The good, the bad..

Hi all,

I'm playing The Pinball Arcade on Xbox360 and as the dlc are still not available, I've made a try on "Pinball Hall of Fame: The Williams Collection"...

I really enjoyed to play these games on my xbox360, I played most of these pinballs when I was young and it's really fine to play them again now even on a TV.
(I've already made a try on Futur Pinball and Visual Pinball but I didn't enjoy to play with them.)

But it's still not perfect:

- The 4 "Pinball Arcade" tables are beautifull but I think it can be more beautifull than that, we are in 2012 and I'm playing on an xbox360 and the game appear to be not visually better than the PC version of ProPinball's games (made 15 years before and running on W98...). But probably with the incomming HDR patch...

- "Pinball Hall of Fame: The Williams Collection"... is really enjoyable, The "Williams challenge" was a very good idea: It made me play with some old tables I didn't play before and which I wouldn't have played without this challenge. In fact this challenge made me discovered how fun was these old tables even if they didn't have many ramps.
But the ball in this game is really a shame! How a modern pinball game can have a so visually poorly performed ball? This game also have many slowdowns problems, so that's why I hope we will be able to play these Williams tables and others soon on TPA with the incomming DLC..

Finally I still wanted to thank Farsight for these games, I really hope to see more options and more tables in next TPA DLC and why not a challenge?


PS: sorry for my english: I'm french ^^

Sheesh, your english is better than a lot of Americans' I've read.

Aurel, are you running TPA on a 1080p display? It will not look its best on lower resolutions. Once the improved lighting update arrives, that should also help quite a bit with the visuals.

Yes I'm playing in 1080p, TPA is nice but not graphically impressive, Williams collection is great but not beautifull.
I'm just suprised that my very old 3 PC ProPinball games are still the best pinball simulations made in 2012 (even if there is no real mechanical table)...

FS has said that the textures are the best they can look and still maintain stability. Physics for a pinball game take up a LOT of resources. Pro Pinball used pre-rendered graphics for the tables, not real-time 3-D graphics.

Especially considering they want to keep the tables at 60 fps no matter what.

Everything else (well almost...) runs at 720p at 30 fps on current platforms, so I think this is about the best we can do atm. It's already a major step up from PHOF imo (which looks very flat and aliased) which lest we forget is also from this gen.

I can't see much wrong with the graphics. The lighting is a little flat but we all know a major update to that is imminent which will bring it bang in line with the PS3. Should look a whole lot better then. And we really are spoilt that it's in 1080P. It's only one of four 1080P games I have in fact (the others being NBA Homecourt, Feeding Frenzy 2 and Joyride Turbo).

I don't think it's fair to compare it to a PC game because PC games generally look as good as the infinitely upgradeable hardware will allow. The 360 is not an upgradeable platform, and a nearly 7 year old one at that. It does have it's limitations, and some sacrifices need to be made. Having a smooth 60fps frame rate is very important in a pinball game.

Frankly I think they've worked miracles having real-time 3d rendered graphics, with real-time reflections even on the ball, real-time lighting, all running in 1080P AND at 60fps.

The only thing I can really compare it to fairly is Pinball FX2. It's certainly true that PFX2 looks a lot more polished. The graphics look shinier, smoother. But it is only running in 720P. More importantly, it's the second revision of the game. It's come on a long way since PFX1. If you're going to make a comparison, compare TPA with PFX1, and I think you'll rate them about the same graphics-wise. I think you'll find the TPA DLC looks better and better as time goes by.

Personally I can't wait for Cirqus Voltaire. That's the prettiest table I've ever seen in my opinion, especially when you see an LED conversion of one. Stunning. I'm sure when I finally get to see that I'll be just as enchanted as I was the first time I saw one in the real world.

Ozzpot said:

It's certainly true that PFX2 looks a lot more polished. The graphics look shinier, smoother. But it is only running in 720P. More importantly, it's the second revision of the game. It's come on a long way since PFX1. If you're going to make a comparison, compare TPA with PFX1, and I think you'll rate them about the same graphics-wise. I think you'll find the TPA DLC looks better and better as time goes by.

Click to expand...

Yes I'm sure the graphics can be improved, but again TPA is a good-looking pinball game, and the only one proposing to play as well performed real pinball tables.

I also regret the following :
- there is no "menu operator"
- beating the score we are earning useless credits
- ending lotteries are useless too (credits for nothing)
- no buy-ins additionnal balls.
- tate mode would have been fine
- a full buttons mapping option would have been usefull too.
...

Aurel said:

Yes I'm sure the graphics can be improved, but again TPA is a good-looking pinball game, and the only one proposing to play as well performed real pinball tables.

I also regret the following :
- there is no "menu operator"
- beating the score we are earning useless credits
- ending lotteries are useless too (credits for nothing)
- no buy-ins additionnal balls.
- tate mode would have been fine
- a full buttons mapping option would have been usefull too.
...

Click to expand...

The Twilight Zone "special edition" table (for $100+ backers from TZ's kickstarter project) is going to have operator menu access. If the results are good and including operator menu access does not introduce lots of bugs, the hope (and nothing has been confirmed) is that operator's menus start getting implemented and made available for the regular tables.

There have been various suggestions on what to do with the credits, but I've not heard anything definite.

Most of the real tables do not support buy-in, only some tables from circa 1993 to 1996 have that feature. You also have an issue on what to do with the leaderboards on tables that have buy-in.

Serenseven said:

Most of the real tables do not support buy-in, only some tables from circa 1993 to 1996 have that feature. You also have an issue on what to do with the leaderboards on tables that have buy-in.

Click to expand...

Many real pinball games have that feature available in menu operator. Theatre of magic for example got it. Quite often there is a "buy-in hight score table".

Aurel said:

Not true, many real pinball games have that feature available in menu operator. Theatre of magic for example got it. Quite often there is a "buy-in hight score table".

Click to expand...

Theatre of Magic is from 1995, hence it falls in the timeframe I described. But Attack from Mars is also 1995, and it does not.

Yes sorry that's right...
But most of the best pinball tables I've played have been made arround this time period (I know it's really subjective, just my opinion...)

Aurel said:

Yes sorry that's right...
But most of the best pinball tables I've played have been made arround this time period (I know it's really subjective, just my opinion...)

Click to expand...

No worries...if you're going to choose a 5-year window of tables to play, you can't go wrong with the mid-90s!

I'd like to see a tate mode too!

Something I didn't say : The 3rd camera (unlocked) in The Pinball Arcade is the best view I've ever seen in a pinball simulation:
- good angle of vision
- all is observable very well framed.
- not too close and not too far
- good zoom when needed

So really excellent : can't wait to play the others tables announced with nexts DLC and HDRL

Aurel said:

Something I didn't say : The 3rd camera (unlocked) in The Pinball Arcade is the best view I've ever seen in a pinball simulation:
- good angle of vision
- all is observable very well framed.
- not too close and not too far
- good zoom when needed

So really excellent : can't wait to play the others tables announced with nexts DLC and HDRL

Click to expand...

I find that to be the only useless camera! That said, TPA has, hands down, the best camera angles I've ever seen on a pinball sim. You see the whole field all at once, and it zooms in intelligently. Once in a while, I'll lose a ball because it went downfield faster than the camera could follow, but that happens very rarely.