New Pinball Arcade from makers of Williams Collection

[+Random Terrain]

I'd be happy to get one new table each month.

[HammR25]

I'd be happy to get one new table each month.

Since you have a 360 I fixed it for you.

[Atariboy]

I have to think that things are going to smooth out soon. It's ashame that they probably rushed things and also didn't have everything in place that they needed between them and the platform holders their content has to go through.

 

But I have to think it's a temporary issue and that things will be more problem free before much longer.

[chris_lynx1989]

I would think they would have things together more after PHOF:TGC in '05 for PSP and PHOF:TWC for systems in '07 and PHOF:TWC for PS3 in '11.

 

Things for the whole TPA offering seem to be a bit disorganized like Sony was with Vita's launch this year in the U.S. and the poor PSN/SEN Store for Vita download. There should be more good PSP games available for folks to DL in the store.The whole Vita thing seems a bit botched like 3DS was last year. I think, Sony rushed things too much for the devs.

Edited July 1, 2012 by chris_lynx1989

[Atariboy]

I would think they would have things together more after PHOF:TGC in '05 for PSP and PHOF:TWC for systems in '07 and PHOF:TWC for PS3 in '11.

 

Why would you think that? Those were retail games.

 

Their difficulty now doesn't seem to be coming from a poor job of programming pinball physics and recreating tables. It's primarily coming from the new distribution model they're utilizing for Pinball Arcade with actual game issues seemingly being fairly minor.

 

I don't see how their past products could've prepared them for things like the nightmare multiple developers have spoken about publically over the years that is Microsoft's certification process for DLC.

Edited July 2, 2012 by Atariboy

[Charlie_]

I was on the fence about getting the Cirqus Voltaire and Fun House tables. I'm glad I did because Cirqus Voltaire has quickly become my favorite table.

 

My local arcade has Fun House. I've played it a lot and always enjoyed it. It is great that Pinball Arcade is so true and accurate to the real life tables.

 

They used to have Medieval Madness also, and the Pinball Arcade virtual table plays just like the real thing!

 

I'd like to see them do Star Wars Ep.1 table. Also, Lord of the RIngs. One of my favorites.

 

A question for VITA / PS3 players.

 

Anyone else think the game feels more "snappy" and harder hitting on the VITA than on the PS3.

Maybe it is just me, but that is how it seems.

[Rex Dart]

I haven't played the Vita version, but the other handheld ports I've tried have ridiculously strong flippers. It's impossible to knock a ball only halfway up a ramp.

[ComputerSpaceFan]

I don't have a VITA but I will say Medieval Madness feels more "snappy" in this download version as compared to the disc version for PS3 that came out a couple of years ago. I reckoned they would have just re-used the same code but I like how this newest version of the table flows better. And I admit I'm really tired of playing Funhouse so I have decided against the DLC for it and Circus Voltaire, but I will admit they also did a nice polished job with Funhouse this time around, much better than its previous disc-based incarantion.

 

And I did get Bride of Pinbot (one of my all time favorites) which I played the heck out of on Visual Pinball. Some people say it's too easy but I find it a bit more challenging than the Visual :Pnball version so consider me happy.

[Austin]

FarSight included in their most-recent Facebook update that the 360 update is still in submission with Microsoft, and an actual release date will be revealed when they get word on the approval. Ugh.

[boog]

The PS3/Vita DLC release was such a mess that I doubt the delays are Microsoft's fault. Sony never should have released the DLC packs as-is, so maybe Microsoft is just doing a better job of testing/rejecting.

[chris_lynx1989]

@Official Ninja

I second the Star Wars: Episode 1 table for a TPA release! Loved it!!

Also Scared Stiff,Junkyard and Earth Shaker are old faves I want to see in TPA!

[HammR25]

I'm sure this is shocking but Microsoft sent the 360 update back to FarSight again. http://pinballarcadefans.com/showthread.php/194-Latest-NEWS-And-INFORMATION-From-FarSight-Studios-Concerning-The-Pinball-Arcade?p=16712&viewfull=1#post16712

[onlysublime]

FarSight really needs to get on the ball with these releases. They chose this path of supporting so many platforms and it's overwhelming them. This isn't college where your roommate is handling over multiple revisions of the same thesis. Submit a version that you consider your final version. If you're not ready to submit a well-tuned version, don't submit. As much as I love Pinball Arcade, it's almost amateurish how they're handling this.

 

You see a game like Dust: An Elysian Tale, programmed and animated completely by 1 man (and that man that never had programming experience either) created an amazing game (alright, he did have another guy do the audio so it wasn't completely a 1-man team). And then you see these other companies who can't release relatively bug-free games.

 

every platform has had many issues with PA that it all becomes a blur after all this time. I still remember the PS3 version being delayed because they found a bug where you couldn't update the game or install DLC (and they found it just before it was supposed to be released).

[Atariboy]

This latest setback sure doesn't sound like their fault to me. Not removing a memory card that you have the table installed to when attempting to load the table just seems like something that should be common sense to a gamer. Heck, the game apparantly can still be exited and restarted so it hasn't even crashed. And apparantly this behavior wasn't an issue in earlier submissions.

