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One complaint I'm having about Pinball Arcade is the stupid choices they made for two-packs. The two Elvira machines aren't paired together, no, one is paired with Gofer Golf (whatever it's called) and the other is paired with the old-school Big Shot machine. It's like they planned it out so that the games you'd want to buy together are in separate packs, so you spend more money, or else just go "gently caress it, I'm buying the whole set". At least Funhouse is paired up with Cirqus Voltaire, both of those are loving excellent. That'll probably be the first pack I buy if I don't cave and buy the whole season. As for Season 2? Ehhhhh... there's Haunted House.
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Nov 5, 2013 02:49
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Do not even ask posted:Season One is really solid, but I vastly prefer Season 2. It's such a weird quirky assortment of tables that I can't help but fall in love with it. Centaur, Whirlwind, T2, Space Shuttle, White Water, etc are all really fun. I need to demo some more tables, but Centaur was a complete surprise for me as I'd never heard of it. It was just totally insane and stylish and METAL as gently caress. I couldn't believe that it was a legit table that was actually released.
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Nov 5, 2013 04:17
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Nurge posted:They're realistically speaking the only game in town, so I totally understand the mindset. Future Pinball's actually a pretty solid program (especially now that people have figured out how to do complex scripts), and people are making original machines that are comparable to some of the better 80's and 90's pinball machines. I wouldn't use it as a substitute for something like Pinball Arcade, but it's a nice hold-out if you're waiting for better Steam integration or whatever.
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Nov 5, 2013 16:42
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I went the piecemeal route with Season 1 since there are a few one-offs (not sold with another table) I just don't care about but might buy eventually (Theatre of Magic, Ripley's, The Next Generation). Even if it costs more in the long run, I figure if I don't care to play a table right then there's no need in dropping $30 all at once. So far I just bought the Funhouse/Cirqus Voltaire and Midieval Madness/Bride of Pinbot packs because they're one of the few packs where both tables included are must-haves. In the future I'll likely get Scared Stiff/Big Shot, Centaur/Whatever and Haunted House/Whatever, then just get whatever strikes my fancy from there.
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Nov 6, 2013 23:01
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In Steam/Pinball Arcade news, anybody who never tried that whole "trading card" thing in Steam might want to do so. Cards are going for ridiculously high since the game's new, it's not a huge seller and it's free-to-play. The way prices are now, for every $10 you spend you get like $3 back. So you could spend $20 in the game and basically get a free two-pack, which is great news for people who are piecemealing it.
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Nov 7, 2013 18:08
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Call Me Charlie posted:They randomly drop as you play the game. Yeah, then they'll be in your Steam inventory along with all your coupons and miscellaneous junk. Just select one and sell it, usually for a little bit less than what the chart shows they've been selling for. Some cards are getting $1 or so for now, but they'll probably drop as more people start spending money on the game.
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Nov 7, 2013 19:11
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I know it's not the hardest pinball game out there, and there've been much higher pinball scores, but I just got 68,507,160 on Scared Stiff in PA. Monster Multi-Ball and everything... Feels good, man.  Like, that rush is pretty incredible when you completely own a table, even for one ball. I really kind of want a table now so that I can practice and get that feeling with a real machine.
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Nov 8, 2013 04:56
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Luigi Thirty posted:I don't understand why people like Scared Stiff so much. It just looks so cheap and the ruleset is so shallow. A simplistic ruleset doesn't equal a bad game, or else every game made prior to the mid-80's would be the Worst Pinball Machine Ever. I think people like it because it's campy, it has some nice effects and gimmicks (maxing the Stiff-o-Meter, the Spider Wheel) and it's easy and simplistic. I had lots of fun with it, so whatever.
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Nov 8, 2013 05:36
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So what exactly are the "local scores" that show up on the high-score table if you're not logged in to whatever Farsight expects you to log into? Are they actual people's scores or are they just fake scores/developer's scores?
