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[Minsc]

Fuck. There are new tables out? And I can't get to them? Argh.

Is there a release schedule for when things come out on XBLA... or is it just the nearest Wed. when all new XBL content comes out?

This is what Farsight said last week:

(re: Medieval Madness and Bride of Pinbot)

The Pinball Arcade: Yes, those will be the first DLC tables on console. They are finished and will be submitted to Microsoft and Sony this week. The length of the approval process is out of our hands, but the first week of May is probably a realistic release date.

I guess stuff takes ~1 month to pass through MS certification? This is why I mentioned earlier iOS/Android would probably consistently see DLC tables first, since Android has basically no wait (they're out now), and iOS is typically 1-2 weeks, which translate to the next few days.

 

[jvm]

Of course, Kindle Fire owners are still waiting for Amazon to launch in-app purchase functionality through its Android store. I'd love to have this on the PS3 for home and on the Kindle Fire when I'm away.

My choice of platforms is quite poor for this particular game, it appears.

 

[Agent X]

Oh, FWIW, even though the Vita version will be playable in portrait, I actually prefer playing in landscape mode. Find it's more true to how I play IRL, with being less "bird's eye" and closer to the lower cam perspective (unless it's a multi-flipper/playfield table). Helps with the angles

I also prefer to play in landscape mode, for the same reasons. I have both of the Pinball Hall of Fame games on PSP, which also offered both options, and the tables certainly look good in portrait mode. However, I find that the controls are more comfortable in landscape mode, and the camera angles are still very good.

 

[Strummerjones]

Playing the Android version on a Samsung S2 - is it just me or has the frame rate dropped somewhat since the latest patch (one that adds the new tables)? I'm sure it used to be completely smooth before, but now the ball movement seems somewhat ragged like it's dropping frames.

 

[TxdoHawk]

Playing the Android version on a Samsung S2 - is it just me or has the frame rate dropped somewhat since the latest patch (one that adds the new tables)? I'm sure it used to be completely smooth before, but now the ball movement seems somewhat ragged like it's dropping frames.

Several S2 owners have this complaint on Facebook, then again others seem to be fine. Did you try a restart?

Completely unrelated, again from Facebook:

Every DLC update will move the free table of the month to one of the two new tables so that we can keep introducing brand new content to our users keeping them coming back every month. That being said, you will have to purchase MM once the next DLC update occurs, but you will be getting a new table for free to try!

So, two new tables every month then? That seems to be implied here...

 

[Strummerjones]

Several S2 owners have this complaint on Facebook, then again others seem to be fine. Did you try a restart?

Nope, but I did now and that did indeed fix it. Thanks!

 

[Shaneus]

Still no DLC for iOS yet

 

[Minsc]

Still no DLC for iOS yet

I don't know how it works exactly, but app updates seem to take place 80-90% of the time during workdays (M-F excluding holidays). There's a rare app update or two that rolls in on Saturday or Sunday, but it just seems the bulk of the heavy batches where I get 10+ updates a day occurs M-F.

 

[Cardigan]

Farsight stated earlier that the update was rejected by Apple. They appealed it, but if that doesn't work then they already have another build ready.

 

[Minsc]

Farsight stated earlier that the update was rejected by Apple. They appealed it, but if that doesn't work then they already have another build ready.

Seems very unusual considering the main app has already been approved, guess that's Apple for you, right up there with Valve for rejecting stuff that doesn't deserve it! Thanks for the info.

 

[Dreamwriter]

It's not really unusual, different testers at Apple reject apps for different reasons, and from my experience Apple won't rush update submissions no matter how severe the problem (one of my games' first update erased player saves, I fixed the bug same day...no rush, took 3 weeks for approval). This tester may have found something that was in the full game that wasn't found by the first tester, or may have been more strict. Or maybe they found a problem with one of the new tables.

What sucks is the reason was most likely a lot less severe than the current state of the released game; one would think Apple would want to rush fixes for iPad 3 these days, to keep the iPad 3 from looking bad.

 

[Shaneus]

Farsight stated earlier that the update was rejected by Apple. They appealed it, but if that doesn't work then they already have another build ready.

Was that already mentioned in this thread? Unless I'm getting it confused with MS knocking back the XBLA one. But this update with the tables, I haven't heard anything of the delay

 

[BolognaSoup]

Definitely impressed by the 360 demo though I still haven't found a camera angle I really love in any pinball game ever. I want something like angle 3, unlocked, but a little more subtle on the movement. Not crazy about the 4 initial tables so I haven't bought it yet either.

