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The Pinball Thread


Sly Reflex
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The one without the upgrades is the better barometer of how well you're playing because you're not relying on any additional score generated by upgrades. Unfortunately most people tend to play the upgrade one, getting people to play the purer mode is hard because people are so accustomed to unlocking stuff now and especially since the upgrades one is the one that's the first choice the better mode doesn't get a look in.

 

However, I'm not here to piss all over the upgrades thing, I do think they have a place in the timed modes. Because you have such a small window to make a dent having a specific game plan and having upgrades to capitalise on that makes those modes interesting. It's just that they're sort of unneeded everywhere else.

 

Good score though, you're getting better. You must have a good idea of how the table works if you can do that, you're way past the "bat is about and hope for the best" phase.

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I bat it about on multi ball modes. I still haven't got the skill to concentrate on 2-3 balls and placing them accurately at once. Just not quite there yet.

 

Other than that I feel like I did really well on that run. I was going for specific mini goals (ie unlock extra ball - ok got that, now let's do the gargoyle, now let's do the citadel, now let's try the forest loop), and while I'm still not 100% with my aim I can see I'm getting there.

 

Ended up with 91 million on my first ball (ok, first 3 balls, but the second two were extra unlocks) and it all went to shit from there.

 

It's great fun when you get into that zone.

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Next step is getting a MB and controlling it. Try to get the balls rested on the flippers, 2 on one flipper and 1 on the other. Once you've got that you can take shots with the solitary ball. When the MB starts try to hit the cross ramp with the first ball that comes out, since that's the hardest one to hit and will likely be the one you get stuck on.

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  • 4 weeks later...

I've gone back to FX3 after a months break from it. I've been playing TPA instead on the Williams/Bally tables to see what would be interesting if it made it over to Zen.

 

Anyway I already knew what Attack from Mars was, I've played it a lot already. Zens version is much harder and I think a lot more stressful to play. I sort of prefer the sedateness of Farsights version. Zen's version is hard as fuck. I think that goes for all the real life tables, they're not fucking about. 

 

I've been focusing on Black Rose, a table where I sort of understand what's going on but don't know it well enough to really know it inside out. It's been the surprise of the bunch out of the last lot of tables to be released.

 

I think what will happen as time passes and they release more packs is they'll have one headline table like Medieval Madness or Attack from Mars, then have a mid tier table that will surprise everyone with the quality and then fill out the pack with something shit like Party Zone.

 

There's 80 something tables that got removed from TPA. The top tier stuff like:

 

  • Bram Stoker's Dracula
  • Cactus Canyon *
  • Cirqus Voltaire *
  • Funhouse
  • Judge Dredd
  • Monster Bash *
  • Scared Stiff *
  • Star Trek *
  • Tales of the Arabian Nights *
  • Terminator 2
  • The Addams Family *
  • The Championship Pub *
  • The Machine: Bride of Pinbot *
  • Theatre of Magic
  • Twilight Zone
  • Whirlwind *
  • White Water *

With B tier tables like:

 

  • Black Knight 2000 *
  • Creature from the Black Lagoon *
  • Cyclone
  • Diner
  • DR WHO *
  • Earth Shaker
  • Eight Ball Deluxe
  • F14 Tomcat
  • Firepower *
  • Hurricane
  • Indianapolis 500 *
  • No Fear
  • No Good Gofers
  • Red & Ted's Road Show
  • Safe Cracker *
  • Taxi *
  • WHO Dunnit *
  • World Championship Soccer *

I marked the ones I'm most looking forwards to with asterisks.

 

There's some right shit in there. Stuff like Dr Dude and Fathom, I'd hate it if those tables made the jump because they're properly shit, but since Party Zone managed to make the jump and that table is absolute cancer. There's some other tables I could see getting the remake treatment as well because they were important for their time, but I sort of hope they do a "relics" pack or something because I can't see a lot of people being very happy if they're used to more modern tables having to deal with something like Spanish Eyes or Wild Card.

 

We should have some teasers as to what's in the next lot of tables to be released soon. I hope Monster Bash is included, I love that table.

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  • 1 month later...