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Nov 8, 2013 05:50
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Nurge posted:I think the only thing is that you have to put money into steam wallet and pay from there instead of using the other payment options directly, which I don't really see as a problem but some people do. Oh and you can't gift the DLCs because of that. I see it as a problem because I now have $4 in my Steam wallet from card sales and it's completely useless to me for buying another table pack. I'd have to put $5 into my Steam wallet to get a pack, then I'd still have that $4 sitting there. But as everybody's been saying, they're the only game in town so I guess we have to put up with their poo poo. And even when they put whole season passes up for sale through Steam, the smaller packs will be Steam wallet only.
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Nov 8, 2013 16:21
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I've actually live-catched on a couple of Pinball Arcade tables without even having to time it. Some of the hole returns drop the ball out with a small enough momentum that you can just hold the flipper up and catch it. It'll almost roll off the end but won't quite make it.
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Nov 9, 2013 18:58
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I think the purchases while in the game work exactly the same as any other Steam purchase, and the only difference is that the packs can't be bought through the Steam client outside of the game. They still go through Steam and your license to play them is handled through Steam. Anyway, does Funhouse seem a little hosed sometimes in PA? Maybe there are other tables too, but that one seems especially wonky. Like, I tried to do a flipper transfer once and the ball clipped through the flipper, and it seems like half the time the ball goes straight through the upper-left flipper. It also froze completely once when I tried to start a new game (the menu interface went away but the game didn't start, it just kept doing the flyaround but all the music shut off).
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Nov 10, 2013 21:33
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Nurge posted:I don't know what the system they use for actual tilt simulation is, but the PC version nudging is definitely not as intended currently. The PS3 version has a variable nudge that works perfectly with the controller, while the PC only has one setting and it will completely bork over playing electromechanicals. I'm hoping that gets fixed soon. All I've figured about nudging is that the game will keep nudging as long as you even slightly hold the stick. It has to be dead-center to not nudge, so people getting tilts are probably not realizing that they're continually nudging and the game is registering it. Another thing is that it seems you can also nudge in any of the diagonals but the game seems quicker to tilt that way, probably because the game just reads it as two simultaneous nudges. They really need to fix that. Even Future Pinball's nudging seems both more responsive and more forgiving, in that the ball will go to where you want it if you nudge, and it won't tilt unless you just slam the poo poo out of the table repeatedly.
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Nov 11, 2013 16:33
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I think it should act like you're actually moving the table, and have the analog stick's snap-back simulate the table righting itself, that way you could actually do stuff like death saves by rotating the stick around (example: move the stick backwards first to bring the ball away from the drain, then up and to the right to punt the ball with the left slope). How does it work on consoles? Do you just move the analog stick a certain distance and it nudges it with different strengths? I could see that being a problem unless the game has a way to prevent you from, say, nudging lightly, medium strength and then full strength all in a row. That'd probably get you an instant tilt. King Vidiot fucked around with this message at 19:46 on Nov 11, 2013 |
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Nov 11, 2013 19:44
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Luigi Thirty posted:Visual and Future Pinball are free. They've got lots of recreations and original tables to play. Visual supports PinMAME so you can play SS tables in it. The physics and graphics in both are kinda dated and wonky and the quality of the art depends on the individual creator but they're pretty cool. I like Future Pinball just for the sheer amount of obscure stuff that people are recreating, like old 1930's and 40's games like the original Ballyhoo and stuff like that. You're probably not going to find anything like that in Pinball Arcade.
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Nov 12, 2013 04:29
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Well I don't know, Gottlieb made Haunted House and... that's about all I can say for them. Haunted House isn't even really all that good, I mainly like it for the aesthetics and sound. It's probably my favorite "classic pinball" machine, though.
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Nov 13, 2013 06:26
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Do not even ask posted:I'd rather take anything Gottlieb over any Williams/Bally DMD tables. Everyone's entitled to their opinions, but this is like saying you'd take anything Atari (2600, 5200, Jaguar  ) over Super Nintendo or SEGA Genesis.