 

[NuclearWinter]

The reason for the rejection: "It was rejected because Apple wants us to implement a "Restore Purchases" button instead of checking automatically to see if a user has purchased tables. Which is fine, except that the previous two iOS versions worked the same way and Apple never had a problem with it until now. We've appealed the rejection and we think there's a good chance it will be reversed. Worst case we'll have to resubmit Monday and the process will start over. It's as frustrating for us are for you- maybe more so, actually!"

 

[Shaneus]

Yeah, I mentioned that on pinballarcadefans.com from their FB page. Fucking shit. Need my MM!

 

[BolognaSoup]

Ahh screw it. Went ahead and bought even though my tables aren't out yet. Want to support these guys early!

 

[Mister Zimbu]

Played enough Medieval Madness to want to buy a physical table now.

I'm sure that opinion would change once I see the price and maintenance effort required.

 

[Brashnir]

Played enough Medieval Madness to want to buy a physical table now.

I'm sure that opinion would change once I see the price and maintenance effort required.

It's among the most expensive tables to get your hands on.

 

[To Far Away Times]

What would be the odds of getting The Addams Family pinball table as DLC? I know its got an expensive ancillary license, but it has to be one of the most requested tables.

 

[BiggNife]

What would be the odds of getting The Addams Family pinball table as DLC? I know its got an expensive ancillary license, but it has to be one of the most requested tables.

They said they're trying but there's a lot of licensing issues involved with it. It's possible down the line but for now it's a question mark.

The only two licensed tables so far are Ripley's and Harley Davidson (future DLC), and you can probably imagine those licenses are a lot easier to get than Addams Family.

 

[AMUSIX]

OK, back from my trip, so I can update the OP when needed. Of course, if Minsc feels something needs to be added, I've got no problem with him doing so.

At the moment, just added the two 'available' dlc tables in the same format as the first four. I know the tables aren't available on all the versions yet, but figure instead of constantly putting out a list of which platforms currently have which tables, it'd just be easier to put them up the moment their available on any (since it's pretty easy to see what you can and can't buy).

Unless someone would prefer something else?

Oh, and haven't had a chance to try the xbox version (which I'm going to consider the 'definitive' version) but will as soon as I have my new system up and running. Definitely looking forward to it.

 

[Shaneus]

OK, back from my trip, so I can update the OP when needed. Of course, if Minsc feels something needs to be added, I've got no problem with him doing so.

At the moment, just added the two 'available' dlc tables in the same format as the first four. I know the tables aren't available on all the versions yet, but figure instead of constantly putting out a list of which platforms currently have which tables, it'd just be easier to put them up the moment their available on any (since it's pretty easy to see what you can and can't buy).

Unless someone would prefer something else?

Oh, and haven't had a chance to try the xbox version (which I'm going to consider the 'definitive' version) but will as soon as I have my new system up and running. Definitely looking forward to it.

Don't get too excited. Two of the tables don't have the proper lighting/engine implementation yet. But one of them is Ripley's, so you're all good

 

[Shiv47]

Played enough Medieval Madness to want to buy a physical table now.

I'm sure that opinion would change once I see the price and maintenance effort required.

Expect to pay $7000+ for a quality machine. Preferably a home use only machine so it doesn't have the miles and abuse of a vendor unit. Maintenance can depend, some of it can be routine stuff you can learn to do yourself, more complex stuff will need a good repair guy, depending on your own level of skill with that kind of electronics.

 

[bj00rn_]

Excuse my nitpicking ignorance, but why does the game have a slightly flat dirty look to it, some of the textures looks very low resolution as well (360 demo)? Is there something wrong with the demo, or is this it?

 

[added_time]

So I just beat all the wizard goals for Tales of the Arabian Nights. It says I can now play with TILT disabled. I would never play that way since it would defeat one of the defining balancing acts of playing pinball.

However, it did get me thinking. Please tell me that people can't disable tilt and still post scores to the leaderboards? I really hope they can't.

 

[FireCloud]

For those of you who have played Pinball Arcade and also have the Zen pinball games, Zen pinball and Marvel pinball, how does Pinball Arcade compare with the Zen games? Is Pinball Arcade a pretty good pinball sim? I can see the advantage it has is that the tables are actual pinball tables you'd find in an arcade; whereas with Zen, all of the tables are virtual.

