Poker Night 2
Poker Night 2 is created by Telltale Games and was released in April of 2013. The soundtrack is composed by Jared Emerson-Johnson, known for his work on games such as the Sam & Max Series, The Wolf Among Us, Back to the Future: The Game and The Walking Dead to name a few. This game and I go back, well.. At least to 2013. I remember watching the launch trailer, giving it a try and loving it. I've never played Texas Hold 'Em prior to Poker Night 2 but I picked up the rules fairly quickly. After playing a number of rounds, eliminating my opponents and unlocking all of the in-game items, I went for 100% of the trophies—and had a blast doing so. The dialog alone is worth playing this game for. Sometimes I would stop playing just to hear what Sam, Brock, Ash and Claptrap have to say("Ok, Claptrap. Just stay calm. Don't stare at the money, or they'll think you're weird!" "Why did the Inventory ban Max? Because he kept eating the Poker Chips." "I'm not sure if this hand's getting interesting or just stupid" "Great day in the morning!").The next logical step was to pick up a poker table, invite over a couple of friends, teach them the rules and Poker Night was born:). It's a prime example of what makes video games so great. They introduce us to new games or music that we may have not given a chance otherwise. I had a similar experience with Liar's Dice in the first Red Dead Redemption years ago. Even to this day when we have a random game night, Liar's Dice is one of our regulars(even though it can get a bit loud as the night progresses). To the music!
The process began with extracting the music FSB files from the p_ms_ttach file. Converting to wav, editing each file(equalization, fade-in/fade-out, + silence) and then exporting in both FLAC and MP3 versions separately.
At first, I was organizing the tracks in the order I've heard them naturally playing the game but the order is randomized, changing each time you play. I then decided on placing them in groups beginning with the original tracks and progressing through the Army of Darkness, Venture Bros., Walking Dead, Sam & Max and lastly, the Portal renditions. When I was planning this project, I was debating whether I should use the tracks from Portal 2 and Borderlands 2 because they are the original tracks from those games and not remixed in anyway(they can also be streamed or purchased online). I decided to exclude those tracks and only include Telltale compositions and the renditions for Poker Night 2 specifically.
There are two redundant files with slightly different titles named "claptap_gets_shot_by_steve_music" and "mus_claptrap_gets_shot_by_steve" —both lower quality/fuzzy compared to the other tracks. I found out that this track is a small part of another track called " Death of Dadgeresque" from another Telltale game from 2008 called "Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People." Thanks to theinventory for the information on the tracks which saved time organizing this project. The original source looks to be a lower quality which explains why this version seems to be. That being said, It's only 50 seconds long and most likely not the track that will be replayed over time.
It's too bad that you cannot currently purchase Poker Night 2 from virtually anywhere. I checked around and for the time being, you can only play it if you're lucky enough to already own it. Telltale faced studio closure in 2018, cancellation of certain projects and its IP's seem to be looking for new homes. Hopefully at some point, the Poker Night games will be acquired and we can have a third sequel in this entertaining series. Until then, enjoy the Poker Night 2 Soundtrack in both MP3 and FLAC formats.