a serviceable poker game with some decent writing.

The thing that bothers me a bit is just the fact that it feels largely like just a promotional tool for the properties tied in and a bit of a quick cash grab that preys on loyal fans. The TF2 and Borderlands 2 unlocks will inevitably pull in people just interested in unlocking those. Brock Samson's inclusion likely serves two purposes: promote the upcoming fifth season of Venture Brothers on Adult Swim and gauge fan reaction to a possible Venture Brothers game. I have to assume that Ash is also in there to hint at some sort of future game or (fingers-crossed) a new Bruce Campbell / Sam Raimi film. Then, I guess Sam and GLaDOS are in there just to draw in fans of Sam & Max and Portal.

Maybe I'm just being cynical, but I just thought I would put my opinion out there. At five dollars, it's not really worth getting up in arms about it.

Side-Note: Weird that you made this an answerable question. Weirder still that you actually selected an answer. This is an open question without a "correct" answer that should welcome all opinions.

Oh my god! The soundtrack has a Jazzy version of Short Change Hero in it. Everyone who doesn't like this game is a fool. About not liking this game.

I haven't played it but a game is supposed to be about gameplay. If you have a story as good as The Walking Dead then I can forgive the crappy game part. But I doubt this is The Walking Dead quality dialogue. I'm sure for $5 it isn't a bad purchase, but this is a poker game that doesn't play a very good game of poker. I don't need my poker game to be incredible, but let's face it, there are poker games in almost every RPG out there and if your poker game can't play poker as well as a mini-game then there are problems. I'm not saying coding poker AI is super easy, but really it isn't all that hard. A card game like that is just a bunch of if/else statements based on simple equations. Yea, making the AI seem "human" and putting in different types and difficulties of AI can make it harder, but just making an AI that can play a game of poker is really not the most difficult task out there.

@chaser324: Is that what the feature is supposed to be? Hmm. I asked a question in the title, and then I liked that answer. I don't think it's a definitive answer, the discussion is cool. I just like that answer.

So since this is the most active (and only) forum topic on this game I've seen, I have a question. How easy is it? I'm bad at poker. I know the rules but I'm shitty at it. So how will I fair in it?

@mariachimacabre: I learned everything I know about poker from video games, so I'm not very good either, and I'm having fun. The RPS guy sounds like he plays a lot of poker and he said it was like playing with amateurs, so I guess that means it's balanced for us? Just spend a minute looking at the list of different hands and you can stumble your way to a good time, it's certainly worth it for the dialogue if you're are interested in any of the characters.

I had plenty of fun with the first game for what it was.

I am pretty confused by the hate as well. I had a bunch of fun with the first game. The poker was serviceable at best, but the character interactions made it worth it. Also it had some decent tf2 items, so that was cool.

The actual poker from the first game was pretty bad. I enjoyed the game for maybe 2 hours cause of the banter, but the poker could have easily been replaced with a "next conversation" button with very little difference.

People seem to be unaware that there is more dialogue and events if you unlock different inventory themes. That right there gives me a huge reason to keep wanting to progress in the game, because the chatter is the best part of it. In the meantime I keep learning a thing or two about poker, which I'm not really experienced at.

Undoubtedly good use of 5€. People complaining would do well to remember the price tag.

@pudge: I'm with you here. TTG has been making really funny games for years (many seem to forget a lot of the staff is ex-adventure game glory days-era LucasArts staff), and they mentioned being emotionally burnt out after making The Walking Dead. They have every right to go back to the comedic games they love and have had so much fun writing and designing for.

I personally love Poker Night 2. The voice acting is top notch (even Ash-- maybe it's because I'm so used to characters like James Bond and Batman, who have had their actors replaced over and over), it's pretty darn funny (the winning scene for the Evil Dead table is my favorite, where the whole cast tricks you into thinking you've been sleeping for years, there's an alien invasion going on, and everyone is wearing beards, including Mad Moxxi and GLaDOS, although I love the Venture Bros. and Sam & Max endings, too), and dat soundtrack, man.

I think my favorite little revelations are that Cave Johnson used to work with Dr. Jonas Venture, and that Ash is Brock's ancestor via time travel. But Venture Bros. has been one of my favorite shows for several years, so I may be biased, heh.

I also give this game a pass, both in judgement and wanting it. Do the guys really treat this on the same par as the Walking Dead? It would be a fundamental mistake if they do..this is not an Internet distortion, is it?

Personally I kind of liked the first game, but I related to the characters a bit more..only so much snark I want to hear from GLADDOS or pre-puberty dysfunctionalism from claptrap, but hey 5 dollars..I get the idea this will be fun for somebody.

The game is so cheap i don't understand why there is so much hate. I even got the first game for free when i purchased Poker Night 2 on Steam. For what it cost it is a great game.

There are more intresting ways to play poker and I personally find most of these characters annoying. To each his own I guess.

I don't actively hate it, but the only character I'm remotely interested in is Ash, and to not have Bruce Campbell or least someone who does a worthwhile Bruce Campbell do the voice work is blasphemy IMO. I don't watch Venture Bros, Claptrap annoys the hell out of me in the Borderlands games, and Sam is...well, he's okay, but not someone I care to hear 1-liners from for any amount of time. I did buy the first game and more or less enjoyed it, and I understand for $5 out of the gate, I have to limit my expectations for any game.

Having said all of that, I would have paid $10-$15 easily for a version that had a multiplayer component. I know TellTale isn't a developer that does multiplayer tho, so I give them a pass on it, but I also really don't have any interest in it as a game without it.

I recall Jeff specifically and sardonically calling this out as "the follow-up to Walking Dead that everyone demanded" and all I could think is "Yeah, it'd be a FANTASTIC idea for them to half-ass and fast-track the sequel to one of the most acclaimed games of last year."

I'd pay $5 just to hear these characters gab in a podcast-like format, so having the excuse of playing a few hands of poker is just fine by me. The AI seems BETTER, though still not great, but since I'm no great poker player, it doesn't make a difference to me. I'm also not sure why there's a demand for multiplayer when there are SO MANY poker games out there that you can just play for free if that's all you're after.