[Gamers' Day 2007] Strip Tease
We take a quick look at SOE's poker version of High Stakes on the Vegas Strip.
Published: May 17, 2007
It seemed nobody was willing to jump in and play Sony Online Entertainment's casual gaming offering at the pre-event cocktail reception/demo showcase for Sony Computer Entertainment America's Gamers' Day event, but that may have been because the game was sandwiched between the drunken revelry of SingStar on the right and the, uh, more drunken madness of Buzz Jr. Jungle Party, but early in the evening we decided to take the game for a spin and came out at least marginally entertained.
Granted, it's a poker game, and one meant to be a fairly quick download and a mostly social experience. Given that there are zero poker games out on the PS3 right now (not unless you count the raft of PS2 poker titles all trying to ride the Hold 'Em craze that are of course playable on the PS3 though backwards compatibility), it actually seems like a pretty smart move. And really, it's hard to mess up poker -- particularly poker that you can play with other people.
Though the draw is obviously competitive online play, you can absolutely play the game offline, and there's even a career mode to plug through if you're without friends. Should you decide to hop online, it looks like you're limited to Hold 'Em (as opposed to the Shanghai, Billabong, Tahoe and, er, Super variants in the one-shot single-player game), but supposedly the game will keep track of all your stats and publish 'em so people can bone up on your history, and you theirs. Finally, the game does have USB camera support (including the EyeToy and, presumably the PlayStation Eye).
We do wish that there had been more people to play against, but in a social setting, a long, drawn-out game of poker while people are belting out off-key versions of The Darkness' "I Believe in a Thing Called Love" probably wasn't the best setting. Still, as a game that fills a niche, if what we were told at the event holds true, there will at least be a decent number of options to entertain yourself with. Hopefully there's people online to play against to keep it all going too.
Granted, it's a poker game, and one meant to be a fairly quick download and a mostly social experience. Given that there are zero poker games out on the PS3 right now (not unless you count the raft of PS2 poker titles all trying to ride the Hold 'Em craze that are of course playable on the PS3 though backwards compatibility), it actually seems like a pretty smart move. And really, it's hard to mess up poker -- particularly poker that you can play with other people.
Though the draw is obviously competitive online play, you can absolutely play the game offline, and there's even a career mode to plug through if you're without friends. Should you decide to hop online, it looks like you're limited to Hold 'Em (as opposed to the Shanghai, Billabong, Tahoe and, er, Super variants in the one-shot single-player game), but supposedly the game will keep track of all your stats and publish 'em so people can bone up on your history, and you theirs. Finally, the game does have USB camera support (including the EyeToy and, presumably the PlayStation Eye).
We do wish that there had been more people to play against, but in a social setting, a long, drawn-out game of poker while people are belting out off-key versions of The Darkness' "I Believe in a Thing Called Love" probably wasn't the best setting. Still, as a game that fills a niche, if what we were told at the event holds true, there will at least be a decent number of options to entertain yourself with. Hopefully there's people online to play against to keep it all going too.
