Honest Pinball FX3 Review by a Pinball Fanatic

[xMrNorthx]

Hey Zen just want you to know I wasnt kissing butt when I made this review I genuinely appreciate the studios hard work, please check out the review, if I was wrong about anything let me know.
P.S I meant to say "zen has yet to not take care of us" during the video lol

https://youtu.be/EfVY209nMVs

Follow up touching on some negative aspects and ball physics,
also addressing people who think Im out for beta codes.
Im not a professional game reviewer, just an Honest man giving his Honest Opinion based on Facts.
https://youtu.be/PLi9EINgi_Y

[Uwe]

This is not a honest review, a honest review also points out negative things.Im sure Zen will be pleased with your unbiased review

[chivato]

Not honest at all.
But you can probably expect some beta codes for future tables

[Uwe]

water

im sure he will be properly rewarded

[Cloda]

Thanks for the review... I'm still interested on how exactly the ball physics has changed, if at all. With you being a veteran player of FX2, I'll appreciate it if you can make another video comparing skills and tricks you can pull off in real life compared to in Pinball FX3. In FX2 it was not possible to do many of the real life skills/tricks... e.g. Drop stop or Flip trap, some of which are demonstrated in this video.

[chivato]

The ball physics have not been changed.
They only raised the power of the bumpers ans slingshots to make the table behave more like a real pinball table.
This was allready possible in ZP2 using the operator menu

[Cloda]

The ball physics have not been changed.
They only raised the power of the bumpers ans slingshots to make the table behave more like a real pinball table.
This was allready possible in ZP2 using the operator menu

Kind off what I expected based on the footage I saw. It is a pity then that they don't make the new tables available for FX2 then, even if it doesn't have the flashy new graphics and effects and all the social features so that us old fogies can carry on playing

[chivato]

Ye it suck they didnt add the newer tables to pfx2 or zp2 aswell.
Im still playing ZP2 because they took out the option to play in 3D in pfx3.

At this point I wouldnt feel to bad that you dont have pfx3
The scores are buggy and besides the fancy graphics its the same game with some good features taken out.

[Satori]

Short, Honest Review

Interface
What happened to our simple one-screen grid of tables (from FX2 360)? It was bad enough that they separated everything into groups for the x1 version, but now it's even worse that we have to scroll all over the place with expanding/collapsing menus. It's annoyingly over-engineered. They had it right, then they messed it up, then they messed it up even more. A single grid and the ability to move tables (like x1 Pins) is all we need. Don't get me wrong, I love this game. But it used to be easier and much faster to start the table you want to play. Also, we now have an image of a lady popping up (very often when you're at a lower rank) to tell you that you've leveled up or unlocked something. And there's no way to turn that off.

Graphics
The new graphics look good, but the new light/shadow system often obstructs the view of the ball. If you've played a table a million times before then it won't bother you too much because you already instinctively know when to react. But new players don't have that muscle memory and will likely lose track of where a ball is. For an example, checkout the lower right corner on the Paranormal table and compare it to FX2.

Tables
These tables won't be in FX3:
Plants vs Zombies
Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2
Street Fighter II
South Park (2 tables)

New Game Modes
There are several new ways to play a table. You can complete Challenges to unlock special abilities like reversing time by a few seconds, or activating a score multiplier. You can even play for an hour with unlimited balls! <Something I've wanted since FX1. Thankfully, all of these scores are on separate leaderboards and we can still play in Classic mode without any assists. Remember when they used to randomly give us Tournaments to compete it? Now we can setup our own and share them with friends, or everyone.

Conclusion
Overall, they've taken several large steps forward, and a few backwards. The base game is free and almost all of your FX2 tables will import for free. There's no reason not to try it. But if you've been playing the FX series across the various systems for the last decade, you may want to stay cozy with FX2 and only use FX3 for whatever new tables they eventually release. The only reason I have my 360 still plugged in is to play that version of FX2. I'll be staying with it for the interface (and Speed Machine).

[xMrNorthx]

Ok guys thanks for the feedback I made a follow up for the guy asking about physics, and for the people who think I want beta codes... some negative feedback since thats what is being seeked

https://youtu.be/PLi9EINgi_Y

[Cloda]

Ok guys thanks for the feedback I made a follow up for the guy asking about physics, and for the people who think I want beta codes... some negative feedback since thats what is being seeked

https://youtu.be/PLi9EINgi_Y

Thanks for the second video. I thus seems like the physics engine is pretty much the same as FX2 but tweaked somewhat to make certain things a bit harder. It makes sense for me for the existing FX2 tables as they were designed to work with that physics, but I was hoping that they might make it a bit more realistic for new releases. I'm pretty skilled in this game by now and I more or less stopped playing it consistently just because I didn't have the time anymore. Tables like Rome has always been my favourites because games don't last long due to the difficulty factor. Similarly, tables like Fantastic 4 is fun to play as you can play through to wizard mode in under 20 minutes or so. Other tables, like paranormal, feels like it can carry on indefinitely which I just don't enjoy anymore. I was thus hoping that they would make the game a bit more difficult so that games don't have to last that long, but I also understand that they won't do that as I presume that not a lot of players are that skilled to survive and keep their interest on difficult tables.

Anyways, I'll get an Xbox One at some point in the next year or so and I'll certainly be looking forward to play FX3 irrespective if the physics is the same or not as it still looks like Zen did a pretty decent job. Until then I have plenty of tables on FX2 which I have not really played yet to keep me busy.

[xMrNorthx]

hey no problem cloda thanks again for taking the time to watch my video a lot of passion goes into my work , Good to hear from another true enthusiast, I never got to play much either until I started working from home. Dont worry, one day Ill see you in the leaderboards.

[McLovin]

Hey MrNorth,

yes. Thank you. These reviews help us improve a great deal. It's always better if a lot of people put their heads together to build something cool, bounce off ideas etc. Since we have a limited number of people working on ideas for our games, sometimes stuff that can seem obvious to anyone else (and even them if they are pointed out) are overlooked.

As we said FX3 will always be a 'work in progress' so to speak, as in it will change, improve with the times. These reviews and discussions help in molding the game, so thanks again.