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The Pinball Arcade |OT| play them all from Soho to Brighton

Looks great on Vita. I just wish there were more camera options - can't seem to find one that I feel completely comfortable with.
 

bryehn

Member
Wish I'd payed attention and seen that the PS3/Vita versions were bundled/cross-compatible. Guess I'm double-dipping.
 

Wonko_C

Member
Vertical mode in Vita is honestly MUCH WORSE than it was on the PSP because they don't let you use the buttons/stick for anything other than the plunger. Most of the time I'm just accidentally bumping the table, and when I actually do want to bump it, the back panel doesn't respond at all. This could be remedied by letting you bump with the left analog, or even with the d-pad. I can tolerate touch-screen flippers though.

Thank god you can remap the controls in horizontal mode to not use any of the touch features.
 

Baron

Member
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 :)

See, that's really odd, because I think the opposite is true, that Zen Pinball feels like swatting around a mothball and Pinball Arcade and PHOF feel much more weighty and deliberate.
 

MattKeil

BIGTIME TV MOGUL #2
See, that's really odd, because I think the opposite is true, that Zen Pinball feels like swatting around a mothball and Pinball Arcade and PHOF feel much more weighty and deliberate.

Absolutely. "Floaty" defines FX2's physics. TPA feels like a real steel ball, FX2 feels like playing with the ceramic ball from Twilight Zone or a particularly heavy ping pong ball. I would go ahead and say TPA is objectively the superior pinball simulator if you're looking for real world physics and ball behavior.
 

heavyness

Member
I'm really loving the feel of this game. Everything feels right, moves right, bounces right. My mind knows how long it takes that ball to move from one side of the table to another and this game nails it.

But... I don't like the camera. Never feels like it's in the right spot. I really wish they would give me compete control over the camera so I can get it to the exact degree I want. Maybe even give me control over the camera's FOV. And yes, the UI needs to be improved.

Playing the 360 version and waiting for it to come out on the Amazon App Store for my Kindle Fire.
 
Got it on PSN....what happened to the view change for the plunger, is it gone forever? And the plunger animation seems jerkier now on some tables. Otherwise the lighting and graphics are much better than the Williams Collection, however, the dot matrix displays seem blurry. Have to spend some more time with it tonight.
 

Agent X

Member
I got the game for PS3. It's pretty good, but I've got a serious problem. After playing a session and racking up some good scores and trophies, the system won't properly sync the trophies. Every time I try to view trophies or view my profile, it goes through the sync process, but the trophies don't "count". I don't know if it's caused by this game, but it's quickly becoming a nuisance. Is anyone else experiencing this problem?
 

lobdale

3 ft, coiled to the sky
Just got this. One of the things I love the most as a fan of pinball history is that the ROMs themselves are the fully emulated versions of the originals and have all the original quirks and intricacies of the real tables. For example, on Tales of the Arabian Nights, when you're just "viewing" the table but haven't started a game yet, holding the right flipper down and hitting left five times to start the "attract" sequence on the DMD, or the "digital pinball" mode in Theatre of Magic. The gameplay is also rock solid.

Only complaint I have is just that the available camera angles aren't enough, and it would be great to be able to freely control a "free view" camera to view the table just to look at it, view the backglass up close, get down into the playfield and see how it all fits together, read the original rule cards and stuff. That would be fantastic.

A final gripe is less of a gripe, as with the option for free view, and more of a request: the later titles which featured buy-in should re-add the feature! I know for the sake of this game the ROMs are basically locked on Free Play, but it'd be fun to be able to "buy in" at the expense of it only marking your pre-buy-in score as the one that gets sent to the score charts. This would give newer players and people still learning a table the chance to pick up where they left off and try to complete a few more objectives.

Bring on Cirqus Voltaire!
 

Seraphis Cain

bad gameplay lol
I got the game for PS3. It's pretty good, but I've got a serious problem. After playing a session and racking up some good scores and trophies, the system won't properly sync the trophies. Every time I try to view trophies or view my profile, it goes through the sync process, but the trophies don't "count". I don't know if it's caused by this game, but it's quickly becoming a nuisance. Is anyone else experiencing this problem?

Ugh, really?

This is like the third game that's had this problem, and it's starting to get REALLY annoying. =/ Let's hope it's resolved quickly like Killzone 3 Multiplayer instead of in several months like Dungeon Defenders.
 

Bebpo

Banned
PS3 version looks and plays great.



Is it just me or are the tables not as detailed as Williams HoF HD? Like Ripley's the shrunken head seems to have very simple textures. I dunno, it looks good, but I swear Williams was incredibly sharp and detailed and this looks less so. But might just be my imagination.
 
I will answer.

I know there was an announcement within the last week that these two were buy one, get the other. I bought the Vita version on the Vita Store for $10, then went to my PS3 where the demo and full version activation code were waiting for me at the top of my download list.

I'm sure buying it on the PS3 first will be just as easy.

So far I am completely hooked on the Arabian Nights table, it is my go-to table. I could see myself getting just as hooked on Theater of Magic too. Black Hole is ok, and I despise Ripley's. It looks interesting and nuanced, but I can't seem to find the flow of it yet. I will keep at it though.

