PINBALL ARCADE XBLA - Xbox One 11/26 Release

[quote name='dirtyvu']all it takes to bring fans back is to have the tables out. once they're out, everyone will forget about the problems.[/QUOTE]

They've already forgotten about the problems because they've already forgotten about the game. DLC won't change that nearly to the level you're anticipating. MS didn't exactly give this game the royal treatment when it initially came out anyway.

at least the benefit of this delay is we're going to have a bunch of tables at once instead of a few at a time, at least from what I remember of the statements they made.
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They also "stated" that we'd have a bunch of DLC by now.

Even if true, it's not beneficial to anyone. Releasing like 3 pairs of tables at once means each set of tables gets less attention than it would have gotten if they had been releasing one pack a month or whatever.
 
but DLC is not like retail titles. there is no clearing of space due to newer titles taking priority on the shelves. This isn't like the movies where early returns yield the most money and you get diminishing returns thereafter. you're in it for the long haul with DLC. So releasing all the packs at once doesn't change things much except from an advertising/spotlight perspective but it's not like FarSight is doing any type of advertising anyway besides Facebook.

when I saw the number of platforms they'd be releasing for, I was like jeez, no Dreamcast, N64, PS2, Atari Jaguar platforms? every platform has its problems with Pinball Arcade.

But it's what we deal with when this is the best pinball simulator. Pinball FX2 is great for what it is, an arcadey game that looks like pinball but has amazing designs that you don't have in real life. But it's not what Pinball Arcade is going for which is pinball action that we grew up with in real life with real tables with real pinball behavior.
 
is there no way to demo the new tables? that's a good thing in favor of Pinball FX2.

anyway, I made the jump for Cirqus Voltaire/Funhouse. Wow! Cirqus Voltaire looks amazing! I've never played this table before and it was a lot of fun.

Funhouse was as fun as ever. Definitely like the improvements in the look of the table. Sound? I could swear it actually sounds worse than Pinball Hall of Fame but it's been a very long time so I have to go back to that one to see if my memory's correct. Somehow I swear the table was easier in PHoF than in PA but that may be because it's been so long. Not that it was hard in PA but I could definitely get the guy to swallow the ball more easily in PHoF.

I wasn't able to download the update for the original tables but that makes sense since it's listed for August 2.
 
[quote name='gubmccargen']Dirty, where are you seeing the new tables? Did this get a surprise release or are you talking about another platform or something?[/QUOTE]

If you load the game there will be an update and when you are at the pin selection screen you'll see the new tables for purchase.

The user interface in this game is really poorly designed. Going by Farsight's track record I doubt it will ever be improved. I hope I'm wrong.
 
you can only see the DLC within the game. at the pinball table selection screen. it also kind of sucks to see all the unavailable tables blended in with the tables you do have. so if they have a ton of tables down the line, you'd have to scroll through a bunch just to play your own. i guess their intent is that you buy all of them to have a complete arcade.
 
I can see both packs of tables available for purchase from within the game and also from it's section in the game marketplace. However, when I try to download the update from within the game, it always fails @ 99% for some reason. Anyone else having this problem? Suppose to make the 4 original tables better as stated in the description details. (I did purchase the full game by the way)
 
skip the update. it's not available until 8/2 anyway.

I've been playing the new tables. I caved and got Medieval Madness/Bride of Pinbot. Medieval Madness is definitely better than PHoF version. But I've got mixed feelings on Funhouse. Some things are better but other things are worse.

Bride of Pinbot... I'm not sure. It was my first time playing it and maybe because I don't have that nostalgia connection is the reason it's a meh for me?
 
ok i'm an idiot and updated and bought medieval madness/bride of pinbot.

I'm thinking of buying funhouse/circus voltaire simply to support the team and keep them releasing more tables.

As for MM - i spent so much time on the disc version that this version is really weird looking to me. from the green tint door to the high contrast lights, it feels more obnoxious. Does anyone remember if this is how the real life table looked?


also - is there a vote of poll of any kind on farsight's site for more tables? I need T2 and Addams Family.
 
I think the best way to communicate with FarSight is to use the Facebook site. They know the tables that people really want. Everyone says the same tables over and over.
 
Thanks for the update. These guys really need to get with it logistically. No achievements for the DLC? I realize that doesn't change the content but I like to have an extra goal to shoot for. It just doesn't seem very wise to just completely ignore them.

Also, I know we've discussed it but it's grating me to remember that every set is going to have a repeat from PHoF. Couldn't they have at least tried to make it not so obvious what they're doing?

Nevermind, I found this about the achievements. It's still lame that they couldn't get it together in time.

Both of the DLC packs add two achievements to your gamerscore - one for each table in the pack and worth 15G each. Unfortunately, these are yet to be added to Xbox.com. Those of you who unlock the achievements now will notice that they are not being added to your gamerscore or achievement total. I would advise holding off from playing the DLC until the achievements are added properly. Those of you who unlock the achievements beforehand will have to recover your gamertag and then earn the achievements again for them to be added to your gamerscore.
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[quote name='gubmccargen']Thanks for the update. These guys really need to get with it logistically. No achievements for the DLC? I realize that doesn't change the content but I like to have an extra goal to shoot for. It just doesn't seem very wise to just completely ignore them.

