FarSight brings "The Pinball Arcade" to all major plaforms

[ulix]

Sorry for advertising your competition... but since these are only real tables virtualised, they are kind of doing something different to Zen...

So FarSight, those guys who did Pinball Hall of Fame (Williams & Gottlieb) are making a new game: "The Pinball Arcade". It will come to basically every imaginable platform, including 360, PS3 & PC.

Trailer here.

It will first come with four tables that really exist:
- Tales of the Arabian Nights
- Ripley's Believe it or not!
- Black Hole
- Theatre of Magic

They are planning on releasing DLC tables regularly, and support the game with "new" (that is: "old") tables "for years to come".

Apparently they have licences for Gottlieb, Williams, Data East, Stern Pinball and Bally.

I, for one, am very happy abou this.

[Boulderdash]

By seeing the trailer, I don`t think ZEN has to worry a bit .
Poor graphics (anno 2012) and an unrealistic ball behaviour.

[HardcorePinballGamer4Life]

Personally, I never really got how certain users considered FarSight's physics to be totally unrealistic. Sure, the physics are on the floaty side, but they still have enough accuracy to hit all of the targets and have some sense of weight; it's not like the ball ricochets all over the place for a long while, not that much longer than real pinball anyway.

Obviously, real pinballs are weightier, but what virtual pinball game has ever had like-for-like ball physics, anyway? Not even the Pro Pinball series, which I feel is still the greatest ball physics to date, was 100% accurate.

I feel one of the only accurate complaints with FarSight's simulations is the lighting, as it's somewhat primitive, especially compared to Pro Pinball and Zen's games; however, that will be a small price to pay since I feel FarSight's designs to be accurate enough to real pinball.

I just hope it will release at a comparable price to the Zen Studios games. I also can't wait for the new videos to come out.

[Danzig]

"Boulderdash" SERIOUSLY, have you ever even played any of their games? If you think Pinball Hall of Fame the Williams collection has "poor graphics" then you need a pair of glasses.

[HardcorePinballGamer4Life]

Since the old trailer has been deleted, here's the new trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtQa-ONdz9I

Lighting is much better and the ball physics seem improved; I think their might be nudging involved in the trailer. According to their Facebook page, they intend on changing the ball appearance; not a big deal to me as long as the ball physics are still good.

Honestly, I don't see The Pinball Arcade as a rival to the Zen Studios pinball games since both games are apples and oranges. Zen's games are about presenting the modern generation with some flashy tables with features not possible on a real pinball table, while FarSight's platform is about successfully recreating the real life pinball experience. I believe there is enough room for two or more successful pinball services.

I can't wait to play this one!

[shogun00]

Since the old trailer has been deleted, here's the new trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtQa-ONdz9I

Lighting is much better and the ball physics seem improved; I think their might be nudging involved in the trailer.

TOTAN looks much better here compared to its PHOF version. The ball moves a little more realistically now.

Black Hole looks amazing compared to its PHOF (PS2 version) counterpart, which was plagued with bugs and didn't look that great.

[HardcorePinballGamer4Life]

So, what tables would you guys like to see the most?

Obviously, I'd like to the The Addams Family and The Twilight Zone since those two are the most acclaimed tables of the 90s. On the Stern side, I'd like to see The Simpsons Pinball Party and Tales from The Crypt (The Pinball Arcade's FB page confirmed Stern owns the rights to the Data East and Sega's tables); Lord of the Rings is also a must as it's the highest acclaimed Stern table.

[shogun00]

So, what tables would you guys like to see the most?

Some older tables:

Rollergames (Williams)
Wipeout (Gottlieb)
Judge Dread (Bally)
Batman (Data East Version)
Black Knight 2000 (Williams)
High Speed (Williams)
White Water (Williams)

[HardcorePinballGamer4Life]

The Pinball Arcade team leaked some news about the method of purchasing their tables on their Facebook page:

Every table can be bought individually or in packs. Also (and we haven't mentioned this yet) during online/cross platform tournaments, you'll be able to play tables you haven't bought in the Pinball Arcade.

[Tighttempo]

I am personally really excited about this, I own VP, FP and all the Zen and Marvel tables, and I would love to see these old tables ported on consoles with the Farsight graphics.

Any news on this, or anwhere we can follow the project?

[HardcorePinballGamer4Life]

The developers of this game frequent Facebook. They also have a mailing list on their site (http://www.pinballarcade.com/).

[Tighttempo]

Cool thanks!

[lasvegaspinballhalloffame]

I want to see FarSight make Jack Bot!!!

[HardcorePinballGamer4Life]

New video coming Christmas Eve, according to their Facebook page!

Starting tomorrow, we're going to celebrate the Twelve Days of a Pinball Arcade Christmas by releasing more information, new videos, or new screenshots about our game each day for 12 days. We'll start by uploading the HD version of the making of video to our youtube channel that is currently available on IGN.com. We hope you enjoy! Have a happy holiday season, everyone!!!

BTW, the video is here and 15 minutes long, too:

http://www.ign.com/videos/2011/12/23/pinball-arcade-the-making-of-video

[katschunka]

Zens physics engine is much much better than the one from Farsight. I got the Williams collection for the PSP and sometimes during play the ball went through the flippers and got lost. I never experienced that with Zen Pinballl or Marvel Pinball. An other reason why Zen's physics are better is that they simulate the dynamics of the ball itself. For example they make it rotate and behave appropriately. There is no ball rotaion with farsights pinball simulations.
I watched the video and the trailers from Farsight and although they tell that they improved their physics but i doubt that they get as good as Zen. They just told something about better table gravity simulation and about fiddeling around with parameters and that is not improving their ball physics