Is it just me or are the tables not as detailed as Williams HoF HD? Like Ripley's the shrunken head seems to have very simple textures. I dunno, it looks good, but I swear Williams was incredibly sharp and detailed and this looks less so. But might just be my imagination.
There does seem to be a bit of a downgrade in the textures, and I'm a little disappointed the Vita visuals aren't closer to the PS3 version. The Vita textures remind me of the iPad version, though it is otherwise sharp and runs at a solid 60.

Anybody that wants some hi-score competition for this game: duketogo1300
 
Any tips for the 250,000k on Black Hole lower level goal? This table hates me.

Get the multiplier high enough and you'll only need 50-100k instead of 250k. You just need one good multiball in the black hole to get it. The upside-down viewpoint is a beast, though.
 

Bebpo

Banned
Getting the multiplier up is >_<

Getting 50k+ is even more >_<

:|

I think the highest score I've gotten down there has been like 20k and that was with a good 30-60 seconds surviving down there. Do you have to survive the exit to reclaim your bonus w/multiplier? Because the constant opening/closing of the gate makes it almost pure luck.
 
Ok, after playing the Vita version for awhile and then quickly taking a look at the PS3 version, something feels off. Is it me or is the physics simulation way different on the Vita compared to the PS3. The PS3 feels more real with the weight of the ball where as the Vita version feels very floaty. I just went back and forth between the two and it's definitely different.
 
Ok, after playing the Vita version for awhile and then quickly taking a look at the PS3 version, something feels off. Is it me or is the physics simulation way different on the Vita compared to the PS3. The PS3 feels more real with the weight of the ball where as the Vita version feels very floaty. I just went back and forth between the two and it's definitely different.



The vita version definitely feels off.
 
Ok, after playing the Vita version for awhile and then quickly taking a look at the PS3 version, something feels off. Is it me or is the physics simulation way different on the Vita compared to the PS3. The PS3 feels more real with the weight of the ball where as the Vita version feels very floaty. I just went back and forth between the two and it's definitely different.

That sucks...my idea was playing this on the vita :/

Is there someone who owns the ipad version too? a comparison or something will be nice
 

Bebpo

Banned
So not only does the PS3 version not sync your trophies, but I tried to quit the game after playing a couple of hours and it crashed my ps3. lol. Needs a bit more QA!

Still love the game though.


When's the planned release for the first set of DLC tables?
 

Shearie

Member
So not only does the PS3 version not sync your trophies, but I tried to quit the game after playing a couple of hours and it crashed my ps3. lol. Needs a bit more QA!

Still love the game though.


When's the planned release for the first set of DLC tables?

They're aiming for an early May release date for the DLC tables.
 

Bebpo

Banned
Funny enough this also has the same bug as their Williams HoF game on PS3: If their leaderboards are not connecting the second you finish your run, your score will never upload to the leaderboards! lol :(

Just lost my Theater of Magic hi-score. Shows it on offline but leaderboard has my previous score.
 

Bebpo

Banned
Aaand I've just done their QA and pinpointed how to crash the game on ps3:

If you go to leaderboard and it's not showing anything because their servers aren't connecting for whatever reason (Williams hall of fame would have this problem a lot on ps3 and it appears to be the case again here), if you hold home and press "quit game" it'll crash your ps3 because it's still stuck trying to connect to their servers.

It's a weird crash too because the ps3 will beep three times and the screen will go black, but the power light will stay green and you'll need to hold it for about 30 seconds to get it to actually shut down. After this your controller will be flashing looking for the ps3 and you need to turn the system back on I get it to stop flashing.

It's a good thing Williams & this are pretty much GoTY quality titles for my personal taste because otherwise I'd be kind of pissed at how buggy their games are on ps3.
 

stolin

Member
Just played on Vita and they really need to allow for full control remapping. I just want to use the D-Pad & Face buttons for the bumpers. I've played so much Zen that I can't go back to shoulders... touch isn't responsive & tactile enough for me.
 

lobdale

3 ft, coiled to the sky
There should be a demo. The full version is the demo + unlock key.

Yeah, in the game itself there's even a section that says "Full Version Enabled" or something like that. If there's no standalone demo available to download it's just cause they haven't put it up separately, it's definitely designed to work as a demo+unlock.
 

KaYotiX

Banned
That sucks...my idea was playing this on the vita :/

Is there someone who owns the ipad version too? a comparison or something will be nice

To me the Vita and iPad version feel the same an the ps3 one feels "better" but I don't mind at all. Still a blast
 

Shaneus

Member
Aaand I've just done their QA and pinpointed how to crash the game on ps3:

If you go to leaderboard and it's not showing anything because their servers aren't connecting for whatever reason (Williams hall of fame would have this problem a lot on ps3 and it appears to be the case again here), if you hold home and press "quit game" it'll crash your ps3 because it's still stuck trying to connect to their servers.