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Nov 13, 2013 18:16
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Lester Shy posted:Any quick pros and cons for Attack from Mars/Genie and Champion Pub/Whirlwind? Champion Pub is really cool, but mostly for how well they hid the "pinball" aspect of the table behind the unique gimmick which is basically PunchOut with flippers and a ball. Once you get beyond the gimmick, the table itself is kind of basic. It's challenging, but the challenge mainly comes from the fact that there's a great big obstruction in the center of the table that effectively blocks all but the most precise shots to the ramps and loops (and the paths are really narrow). It's good, but I'm mediocre at pinball on the best of days and I can barely scrape by the first fight. On the subject of Whirlwind... what made that table so popular? I know that the real machine had the fan gimmick, but the PA version is just underwhelming and I don't really "get" it. It has a very familiar feel to it, like it's similar to other Williams machines but stripped of anything unique or engaging. Unless there's some deep gameplay buried under the surface I don't understand it.
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Nov 15, 2013 02:31
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gypsyshred posted:Its hard to capture the feeling in a video game, but throwing a ball and having it fly off randomly on those discs is a fun gimmick. I can't wait for Fireball. Or non Gottlieb games in general. Yeah, the rotating discs are a neat feature during the multiball, but otherwise it's just really plain. I think most of the appeal of the game came from the fan, which I've heard would actually blow really hard. I've never played the game in person before.
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Nov 15, 2013 03:01
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I pretty much try to limit my nudges in PA for PC. I'll only nudge for keeping a ball alive, maybe to increase my hits on the jet bumpers, and that's usually all just left or right. I may occasionally nudge backward to give a little extra forward momentum if I want to go up a steep ramp or make a skill shot (like in Medieval Madness where you just have a plunge button and the ball doesn't always make it to the skill shot).
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Nov 16, 2013 23:26
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Yeah, on a 360 controller it's "X" to switch between locked and dynamic. I don't really turn on dynamic, myself. If I need to see lanes in order to use the flippers to switch the lighted lane(s), I just pull the camera to an overhead view. Dynamic camera always kind of throws me off, because I get distracted and stop thinking about the ball that's about to get released into the playfield. edit: Also, don't click on the stick on a 360 pad. Just don't. If the table has a button launch, go ahead and pull the stick back, it works just like a plunger. To change the camera, press "B"... that's the actual button for changing the camera. For some reason, pressing the right stick presses every single other button, including flippers. Also, if for whatever reason you want to add or remove the DMD from the HUD, press "Y". King Vidiot fucked around with this message at 02:33 on Nov 17, 2013 |
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Nov 17, 2013 02:30
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Yeah, I think this might be the most unsettling pinball machine footage I've ever seen  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HaeGnZtwDYg I watched a few of the guy's other videos and they're not as weird, but I still don't really know what his intention was with this one.
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Nov 18, 2013 18:34
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I know this isn't really news considering what coin-op games are all about, but it's pretty funny watching the promotional videos that companies used to sell their machines to prospective businesses. Many of them go into detail about how the game is designed to rip players off and/or take more of their money. Like in Road Show, the video explains how players have to put more money in during the game just to unlock certain features. I guess I was lucky when I played that game years ago, because I sucked bad enough that the buy-in never even came into play.
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Nov 18, 2013 19:30
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Terminally Bored posted:IGN is a lovely site but here you can see how the PS4 port of TPA fares: Maybe now it'll be easier to tell which LEDs are actually lit on games like Funhouse and Monster Bash. It was kind of bugging me that the lights were barely brighter when they were on, particularly in Funhouse because I had to look pretty hard to tell what I was about to get from the Mystery Tunnel.
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Nov 19, 2013 16:56
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I don't want to defend FarSight too much, but did anyone think that maybe the reason the balls in Pinball Arcade feel "floaty" is that they're based on the factory-set tables and not on the tables as adjusted by your local arcade, pizza joint or pro-pinball hall? Any real pinball machine could be adjusted to feel as floaty as some of the tables in PA. Just because they're steel balls doesn't mean that they can't be made lighter by making the field flatter.
