Dec 22
So I have started playing poker again. I managed to supress the urge for… a while. It feels like at least 6 months, but the truth is probably closer to 2. So far I have found little reward in my relapse. I lost a bunch of tournaments, although I won a few as well. Let's be honest, the only reason I am even bringing it up now is to whine about last night's tournament. I played generally solid all night, but any poker session can generally be reduced to only a few key hands. I had built up a decent amount of chips when I was dealt Queen King into my pocket. I raised, got some callers, Flop comes King 9 4 rainbow. I bet, Mark calls. Turn is another 9. I bet again. Mark goes all in. I have him covered, but it will cost about 90% of my chips. It would be fairly typical for Mark to call along with a single pair of nines, now giving him trips. I have top two pair. More importantly, I am nobody's bitch. I call and turn over my cards, Mark turns over his. 10 J offsuit. People at the table take a few moments to realize what I recognized immediately: unless a queen hits the river (and fills out Mark's miracle straight) I double up and Mark is out of the tournament. Ryan takes the opportunity to claim that he folded a queen. It turns out that two other people did as well. Leaving only one queen in the deck. I have the hand locked down. Ryan quickly deals the river. The queen of spades. The basement explodes.
I fought for a while and managed to double my pathetic stack of remaining chips. After a long string of bad hands I decide to play an 8 10 of clubs and raise preflop to 3 times the big blind. Everyone folds around to Bill, who goes all-in. My initial raise had claimed half of my stack and by making that raise I had announced that I was taking this hand all the way. Bill knew that. There wasn't much point to betting half now and half later, better to get it all in at once and see what happens. I called and turned over my 8 10 clubs. Bill flipped up pocket 6s. I was in better shape than I had hoped, both of my cards were live. The flop was good, pairing my 8. Bill needed another 6 to win. Blank on the turn. Eric showed us that he had folded one of the two remaining 6s. Only one 6 left in the deck. I have the hand locked down. Eric quickly deals the river. The 6 of spades. The basement explodes.
I went over to the tv and started a game of Prince of Persia 2. Luck is a major factor in poker. I shouldn't complain about it. And yet… being beat by the case card on the river twice… Just as good, Mark and Bill took my chips and used them to place first and second in the tournament, respectively. My only reprieve is knowing that I was beat by the cards, not by the players. That counts for something. Too bad that 'something' isnt cash.
In other news, Prince of Persia 2 isnt that cool so far. The title screen is offensively tainted by excessively loud heavy rock music. When I think Persia, I think heavy metal. The game itself plays out to a soundtrack of similarly authentic music. Walking through the spectacularly immersive Persian environments is only slightly ruined by the wails of an electric guitar and the heavy base line most commonly heard immediately after the explosion announcing the entrance of a professional wrestler to the arena. In a way it makes the Prince seem badass. Although, more likely, that badass aura emanates from his dual scimitars. The other annoying feature of the game is the result of Ubisoft's incomprehensible decision to make the Prince some kind of demon. I'm not totally sure where the idea came from, or how it wasnt immediately shot down during pre-production, but thus far it seems to be a bad one. Or at the very least, terrible execution of an otherwise harmless plan. The newly “mature” Prince of Persia features gratuitous blood and violence. It doesn't really even “feature” the violence so much as force it upon the player. The very beginning of the game, immediately following the opening cinematic, puts the Prince in the middle of a violent swordfight on the deck of a burning ship. Little tutorials pop up and teach the player how to fight and then the game becomes hack-and-slash for the next ten minutes. Not a huge problem, I suppose, but the way in which it is presented is downright excessive. Each sword slash is accompanied by a spray of blood and a kill is often rewarded by a slow motion replay of the enemy's head being cut off or their body split in half. Rather than disolve to sand like in the first Prince of Persia, these enemies collapse into puddles of blood before disappearing. Also, it is important to understand just how easy these guys are to kill. The death scenes aren't reserved for the extra tough enemies or major bosses. It happens all the time. Every 5 seconds you are forced to watch the slo-mo cutscene of the guys head being cut off. I found myself using the most simple attack moves in hopes that I would NOT do anything spectacular and therefore NOT have to sit through a replay. Also ridiculous, within the first episode (perhaps 15 minutes in length) the characters swear 3 or 4 times. I don't know what the developers were thinking. Does a game sell significantly better or worse depending on its ESRB content rating? Did Ubisoft want to ensure that the boxart carried with it a label warning of “Extreme violence and gore. Mature language and content.”? I don't get it. Hopefully the game gets better, and I assume it will. The original game was so good that even these treasonous alterations can't totally destroy the sequel.
Edit: here is a screen-cap to better illustrate my point. http://media.cube.ign.com/media/654/654713/img_2365277.html