25 replies to this topic

[rob046]

Very nice surprise today. I've got an android phone & tablet, so it was nice to not only see these 2 new tables, but they also finally added "shake" nudging with the update. The nudging is very sensitive though, as far as it doesn't take much movement to nudge. Also I can't seem to nudge upwards, seems to only go side to side. The nudge can be pretty strong too, but I think this of almost all pinball games, VP tables as well. I use a custom core.vbs to tame nudging in VP9 for all tables.

Anyhow, I had no problems with the update & installing new tables. Since this will be happening monthly from now on, this is a relief.
If you buy both tables you can get both for $4.99, so I did that. However MM is actually free the whole month. But those who want to play BoP might as well just pony up the $5 now, saves you a buck in a month when you'll have to pay $3 for MM only.

As for the tables, they are about what you'd expect. Maybe slight improvements in some areas. MM looks & plays very well on my phone, which is now just an aging Galaxy S. Though I do most my playing on the tablet anyhow. BoP is interesting & I spotted a couple issues with it.
First of all, when I fired up BoP, it immediately reminded me of VP back in the day cuz it looks like they used an old flyer image or scan for the PF. You can actually see what look like paper wrinkles/creases on the PF. Overall I guess the game looks OK, & it isn't exactly the prettiest of games to begin with.
I've never been a huge fan of the pin-bot tables. I don't hate them, I just don't seem to be quite as in love with them as many others are. But I am glad they at least added a table from this era. It is fun, I just happen to think the layout is nothing spectacular. Also I think the art is kinda ugly, but the face cube looks pretty cool & is a cool toy. IMHO that piece really saves the game.

Found a pretty big bug in the game, curious if others get it as I've hit it a couple times. When the face with the 2 eye holes is up, 2 games in a row I've had the ball simply not fall into the eye & fall straight down into the lock. This seems to completely screw you game, as the game doesn't seem to know what to do without that eye switch getting hit. I'm wondering if due to the sensitive nudge I might be accidentally nudging at the wrong time, but even still, this shouldn't happen & needs to be fixed.
Even "call attendant" doesn't help, I have to exit my game & start over.
This doesn't happen every time, but 2 times in a short span is enough for me to call it a bug.

I also noticed an issue on MM, one that I thought might happen.
No "super skill shot". Lots of people seem to not even be aware of this feature. TPA as well. The plunge is just hard enough to get the ball to those rollovers, it should be harder. Also I can't even press the left flipper when ball is in plunger lane in order to activate this shot. But even if I could it doesn't seem like it would work. This also is gonna require an update.
Honestly, these guys either have bad game testers or none at all. Its amazing some of the bugs on these tables that I spot right away that they apparently don't spot in the months working on them.

[templarjh]

I saw ya on the Facebook thread

And I reeeely wish I'd skipped this update. On my Galaxy S II, the update killed it. Went from having four tables (paid) to one (MM). Farsight has tried to help in a few posts but nothing's working. I don't seem to be alone in that comment thread. I'd warn other Galaxy owners to stay away till some sort of fix is announced. I'll be looking out for one but I'll probably be too busy the next few days to do much. These guys gotta do better than this; the first release was terrific.

quick edit; since MM is the only one I can start I might as well comment on it seems to play completely smoothly and the graphics are NICE. I've only played this a couple of times at conventions though, along with a handful of games on a friend's 360 and a few vp9 goes, so I'm not familiar enough with it to catch errors like the missing super skill shot. With that said, the standard table goals seem way too easy. I did 4 of the 5 in just a few games, and I don't know the table well.
Come oooon Farsight! Gotta step it up.

Edited by templarjh, 07 April 2012 - 03:41 AM.

[kruge99]

I'm currently in third place for BOP in the leaderboards. I bet I'll be taken down soon.

[rob046]

I saw ya on the Facebook thread

And I reeeely wish I'd skipped this update. On my Galaxy S II, the update killed it. Went from having four tables (paid) to one (MM). Farsight has tried to help in a few posts but nothing's working. I don't seem to be alone in that comment thread. I'd warn other Galaxy owners to stay away till some sort of fix is announced. I'll be looking out for one but I'll probably be too busy the next few days to do much. These guys gotta do better than this; the first release was terrific.

I never seem to have these installation/update issues on my devices. My phone is a Galaxy S, Fascinate. Really no problems at all, & none on my tablet either.
I'm not sure how much of the blame for issues should go to TPA. They were nice enough to make this game compatible (or try to) on sooo many devices. They can't really test the game out on every type of android phone out there. But hopefully they do continue to try to work bugs out so that things start to go smoother, or at least do what they can on their end.

[jeffy777]

Thanks for the impressions, rob046. I'm still waiting to try the new tables out on my iPad 2, so it's nice to know what to expect.

