Stolen Pixels #244: Fan Bait

[Jamboxdotcom]

This is... probably the hundredth time I've heard the name Justin Bieber inserted into a joke, but for the life of me I don't know why. His Wikipedia article isn't inherently odd or anything, although he seems to get a lot of attention for being young. Can anyone explain the reason he keeps being referenced all the time? It makes about as much sense to me as using any random name, like Nolan Bushrock or something.

maybe you've been insulated from the media frenzy about Justin Bieber, since you live in Canada. but down here in the US, we hear his name about every 4th word it seems. he's basically just your run-of-the-mill, pretty, mediocre (at best), flavor-of-the-week, girl bait.

on topic: cool game concept. i'd be tempted to check it out, despite not being a poker player.

 

[pneuma08]

haha yeah, I had 3 kings and 2 twos and got beaten by 2 kings and 2 twos. fail much? still, the game is a lot of fun, especially for 5 bucks.

Thats five kings... there are only 4 kings in a deck of cards. Was that a typo or were there really 5 kings in play?

The game uses the rules of Texas Hold 'Em, where each player is dealt two cards, and there are five shared cards on the table. Assuming there were two kings on the table, and Doc had one in his hand, his opponent would have two knigs (the ones on the table) and he would have three (two on table, one in hand).

Ok yeah, no I see what he is saying now. There were a pair of kings and a pair of 2's in the slip.

Brain fart before coffee.

Or if he had pocket kings and there was a king and a pair of twos on the table (with the opponent having the fourth king).

Myself, I'm a casual poker player and I didn't notice any problems with them assigning inappropriate wins. I have, however, gotten my share of bad beats: Ace-Jack to Ace-5 and Max pairs his 5 on the river. Makes me want to slap someone.

...I ended up playing some TF2 instead.

 

[ender214]

Overall it seemed a rather mediocre game. Though the chatter between the characters is amusing, all of it is played within the first two games and afterward the repeated chatter just gets annoying and in the way of the game, as the chatter would override the voice cues for actual game actions. The poker itself seems glitched, I once got beaten by a three-of-a-kind despite having a straight, and once got dealt only one card for my hand.

Played it until I unlocked the TF2 items, then never touched it again.

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

$5 well spent. Just for the writing.

 

[mjc0961]

I passed on this because I can't stand the voices of either Strong Bad or Heavy for more than 10 consecutive seconds.

 

[Frozen Donkey Wheel2]

Agree its purely fanservice.

Watched Total Biscuit's WTF is poker night at the inventory
basically got all the fanservice desired in barely 2 rounds.

And I find tycho there a total c***

[sub][DISCLAIMER: The following is nothing personal, I am merely required to do this every time I see someone swear on the internet and censor it. Especially on this site.][/sub]

It's okay to swear on the internet, you know. Your mom's not gonna read it, she's too busy being fucked... BY ME.

Anyway, I could care less about this game because I don't give a shit about ANY of those franchises.

 

[Formica Archonis]

If anyone else imagined voices for them, I'd love to hear who you chose.
I don't really imagine voices for them yet I seem to have an idea for what they sound like, because this Tycho sounds... wrong, somehow.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

For £3 i got a high quality 3D poker game with an epic sense of humor, spades of inside jokes and fan service and some bonus TF2 swag.

Yeah, the AI may be pretty lousy, there's some horrible lag, but it's a fun game I can play just before I switch off for the night.

I'm amazed at all these reports on the players cheating and the hands not being valued correctly as I've never had a single problem.

And yeah Shamus, 'fad card game'...unlike say "fitting shapes into others to make them disappear" [http://www.chimegame.com/] or "building block simulators" [http://www.minecraft.net/]

 

[zombie711]

Is it werid for tyco to be in a bunch of webcomics other than penny arcade?

 

[unacomn]

I wonder if I could just buy the banter between Max and The Heavy. That's all I want from this game.

 

[Shamus Young]

And yeah Shamus, 'fad card game'...unlike say "fitting shapes into others to make them disappear" [http://www.chimegame.com/] or "building block simulators" [http://www.minecraft.net/]

"fad" in the sense that five years ago I'd never heard of Texas Hold 'Em, and now it's on TV, all over the web in a thousand different versions, on Facebook, and flooding my spam filter. "fad" meaning sudden but passing popularity.

I don't think Minecraft or Chime have anywhere near the widespread popularity of Texas Hold 'Em.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

"fad" in the sense that five years ago I'd never heard of Texas Hold 'Em,

Seriously? Texas Hold'em has been a mainstay of computer games since the beginning (I doubt you've never peeked at a Strip Poker game on the web somewhere) and gambling since the 1900's. Poker itself has been around since the 15th century I believe. 1998's film Rounders and the sequence in Casino Royale pushed it to the top, but it's dominated Late Night TV since the turn of the century.

It's one of the classics that dominate films like The Sting('73), the entirety of the Western genre, Maverick (both versions), Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.

Fan service...fair enough. A fad? I'd have to argue with.

 

[Shamus Young]

"fad" in the sense that five years ago I'd never heard of Texas Hold 'Em,

Seriously? Texas Hold'em has been a mainstay of computer games since the beginning (I doubt you've never peeked at a Strip Poker game on the web somewhere) and gambling since the 1900's. Poker itself has been around since the 15th century I believe. 1998's film Rounders and the sequence in Casino Royale pushed it to the top, but it's dominated Late Night TV since the turn of the century.

I'd heard of poker, but not T.H.E.

And no, never "peeked" at any strip poker games on the web.

Reality shows existed in the past, but they really took off in the early 00's, and I call those a fad as well. Are you arguing TV poker has always been as popular as it is now, or my usage of the word fad, or what? I have no idea where you're going with this.

 

[Urthman]

Having listened to the Penny Arcade podcast, I've always imagined Tycho sounding like Jerry Holkins. The voice actor for Tycho in the game sounds so utterly unlike Jerry that he seems completely wrong to me.

 

[ZZoMBiE13]

Fan Bait

What's not to understand?

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In my mind's eye, Gabe always had the same voice as Ron Stoppable from the Kim Possible cartoons and Tycho sounds like a cross between Eric Cartman and Garfield.

 

[Evilsanta]

Ahh...Man you just made me more interested in that game...

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Reality shows existed in the past, but they really took off in the early 00's, and I call those a fad as well. Are you arguing TV poker has always been as popular as it is now, or my usage of the word fad, or what? I have no idea where you're going with this.

I'm just curious, I guess. Since I've really known poker, T.H.E. has been the variant played across all the media. Pokemon has been as popular for roughly the same time as T.H.E., would you call that a fad? Maybe we just have different versions of the word. It just seemed a very strange word to use in the context.

 

[PinkiePyro]

cool idea i would get it expt i dont like poker and besides the heavy dont really care for any of the charrites i mean i know who they are but im just not in to them

i know they should make a alt verson where instead of tycho its katie (from awkward zombie which is a way better comic) and instead of strongbad its ellis from l4d2 (i think hes really funny)and max its a raving rabbit

 

[SL33TBL1ND]

I've always thought Tycho would be British, but I like the voice they've given him regardless.

 

[Swaki]

fun comic, though its not up top your usual level of wit and insight, this was always a game for fans, i bought before realising what game was attached, its like naked pictures of [your celeb of choice] sold with a game of sorry, and it made feel just as good for almost 15 min and then it started to repeat it self.

it even stops the game so that they can talk so that you dont have to focus on the deep gameplay and miss the heavy calling you weak for checking for the 89th time, right before he folds.