 

While I'm sure Farsight deserves a lot of blame, there's no shortage to go around and this latest setback sure sounds like it rest squarely on Microsoft.

 

I just hope it's one fee per DLC and that they're not paying 5 figures everytime they have to resubmit something. If they have to pay for every submission, Farsight and Pinball Arcade aren't long for this world and I think that'd be a shame.

[onlysublime]

from what I understand (and who knows if it's accurate since it was read off messageboards) but a developer said the first title update is free. the cert for the second title update is $10K. And it increases for every subsequent title update. Bottom line: Microsoft does not want you to constantly patch your games. Submit as bug-free as you can.

[Atariboy]

These aren't patches though. We're talking about downloadable content. So I'm not sure what (if any) fees there are and what the ramifications would be if something fails the certification process and has to be resubmitted (Other than the obvious negative PR).

 

Hope things smooth out soon with these problems quickly forgotten.

Edited July 21, 2012 by Atariboy

[onlysublime]

his DLC tables failed certification. he has to resubmit the tables. you have to do the grunt work in debugging your own software. certification is to certify that the content is ready for commercial use. you can't submit it and use Microsoft as your debugger. the game company is supposed to have their own Q&A testers. certification is not Q&A testing.

[+Random Terrain]

So the Xbox 360 still has nothing new? I'm glad I'm busy doing other things or I'd be pissed off.

[eggomania]

I'm looking forward to seeing what tables will be added in the future. The problem with most of the modern tables from the 1980's onward is that they are "trademarked" games, such as games featured from movies, TV shows, famous people, etc. So getting those tables will probably require making deals with the people responsible for the tables originally coming out. But maybe they can get tables such as Diner from Williams or some of the tables from the 1970's.

[Atariboy]

his DLC tables failed certification.

 

His submission failed certification over an issue that wasn't an issue in the past.

[Austin]

his DLC tables failed certification.

 

His submission failed certification over an issue that wasn't an issue in the past.

 

Yeah, and it's not like there weren't larger bugs already present in the game to begin with, heh. It's pretty ridiculous that it got rejected this time for the reason it did.

[onlysublime]

again, Microsoft is not your Q&A department. just praying that Microsoft doesn't see your bugs and that the game passes certification is not justification. you should release a bug-free product.

[Atariboy]

A bug-free product?

 

One wonders if there's a single piece of software on any modern platform that could proclaim that.

 

We don't even know if they were even aware of this latest roadblock before it failed certification over it. Just because it failed certification doesn't mean they missed some requirement. They could've fully crossed their t's and dotted their i's instead of missing some obvious requirement in their documentation and failing to fully test their release beforehand yet Microsoft still could take issue with something and decide it could be better and toss it back to square 1.

 

After all, it seems perfectly reasonable to think this is unnecessary. Removing a memory card containing DLC as you're trying to load that DLC is something that I don't think anyone outside of Microsoft's certification team would even think of. So unless it's explicitly in black & white in documentation provided to Farsight by Microsoft, I don't see it being their fault.

 

Not jumping on the criticize Farsight wagon just yet. Some growing pains with a completely new distribution model and such an ambitious project isn't so unthinkable. It's unfortunate and I think they've clearly made some mistakes, but I still think it's a very promising project and believe that they'll get things going smoothly soon.

Edited July 22, 2012 by Atariboy

[onlysublime]

After all, it seems perfectly reasonable to think this is unnecessary. Removing a memory card containing DLC as you're trying to load that DLC is something that I don't think anyone outside of Microsoft's certification team would even think of. So unless it's explicitly in black & white in documentation provided to Farsight by Microsoft, I don't see it being their fault.

 

this is the kind of stuff a Q&A department is supposed to do. I visited a friend in a lab and they were testing a game. He hit some key on the keyboard 8 times in a row which caused the game to crash (I can't remember whether it was the tab key or a function key like F4). Completely reproducible. The point was that Q&A testers are supposed to bang the heck out of the software and do things that common people would never do to get it to break. My friend was popular among his colleagues because he would do very simple things and you would see these amazing unanticipated program behaviors.

 

Take the Xbox Minecraft game (never played the PC version so I don't know if it had the same problem). It had a duplication glitch where people could duplicate whatever resource they wanted due to an counting/byte overflow error. And it wasn't a simple "accidental" procedure. It required two gamers to complete and a meticulous step-by-step process to get these items to duplicate. If gamers can find this stuff out (and gamers will find and take advantage of any bugs left by programmers), a competent Q&A department should as well.

[Austin]

The point was that Q&A testers are supposed to bang the heck out of the software and do things that common people would never do to get it to break. ...... a competent Q&A department should as well.

 

Competent Q&A departments would be nice in theory, but Q&A work is very repetitive by nature and it's unusual for the personnel to get paid little more than minimum wage to do that job. As much as you would like to see Q&A departments doing a quality job and helping games to be relatively bug-free, a lot of these companies are often getting what they pay for, especially as games become much larger and thus more difficult to properly test in a timely manner.