zen pinball

m_d_amore

m_d_amore

CAGiversary!
pretty cool had fun
penalty pts make some mp matches last a while
no schlongs on cam only a matter of time
hopefully some dlc will be free
 
Good demo. Feels more polished than the XBLA pinball game, even though it's made by the same people. Not sure how I feel about it yet. 4 tables for $10 doesn't seem awful, but I'm curious about DLC content pricing. I have the XBLA game and all the tables for it, and I'm hoping they won't dupe anything here.
 
A lot of fun. Wish they had more than 4 tables. Hopefully free or low-priced DLC to come. They have a specific section for "downloadable content" so I'm sure it's coming. But I'm not paying $4 for another table.
 
Picked it up yesterday as I'm a big Pinball fan. I prefer emulation of real pins like Williams HOF (which is supposed to be coming to PS3 and Xbox360 this summer) but I like any video pins as long as the physics are decent and the tables interesting.

I've only had a little time with this one. I'd agree with others in that it seems to be a step up from the Pinball FX on the 360. There is a nice feature to edit the table settings using the LCD display like they used to have in the Pro Pinball series for PC. Also the multiplayer play seems like it could be fun, but when I tried it the game froze up on me half way into it. Finally I looked at some of the info in the table rules section and as opposed to Pinball FX at least they tell you how to unlock some of the bonuses, such as multiball and extra balls for each table. It's not as nice as the walkthroughs in Williams PHOF for Wii but at least there is something.

Overall, I think it's a good deal at $2.50/pin and I hope they'll keep that price model. Maybe once I play some more I'll post a longer review. Here's an online review I just found.
 
Seriously considering getting this. Pinball FX is my most-played XBLA game. I'm just afraid that if I buy it this week, Sprint will be giving it away for free in June. ;)


BTW : That review didn't even mention the total number of tables. What are the table's themes?
 
There are 4 tables included thus about $2.50/table.

Tesla - Science/Scientist Electrical theme
V12 - Muscle Car theme
Shaman - Tiki/Jungle theme
El Dorado - Adventure/Treasure Hunter theme

Overall a fairly good variety and they play different.
 
IGN review is up.

And the Official Site has some good info on rules under the Tables heading.

Played some more tonight and I'm very impressed. Definitely an upgrade from Pinball FX. The options and feel of some of the tables remind me of the Pro Pinball series. Tesla in particular brings back memories of Fantastic Journey...mostly I think it is the guy's voice in the game.

I wish that they had mapped the nudge function to the six-axis motion sensor the same way that William's PHOF used the Wii's motion sensor. Wonder if it could be added in an update.
 
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Zen is a very good looking game, so glad they kept it at $10
likely a reason why it only has 4 tables.. with many of the game poppin' up at over $10 they probably made the right decision

I was surprised there wasn't more penalties for bumping and causing a 'Tilt' alarm..
 
I wish you could change the view in the demo. It is OK when you activate multiball, otherwise it feels like you are playing through a child's eyes or the main character in Killzone 2 :).
 
I'm enjoying this game thus far... I'm impressed with just how realistic the physics engine is, though just as in real life... I suck at pinball. :lol:
 
Havent played much but plan on trying out all 4 tables today. It was solid when I tried it though, after I figured out how to switch the camera view
 
To switch the view you just use the [ ] button. There's 5 or 6, I prefer number 3. Not a fan of the Shaman table because I suck at it. Hopped online last night which was kinda fun. It has Audio/Video chat just like the PSN Poker game that came out a long while ago (I forget the name). The mode I played, you have an unlimited number of balls and each player basically races to a certain score, in my game it was first to 5 million.
 
Anybody having this game lock up much? It locked up on me earlier today. Since then, every attempt to go into multiplayer mode has resulted in a PS3 lock-up. It's happened 5-6 times now. I'm going to quit playing until it gets resolved. If anyone knows who to contact about this, please do.
 
[quote name='cartman58']Anybody having this game lock up much? It locked up on me earlier today. Since then, every attempt to go into multiplayer mode has resulted in a PS3 lock-up. It's happened 5-6 times now. I'm going to quit playing until it gets resolved. If anyone knows who to contact about this, please do.[/QUOTE]


I just got on here to post the same question. Multi online has locked up my ps3 twice out of 3 tries. Hopefully it gets resolved.
 
i like the game but i dont think its worth 10 bucks at 5 id get it because i know for me it would be one of those im bored ill play it for a bit games. i do like that you can use your own music on it.
 
Hello all pinball lovers as you all know their have been some problems with the game "zen pinball" so i contacted the company and this is what they wrote. (good news)


Thank you very much for taking the time to write us!

We are already working a a small patch, this shall be available in a
week. I am sorry for the problem!