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Nov 21, 2013 02:15
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sethsez posted:Yeah, you'd think being built from the ground up for videogames would mean these tables could communicate progress and goals better than real tables, but nope, they're actually far worse at it for some reason. To be fair, I personally don't have much of a clue what's going on with a pinball table unless the DMD tells me or they have a character yell out "SHOOT THE [thing]!". If I play a table enough in Pinball Arcade, I can eventually figure out what the playfield lights are telling me (it's hard to read the text... but after a while you get to know the various shapes and what they mean when lit). From what I've played of Pinball FX 2, they just have characters do stuff and things happen, but there aren't really much in the way of table lights or call-outs for shots. I guess they wanted it to be more videogame-y and not pinball machine-y, but that kind of hurts gameplay when it's a pinball game.
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Nov 22, 2013 02:03
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Maybe it's just me, but despite the ball feeling weightless and the constant kickbacks and ball saves, Pinball FX 2's tables feel a lot "harder". Like, the balls drain faster, ramps and targets are harder to hit... and all that is coupled with the fact that they don't give you the insane bonuses and ludicrously high scores of 90's-era pinball games. I can pretty regularly get 200+ million or so in Monster Bash (which is still fairly average), but I can barely break a couple of million on any given FX 2 table. Granted, I didn't play for that long, but even on my worst runs in PA I get 10+ million on the DMD tables.
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Nov 22, 2013 03:56
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ovaries posted:Cue Ball Wizard and El Dorado are out on Pinball Arcade, but more importantly they've released a substantial set of fixes for the PC version. The post-processing bug is gone, a proper sound menu has been implemented, they've added an invert nudge toggle, and analog nudging on 360 controllers is in (though I've never used that before so I can't tell how good the implementation is). Hell yes, analog nudging!  Also the game's lights no longer look like rear end with post-processing on, and the anti-aliasing works like it should. So good for FarSight, and good for us.
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Nov 23, 2013 00:20
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Goddamn, I got completely stiffed (heh) in Scared Stiff just a bit ago. I was still on ball one, was getting a shitton of extra balls, boned my first Stiff-o-Meter but then nailed it the second time and got the multi-ball. However, I noticed when my balls started draining that there was no indication that they were lost, no noise or anything. So on my final ball, the jackpots kept counting despite the fact that multiball should've been over. When the last ball drained... nothing. The game started going through ball search, the attendant couldn't help because the ball wasn't "stuck" it was drained. So I was having a really good run on the first ball, 44 million and then I lost all of it. I even had the bottom half of the Spider Wheel filled 
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Nov 23, 2013 00:59
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As easy and cheap as it'd be to get the rights to the Twister game, I think it's going to be this: http://pinside.com/pinball/archive/pool-sharks/gallery Just guessing based on the fact that it's "Pin-nado", with a screencap from Sharknado, and it'd be a nice continuation of the pool theme started with Cue Ball Wizard in the previous pack. Or it could also be some other shark-themed pinball game.
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Nov 23, 2013 02:05
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Yeah, I've had plenty of other physics glitches and general fuckery on PA tables too, like shooting a ball completely through the crate and into one of the Deadheads lanes in Scared Stiff, or having a ball pass through the flippers in Funhouse. I wouldn't be surprised to find that some of the highest table scores were from people who hosed the game up, either on purpose or accidentally.
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Nov 23, 2013 06:36
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The game runs and looks better for me now than it did before the update, and with post-processing on before the update the game looked like low-res, smeary poo poo. Now it looks really smooth, the anti-aliasing works with post-processing on, and the analog nudging has made the game a lot more fun to play.