I've enjoyed playing the Zen games on the PS3 but might consider picking up Pinball Arcade for the Vita if it plays as well as the Zen tables.

 

[Triz]

For those of you who have played Pinball Arcade and also have the Zen pinball games, Zen pinball and Marvel pinball, how does Pinball Arcade compare with the Zen games?

I've enjoyed playing the Zen games on the PS3 but might consider picking up Pinball Arcade for the Vita if it plays as well as the Zen tables.

In my opinion Pinball Arcade > Zen Pinball. Real tables with better physics. I love me some Zen pinball and own every table, but Pinball Arcade feels better to me.

 

[added_time]

For those of you who have played Pinball Arcade and also have the Zen pinball games, Zen pinball and Marvel pinball, how does Pinball Arcade compare with the Zen games? Is Pinball Arcade a pretty good pinball sim? I can see the advantage it has is that the tables are actual pinball tables you'd find in an arcade; whereas with Zen, all of the tables are virtual.

I've enjoyed playing the Zen games on the PS3 but might consider picking up Pinball Arcade for the Vita if it plays as well as the Zen tables.

I like Pinball Arcade and Zen Pinball (Pinball FX2) about equally. I think they both offer something great. Zen has done a great job with how they handled leaderboards and online play etc.. and their tables are getting better all the time.
Pinball Arcade definitely feels more like real pinball though.
So I wouldn't want to have to choose. I just play both games and love every minute of it! The more pinball, the better.

 

[DerrickH]

I like the physics in Zen over Pinball Arcade. There were a few times where the PA ball looked unnatural to me. Too bad that Zen seems to be moving more and more toward fantasy tables with unrealistic ball movement and character animations. I'm scared they're moving into Devil's Crush territory more and more with each table.

I wouldn't mind seeing F-14 tomcat or High Speed on Pinball Arcade.

 

[FoxSpirit]

Ran into two funky bugs:

Medivial Madness takes a few seconds after the game finishes to actually prompt your score and the continue button, if you touch the screen inbetween it will get stuck in showing the table.
edit: okay, seems to have somehow fixed itself
Plus it's impossible to go for the super skillshot.

And in Bride of Pinbot, sometimes the cam get's stuck in multiball mode. Plus I triggered a bug wherein the ball wouldn't lock into the optics but only in the release-lane and the table would get stuck in multiball view, making it impossible to launch the next ball. Persisted through game exits and all, had to clear the appcache for it to fix itself. That was super pesky.
And just now when the ball drained in Metamorphosis it didn't reset and the game stuck again. FUCK, I just got the 1 billion award but now I can't finish the table to score??

Someone give me a support email adress, that table is a mess.
edit:tweeted them

 

[Deleted member 47027]

For those of you who have played Pinball Arcade and also have the Zen pinball games, Zen pinball and Marvel pinball, how does Pinball Arcade compare with the Zen games? Is Pinball Arcade a pretty good pinball sim? I can see the advantage it has is that the tables are actual pinball tables you'd find in an arcade; whereas with Zen, all of the tables are virtual.

I've enjoyed playing the Zen games on the PS3 but might consider picking up Pinball Arcade for the Vita if it plays as well as the Zen tables.

Zen/PFX2 is definitely a more refined, better product and the physics feel universes better. Pinball Arcade on the other hand is a solid, solid workhorse of a pinball game with some very memorable tables.

Basically, if you like PFX2 already, there's a lot to love about Pinball Arcade. And you're a pinball game, so don't be cheap - buy everything for all of em.

 

[see5harp]

I feel like Pinball FX2 is the better game for score chasing and overall social implementation (it's really among the best on XBLA in that regard). It really doesn't "feel" very real in terms of ball physics though. On some tables it's almost as if friction doesn't exist and you can really get the ball moving fast. The Pinball Arcade feels more realistic in terms of ball mechanics but leaderboards, social stuff, presentation is really lacking compared to Pinball Fx2.

 

[MattKeil]

Zen/PFX2 is definitely a more refined, better product and the physics feel universes better.

In what universe? FX2 does not and never has felt like real pinball. TPA feels like using a real steel ball, while FX2 is more like playing with the ceramic Powerball from Twilight Zone. Way too light and floaty. TPA is a vastly superior pinball sim, even though I like FX2 for its more out there tables that could never be done in real life.