It's a weird crash too because the ps3 will beep three times and the screen will go black, but the power light will stay green and you'll need to hold it for about 30 seconds to get it to actually shut down. After this your controller will be flashing looking for the ps3 and you need to turn the system back on I get it to stop flashing.

It's a good thing Williams & this are pretty much GoTY quality titles for my personal taste because otherwise I'd be kind of pissed at how buggy their games are on ps3.
You shouldn't have to, but you may wish to mention this on pinballarcadefans.com or their Facebook page. I'm sure they'd appreciate constructive feedbag :)
 

depths20XX

Member
Really liking this game. Mostly been playing Arabian Nights, sound effects on that one are awesome and the genie is such a bro.

I agree that the Vita version feels different somehow. I played the PS3 version for a good while then switched to Vita and was able to top my score on Arabian Nights by a large margin right away. I noticed the ball will not complete the corkscrew ramp as much on Vita when compared to PS3 also. This could just be my imagination or something though...

The Vita version also doesn't look nearly as good as the PS3 version, which I thought it would have been pretty close. It's kind of hard to see shit on the Vita one and the Ripley's board just looks like a jumbled mess honestly.

I don't understand the leaderboards completely. On PS3 is shows a bunch of iOS scoresin top rank but on Vita it just shows scores but no listing of what system they were on.
 

Wonko_C

Member
Some PS3 and 360 differences I've noticed:

It seems to me that the sound from the PS3 version is poorer than on the Xbox 360, when I played ToTAN on 360 the sound alone gave me chills, it was like going to an arcade with the machine sounding very loud and punchy, (The Genie yelling MULTIBALL! sounds especially awesome) but on the PS3 version it sounds flat and turning the volume up doesn't help.

The lights from the jet bumpers look kinda blocky on PS3, on the 360 they look soft, then there are missing menus on 360 like Tournament and Challenge. Trophies are hidden both on PS3 and Vita but 360 Achievements are not.

I've added some of you guys PSN ids for Vita and PS3 highscore comparing (Wonko_PS), I'm pretty much a novice though, having only played real pinball like 3 times as a kid (I played more video game pinball than real pinball but still only to see how long could I survive). PFOH and now TPA finally made me "get" pinball because the goals are a great way to learn the tables (not to mention the huge, easy to understand tutorials), I honestly disliked Black Hole at first but now I can't put it down. :D
 

Shaneus

Member
On that note, I *love* the way the sitar string counts down the bonus score at the end of a ball on TotAN. Just sounds cool as hell.
 

Wonko_C

Member
Who doesn't? Good end-of-ball bonus sounds make some primitive part of my brain feel good even if it means I lost, another favorite sound of mine is Space Shuttle, it compels me to try to aim for a higher bonus because the sound will get longer and crazier the bigger the bonus, and I bet the makers were pretty much aware of that.
 
On that note, I *love* the way the sitar string counts down the bonus score at the end of a ball on TotAN. Just sounds cool as hell.

Yes!

I'm so stuck on Black Hole. First go on it after purchase I got around 300k but now I'm getting stuck on the lower section and just failing to accumulate points. Such an addictive little title though - think Theatre of Magic is my favourite at the moment.

"YOU HAVE THE MAGIC"

"AIM FOR THE MAGIC TRUNK"
 

Xander51

Member
I'm playing this on PS3/Vita, my username is Xander51 if anybody wants to add me.

I agree that the physics in the Vita version are a little funky, I've found the tables to be significantly easier as a result. The lighting is a little more bright and cartoony on the Vita, but I actually prefer the look of it even though the PS3 version is more realistic.
 

Agent X

Member
I finally got around to loading up the Vita version. The physics do feel a little different for some reason, and a few of the tables seem easier as a result. For instance, on my very first game of Tales of the Arabian Nights, I actually beat my PS3 high score...just on the first ball. :) Oddly enough, on the same table, it seems like the flippers sometimes don't "kick" the ball far enough up the ramps.

I haven't observed any noticeable graphical downgrade at all on the Vita. To me, the game looks practically identical to the PS3 version. It looks sharp, and 60 fps is certainly a good thing to have as well.
 

Ramune

Member
I will answer.

I know there was an announcement within the last week that these two were buy one, get the other. I bought the Vita version on the Vita Store for $10, then went to my PS3 where the demo and full version activation code were waiting for me at the top of my download list.

I'm sure buying it on the PS3 first will be just as easy.

So far I am completely hooked on the Arabian Nights table, it is my go-to table. I could see myself getting just as hooked on Theater of Magic too. Black Hole is ok, and I despise Ripley's. It looks interesting and nuanced, but I can't seem to find the flow of it yet. I will keep at it though.


There does seem to be a bit of a downgrade in the textures, and I'm a little disappointed the Vita visuals aren't closer to the PS3 version. The Vita textures remind me of the iPad version, though it is otherwise sharp and runs at a solid 60.

Anybody that wants some hi-score competition for this game: duketogo1300

I should run this by a co-worker of mine. Showed me his new Vita today immediately when he came in, but mentioned he couldn't find the Vita version of this game after getting it on PS3. Was instead showing up as $10 at the Vita PSN store.
 
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