Also, I know we've discussed it but it's grating me to remember that every set is going to have a repeat from PHoF. Couldn't they have at least tried to make it not so obvious what they're doing?

Nevermind, I found this about the achievements. It's still lame that they couldn't get it together in time.[/QUOTE]Couldn't agree more. The achievements not being ready when the DLC releases is pathetic, and rebuying all the tables from PHoF makes me feel like a sucker. That's not to say I won't be buying the DLC; just that it irks me that my craving for more tables is being sort of exploited.
 
Exactly. I'm sure I'll get these when the achievements are out but I'm basically paying 400 MSP for a single new table since I've already played the repeats to death. I'll have fun with the repeats a handful of times again but I wouldn't choose to rebuy them. It's our only choice for new genuine pinball content but FS really is shooting itself in the foot.
 
I feel the same exact way and have for quite some time. I love the game but I hate the way farsight conducts business.

also... How tacky is it that if you don't own the dlc the music for all the dlc tables is from totan in the table select menu lol

I wish zen got the rights to the real tables. They would have done things much better imho. Forcing you to rebuy old tables to get new ones is absurd.
 
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to be fair, getting rights to old things is far harder than what Zen is doing. Like for the Marvel tables, all they have to do is license the characters from Marvel and then create all new content. For something like The Addams Family, you not only have to get the rights to the table and its original developers, you have to get agreements with the show's creators, the actors for their voices, the music writers, etc. It's a lot more things to contend with and I doubt Zen could do it much better. The problem with FarSight is having so many platforms to manage. Even megalithic corporations don't release the same title on so many platforms at once.
 
alright, got finished making some 720P vids showing off the spanking new packs:

Note: I just uploaded them so Youtube is still doing some processing so quality should be slightly better in a couple of hours. And also note that the game and videos were originally 60 fps but Youtube automatically converts all content to 30 fps so animation suffers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGYQOFd0_9c
0:57 start of gameplay

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phXiJHhj9os
0:44 start of gameplay

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Px7NbCYicdg
1:02 start of gameplay

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_668vCC9EMk
0:43 start of gameplay


To have some fun, I also made comparison vids (for the caveats, see the video's descriptions):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dyd1RgKoo8o

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zMSOY6hNMo
 
Farsight is getting so much leeway for so many horrible decisions because they are covering a niche hobby that people love dearly. They get excuse after excuse. The table bundling, horrible interface, etc are driving me crazy. I'm a long time fan of their series but jeez. They should have a little respect for their fans.
 
does anyone know what this update to the original tables actually does? I applied the update and the tables seem the same. Everything seems the same. Do I have to quit back to dash and reload?

*edit* alright, I quit back to the dash and then relaunched it and now I notice changes such as more flexibility with the camera angle on the plunger. so If the game still looks the same after applying the patch, restart everything.
 
Leader boards aren't working on at least Bride of Pinbot. All categories show "None".

The update didn't fix Black Hole. The plunger shot will still go 99% of the time into the right lane.
 
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On iOS you can buy the 2 packs or the tables individually. I'm not sure why you can't on the 360, but I'm not sure if it's there doing or not. I would say it was, except that they don't do that in the iOS version and if it was their doing then why didn't thy do the same on iOS?
 
The leaderboards don't work on any of the new DLC tables apparently...not sure if it affects everyone but it's definitely a bug.

I think FS' whole problem is that they should've gotten their act together BEFORE releasing this game. The problems they've had running into MS' Xbox Live process are the type of thing they could've ironed out ahead of time -- but instead they're out there releasing table after table for Droid and iphones. The Kickstarter concept worked out ultimately for them -- but do you think they'd actually be able to sell that now after the months of Xbox delays? It's like they decided to run before they should've been walking....and slowly at that.

Anyway, the updates to the old tables DO look good (especially Arabian Nights -- though Black Hole looks like they did nothing to it) and the DLC tables are fun too...but come on guys, defective leaderboards? And we waited MONTHS for this?? Get your @&#! together!
 
It occurs to me that possibly the reason they don't offer the tables individually on the Xbox is because maybe it's not possible to do that AND have a 2-pack discount option, like they can on iOS? They could offer then only individually but at full price, but people would complain about that too. Just a guess, though.
 
[quote name='crunchewy']It occurs to me that possibly the reason they don't offer the tables individually on the Xbox is because maybe it's not possible to do that AND have a 2-pack discount option, like they can on iOS? They could offer then only individually but at full price, but people would complain about that too. Just a guess, though.[/QUOTE]

they can do this. a lot of DLC on Xbox is like this.

you can get the season pass or get the individual DLC on games like Gears of War. Or you can get a bundled pack in Kinect Sports1/2 or the individual packs.

or the best example is Guitar Hero or Lips. you can buy individual songs or buy packs of 2 or 3 songs.
 