I was a beta tester for the iOS version and we reported quite a few bugs. Their external beta testing didn't extend to these new tables, it's not surprising that there are a few bugs. They really should be doing more beta testing with the DLC tables as well, but I guess that would take more time and possibly delay the releases, and it seems everyone is very impatient with them already, so they kind of have their back up against the wall to get new patches and tables out as quickly as possible.

With that said, their product is a blast and it should keep getting better and better.

Edited by jeffy777, 08 April 2012 - 03:38 PM.

[templarjh]

Yeah it's frustrating but I do actually agree. There's no way they could try out every Android device - although I must say the S2 isn't some obscure pirated plastic from Bangladesh or somewhere. This is the first time I've had this sort of problem. I'll give them plenty of time to figure this out before I give up on it. I don't know of any developer who's been this ambitious with a release before, trying it on so many platforms. A big risk, obviously, is that if too many people have these problems, they'd have been better off with a more focused approach.
We'll see

Oh yeah, I should have been more specific - the other guys in that thread who seemed to have problems were also S2 owners, not all Galaxy owners. (My last phone was a Vibrant, and I just did the upgrade a bit over a week ago. Figures lol :/)

Sigh, ok, one more edit. Saw another post with the same issue on the other forum. I'm a pretty patient guy, but people are going to be flipping out over this. $10 a few days ago gets 4 unlocked tables. $5 today gets 2 more, but now none of them work :/ (well, one does in my case). I am really supportive of these guys, but I'm thinking this needed some more testing really bad. The S2's a popular phone

Edited by templarjh, 07 April 2012 - 04:31 AM.

[Mitchell]

Come on iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad version. Hurry up.

[lettuce]

Damn, if what your saying about the low quality PF is true then im not all happy, if the guys on these forums and others can recreate PF to the professional high standards that they do without an ounce of payment then the FarSight studio guys should hang their heads in shame!!

Edited by lettuce, 07 April 2012 - 11:17 AM.

[bha19]

Here are my 3 comments:

1) Paid the $4.99 and now my pinball arcade icon is now medieval madness which I haven't tried yet but like the icon
2) I have tried BOP and now have all 6 games and BOP is the only one where I have completed all the standard goals and did that in only 2 games. I hope they are not making them easier now, but it looks like the wizard goals are great.
3) My only real complaint is when you buy the games they don't download until you try to play them which means you need the internet.

Edited by bha19, 07 April 2012 - 12:12 PM.

[jeffy777]

One of the Farsight devs posted this over at their forum:

"We use photographs of the real playfields to create them. If someone does see an issue with the playfield, please post a photo so we can look into it."

http://pinballarcade...om-an-old-flyer

[The Trout]

Yeah, if it's from a flyer, that'd be REALLY odd. They own a REAL BoP, and I believe they've mentioned in the past that they take apart the games for pictures.

[jeffy777]

They own a REAL BoP, and I believe they've mentioned in the past that they take apart the games for pictures.

Yep, they do. Check this out:

[Nate D]

I wish us loyal customers (at least, I consider myself to be one) would get the updates for free. But, I can see why we have to end up paying each time there's updates.

[Themer]

General updates are free ... You've to pay money to be able to play the new tables

[hassanchop]

the mac version is crap!
only has one problem, but completely ruins the game:
the left and right flipper keys are the keyboard arrows, and guess how the nudge is? with the mouse!! and you have to click and drag to shake the table..
so, how can you play this with both hands and nudging at the same time? you cant! the only option is both flippers on one hand and nudge on the other... witch is completely ridiculous.....

[Shooby Doo]

the mac version is crap!
only has one problem, but completely ruins the game:
the left and right flipper keys are the keyboard arrows, and guess how the nudge is? with the mouse!! and you have to click and drag to shake the table..
so, how can you play this with both hands and nudging at the same time? you cant! the only option is both flippers on one hand and nudge on the other... witch is completely ridiculous.....

If you can't reassign the buttons, it's completely unplayable for me. Why didn't they use the shift keys like any other normal pinball simulator? I'm waiting for the PC versions... certainly they'll let you assign keys. It's baffling that they wouldn't.

[hassanchop]

they said an update would come fixing that problem.
in the meantime.. 10 eur down the drain....

[jeffy777]

You can reassign the controls on the Mac version in an XML file. Check here:

http://pinballarcade...full=1#post2020

Edited by jeffy777, 09 April 2012 - 11:52 PM.

[hassanchop]

You can reassign the controls on the Mac version in an XML file. Check here:

http://pinballarcade...full=1#post2020

thnks, i have seen that.
but that doesnt solve the problem of the nudge with the mouse. you still have keys for flippers and mouse for nudging...

[Nate D]

By the way, has anyone noticed how weird Black Hole's playfield is? Where there are lights, nothing but black boxes.