Thanks,
Zsolt

Copied from PS Forums

Email sent : May 21, 2009
 
great - thanks for the update smiggity... I was wondering about it, but didn't take the initiative to do anything about it!
 
I've been reading about the problems with multi-player, but I find my problems are that game crashes when it trys to load, the screen will just get stuck black and on the intro music.. It worked fine for about a week now its a 60/40 chance it will freeze or lock up after picking a table... UGH this sucks
 
#19 Perrandy - sorry for the delay , it is 23.27 over here, and we have just finished the mastering for the Zen Pinball patch. The patch will make the multiplayer / scoreboards handling rock solid, and have included some extras, like better navigation on scoreboards and nudging the tables using sixaxis - and this works great! Patch shall be onin some days, thank you for your patience!
 
yes everytime (although that was only 5 times) sixaxis nudge will be cool. I've got the bad habit of hitting both sticks when I want to nudge the table; moving the scoreboard or making it disappear
 
the demo has me sold... the 4 tables things upsets me, but after playing the el dorado table for some hours, it took me a while to learn how to hit the shots exactly where they need to go, so learning each table does take some time, and of course more time to perfect. 4 tables my be good, but hey, if the devs can through in a free table or two, and then some $DLC then I'd be alright with that
 
El Dorado is the best imo (and its what hooked me obviously). I think its the simplicity of it and how easy it is to understand what needs to be done to get points.
 
[quote name='Maklershed']El Dorado is the best imo (and its what hooked me obviously). I think its the simplicity of it and how easy it is to understand what needs to be done to get points.[/QUOTE]
agreed, i put tesla at the v12 at the bottom of my list
 
[quote name='shadowkast']agreed, i put tesla at the v12 at the bottom of my list[/QUOTE]

Wow, it must just be differing personalities.

I played a very long game on multiplayer(25 million and 25% penalty) on V12. Yes, the left area where the ball just always seems to fall is really annoying, but V12 has an amazing amount of variety and is not very hard to figure out.

My preferences would be:
V12
El Dorado
Shaman
Tesla

I still have no clue what the hell is going on with Tesla. You can't see anything, even with a good viewpoint.
 
[quote name='cartman58']My preferences would be:
V12
El Dorado
Shaman
Tesla[/QUOTE]

That's exactly how I'd rank them as well.
 
All these tables are great but I sure do suck. I launched a couple of balls that went straight into the gutter and didn't even have a chance to hit a flipper.
Any ideas on what future tables you would like to see. I would like an Underwater table, or a Pirate table myself.
 
[quote name='HuppSav']All these tables are great but I sure do suck. I launched a couple of balls that went straight into the gutter and didn't even have a chance to hit a flipper.
Any ideas on what future tables you would like to see. I would like an Underwater table, or a Pirate table myself.[/QUOTE]

These guys made the XBLA version of this same game and put out a free pirate table called Buccaneers. It's really good. You should check it out if you have XBL.
 
I got it; it's pretty cool. I was hoping for something more like the Space Cadet table that came with windows 98--that was one of my favorite pinball video games. This isn't much like that, but it's a good table. The ball doesn't always go down the drain like it does on the V12 table.
 
[quote name='jh6269']I got it; it's pretty cool. I was hoping for something more like the Space Cadet table that came with windows 98--that was one of my favorite pinball video games. This isn't much like that, but it's a good table. The ball doesn't always go down the drain like it does on the V12 table.[/QUOTE]


thanks for the input, I might have to pick it up then.
Did they ever tweak the physics in a patch? It seems like the friction on all the tables really low so the ball zips around a lot lol.
At least with the Williams one they are different per table.

Oh and if you want another pinball game on the PC check out Slam it Pinball. I got a while on the Steam Holiday sale and it's pretty good.
http://store.steampowered.com/app/12430/
 
Last time I played it, the physics were still the same. Very unrealistic. I would buy these other tables in a heartbeat if it wasn't for that.
 
The new table feels just like the other tables, I don't think they did anything to the physics. I still like the game though...
 
I probably would have got that earth defense table if my ps3 didn't break.
I have all the other tables and I like them all but I am still hoping for a deep sea underwater table.
 
[quote name='Thongsy']Last time I played it, the physics were still the same. Very unrealistic. I would buy these other tables in a heartbeat if it wasn't for that.[/QUOTE]


you thought that the physics were bad? I had noticed sometimes that the ball seems to go straight through the flippers, and it felt kinda cheap but I never thought that it was an issue with the physics. What issues did you notice?
 
Necro bump.

Mars and paranormal tables are out.

Mars I think is a little easy, but fun. Paranormal is pretty weird with all of it's playfields and flippers. I honestly don't know if I like it or not.
 
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