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I think it's because it's a guaranteed $5 versus a guaranteed $2.50 and hopefully people will shell out $2.50 for the PA version of a PHoF table. the population for pinball is already small enough so FarSight doesn't want to shrink the population further.

on iOS, Android, etc., the casual gamers are legion and many will dabble here and there. plus, c'mon, as cool as it is on the iPhone or iPad, it doesn't look as good as the console version on a 65" screen.
 
so do these new table packs have achievements? and do I need that 88mb update? because the update is still failing for me when it gets to 99% but another update of 21mb worked fine.
 
I grabbed both packs, but so far have only played Cirqus Voltaire. It's not perfect - I ran into some camera issues, but overall it played great and I'm very happy with it. They might not have the best UI, but they have the real games and they play well, which matters a lot more to me.

iOS version may actually look better (on iPad), but there's no comparison in controls.

The leaderboards aren't working (just sit at loading forever), but I got my achievement.
 
Leaderboards are indeed fixed. Unfortunately previous high scores don't get uploaded. 190+ million on Cirqus is my GC, but leaderboard for me is 120 or something like that. Oh well. I'm sure I'll get better than that at some point, but I moved onto Bride for now. Haven't played Medieval nor Funhouse yet.
 
Yes, you should. :) They still have problems with the camera getting stuck on occasion. I had a game of Bride where it got stuck zoomed in on Bride's face while the pinballs were flying about. I really wish they'd figure that stuff out, but otherwise I'm having a lot of fun with the new machines. I turned off the multi ball camera (what is the point in that anyway?), and have a locked view, but still it will zoom in for things like the bride's face rotating or Cirqus' head raising/lowering. I wish I could turn that off too. Oh well.
 
After something like 4.5 billion on Bride, I think I can safely say I am done playing this one. :) Some people have had the patience/stamina to get 20 billion. No way am I going try for that. LOL! Bride really isn't a very good game, but it's fun for a while. Now I've got time to tackle Funhouse and Medieval. Though I'm not that enthused about Medieval because I've got a great (and real) one to play at league. It even has LED eyes installed on the trolls and additional lights on the castle. :)
 
That took me about an hour or so to get this time. Kind of dumb to have that as a goal to shoot for, but there you go. Funhouse is a great game, though, and I'm happy to have it in this version, especially with improvements (well, I presume it's improved - I didn't check the old version).

I just need to get all the goals in Medieval now. "Just". LOL. By that I mean of the DLC tables. I still have stuff to do in some of the stock ones.
 
Saw this earlier on The Pinball Arcades Facebook page:

Hi Xbox 360 fans! Table Pack 3 with Monster Bash and Gorgar was released earlier today. Monster Bash was designed by George Gomez. The goal of the table is to get six of the most iconic Universal Studios Monsters® to form a band the likes of which has never been seen! If you can dig out the Mummy, he'll dust himself off and plug in his bass. With the help of the PHANTOM FLIP auto-play feature, you can let go of the flippers and watch the game complete your shots!

Gorgar was designed by Barry Oursler. Gorgar was the very first “talking” pinball machine. With a vocabulary of seven words (Gorgar, Speaks, Beat, Me, You, Hurt, and Got), Gorgar is able to say phrases such as “Gorgar speaks”, “Me Gorgar, beat me”, and “You hurt Gorgar”. It has a magnetic Snake Pit that holds your ball captive as he thunders, “Me got you”.

Microsoft is working on fixing the leaderboards.
 
I saw that FB post last night and went onto Pinball Arcade and was prompted for an update but the new tables weren't there. I wonder if I needed to exit and come back to the game? I guess I'll check again tonight.
 
FS screwed up again. Apparently there was an obvious, glaring bug in Monster Bash that lead to the leaderboards being screwed up and the pack being pulled...apparently it was something the people who played it said should've been seen in any kind of beta testing.

As much as people want to bash MS, once again, this is the kind of thing FS should've ironed out ahead of time. As of now there's no RE-release date for the DLC...could be a while if they have to re-re-submit it.
 
[quote name='phantomfriar2002']FS screwed up again. Apparently there was an obvious, glaring bug in Monster Bash that lead to the leaderboards being screwed up and the pack being pulled...apparently it was something the people who played it said should've been seen in any kind of beta testing.

As much as people want to bash MS, once again, this is the kind of thing FS should've ironed out ahead of time. As of now there's no RE-release date for the DLC...could be a while if they have to re-re-submit it.[/QUOTE]

That glitch had nothing to do with the game being pulled, MS took it down without any notification and still hasn't told Farsight why.
 
It's frustrating, but I don't have any idea why the pack was pulled so I'm not going to speculate on who is to blame. I'll just wait for them to rerelease it and play the existing games in the meantime. :shrug:
 
Farsight says they heard from Microsoft and they said the DLC was released earlier then they planned. The release date was supposed to be August 28th, so it is going to be released (again) then. Weird. Also they aren't giving any promotions for it on the dashboard.
 
Well that's disappointing, but two weeks from now is about when I hoped it would come out anyway. I'm still busy with the other tables right now so I can wait. It's just weird the xbox version has had so many problems with dlc....
 
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