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As one of the most popular titles available on Xbox Live Arcade – helped by virtue of being free for a limited time – Microsoft has seen it fit to release an update addressing many of the issues the game’s community has brought forward.
The biggest changes include speeding the gameplay up, eliminating cheating, a new Away mode and improved blind structure.
Microsoft also states that early in 2007 another update will be released, adding support for the Xbox Live Vision camera to the game.
The Texas Hold ’em update is available now and users will be prompted to download when next starting the game.
Full list of changes
- Post the blind and play right away! – Players can now, if they wish, start playing immediately when joining a table by posting the big blind, rather than having to wait for the blind to come to them.
- New ‘Away’ mode – Players can now set their status to ‘Away’. Hands will be auto-folded and blinds auto-posted until the player returns.
- New ‘Auto-boot’ mode – Players who continuously let the timer expire (more than three times in a game) will be booted from the table.
- Faster overall pacing – Timers and messaging durations have been adjusted to speed up game-play among experienced players, but still allow novice players plenty of time to play.
- Improved blind structure – Initial blinds, as well as blind increases, are now more proportional to table stakes, ensuring more meaningful increases during game-play.
- Matchmaking improvements – Players are no longer matched into games they cannot afford.
- Improved interface controls – Improvements to controls, such as increasing/decreasing stake amounts.
- Leaderboard display – A player’s full winnings and rank are now properly displayed.
- Art and text improvements – Game art and spelling issues have been addressed.
- Online exploits addressed – Certain known exploits that enabled cheating have been addressed. As a result, the online multi-player leaderboards will be reset to eliminate inflated scores as a result of these exploits.