 

[larvi]

It really doesn't "feel" very real in terms of ball physics though. On some tables it's almost as if friction doesn't exist and you can really get the ball moving fast.

Yeah, I've only played a handful of the FX and FX2 tables but this is my impression as well. It also seems too easy to keep the ball in play compared to a real table. For better or worse Pinball Arcade has me swearing all the time for drains I should have prevented and missed shots that I should have made just like a real machine.

 

[FoxSpirit]

Zen/PFX2 is definitely a more refined, better product and the physics feel universes better. Pinball Arcade on the other hand is a solid, solid workhorse of a pinball game with some very memorable tables.

Basically, if you like PFX2 already, there's a lot to love about Pinball Arcade. And you're a pinball game, so don't be cheap - buy everything for all of em.

In which universe does Pinball Fx2 more accurately resemble real pinball physics??

edit: beaten

Yeah, I've only played a handful of the FX and FX2 tables but this is my impression as well. It also seems too easy to keep the ball in play compared to a real table. For better or worse Pinball Arcade has me swearing all the time for drains I should have prevented and missed shots that I should have made just like a real machine.

No table drains the ball down the outlanes like Bride of Pinbot does

 

[see5harp]

Yeah, I've only played a handful of the FX and FX2 tables but this is my impression as well. It also seems too easy to keep the ball in play compared to a real table. For better or worse Pinball Arcade has me swearing all the time for drains I should have prevented and missed shots that I should have made just like a real machine.

Yea once you sorta learn each table, you can keep balls alive for a really long time in Pinball FX2. I do still find it incredibly fun though. Pinball Arcade is definitely more variable and random with the physics and it's a lot harder to predict movement. I think they are both super awesome though, I just think Zen deserves a lot of credit for what they did with scoring, avatar support, and asyncronous challenges and tournaments.

 

[added_time]

In which universe does Pinball Fx2 more accurately resemble real pinball physics??

To be fair, he never said FX2 more accurately resembles real pinball physics. He said it feels better to play. Maybe he just prefers that style of physics?


By the way, does anyone know the answer to my earlier question of whether people can still put scores on the leaderboard even if they have disabled tilt in the options?

 

[Jucksalbe]

The European PSN release has been pushed back to next month: http://blog.us.playstation.com/2012/04/05/the-pinball-arcade-hits-ps3-and-ps-vita-on-april-10th/#comment-705357

 

[Shaneus]

The European PSN release has been pushed back to next month: http://blog.us.playstation.com/2012/04/05/the-pinball-arcade-hits-ps3-and-ps-vita-on-april-10th/#comment-705357

There's a surprise.

Ran into two funky bugs:

Medivial Madness takes a few seconds after the game finishes to actually prompt your score and the continue button, if you touch the screen inbetween it will get stuck in showing the table.
edit: okay, seems to have somehow fixed itself
Plus it's impossible to go for the super skillshot.

And in Bride of Pinbot, sometimes the cam get's stuck in multiball mode. Plus I triggered a bug wherein the ball wouldn't lock into the optics but only in the release-lane and the table would get stuck in multiball view, making it impossible to launch the next ball. Persisted through game exits and all, had to clear the appcache for it to fix itself. That was super pesky.
And just now when the ball drained in Metamorphosis it didn't reset and the game stuck again. FUCK, I just got the 1 billion award but now I can't finish the table to score??

Someone give me a support email adress, that table is a mess.
edit:tweeted them

They know about the MM one. It's something to do with the game waiting for the Game Over message on the DMD and the ROM is pausing for it or something. It's actually emulating the ROM a little *too* well.

 

[Hunter-Zero]

The European PSN release has been pushed back to next month: http://blog.us.playstation.com/2012/04/05/the-pinball-arcade-hits-ps3-and-ps-vita-on-april-10th/#comment-705357

Are they joking? a fucking month later?

 

[Ravensmash]

The European PSN release has been pushed back to next month: http://blog.us.playstation.com/2012/04/05/the-pinball-arcade-hits-ps3-and-ps-vita-on-april-10th/#comment-705357

Oh wow, Sony seem to be doing this a lot recently - any particular reason why?

Might have to purchase the 360 version, I'm loving the demo and it's one of those incredibly addictive little titles that I can see myself playing for hours - and reading about constant updates has me interested.