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Nov 24, 2013 04:22
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sethsez posted:Are you on AMD or nvidia? It sounds like the post-processing issue might have just switched sides. I'm on nivida and it looked fine before, now it's blurry as hell. I'm not saying it's not blurry, but before it was all lovely and pixellated (this being with post-processing on) and now it's sharp but there's like a vaseline-lens haze over everything. Personally I don't mind it, I think it looks kind of cool. It's definitely better than what post-processing was like before the patch. edit: Also, when they added the focus-sensitive thing, I had it on before and the game still unpaused once when I hit the enter key out-of-game. It never happened since, but I still lost a ball over it. King Vidiot fucked around with this message at 04:32 on Nov 24, 2013 |
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Nov 24, 2013 04:30
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I want to like these PAPA pinball tournament streams, but it seems like all anyone is playing in this stretch of the tournament is Star Trek, Metallica or AC/DC.
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Nov 24, 2013 17:17
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edit: Thoroughly beaten. But yeah, Pinball Arcade is awesome. And a new season is apparently on the way, too.
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Nov 30, 2013 02:51
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Galaga Galaxian posted:Harley Davidson. That's why I added that addendum. Harley Davidson and Ripley's aren't great, and while The Next Generation is a good pinball game I'm just not a fan of Star Trek. Taxi is alright but not essential either, the rest range from "pretty good" to "outstanding". In all, you'd save money buying the whole thing for $30, since getting all the best tables from Season 1 would already be over $30 plus you'd get the not-so-good tables too as a bonus just for completion's sake. I went the piecemeal route and there are moments when I kind of wish I didn't. As for "the best", opinions are all over the place. In my opinion, the two best packs in Season One are... -Funhouse / Cirqus Voltaire -Medieval Madness / Bride of Pin*Bot There's also Monster Bash (outstanding table) which comes with Gorgar (older 80's table which is really fun to play and has a great art style). My own personal favorite pinball machine is probably Scared Stiff, but opinions seem mixed on that one so you could probably give it a pass (it comes with an old Electro-Mechanical called Big Shot). King Vidiot fucked around with this message at 03:40 on Nov 30, 2013 |
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Nov 30, 2013 03:36
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It's still irritating that FarSight insist that it's "Steam's fault" that they can't put the smaller packs on the Steam client, since no other game has any problems putting a ton of different DLC packs and combinations up on Steam (I mean look at something like Saints Row: The Third and the dozens of small DLCs and multiple packs which include like three DLCs bundled together).
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Nov 30, 2013 05:57
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Man, usually I take my fake-real pinball gaming in stride, but there's something about Pinball Arcade's Table and Wizard goals that make me really uptight. I love that they put the goals system in there, it teaches you how to play a table and gets you to look up the rule sheet for details, but having set goals makes actually playing the games pretty stressful sometimes. Plus, there are moments when the table just freaks the gently caress out and you get weird errors that cause the game to be unfinishable (meaning your high score is thrown out) or cause the goals system to not read a finished goal. Like, I managed to get both Terror From the Crate multiball and the Stiff-o-Meter active at the same time, and I used the multi-ball to raise the meter to get Scared Stiff (I'd raised it to one-from-the-top already). The table freaked out like it does when you start SS, except I could still move the flippers and there were balls in play. Monster Multi-Ball went on like normal with jackpots and everything, but not once did the game register that I'd gotten it and the goal is still unfinished. I was even like 5 items away from filling out the Spider Spinner, too
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Dec 2, 2013 04:23
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Does just owning the "Pro Mode" upgrade to a table completely disqualify you from the online leaderboards and achievements, or can you just decide not to activate any of the features it unlocks and still have your scores on the leaderboards? I wouldn't mind having pro mode on a few tables just to check them out in the flycam view or change certain settings to dick around, but I don't want to lock myself out of the leaderboards or whatever.
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Dec 2, 2013 19:11
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Man, ball control is one of the most satisfying methods of cheating I've seen in a game. I love having the ball almost drain down the center and then just using my ball control voodoo to make it float back out of the hole and shoot up a ramp or into a scoop. It's also just great for if you want to learn exactly how features work or how many points certain targets are worth if you hit them X number of times, or for testing ball trajectories from the flippers.
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Dec 2, 2013 21:25
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