 

Champions Pubs is ace. Safe Cracker is an interesting table in that you are constantly adding time to the ball save, it's an interesting game that might find some fans. I don't rate Magic myself but a lot of people like it. Id rather of had Cirque Voltaire as I think that's the best "entertainment" based table going.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Tables are out. Initial thoughts.

 

Magic is quite nice. I was never a fan of it but Zen has done a good job of it. It feels dead smooth and is super fast on the loops. Same risky shots from hitting the chest as on the real table.

 

Champions Pub feels a little bit worse than the TPA version. It's super detailed with the artwork as well which makes playing hard because you can be distracted a lot. It might take a bit of getting used to, it feels a bit fast. I don't know if this is an accurate representation or whether TPA version runs slower than it should.

 

Safecracker is hard as fuck. The space between the flippers is huge. It's the filler table out of the pack, but I think it's a good filler table rather than having something like Party Zone. It'll have its fans, but most will be over it after a few goes. Back glass game feels a bit harsh compared to the more random nature of the TPA version.

 

On a sidenote I wish Zen would stop with the headline tables being the "Hit here!" types of tables. Medieval Madness, Attack from Mars and now Theatre of Magic. To some extent the B tables like Junkyard and Black Rose revolve around this as well.They need to mix it up. Nearly all the tables I put an asterisk next to avoid having this mechanic as the main way to score, they need to space them out or alternate them because it feels a bit stale.

 

If anything, we're one step closer to having Monster Bash and Arabian Nights. Maybe even in the same pack?  That would be nice.

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I wish you could turn the bits off where the camera pans up and down the table to show you animations. Theatre is obsessed with showing you the woman next to the trunk. If you get the midnight madness and complete it the camera pans to show you the animations when the magnet in the chest has the ball, but it lets it go without zooming you back to the playing field so you have no idea if you caught the ball on the left flipper until it pans back out or you get a bollocking for draining.

 

Really good table though, I underestimated the quality. It's a joy to play.

 

I wish I could say the same for Champions Pub. The bit where I complained about the cinematic where it zooms in on part of the table in Theatre? Well there's a skipping minigame in this where you have to make the ball jump rope. Problem is unless you are playing on the arcade version of the table it doesn't zoom in and it's impossible to play when you're looking at it from distance. Seems like an oversight to me, but they really should have picked that up in testing. The whole table feels off as well, I'm still not sure if it's me or what, but I'm just not enjoying it the way I thought I would have.

 

Really digging Safecracker. A lot of people will be put off by the dinky flippers with a wide gap in them and the obscene difficulty, but I'm into it. It sounds amazing and it looks really clean. It's got a lot of things where it shoots the ball back at you and you're tricked into hitting back instead of letting a dead flip happen and then get everything under control. The time between the pinball ending and the board game starting could do with being shortened though, the bit where it tells you to look up seems to drag on for ages.

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  • 4 weeks later...

I can't remember the table, it's one of the Kylo Ren tables, it has a table within the table and it's really good. The bit with the flamethrower in the trailer is the table I'm on about.

 

I think the Star Wars tables are a mixed bag overall. The ones that are really good are fantastic, but the ones that are bad are truly horrific.

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  • 3 weeks later...

There's rumours gaining traction that Zen have acquired the rights to make Stern tables.

 

It stems from this tweet.

 

 

Guy on the left is Gary Stern, head of Stern Pinball. Guy on the right is the VP of Zen Studios.

 

This could mean literally anything, it's all meaningless without context, but people are putting two and two together and coming up with Stern tables will eventually end up in Zens game, which is a huge coup if true.

 

I sort of hope it is true, but at the same time I hope that Zen don't go mad with new tables. I understand that they need time and commitment to get those tables out to the community but I'd like a split between new tables, tables based on licensed content and recreated tables. I also wish that they'd plumb the game tables a bit more, The Walking Dead and Portal 2 are great examples of how you can turn other games into tables. I feel something like Monster Hunter would make a great table. To be honest you could shoehorn anything in if you try hard enough.

 

We might get some band tables if this news is true, which is something FX3 is sorely lacking. Only really a fan or Iron Maiden out of the tables that Stern has kicked out, but I'd take AC/DC as well. Aerosmith can suck a cock. I'd still buy it to fill out the collection, but they're not someone I'm into all that much.

 

Thoughts?

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