I've gotten the hang of the demo tables so I'm hitting the score limit too quick

Edit: Remembered I had some reward points left on GAME, so got some points and will unlock

 

[Daigoro]

By the way, does anyone know the answer to my earlier question of whether people can still put scores on the leaderboard even if they have disabled tilt in the options?

good question. i hope not...

 

[Shearie]

By the way, does anyone know the answer to my earlier question of whether people can still put scores on the leaderboard even if they have disabled tilt in the options?

good question. i hope not...

For the iOS version - and I'm guessing all other versions - if you turn Tilt off it makes your score ineligible for the leaderboard. It gives you a prompt saying so when you turn it off.

 

[Shaneus]

Man, the wait for the iOS update has been made even harder knowing that there are optimisations like better textures/detail on the 4S. Not to mention, Bride and MM.

WHERE THE HELL IS IT?

 

[Minsc]

Man, the wait for the iOS update has been made even harder knowing that there are optimisations like better textures/detail on the 4S. Not to mention, Bride and MM.

WHERE THE HELL IS IT?

Another 2 weeks, I guess. If it was submitted yesterday, I can't make much sense of the new Timeline layout, information gets buried instantly for me.

Oh, and haven't had a chance to try the xbox version (which I'm going to consider the 'definitive' version) but will as soon as I have my new system up and running. Definitely looking forward to it.

I was just reading on their forums that the PS3 version has better lighting implemented than the 360 release, which they will probably go back and tweak in the 360 release down the road. Also they said some textures had to be lower quality from time to time due to console memory limitations:

@Butterkins - Sorry to hear you are disappointed. The more tables we do, the more we find what we can do to enhance the lighting. The PS3 tables were enhanced later in our development, and those enhancements haven't made it to Xbox 360 yet. Unfortunatly the hardware is different so it's not just copy and paste. An artist will go in and modify the values by hand until they look similar. From my understanding we plan to have someone do that and patch it in the future.

We take all of your comments into consideration. Understand though, that even though the Xbox and PS3 are pretty powerful, they do have limitations especially with Texture fill and bandwidth. So sometimes a lower resolution texture is necessary to get a good framerate. On the other hand, we will look to see what we can do to improve these.

Sounds like they could use some better middleware, an engine that's more suited to just working on a master version and having the ports be more automated. I didn't realize they'd have to hand-tweak lighting from the PS3 to the 360.

Hopefully the PC version down the road uses the higher-res textures. I'm not sure why the Mac version doesn't seem to have the enhanced lighting from the consoles either, but it doesn't seem like a single person in the forum is using it, so we can probably just pretend it doesn't exist lol. Though it doesn't raise my hopes for the PC version, other than they'll have all that time to get things in order I guess. I'm actually surprised to read the 360/PS3 don't have the power to run the games all-out.

 

[TxdoHawk]

I'm not sure why the Mac version doesn't seem to have the enhanced lighting from the consoles either...

According to Farsight (saw this somewhere on the pinballarcadefans.com forum, the Mac version uses the iPad version as a base, and that they planned to update the Mac version to the console-quality graphics and lighting "down the road".

 

[Elvin Atombender]

I'm a bit sad that the European PSN-release is delayed - I'm really looking forward to playing some of these tables again.

Everything about this game and it's release feels so fragmented - different systems get releases (of the core game and tables) on different dates, patches that might appear soon and various functions that are in some versions might get patched into other versions "later".

Surely they would get more press if the game (and new tables) came out for most systems at the same time. Fix the bugs and then try to synchronise the table releases across the various formats.

 

[Deleted member 47027]

To be fair, he never said FX2 more accurately resembles real pinball physics. He said it feels better to play. Maybe he just prefers that style of physics?

I don't play much pinball, but I play a lot of video pinball and it's just my preference. That's all. I do like how it feels far more than Pinball Arcade. PA feels just so...floaty. Not heavy. That's all!

We can like both

 

[ToxicAdam]

Someone recommended this game to me in the iOS gaming thread and what a great surprise. I was up to 3am playing Arabian Nights last night (36 mil was my high) and plan on buying the rest of the tables when I get home.

It's exciting, because while I have loved pinball my entire life, I have never played most of the classics. So, it's like a whole new world is opened up.

 

[Minsc]

PSN version is up, impressions seem positive on facebook/forums... people are saying the lighting does look improved on the PS3.