World Series of Poker 2008: Battle for the Bracelets (Xbox 360)

[Matt Young 0]

I mentioned this game in the Xbox 360 thread, but decided to create a separate thread in the hopes that some of you might decide to "buy in" (LOLpokerjokes2008~!).

 

I picked up this game at Circuit City, where it is on sale for $9.99 (regularly $19.99) this week. I do not know how to play poker, but I've always wanted to learn. This game offers several tutorials to help me with that.

 

The game also features a career mode representing the actual World Series of Poker, along with online play via Xbox Live and other nifty features like video poker and blackjack. The coolest feature, however, is the ability to put yourself in the game via the Xbox Live Vision Camera.

 

The game has you take a shot of your face and a profile shot. It was kind of hard to position myself within the guide lines shown on the screen, since when I held the camera myself, it was too shaky, so I had to kind of crouch down to align myself with the camera, which is on top of my TV.

 

It's just really cool to be able to put my own face in the video game. It doesn't look *quite* right, but ti's good enough. There's some overlap with my real hair and the hair I chose in-game for my character (closest option available compared to my real hair) and the transition along the jawline from my face to a head created with the in-game graphics is noticeable, but it's still pretty awesome.

 

Does anyone else have this game? If not, now's the time to buy it. $9.99 at Circuit City till next Sunday. Join me for some online poker! Gamertag is Zeus Rambo.

 

My character:

 

[Prophet of Mike Zagurski 0]

That looks pretty close.

[fazzle 0]

I might just have to pick this up. I currently have it on rental from Gamefly, and it'd probably just be cheaper to send it back and get it for $10.

 

The game's biggest strength is also it's biggest weakness. If you play on hard difficulty, everybody plays TOO realistically. Meaning of course fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, etc.

 

Well, that, and the fact that it's FUCKED in updating the number of people remaining in the tournament. At the beginning it'll track players remaining fine, but once you get about 30-50 hands in, it'll only update number of players remaining once someone from YOUR table gets eliminated. So it'll be stuck on 80 remaining for 30 hands, and then jump down to 45 players remaining once someone from your table gets eliminated. It wouldn't be a big deal, but whoever gets eliminated from your table (including you) automatically gets put on the BOTTOM of that pile. It really fucks you if you're short stacked and just trying to stay alive long enough to reach the money.

[Matt Young 0]

I haven't even started the regular modes. i played the tutorials (9 of them) for 5 hours before I beat them all. The first couple gave me trouble and took a long time, but after I learned the general rules of poker, the others were easier. Still, I had to make money in each one (6-8 hands for each) to unlock the next and advance. I really hope more people get this so we can play on Live.

[In Credible 0]

Or you could play for real money online....which is the point of poker.

[Matt Young 0]

Some people just like to play for fun. As for me, I am far, far, FAR away from being good enough to play with real money on the line.

[In Credible 0]

True, I guess it's better than learning with your wallet.

[muzz 0]

Playing this online would definitely be better than signing up to any poker site and playing for free.

[Guest Vitamin X]

Agreed. This is more fun than play money, but it's nowhere near as fun as winning a 360 person tournament like I did yesterday on PokerStars.

 

And they have like, 10 cent tournaments too! I mean granted, you'll only win $8.00 off of it, but if you like to play for fun, it's a minimal investment for a big gain.

 

Now, if they had it so you could gamble and win Microsoft Points, THAT'D be something...

[Matt Young 0]

You could always throw in a few extra dollars with that $8 and pick this up, too.

 

And since you never respond to a single on of the messages I send you on Xbox Live for some reason... Whatever happened to you getting Call of Duty 4?

[HollywoodSpikeJenkins 0]

I'm done with PokerStars. I'm going back to Full Tilt.

[Guest Vitamin X]

You could always throw in a few extra dollars with that $8 and pick this up, too.

 

And since you never respond to a single on of the messages I send you on Xbox Live for some reason... Whatever happened to you getting Call of Duty 4?

 

Sorry Matt, I haven't been able to respond to your voice messages because my girlfriend (now ex, but unfortunately still living with me) is weird about the whole voice messaging thing. And, because of that parasite, I'm never quite able to get on the 360 as much as I would like, so I haven't been able to get CoD4 yet.

 

But yeah, I might pick this up tomorrow when I get paid if CC is still offering it for $10 and teach you how to play.

 

I'm done with PokerStars. I'm going back to Full Tilt.

Full Tilt's tables suck, but their tournaments are better than Stars. Why are you done with PS?

[muzz 0]

I actually like the FT tables more than the Pokerstars ones.

[Guest Vitamin X]

You Full Tilt people just like the cutesy avatars.

 

I play as the rock dude myself.

[muzz 0]

That's so not true.

 

I use the cute little white dog.